Dreaded Garage!

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moelar2

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Ok, The biggest mission in the world....what can/should I do to make my 2 car garage into a decent studio environment?

Currently, my garage has no drywall or insulation, and half of it has a high ceiling at about 22ft. Is there any way to build a control room without totally tweaking the garage? My main concern is with being able to create reference tracks using drums and a guitar/vocals and solving the bleeding problem. any AFFORDABLE solutions? SUggestions?

****THanks*****
 
Also, letting us know what your priorities are would help too - how far is the garage away from the house? From neighbours? Is there noise outside you have to keep out? How loud do you play?

Those sort of questions help determine how much sound proofing (as opposed to sound conditioning) you need to do. In general, sound conditioning is easier then proofing since that pesky sound always finds a way to get out.

In my case, I was mostly concerned about sound conditioning, but I'm looking at soundproofing my next studio....

Not an expert, but learning...
 
There was an interesting artical in the April issue of Recording mag. where this guy turned his 2 car garage into a studio. It did not give a lot of detailes, but at least gave some good suggestions.

Peace
Joe
 
well basically, my concerns are with tracking at least two sources that would require mics, such as drums with vocals, or guitars..etc..

Floating floors and slide doors are probably out of the question. Oldgrover pointed out the difference between proofing and conditioning, and I'm probably more concerned with conditioning than I am with proofing, although I wouldn't mind some basic proofing.

I live in a residential area - very quiet. They only thing I really have to worry about is my dog barking. I'm really concerned with conditioning the garage because as i mentioned, it does not even have drywall or insulation, and it has concrete floors. In addition, half of it has a high ceiling and a little wood deck above it, which makes the place ultra live. When recording, it seems almost like a contradiction between being too live yet at the same time DEAD. It's a very unnatural, muffled sound. Also, since its relatively large and empty, the "hiss" or inherent noise floor is prevalent. The garage is directly attached to the house. Theres a door that leads from the kitchen into a laundry room that branches off into a bathroom [which is where I have tracked vocals, but due to lack of long cables, has been an inconvenience when tracking for the reference track] and the garage. The neighbors are cool old people who don't mind. I use my garage to rehearse as well, but my concern is with accomodating my recording situation.

The most feasable approach I can forsee is insulating and covering my walls, for starters. In addition, I want to look into whether it would be recommended to build a control room as opposed to an iso booth, or vice versa. Keep in mind, this is a project studio, but, I do have a strong interest and passion in making the most out of what I have, including my stupid garage.

As far as budget is concerned, I'd like to keep it under $1000.00. The cheaper the better. Any suggestions on maybe attaining some cubicles? Foam? Egg cartons?? [I think I read the egg carton myth here on homerecording.com, but many out there still swear it works!?]

Thanks!!

p.s. - OldGrover, did you condition a garage?
 
hey moelar.
As you state you have less than a thousand to spend, the thing to do might be to start with doing some basics, you can always improve on it later.

From your writing I assume the garage is a timber frame with outer cladding and nothing else? If yes, I would start with insulation in the frame, glasswool or, if you can get it where you are, rockwool is even better.

See how much money you'll have left. Short on budget - close it off with 1/2" soundboard. Looks horrible.

Bit more cash - add a layer of 5/8" fire rated gypsumboard, or even better, one layer of 1/4" Toughrock Sound Deadening Board and one layer of 5/8" Toughrock Fireguard.

Approx costs: glasswool or rockwool 50 cents p. sq. ft.
soundboard 21 cent
5/8" toughrock fireguard 16 cent
1/4" SDB 7 cent
fasteners, tape, mud etc. 6 sent
 
No - I was conditioning a very very live bedroom studio (brick walls). I just wanted to point out that you have to think about what your expectations are and what your needs are :)

You probably want to insulate your walls and put a decent covering (wallboard, whatever) over them to start in any event. Then maybe use some foam (I think markertech? or something is the best bang for the buck that I've heard of on here - I used Auralex but that would blow most of your budget right there) on the walls to maybe tone down some of the liveness so it sounds good. Again, read John's site (www.auralex.com has some decent info too). John has some do-it-yourself high, mid and low freq traps on his site - consider those instead of, or in addition to, foam.

That would give you a pretty good base. One big room, though. At some point, when you get a few more bucks together, you could partition off a section with double walls and double glass for a control room.

You'll want your control room isolated from your main room, but if the area is quiet and you won't piss off neighbours, then you might get away with the soundproofing you get from the single insulation/wallboard stuff

How big is this place?

Again, not an expert, but just some suggestions. If John or Sjoko2 tells you that I'm on crack, believe them, not me. In any event, if what I'm suggesting sucks, then I'd like to know, since I don't wanna make too many mistakes when I do mine :)
 
sjoko -

Thanks for your input, I will definitely look into your suggestions. The good thing is that my uncle is a private contractor, so he said he'd build whatever needs to be built.

Will i be able to find the rockwool and soundboard at the local Home Depot? Is it similar to drywall?

Oldgrover -

Thanks for the input - don't worry about the "validity" of the informatoin, If I wanted the ultratechnical/pro way to do it, I'd read a book or something, but I'm just looking for people's experiences with PREFERABLY less orthodox ways/practices. Your input is very much valued.

