70 Sq ft

[lizardmc]

My wife decided to be generous and give me 70 SQ Ft. of garage space! I'm planning on moving my equipment out of our current office/exercise/kid's playroom. I've always wanted to setup a small home studio to do my own demo-quality recording. The question is: how can I best utilize 70 SQ Ft for a home recording setup?

I plan on laying down indoor/outdoor carpet, and setting up a fabric panel system (much like an office cubicle), as our homeowner's does not allow for any permanent garage changes.

I can currently do PC-based recording using the following equip:
a) Korg X3
b) Yamaha MT-120 Multitrack Cassette Recorder
b) Applause Acoustic / Electric Roundback Guitar
c) Shure SM-58
d) PIII 550 MHz PC, Win98 SE, Basic SoundBlaster PCI card with Midi Gameport cable
e) Denon speakers (I use these for monitors)
f) Cakewalk Pro Audio v6.0
g) Sound Forge XP v5.0

It's pretty much a one-man band setup, the music style is light-rock to surf-style.

I have a fair budget (around 3K) to order more equipment, space permitting. I was interested, for space saving's sake, to get an Aardvark Q10, which from what I've heard combines several hardware features into one rack-mountable unit. Is this a good pick? I'd also like replace the Denon speakers with actual professional monitors. Also, if you know what kind of furniture works best in small spaces, I'd like to know.

If anyone has experience in setting up a productive environment in limited space, please help!

Thanks.

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Howdy, I love it. 70sq. ft. huh? Thats great. Mine was in a closet when I started. You have a warehouse compared to what I had You can do a lot in 70sq. ft. You have to utilize every cubic ft. But right off the bat, soundproofing will be difficult. But you only need it for 2 reasons. Keeping sound out, and keeping sound in. So, those 2 things have to be rationalized before starting. For instance, keeping sound from transferring from outside in. The only thing you need that for is mic's(and mixing if the outside noise is loud. Are you recording with mic's or just from electronics? The other is keeping your monitoring and instruments from transferring through the house and outside. So, the best thing for you
to do to get help here is take one step at a time. We can't answer all your questions in one whack. Been there, tried that. Don't work. So, I can help you, as well as others can, but lets take it one step at a time. I can draw layouts, and make suggestions, but you have to provide info. There is a LOT, you can do. Just be cognizant of your limitations, and make the best of them. There are compromizes, lots of them. But you can do what you need in the space you have. If you would like to communicate with me here is my email cadesigner@rcsis.com. One thing you need is to look at your proposed space, in relationship to everything around it. Washers, dryers, garage doors, entry doors, electrical, existing construction, etc. etc. etc. Do you draw? Even a sketch of the existing space layout, that you can do on computer would help. Let me know. Good luck, and don't be afraid to ask me for help. Lots of people here are far more knowledgable than me, but I have been fooling around with my home studio for a long time, and I know how to build. Cheaply too! My pockets are not deep, and I have utilized a lot of things over the years that were not meant for what I used them for.
fitz