Should I go for it? and if not

G

girvan

New member
Hi,
It's been along time. A few years back I wanted to reno part of the old house into a studio. Long story short - rotten house, sold house, bought new house, built new construction garage with loft.

So now I have a loft. All mine - amazing. 780sq'. A poster on an acoustics forum came up with a possible design for the space:
maybe.jpg


Awesome design IMO.

What I have now is more like this:
now.jpg


Where the RED lines are the current walls. The YELLOW room is finished with 1/2" OSB walls and ceiling. The GREEN areas are 'no walk zones' due to ceiling pitch. THey are essentially long crawl spaces. The BLUE area is insulated and vapor barrier but no finished surface yet. In the fisrt photo, the windows, there are actually not just 2 but 6 (3 in a row at each wall)

My goals:
Live drums, instruments, vocals. Digital on a DAW. Left as is, the drums are not bugging anyone (guess who) in the main house and the neighbors are far enough away (rural NB, Canada). So adding isolation isn't primary concern. Achieving a good sound is. Symmetry is a concern. I have and can build bass traps, clouds and hi/mid absorbers. I have 240sq' of 2" Roxul waiting to get used and some wood working skills.

I write to ask for your opinion / advise. Should I go for it and build the studio up to snuff? If I simply finish the BLUE room as is and treat the heck out if it would that suffice. I can do the framing but I just can't make up my mind.

Thank you , thank you. I have been on the fence for about a month now. I appreciate your input.

I can provide more info as requested.
Scott.
 
Sure, why not? The rooms are all fairly small, but they could work. I'd be very careful with the location of listening position in the CR though...in the Sketchup file you have your head right around the 50% mark. You want it around the 38% point instead.

Frank
 
Thanks Frank.
To answer why not - the only reason would be is that it is a very permanent modification to the space. If I knew that I could achieve a good sound without the 2 leaf walls then I would probably go that route; a bit easier and less $$.

I'm thinking ditch the small booth all together and have a longer control room.
Any thoughts on that?
 
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Absolutely do it, if you have the financial means. The quality of your recordings will show the difference. I would love to have the room to separate the recording space from the control room. Besides, you can recoup your outlay by recording other acts. Good luck
 
Thanks for your feedback. I appreciate it.

2 questions at the moment. Seeing how the Yellow room is 'finished' with OSB sheets, should I remove that before building the interior room. I think I have to.

As for decoupling the inner leaf - does this need to be framed on top of rubber (neoprene) pucks? Or can I simply nail it to the floor?

I have Rods book. I need to find it - kinda lost after the last move

Thanks again.
 
Thanks for all of your feedback. I'm trying to find a compromise. The reason is budget and time, I don't have a lot of either. Another factor is that the electrical is already in place and moving everything would incur more money.

In this floor plan the listening position is 38% of the front wall. In your opinion would this work? I know there isn't really any isolation here at all. I does give me larger rooms which I will treat. Should I consider at least creating a double leaf between the CR and the TR or is it an all or nothing thing?

comp.jpg
 
Here's my thoughts, and please keep in mind this is just one opinion out of 6.5 billion:

I really don't like the concept of having a separate control room than the drum room - I'd rather have just one big room, the less it looks like a "recording studio" and more like a living room the better. That comes from an old Les Paul interview where he said if he made a new studio it would look just like a living room with lamps and sofas. I think he was right.

Forget the "slick" stuff like mounting your speakers in the wall (like in the pic in your control room). Every time I've done some custom stuff like that it changes in 6 months. So now when I make racks, tables or shelves I never make them specifically for a piece of gear. I just assume that in a short time everything will be different.

I actually like the looks/philosophy of a studio in a barn where nothing is painted, it's all raw lumber. It takes the focus off of the bullshit and puts it where it belongs - on the music. I see the studios that everybody seems to want (nice wood floors, slick furniture) as dated and wanting to be like the big boys.

