Building a basement studio

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Renascent

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Hello ladies and gent's

I'm still a little new here, and I'm still very new to studio construction although I've been reading until my eyes hurt on these forums, Jon Sayers, and a few others.

Anyway, I've got a basement that is practically my own (living with parents still, but theyre very receptive to the whole idea. Not to mention they're helping to pay for me to goto SAE in new york, a recording/production school. woohoo!)
My goals -- To have an environment where I can apply the things I learn while @ SAE.
To have the ability to record at least decent sounding demo's and other things for bands, songwriters, etc in the area(Nice enough to charge a little bit of money, but nothing so crazy that i HAVE to charge money to pay it off!)
Produce songs of my own. I'm going to be pushing to do a "Chemical Brothers'ie" sound, most likely alot of "real drums" with synths and crazy trippy stuff going on.. you know the drill. I'm very sporadic though, and the songs ive been working on have been anywhere from "house" to "ambient" to .. who knows. I write too, so I will most likely do vocals for the tracks as well.


My budget is anywhere from $500 (ideal) to $1500 for construction. Obviously I'd like to be able to keep it under $1000 if at all possible, and that's probably the number I'm going to work with assuming I'll probably end up spending 50% more then I intended to anyway.

The good stuff--
The basement ceiling is a drop ceiling, with roughly 15" between the ceiling top, and the bottom of the floor above
The ceiling is 7' high, probably a little higher then the average basement, even with the drop ceiling.
The basement is "Finished" (Has carpet, has that cheesy lamenant fake wood stuff on the walls to cover the studs, lights in the ceiling, power, etc)
I've had bands play down here and with the 2 windows closed, the bilco doors closed, and the door to upstairs closed, the (loud) band couldn't be heard any closer than my mailbox, and they were SERIOUSLY loud.. hardcore metal, screaming, loud drummer, etc. With the doors open (when everyone was sweating their ace's off) it was semi loud.. whatever.
I live in a pretty rural area.. the closest neighbors are about 80yards away on either side, the road is about 80 yards as well, little traffic during the day, almost none at night. I can't hear anything short of the occasional dump truck (flying) down the road even with music off, and windows open
basement2.jpg


This is a (roughly drawn) picture of the basement and its dimensions.


The NO area I can't really work with. My dad has a big lifting apparatus and a treadmill there, other assorted basement junk. My computer and synth/mixer/etc sit under the window on the left as we speak.

This is a picture with what I'm considering doing. This is totally up in the air, and I haven't started construction, nor will I , until I have a better understanding of why I'm building walls where I am (this is where I need help!) as well as how to build the walls (I've been learning this, slowly, and I'm patient so I'm not too worried about it)
basement3.jpg


So there we have it. My questions are as follows..
What dimensions should I aim for for the control room? The "live" room? Should I build a seperate smaller room for guitar amps? Is it very nessisary to isolate a mic for vocals? I guess i have a shizload of questions, so once anyone shows interest in helping me I'll keep ya busy! Thanks much in advance
Please feel free to contact me via AOL/AIm-- SuperEZScreename. This is definatly the best way for me as i will probably have a few questions regarding your anwsers Smile
Scott
 
Quite the dreamer eh?

Seemed like a decent plan up until the budget. For the money you have to spend, you'll most likely have enough for the wood studs and maybe some nails to put them together.

Scrape up another 5k or so and you'll at least be able to enclose a room or two.
 
I'm really not going for a full out studio, more or less trying to isolate a little bit so i can do some decent recording, better than simply doing it in the same room or something
Thanks though!
Scott
 
Renascent said:
Hello ladies and gent's

I'm still a little new here, and I'm still very new to studio construction although I've been reading until my eyes hurt on these forums, Jon Sayers, and a few others.

Anyway, I've got a basement that is practically my own (living with parents still, but theyre very receptive to the whole idea. Not to mention they're helping to pay for me to goto SAE in new york, a recording/production school. woohoo!)

