Tricky one, how would YOU set it up?

[tubedude]

Here is a room I am trying to figure out how in the hell to set it up for tracking AND mixing.
It will be a decent sized attached garage with 8,9 or 10 ffot ceilings, and I havent decide which height yet, but I need to soon.
The floor plan is here:
http://www.84lumber.com/Home_Packages/Affordable/Northport/Northport_v_plan1.htm
The problems so far? The garage door on the south side, the untility closet with furnace on the north side.
Here are some specifics, since some of these might matter...
I am going to put down a pergo style floor that looks like hardwood in the garage so that it looks nice, it will be fully drywalled and painted nicely (thinking a dark maroon, teal, or purple) with recessed lighting. All this will give it a comfortable, not-a-garage feel. I hope. I am not entirely opposed to framing a wall in front of the garage door inside and making pretty much a facade on the outside, but it WOULD be handy for people bringing gear in and out. The other thing to think about with the garage door: noise entry... it is a dead end street, very low traffic and I am halfway to the end and there is generally not much noise around there. I know garage doors seems to let in every little peep. I will be trying to find a nice heavy garage door that seals nicely. It will be painted the same inside as the rest of the garage and maybe masked with a wall of tall artificial plants. Looking at the drawing, the untility closet and the garage door kill my every idea of where to place things.
What are your best ideas on where to place the mix station, the drum tracking area, and your proposed ideas for room treatment. I am already going to put bass traps in all four corners, and diffuse the area above the drum rug (thin, tight weave throw rug) and behind it most likely. Lots of things actually depend on where to place this stuff. If it were you, and the tracking and mix station had to be in one room, where would they be, and how would you treat it?
Peace!

 

[tubedude]

I forgot to mention that I'll probably put a small control room on the left side, attached, in about a year. But for now, I need a brainpower.

 

[Tim Brown]

Well there are a few possibilities that you may be able to do.

I've attached a drawing to give you an idea of one bandroom that I did years ago.
We wanted the garage door to still be functional so that when we moved it would have a garage.

So, I ENCLOSED the Garage door from the inside. Just behind the track I installed a 2"x6" Wall, with 3/4" Plywood on the outside, stuffed the wall with 9" of Fiberglass insulation (just standard Owens-Corning "pink panther" type ). On the inside there was 3/4" of plywood with a layer of sheetrock overtop.

I used steel plates to bolt the walls together


I built this in sections that were essentially complete "panels" that could be set up.

Except for the actual upright "wall"; I left that open on the inside of the garage so that I could bolt it into the garage floor.

What this does is allows you to remove the thing and keep your overhead door intact. From the front of the house, there will be no changes. It will just look like a garage. The Garage door would still raise, to reveal a wall with a door in it. Do NOT put the door in the center of the wall. Put the door off to one side so that it swings open against either side wall. This will give you more "UNBROKEN" (no doors or windows in the middle of the wall) wall space in this particular wall. (I would put it on the same side as the door into the laundry room myself.)

So, you have a 2"x6" wall with 1.5" of plywood (3/4" on each side) packed with insulation, and convered with sheetrock on the inside. I essentiallt made "rafters" that stuck out of the ends to be able to bolt these sections together.
Yep, it was big and it was heavy, but it knocked down a TON of sound level.



Now, on to your utility room problem.

See if the utility room door can be moved so that entry to the utility room is gained through the Laundry room or through the Master bedroom's closet (even better!)


Tim

 

[tubedude]

Well there are a few possibilities that you may be able to do.

Now, on to your utility room problem.

See if the utility room door can be moved so that entry to the utility room is gained through the Laundry room or through the Master bedroom's closet (even better!)


Tim

Good idea. Didnt think about that. These things are movable, I believe, with a pencil and some approval. Yeah.
I had the same idea with the garage door, but nothing quite so think and heavy. I just want something I can mount diffusion on and not let IN a bunch of sound and cold air.
Thanks.
Now, how about setting it up?

 

[Tim Brown]

You've got to keep this in mind :

If sound is getting out then sound is getting in!

You could make it out of 2"x4";s. but I would go for the 2"x6" walls just for my own peace of mind. I'd hate to build it, and have still have sound coming in.

When I went to digital recording, there were a few adjustments I had to make to my bandroom/studio.
I kept hearing this low end "woooooom" on my recordings. You almost felt it instead of hearing it.

So what was it?

It was the sound of trucks on the street BEHIND my house! (which is about 150 feet away.)
My street has vitually no traffic on it, but the street behind is fairly busy and you could hear delivery trucks delivering to the restaurants over there. It was driving me nuts until one day I turned the mic's up really loud, and I heard the "beep beep beep" from a big truck backing up while I heard that low end hum. I laughed my ass off about that one!

When I was recording in analog, I never heard/noticed the sound of the delivery trucks, but in digital it was crystal clear.



Tim