****** ********** ******** ****** ******** ********* ****** ****** **** ****

Just for clarity, was the control room suggested over the isobooth? I've seen companies on the web advertise iso booths [pretty elaborate ones] for around $3000-5000!! Any more affordable ones out there?? what do you suggest in the way of cubicles? I've seen some pretty good ones that come with windows as partitions...

thanks.
 
Soundboard is readily available, also at Home Depot. If your uncle is a contractor, he might have an account somewhere.......

For wall insulation, I'd advise you to go though the trouble of finding rockwool. If you are up North or on the East Coast, no problem. Here In California they don't sell it in the 'normal' shops, you have to dive in the yellow pages and find an insulation contractor to order it from. It really is a lot better for sound than glasswool.

Most pro building places will sell Toughrock, I think its the 2nd largest brand of sheetrock / drywall, whatever you want to call it. For soundproofing, they are the best brand, especially in the combination of first one layer of 1/4" Toughrock sound deadening board, followed by a layer of 5/8" Toughrock Fireguard.
Don't forget that you have to maticilously 'mud' all the seems.

SoundBoard is a fiber panel. its brown, 1/2" thick as standard, similar to hardboard but a lot softer (in Europe its often called softboard). You can get it at HD or any good builders merchant.

Don' moan about your garage, especially its height! The higher the better for good sound!

If you want to get serious about recording, forget an iso booth for now. Insulate your walls first, so you have some level of comfort in knowing your neighbours won't freak out. Next would be finding a suitable layout for your space - best thing to do is to post a drawing, or some pictures? Then we can make some recommendations.

It does not have to be very expensive. If you get the basics right, like the design and the framing for room (s), you can add treatment etc. if and when you get some cash, and in the meantime make due whith what you've got.
 
That's really interesting sjoko, I think what you call soundboard is what I call Canite or fibreboard.....correct?
They use it here for notice boards??

I also agree with sjoko as to how to treat your room initially so you are happy with the neighbours, don't go the control room/studio line for the moment just get the room sounding good to play in. ;)

cheers
john
 
yup, that's it John. I really like using it between framing and drywall / sheetrock, especially on larger walls. It increases the STC rating by a couple of points, but more importand, it 'deadens' a wall , stops transfer of vibration
 
John/Sjoko2

Is my suggestion a reasonable way of going at it? Ie, insulating the single walls all the way around, then sound treating them? Then if you end up with the bucks for a seperate control room (and I would recommend the control room over the iso booth - I would LOVE to be able to really monitor while recording (no control room yet, pout, pout)) run a double wall to partition off that control room? There would still be sound transmission through the common wall(s) and floor since you are not using rubber barriors and floating the floor for the room, but I think you would certainly be able to monitor recording with some confidence as well as prevent the monitors bleeding into recording mics in the main room.

So, not ideal, not what the pros would do, but a reasonable compromise? I guess thats what I'm asking.
 
Since I'm almost at "Senior Member" I gotta learn quick to match my soon-to-be Senior Status :D
 
You go Grover!!
As you saw, treating the outer skin first is exactly what both John and I suggested.
'Not what the pro's would do' Thats not something I believe in, I've seen to many pro's srew stuff up as far as studios go. That is why I am now building my place myself, with my own hands, on my own, every little bit of it.
I started in August, and I'm planning to have everything finished and working this August, so that is a full year, working almost every day, for long hours.
In my days troubleshooting studios and acoustics in Europe I learned that, apart from design, attention to detail is paramount. And that is why doing it yourself is both fun and worthwhile. You will KNOW that every seam is caulked, that every detail is the way it should be, and it gives you a great deal of peace of mind and satisfaction.
Also, I have seen some 'homers' build the most wonderful places, some better sounding and better suitable for their purpose than commercial facilities, at a fraction of the cost of the latter.
Just as a footnote, my friend Ben, who produced Mariah's first CD's, has just completed his place down the road from me. He didn't do it himself, and it took 3 years to complete!
 
Cool. I'll probably be doing some varient of that, but in a basement eventually. Unless, of course, I just end up spending all my time making the house all prettied up, sell it, and buy a place with enough room for a REAL studio :)

Yeah, yeah, maybe that's what I'll do.

You guys are a bunch of bastards... I was sooooo happy when I moved into this place and actually had a room.

Oh, well. I think, actually, now that my bedroom studio is in pretty good shape, I'll actually buckle down and get some good stuff recorded. That makes even more sense. Most of the stuff I've done in there so far, I haven't been able to post (I don't own the copyrights for it), but hopefully I'll get some new stuff by my fiancee done soon so I can post it on the mixing forum. I guess that's the real key - not to spend so much time in this forum and spend more time actually doing the music :)
 
Ehhhhh - oh yeah, recording. Almost forgot. That's why right? Gotta keep remembering that...........
 
I think it is too easy to get wrapped up in things like perfecting the studio or buying new toys and forgetting to actually use them. So... for me, no more toy buying until I've got something to show for what I have. Well, after that second Apex420 and new trumpet mic........
 
Thanks guys, I'm printing all this stuff out and hitting home depot this weekend [or next]. Actually, I think I might take sjoko up on his suggestion to post pics. I have access to a digital cam, so I'll get to that this weekend.
 
Silly me. I reminded myself... I just got off the phone with my crack dealer^W^Wmusic dealer and ordered the Apex and asked for an AKG419 to be brought in so I can try it out and see if I like it.

In my defense, I really am buying the AKG for my fiancee to use in live performances, not for my recording stuff. Really.
 
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