My budget is anywhere from $500 (ideal) to $1500 for construction. Obviously I'd like to be able to keep it under $1000 if at all possible, and that's probably the number I'm going to work with assuming I'll probably end up spending 50% more then I intended to anyway.

basement2.jpg


This is a (roughly drawn) picture of the basement and its dimensions.


basement3.jpg


So there we have it. My questions are as follows..
What dimensions should I aim for for the control room? The "live" room? Should I build a seperate smaller room for guitar amps? Is it very nessisary to isolate a mic for vocals? I guess i have a shizload of questions, so once anyone shows interest in helping me I'll keep ya busy! Thanks much in advance
Please feel free to contact me via AOL/AIm-- SuperEZScreename. This is definatly the best way for me as i will probably have a few questions regarding your anwsers Smile
Scott
Click to expand...

hello there and not to sound rude or anything, but to do something like what you're expecting will bound to cost 7 to 8 time what budget you quoted above .. Remind you, 1 glass window goes for about $300 cnd and a solid steel door with frame goes for about the same or a little bit more. then you need studs, drywall, insualtion etc.

just to give you a hint, i pretty much have the same basement design like you have (L-shape). my total basement size is 44' x 26' . the stairs going up are in the middle of the basement (underneath that is the furnace and a small washroom etc). I had finished and soundproofed 3 rooms and still managed to save 13' x 34' and 8' x 13' as basement rec room space for home parties etc. all rooms have 4'x4' double glass windows looking into the control room including the basement rec room.
my control room and vocal room is aprox. 13'x10' and my drum room is 13'x10'. all rooms have xlr and 1/4" connectos and wall face plates onto the walls. special pot lights and black light and dimmers have been installed. all this has costed around 12k or plus for extra upgrades.. so just to state that what you are trying to accomplish with that kind of budget sound impossible. even if you were a handy man and did everything yourself, still the budget you have, you won't be able to buy everything you need to finish the job (material wise).
 
Too small and chopped up for three rooms. Can you swap space with your dad? That way you wouldn't lose that hall space.

If you're not worried about exterior soundproofing, I'd just focus on the ceiling. Remove the existing drop ceiling, fill between joists with insulations, and hang drywall from resilient channel from the joists. Then reinstall the drop ceiling, and try to gain a bit of height--you shouldn't need 16" of ceiling. Fill between the tiles & drywall with more insulation. Leave out the tiles on the edges of the walls (so you see the drywall). Congratulations, you have built a 'floating cloud' :)
 
mshilarious said:
Too small and chopped up for three rooms. Can you swap space with your dad? That way you wouldn't lose that hall space.

If you're not worried about exterior soundproofing, I'd just focus on the ceiling. Remove the existing drop ceiling, fill between joists with insulations, and hang drywall from resilient channel from the joists. Then reinstall the drop ceiling, and try to gain a bit of height--you shouldn't need 16" of ceiling. Fill between the tiles & drywall with more insulation. Leave out the tiles on the edges of the walls (so you see the drywall). Congratulations, you have built a 'floating cloud' :)
Click to expand...

Good point. The only downside i can see to that, is having to walk by all is dads stuff, which is fine if this is a personal studio, and he isnt opening up to others.

Like everyone else has stated, you are going to need a much larger budget that what you have allocated for this construction.

Also for more design ideas and to get a proper layout going, go to John Sayers
 
Scott,

> My budget is anywhere from $500 (ideal) to $1500 for construction. <

You can build a few walls for that, and still have a little left over to buy rigid fiberglass for acoustic treatment. I suggest you use the entire space as a single room. It's better to have one room that sounds great, rather than two rooms each too small to sound good. If you agree, see THIS article from EQ magazine that describes a professionally designed room that fits almost exactly in your space.

--Ethan
 
I'm checking the links now.
I really dont think its going to cost me 5grand+
I'm not trying to build a studio where bands are coming in to record and paying me 2grand or something
we're talking about me with a 12channel mixer, maybe even a 16channel mixer (i'm looking into a mackie 1604 because the 1202 i have only has 4 preamps and id rather buy a mixer with 16built in)
recording into protools or sonar or something like that
with mostly ebay'd equipment, and 'mid range' stuff. i'm not buying 1000dollar compressors, i bought an alesis 3630 and will probably buy a few more..
get the idea? I appriciate all the help, this is exactly what i needed! I just dont realistically think its going to be as expensive as ya'll think. i only need to build walls as good as my equipment.

Ethan, you think I would be better off with a really nicely done 12x26' room than 2 12x13s? I'm fine with that, and thats exactly why i posted this before construction! Thanks guys, ill post back after i read the links
Scott
 
Yeah a single room is far better than two half-assed rooms.

