How is this for a plan???

[wolf_recordings]

How is this for a studio layout???

Hi everyone,

I'm just about to move into a new house with a wide open, completely unfinished basement. The only thing that is there is the stairs, furnace, water heater (in the upper left corner of the picture), and pipes for sewer and water for a bathroom.
What I'm trying to do is setup a recording studio and a home theater (since I'm going to be producting DVDs also). What do you guys think of the layout? Too small of a control room? Would you move things around? The bathroom kind of needs to stay where it is because the pipes are already there (... unless I pay someone to cut my concrete and move them... ).

Thanks for any input... (please see attached picture)

Alan

 

[RichHead]

Well, I'm pretty much a newbie at this, but I have been doing a lot reading/watching for my own purposes. The only problem I can see is your control room. It needs to be symmetrical...and also, you should show monitor placement too, that would give other more expereienced people on this board a chance to evaluate that area better. That's all I got

 

[John Sayers]

Yeah - I'm a bit confused as well - you appear to have two control rooms??

cheers
john

 

[wolf_recordings]

Maybe this will clear things up a bit. I assume you are confusing my "utility room" with a control room. It's actually a room with a furnace and water heater in it... nothing to do with recording, just the necessities of the house...

I've also attached a closeup of the control room. I'm planning on doing stereo and 5.1 mixing so you will see where all those speakers are located.

Alan

 

[wolf_recordings]

Ok, so I was up until 4 am last night reading posts (time flys when you're having fun.... yeah, that's it, fun....) and I think I'm going to go with a pair of non-parallel sliding glass doors to isolate the control room from the live room. I have also added a lot more detail to my picture so everyone can get a clear idea of what I'm trying to do. I laid out the monitor placement in this one so it is easier to see where I sit in relation to the room. This new revision also includes moving the bathroom behind the furnace/water heater room. One other thing to note, that's a di-pole center channel on top of the TV (even though it kind of looks like one of the stereo monitors from the computer - but this could be fed from the computer as well....clear as mud?).

Although I know the space and size of the studio isn't ideal, here are my questions:

With the sliding doors directly behind the main 5.1 monitors, will I get a lot of echo/reverb. Should I have something that covers the sliding glass doors while I'm mixing? Some kind of rollup diffuser that can be tied above the doors? Would something as simple as wooden blinds help?

Also, with the placement of the sliding glass doors in relation to the drums and amps, will that cause acoustic problems in that room as well? Or, since it's angled, will it bounce towards the bar and home theater setup and have a difficult time finding it's way back to the mics?

Next, what do you guys think about using the control room to perform the recording, and then route the audio to the monitors in the home theater section, controlling my computer remotely from there...

Finally, I have several walls that I need to make "false walls". The wall behind the T.V. needs to be removed to check the water meter and sump. The wall on either side of the furnace needs to be false (or big enough doors) to allow for furnace maintenace (filter change, servicing, etc.). Any ideas? I thought about French doors, but that might look funny behind the T.V...

Any suggestions would be greatly apprectiated.

Thanks,

Alan

P.S. Sorry for being so long winded...

 

[wolf_recordings]

I noticed a mistake in my math on the control room dimensions. Here is an updated version reflecting the slightly larger control room.

Alan

 

[John Sayers]

Firstly - the glass door directly behind you in the control room is a no no, rear reflections.

Strikes me that with such a small control room in such a big place you will spend most of the time going from the control room to the DVD Video area to see what it sounds like in a real room.

cheers
john

 

[wolf_recordings]

John,

Yeah, I'm a little worried about that. If I can totally eliminate those pipes in the floor right next to the control room, what would you suggest? Extend the control room out to be about 10'5" x 16'?
But in the case, would it be better to then flop the control room with the live room. Then there would be a very long room at the bottom, with the control room at the top.... <sigh> So many options.
Or am I going about this totally wrong? Any suggestions on how to move the rooms around?

Thanks,

Alan

 

[foreverain4]

dude, why dont you just use the room with the sofa's and such for your control room as well? then, the room that your were going to use for the control room can be used for an iso boothe (which you will need). you will really wish you had a bigger control room.

 

[Michael Jones]

wolf - I know you've probably looked at dozens of designs, and your head is most likely spinning from them, but why not change places with the drum room and control room?

The drum room seems to have better symetery which would better suit a control room.
You can use the area under the stairs for equipment racks and other storage, and I just think that you could incorporate a better control room design in that area than what you're struggling with now.

 

[wolf_recordings]

Last night I woke up and thought "Hey, why don't I incorporate the control room into the home theater room!? - duh!". I was so focused on making it work in that corner that I didn't see the obvious (and yes, I've read so much lately that it starts to almost get confusing). So, I got up, worked on the new plans, and then feel back asleep. (It's amazing some of the work I get done in my sleep...). I'm now planning on doing exactly what foreverain4 suggested, even before I read his post. Thanks for the responses though! The only problem with this setup is that I have to remove one of the couches, and I will probably have to raise the TV up quite a bit, or raise the couch even more to see over the control area.

Are you guys curious to see the new setup? I can post my most current layout, or should we just let the thread die? However, I suppose I wouldn't mind a little more input on some of the angles I'm purposing...

foreverain4 - I think you're right, I did need an iso booth and that area will work out great...

Alan

 

[Michael Jones]

...Are you guys curious to see the new setup? I can post my most current layout, ...

Alan

Hell yeah!
We wanna see whatcha came up with.
Post away.

 

[wolf_recordings]

Ok, here goes... I hacked it together this morning before I went to work, but it's the general idea. I'm still thinking about moving the bathroom back to where it started and shrinking the iso room a little. It's a bit confusing because the computer monitors and the home theater speakers look the same, but the computer will be able to control both sets for different quality of listening...

Alan

 

[wolf_recordings]

With the risk of being over-bearing, here is my last (hopefully!!!!) draft of my studio. I have decided to eliminate the angle on the vocal booth and go for a straight wall with acoustic treatment (which will be better for resale value if I decide to move for some reason). I think I am going to angle the side walls of the Live Room slightly (narrow at the top, wider at the bottom of the image) to help avoid standing waves.

Any final words of wisdom?


I appreciate everyone's input! I know I have a long way to go, but I'm getting there with your help!

Thanks,

Alan

P.S. One more thing.... do you guys think it would be better to split the iso booth into two separate rooms? (Placing a wall in line with the east (right) wall of the Live Room). The current iso room seems huge to me.... people could probably dance in there! ;-)