First design for basement studio
- Thread starter rei16
- Start date
Ethan Winer
Acoustics Expert
rei16 said:
It looks small.
You didn't list dimensions so I can only guess, but you'll probably do better (get better sound quality) with a single larger room.
--Ethan
Sorry! Completely forgot the dimensions! Here is a pic of the room with dimensions. I can knock out the small room to left to lengthen the room a bit. My thought was to use the larger room at the top for drums, the small room to the left for vocals and the bathroom as an amp closet. The bass would go direct and the second guitar would have to use a pod for live recording and then dub the amp later. The main room would be the control room. Of course I'll have to treat the rooms but right now I'm just planning the layout. Are the rooms too small for what I had planned?
Ethan - I visited your site and it's amazing! Lots of good stuff - makes my head spin! I'm sure everyone (and me!) really appreciates all the advice you give on this forum.
Thanks!
Ethan - I visited your site and it's amazing! Lots of good stuff - makes my head spin! I'm sure everyone (and me!) really appreciates all the advice you give on this forum.
Thanks!
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Ethan Winer
Acoustics Expert
rei16 said:
No, that's pretty good. For some reason it looked a lot smaller, but 16 by 20 is definitely large enough for good results given enough bass trapping and other treatment.
--Ethan
Yeah. There are actually 5 posts total, but only 4 are in the area where I'll be building. The one of the far left is hidden in the model by the wall that is around it. I've asked a contractor if we can move it about 10 inches so it won't interfear with the wall. The plan right now is to isolate the post by sealing it up inside a square column.
Ethen - Thanks for the reply! I'll probably have some questions for you when the walls are finally up and I get the floor down.
After speaking to the builder it will take about 3 months to get the walls, ceiling and bathroom done. He's never done anything like this before so he's really willing to work with me on how things need to be done. Lucky for me he's going to use this as a learning experience and is giving me a discount on the labor!
Zaphod B
Raccoons-Be-Gone, Inc.
You might ask your contractor if he can put up a load-bearing laminated beam or steel I-beam that will span the area supported by those columns. (I recently had this done in my garage, and it spans 25 feet.)rei16 said:
There will be two advantages. First, you won't have to accommodate the columns in your building plan, and second, those three columns in the main room will drive you nuts.
Obi-Wan zenabI
New member
Which room will be your control room? Top Left? You're going to have some stereo issues, I think. I would bump the shorter sliding glass doored wall out to the right (so it meets the other new const. wall to the right of the post) in order to widen that smallest room (Bottom left - make that the control room) and get it symmetrical down the middle by building a small triangular false wall along the bottom left outer wall. Put the monitors against that wall, facing the narrower end.
I have a similar square footage above a detatched garage, and I decided to have a big open room, for multi-use reasons.
I have a similar square footage above a detatched garage, and I decided to have a big open room, for multi-use reasons.
Thanks to everyone for all the great feed back!!!
Zaphod - I shot an email to the contractor asking what the cost would be to place an I beam and remove at least 3 of the posts so the main room will be post free. Great suggestion. He's already estimating about 12K to do the current work so...the almighty dollar may decide this one.
Obi-Wan - Great Suggestions! I wish I could have designed the basement just as a studio but my wife asked that I make the main room big enough that when we get ready to sell we could put a TV in and wire up surround to make it a "theater" room. I was planning to use the big room as my control room, the top room for drums and the smaller room on the left for vocals. The bathroom walls will be constructed the same way as the rest of the rooms so it was going to be my amp booth. My plan is to place the desk with the monitors centered against the bottom wall and treat the rest of the walls. I'm olny about 2 days into Ethan's site so the plan may change again as I learn more about treatment options.
I'll be using exterior French doors with laminated glass instead of sliders. I went with high quality construction not the cheap interior ones. I could have placed windows in the walls and installed sold core doors, but the big windows in the french door will look much nicer, open wider and allow me to see though easily. I know the isolation won't be professional, but it should work fine if they're sealed well.
Zaphod - I shot an email to the contractor asking what the cost would be to place an I beam and remove at least 3 of the posts so the main room will be post free. Great suggestion. He's already estimating about 12K to do the current work so...the almighty dollar may decide this one.