If you do a lot of solo recording, it makes sense anyway.
 
Well, the recording will probably be balanced between local bands doing reference demos and myself doing things for tracks of my own
It looks liek I'll be going with single room. I've got more work around here and ill be reading some more.
Thanks again for the response guys this helps me x1000!
Scott
 
How much you are going to spend on gear is irrelevant (Yah, I don't know if that's a real word or not..).

Either way you go, you want a room that sounds good, and that costs. The gear you are ghoing to use has nothing to do with the equation.

What you record is what you get, regardless of the gear used.
 
True.
What i was trying to say was.. if i can record "up to" the gear I have, id be happy. I don't need a studio that is "perfect" because I'm not using the best equip anyway.
Just like I would hate to have the best gear, and record in the middle of my bathroom or something!
scott
 
Ethan
Do you think I would be able to fit that single studio design into my basement by building 3 walls (or even 2)?
Also, would you suggest I ditch the drop ceiling we have and build an entirely new ceiling to get the 8' height as well as proper material?
Scott
 
i'd do it as one big room as well. maybe make the walls not perfectly square, and a walk in isolation "booth" for vocals/amp.
 
Thats a good idea. THIS is definatly what im going to go with (Thanks ethan!)
Id love to be able to build that for starters, then as money/time permit, maybe build a room inside there for vocals, and perhaps a place to put guitar amps for when bands come to record or if I start to play bass guitar (which im probably going to attempt, and then eventually Id like to learn regular guitar as well)

IS THIS how I would construct the rear wall units?
I may wait until my friend who is somewhat experienced at studio building (Attended fullsail, and is in the process of building his own full blown studio now) is home to begin the full-out construction down here, but if I'm definatly going to go with Ethan's layout in the link above, I'm going to start doing some things in the meantime on my slow days/nights when I'm off work. If i could start building the diffusors and bass traps, that would be great to have them ready when the walls are up. Also, I'd like to start on the ceiling. Isolation isnt a big deal, it's just my father and I living in the house and most of the loud recordings I would have done before "bedtime" anyway. He's also very receptive to the idea so he wouldnt mind the noise for a few hours im sure.

Thanks again for all the help, keep it coming!
Scott
 
Renascent said:
True.
What i was trying to say was.. if i can record "up to" the gear I have, id be happy. I don't need a studio that is "perfect" because I'm not using the best equip anyway.
Just like I would hate to have the best gear, and record in the middle of my bathroom or something!
scott
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not sure you're getting the point I was trying to make.

You'll get much better results with a good room and mediocre equipment than you would with a poor room and excellent equipment.

I would argue that the most important thing you could do if you are recording is treat the room properly. It affects EVERYTHING. Trust me, I was in your shoes and made the wrong choice (imo). I have since changed my ways..... :)
I honestly wished I had learnt this much earlier.
 
I don't know what I was trying to say. My brains fried from all this reading.
Basically, I'd like to build something I can improve on as time goes on (and money is made) I can't go flat broke just yet!


Another question- When I build this, there is still going to be that pole that supports my house (Can't remove it) Is this going to cause any problems with the accoustics or ability to set up the room?
 
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Well, suddenly after buying all the wood i need to build the diffusers and some 2x4s to start the initial framing of the walls, my dad descided I can't do this entire project now.
$150 down the drain, awesome
Thanks for your help guys, I'll probably have new questions when I move out to a new location. ha
 
Ouch. Well, afterall it is his house. That's why i bought my own house. I can build whatever the hell I want and no one call tell me not to!!! :D

Budget... yeah... Let's see, I've been building for about 5 years, and every month we go get supplies. In the beginning we were getting supplies every other day. If I were to add up all the money I've spent it would probably be around $10,000 roughtly. And it's not even done.
 
Yah, it's his descision. Iwish he woulda made it before suggesting that I would do it..
A while ago he and my mother said "You know, you should build something down in the basement and have your friends come record and stuff"
Then they told me they'd help pay for me to goto a recording school.
So when i pitched the idea and he was supportive, i was amped! And now suddenly he decided i cant do it, which bothers me. Plus 2 of my friends took off from work next week to help construct, bleh.

Anyone have ideas for the basement the way it is? I guess I'll still try and do everything, but it wont soundanywhere near as good. Can I build temporary walls maybe?
 
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