Cart before the horse

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XtremeBudgetMus

New member
Long story short, I'm a young (relatively speaking) seperated medical retiree with no kids and no life.

I've put the cart before the horse and I have 95% of the equipment that I need, now I have to have a shedf built behind my house to convert to a studio.

I'm thinking 14x24 (with a perimeter loft for storage). I've got to fit 8 keyboards, 6 guitars, 2 basses, 1 combo 300 bass amp, smaller guitar amps, various multiFX, tascam MTR, 2 electronic drum kits (see note below), vocal cab or booth, desks, stereos, monitors, etc. Plus, i will need to fit a couch and workbench!

I'm wondering if i have enough room!

Drum note - I'm going to set my Alexis DM8 like normal, then modify and invert a 2nd cheaper set above it and assign extra cymbals..

Any advice would be appreciated. I will post progress when building starts
 
Maybe you could go wider than 14' if possible.

Vocal cab? You could probably live without it in a shed that size.
 
Bump it out to 16' x 24' (2:3 ratio), and like gecko suggested, forget the 'vocal booth' Before building, draw out a floor plan (I used to use graph paper and cut out pieces of paper for each thing that had to go in the room), guess you can do it all on the computer easier now. You'll want to get bass traps/superchunks in the corners, some trapping on the side and rear walls for reflections.
 
Preventing outside noises getting in is an expensive undertaking, so in that sense it's probably more economical and easier to soundproof a booth rather than a room.

However it also depends on how critical it is be be noise-free.

I record in a room that's roughly 6m x 7m (about 21' x 24'). I too have noisy neighbours: kids, dogs & lawnmowers, but rather than going for soundproofing, I prefer to leave the windows open and let the sun and fresh air in.

That means my constant enemy is outside noise. However, for me it is not critical, and the signal to noise ratio is usually more than adequate. It's a different story if the neighbour is doing his thing with the ride-on mower right outside the window. Most of the time, though, the ambient noise is, well, very ambient.

The benefit is a very pleasant recording environment, in contrast to a smelly, airless, claustrophobic vault.
 
No, that is correct. Great option for building cheap structures that need to be insulated. If you plan your room sizes in advance, you can set single walls on the inside and double on the outside with air gap in the middle to reduce most noises (highway rumble and Harleys excepted).
 
I'm considering a similar project (my wife is actually WANTING me to do this...gotta love a woman who supports your passion.) Plan is for a 8 1/2'H x 14' x 20' main room, 8 1/2'H x 11' x 13' control room (really close to what I've got now), bathroom and storage space. Looking into radiant heating/cooling as it would be noiseless and some silent ventilation. My location is behind my home with woods surrounding and has no neighbor problems...Cost should be under $20k using SIPs and doing the plumbing with a friend of mine (who's good at that sort of thing). Plumbing would include the heating/cooling (run through the flooring). Already started buying pressure treated wood for the base, and had a second well dug. I have quite a bit of the trapping already and a couple tubes of green glue. Going to be a long process, but once I'm ready (buy all the lumber) I'll get same friend to come pour me a concrete slab 26 1/2 x 25 (building will be 26 x 20 with the roof extended over the 25 dimension) and get going. Also considering semi-vaulted ceilings...lots to look into before getting an actual start, but I'm getting the dimensions I want, then getting the materials from the ground up. I can buy a couple pieces of whatever every time I've got a few Bens handy and get this going eventually.
 
Even doing all the work yourself, I can't see how you could make a studio-shed that size for $10K. You've got to have electricity, some kind of HVAC. Wood isn't cheap these days, nor are other building materials.
 
Yeah, 20k is a bunch, but I'm spacing it over time in phases. I've got a well in place for the project and started buying lumber. I'll get the rest of the lumber, tubing and the heat/cooling units for the radiant HVAC and some ultra quiet fans, get septic and electric available, get the slab and footings poured, then build the frame and roof and start in on the expensive stuff inside. It may take a couple of years...it may not ever get done. But I have a plan to have a four room studio (main room, control room, storage room and WC with throne and sink). :)
 
XtremeBudgetMus said:
I've already priced the shed at about $6500, interior with the right HVAC hopefully won't be more than $2500.
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$6500 with foundation/slab and electric hookup/wiring? Is this one of those prefab sheds? (Guys come to your place with all the walls pre-fabbed, and assemble on-site.) I ask because those usually don't include any foundation - they set it on a slab or on a few blocks, and the floors in them are notoriously prone to rotting away over time and only framed with 2x6s (Home Depot sheds use 2x4 floor joists!) And the walls are usually 2x3 or 2x4 (although premiums models sometimes are 2x6).
I guess you can get away with electric baseboard heating and through-wall a/c - just turn them off when recording. That will save money (and space) compared to a ducted system with baffles.
 
No. I was thinking about putting down a chat rock bed instead of a concrete pad. I have ZERO experience on that. But I'm 42, and the way my health has been going, I probably have 10-15 years left. Is it worth the extra cost? (I live in SW MO, USA)
 
Yeah, that's how the Home Depot-type sheds typically get installed - on gravel. All depends on what the building codes in your town allow. Sheds with no power hookups are usually considered 'temporary'. With electricity to them, they need to be anchored to a foundation.
 
I always thought it was "CAR before the horse", as in, if there is a more economical means to get somewhere, take it. Don't overlook the efficiency of horses.

:D
 
The word "foundation" however varies from place to place. My shed did not require any more than footings under support pillars to get electricity. The rest was simply the gentle slope of the dirt. The one I'm building now however will have a flattened area with gravel around footings and a full slab from the front supports to the front of the overhang.
 
andrushkiwt said:
I always thought it was "CAR before the horse", as in, if there is a more economical means to get somewhere, take it. Don't overlook the efficiency of horses.

:D
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The cart usually follows the horse as horses are not so good at pushing...:) We humans however, are built more for pushing (thus our carts are usually in front).
 
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