Obi-Wan - Great Suggestions! I wish I could have designed the basement just as a studio but my wife asked that I make the main room big enough that when we get ready to sell we could put a TV in and wire up surround to make it a "theater" room. I was planning to use the big room as my control room, the top room for drums and the smaller room on the left for vocals. The bathroom walls will be constructed the same way as the rest of the rooms so it was going to be my amp booth. My plan is to place the desk with the monitors centered against the bottom wall and treat the rest of the walls. I'm olny about 2 days into Ethan's site so the plan may change again as I learn more about treatment options.
I'll be using exterior French doors with laminated glass instead of sliders. I went with high quality construction not the cheap interior ones. I could have placed windows in the walls and installed sold core doors, but the big windows in the french door will look much nicer, open wider and allow me to see though easily. I know the isolation won't be professional, but it should work fine if they're sealed well.
Correct me if I'm wrong
but wouldn't you want a 'theater room' to be symmetrical?
I would imagine most potential home-buyers would be put off by that layout.
People don't like weird shaped walls.
Sorry, just something to think about. That's why i would go for the 'one large room' approach. Then try to put up some removable 'room within a room' areas for isolation.
Ethan, is there any way to put up temporary partitions to create the angled walls, that could be easily removed later?
but wouldn't you want a 'theater room' to be symmetrical?
I would imagine most potential home-buyers would be put off by that layout.
People don't like weird shaped walls.
Sorry, just something to think about. That's why i would go for the 'one large room' approach. Then try to put up some removable 'room within a room' areas for isolation.
Ethan, is there any way to put up temporary partitions to create the angled walls, that could be easily removed later?
Ethan Winer
Acoustics Expert
notCardio said:
Yes.
There's little benefit to angled walls in a small home studio setup. You can achieve even better results with absorption on the walls.
--Ethan
RICK FITZPATRICK
New member
That depends if theres a column in the middle of the room.
Zaphod B
Raccoons-Be-Gone, Inc.
You don't need to jack the whole house to replace support columns for one load-bearing wall. That's nuts. You just need some temporary bracing to support whatever load those columns support. Simply using a number of 2-by's (placed under the ceiling joists) on either side of where the beam will be placed will do just fine. Or, if you prefer, actually building a temporary stud wall, offset to one side, to support the load, and this lumber can then be reused for some other job.tom18222 said:thats called an LVL
being in construction right now, i can tell you thats going to cost alot of money. put a jack under the whole house so suppord the weight, remove the existing beam(s) and columns. it may be worth it, but thats alot of work.
Innovations
New member
I would enclose the columns in a wall, have a larger control room in the upper right area and a soundlock/booth in front of the bathroom so you didn't have to work with expensive to soundproof sliding doors. Then you have a large symmetrical space genuinely suitable for a theatre room and I would put two sound booths at the back in a symmetrical pattern.
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NashBackslash
New member
Sorry to hijack this thread, but I'm interested in that program you are using to design your rooms. What program is that? Is it freeware?
Wow! Thanks everyone for the feedback! I've been on the road all last week and haven't been able to check this thread. It's a pleasant surprise.
The contractor called me back with a couple of options for removing the posts that will be in the main room and niether one of them appealed to me - because it's CRAZY expensive! He called an engineer friend of his and we may be able to remove the one in front of the drum room and relocate one of the other ones and still be fine with minmal re-enforcement. This will open up the room quite a bit. I'll know by the end of next week.
Innovations - I looked at the plan you drew and I agree that this would be ideal with the locations of the posts and offer better iso, unfortantly I'm not the only one that has a say in how the end result looks *sigh*.
Nash - I'm using google sketchup. It's free and easy to use. I highly suggest it. http://sketchup.google.com/
The contractor called me back with a couple of options for removing the posts that will be in the main room and niether one of them appealed to me - because it's CRAZY expensive! He called an engineer friend of his and we may be able to remove the one in front of the drum room and relocate one of the other ones and still be fine with minmal re-enforcement. This will open up the room quite a bit. I'll know by the end of next week.
Innovations - I looked at the plan you drew and I agree that this would be ideal with the locations of the posts and offer better iso, unfortantly I'm not the only one that has a say in how the end result looks *sigh*.
Nash - I'm using google sketchup. It's free and easy to use. I highly suggest it. http://sketchup.google.com/