Newbie gets a studio :-)

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cambler

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Well, my wife gave in. We're finishing our unfinished basement, and I get 9x11 next to our media room to fit out a studio. I am an electronic musician with a few controller keyboards, but lots of rack-mount synths, computers, etc. I do most of my work inside of Cubase, so I only use a small, Event EZbus for outboard mixing, but might go to a larger (Mackie?) board at some point.

I've got absolutely no clue where to start.

The floor is concrete, and the walls aren't even roughed in yet, so I can do alternating-stud if I want to. There is an existing window on the outside wall (an 11' segment), and I can place the door on either of the 9' segments or the inner 11' segment.

I'm soliciting wisdom for construction methods, and things I might want to build-in now, while I've got the chance.

Many thanks in advance!

Christopher
 
Excellent sites!

I'm wondering if there are any sites with more plans that I can print out and show my contractor?

I'm trying to figure out how to make the best use of the 9' by 11' space I've been "allocated" (and whether there's a justification for asking my wife for more room :-))

Christopher
 
cambler, you need to tell your wife that you need the ENTIRE basement to set up your recording studio.!!!
Show her some of the pics from around here first. Tell her it could double as a media room!:p
Or, if she doesn't go for that, then move into your 9'x11' space, and slowly expand until you have taken over the entire basement!!
hehehehehe
 
you need to tell your wife that you need the ENTIRE basement to set up your recording studio.!!!
Click to expand...

:D:D might as well start with the lot and slowly let her take it off you - isn't that how it works :):)

cheers
JOhn
 
I wish.

It was like pulling teeth to get the 9x11 space. Every added foot cuts into her guest room, as one side is the media room (can't change that wall), one side is a hallway (can't make it any narrower), and one side is the outside of the house (can't very well expand... at least not on our budget!).

It'll work out, though. I think the only reason she's agreed to this so far is that she heard my latest song and actually liked it.

Now *THAT* was a miracle!

Christopher
 
To gain spousal favor in matters of studio footprint maximization, one needs to embark on recording a series of sappy love songs, each mentioning the name of spouse in quesion at least three times per verse, with spouse's name featured prominently in the refrain. Spouse quickly becomes like a slice of warm brie cheese under the power of your incessant and potentially public declarations of love. The thought of the studio quickly becomes intertwined in the spouse's mind with your complete obsession with her loveliness, thus equating the purchase of a Neuman mic with a clearer declaration of your love, the loss of her guest room into a more expansive space in which to declare your love and the relocation of the new Pentium 4 2.4 GHz box into the studio as a way to more productively declare your love.

Once the studio is fully outfitted, you can resume recording your new opus "My Pet Tapeworm." She'll have her CDs of insipid ballads, you'll have your space.

Twang!
 
Tod,

I'll have to try that one mself... nice description... I'm sure that can be made into so sort of instruction manual with pictures...

:)

Cheers n Beers

R
 
I can see were a studio would come in handy but a guest room ?!?!?!?!:confused:

There is as book I don't know its name but a search at amazon and you'll locate it. It has plans and explicit directions on building a home studio.

I'm sure a few guys here have the book and can help you out.
 
One of the books is F. Alton Everest's Sound Studio Construction on a Budget - $20.96@Amazon.com - Good generic info, but so far I have yet to find a book with much in the way of specific building plans. Probably because most of the people who buy these books are building studio space either inside, under, over, or behind something and not starting from scratch with a separate building specifically designed to be a recording studio. If I were to write such a book (not that I'm qualified), I would be hard-pressed to decide what (if any) plans to include, just because the majority of readers would be trying to adapt a specific space to studio use. For this to work, you either need to study a long time and plan every detail of YOUR SPECIFIC SPACE, or hire someone who does this for a living, and pay in dollars instead of time. If neither of those is an option, learn to speed-read/learn, because there is a lot to learn/apply. BTW, that particular Everest book has an error in one of the charts about modes in a tube. If you plan to roll your own, perhaps his Master Handbook of Acoustics would be a better book. It's about $25 @ Amazon.com -

Initially, you should concentrate on sound PROOFING, since you can build the 9 x 11 room tight enough that way so it will keep the noise down. For this, the links Rochey listed are excellent. Just remember that every pinhole you make in a wall is that much more wasted time building the wall in the first place.

Concentrate on keeping as much headroom in your room as possible, without making the ceiling height the same as either of the other two dimensions. For that small a room, I'd forget splaying walls and just use treatments at appropriate places on walls/ceiling.

If you get REALLY good at those sappy love songs, maybe you could talk your wife into living in the basement and using the ENTIRE house as a studio - Musta worked for Barry Manilow... Steve
 
You'd think people had heard enough silly love songs... :-)

Actually, what did it was my latest tune, "Liar Liar" where I used a sample of our 3-year-old daughter singing, "Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire..." as the hook before the break.

My wife kinda lit up at that, and life got easier.

For the room, I'm planning to use even/odd studs on the inside/outside with an air gap between the walls, double 5/8th sheetrock, and an Auralex treatment on the inside. The ceiling will be a shade under 8 feet, so no worries on the dimensions.

Christopher
 
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