I made my small studio with a sliding glass door down the middle so that I could separate the "control room" (I hate that term/concept) from the "drum booth" (hate that even more!). Man do I wish I'd never done that. I never use it and the door hasn't been up in years. I wish I'd kept it one room, but I fell for the "isolation" bullshit and thought it was the thing to do.

I remember one time in the late 70's an agent sent us to Bathurst in the winter... shit-dang it was cold!
 
Bathurst...about 2.5 hours north of me. I can tell you that it's cold here today... -18 Celsius plus the wind.

Here are my thoughts (previous to your entry). I have a dream to have a 'pro' looking studio. Sound familiar? The cool walls, the cool angles, the cool glass. It's just so freakin sexy looking. It looks like you'd make amazing music in there.

So I'm discussing all of this with a colleague at work and she brings up a video of a musician friend who is recording in Nashville. A pop rock Christian recording. They got the cool Pro Tools HD system. Racks of outboard beauties, etc... but they are in a house and the drummer is in the living room - tracking in front of all glass French doors - and the DAW is in a nook with a couch about 3 feet behind it.

So....is this about making music or architecture. There's no doubt that a great studio will allow for frequencies and waves to be managed properly, no doubt. But do I want to make a great studio or make music. Do I want a trophy room or do I want to get this music off my chest and continue to learn the craft of making music?

This is what I've decided. Just decided. I"m going to order $450 of T&G spruce boards. I am going to finish the room as is. I am going to build some panel absorbers and some super chunk traps. I am going to place my listen position around 38%. I am going to put up some absorbers. I am going to set up my gear and I am going to ROCK OUT. LOL. Seriously. I am going to stop the insanity of trying to build a $1.5Mill studio with a thousand bucks and use what I have - the talent to try that God gave me.

Thank you all for your input. I'll post some pics as they become available.
I really appreciate you taking the time to help me get to this decision. God bless your dreams.
 
That sounds like clear thinking. I really think that the whole dream most people have of this recording studio with all the bling is total bullshit. What a massive sidetrack.

Spruce boards are a great idea. I'd go easy on the sound deadening stuff and make the main focus on it being a really comfortable place for me and my buddies to play. If you look at the rooms where much of the best music was made, Studio 2 at Abbey Road for instance - lots of the experts would say it was all wrong.

Remember: it's all about the songs
 
Ordering spruce now. - Just ordered it. .42¢ per sq'. It's green though - he's recommends to let it dry 6 WEEKS before installing it. Delays, delays. I'll stack it in the loft with stickers in between each row and put 27 fans on it.
 
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You might consider something like this...and if you don't really need the Iso Booth...just go with one large space.


Then get back to making music. :)



comp2.jpg
 
I would leave the room open and spend the money on acoustic treatment, gobos and equipment. You can use the garage for drums or amps if you need even more space or isolation.
 
True about using the garage, during warm months (we do get a few of those up here) there is really no problem using the garage. I really got a good feeling about this. Like I said earlier; the spruce boards arrive tomorrow. A step in the right direction. While those dry I think I'll start making some absorbers.
 
So the spruce arrived yesterday. Took about 4 hours to haul the 240ish boards upstairs. I piled them with lathe 'stickers' in between each row. Apparently it can take up to 6 weeks to dry. The lumber is kinda freshly milled and has been outside - freezing.

Sooooo. That sucks. I was hoping to get this installed over Christmas vacation. In an attempt to speed things up I put 3 fans, 2 heaters and 1 dehumidifier within a foot of the lift.

My camera is out on loan. I'll put up somepics when I get it back.
 
girvan said:
Another factor is that the electrical is already in place and moving everything would incur more money.
Click to expand...

Nice looking plan and great project if you do it. One thing that occurred to me; if you are going to use existing electrical without modification, I would check to see if you have existing outlets and the same breakers as lighting. I believe some lighting can give you hum if on the same circuit with sensitive equipment.
 
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