John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

hey guys, i've been reading up quite a bit on here, and im in the planning stages for my next studio which will be located in a 2 stall garage, 26x24 (ft), plus there is a shop added onto the back of the garage which is 15x17 (ft). It is a residential neighborhood, with the nearest neighbor living about 30 ft away, (thats to his garage not living quarters).

Isolation of my live/tracking room will be my biggest concern.

I will be doing all the construction myself, or with handy friends.

max budget for all materials 10,000

Right now my biggest question is how to best build the walls, my original idea was to basically shell the whole thing with 2 layers of 5/8 sheetrock, and then build my iso/live/control rooms within that, again going with 2 layers of 5/8 sheetrock for each room. I would be gutting the place out, btw, and probably using fiberglass insulation in the exterior walls.

After thinking that i've read about the 3 leaf problems vs just having a 2 leaf, so if i built that shell and sheetrocked it, then also did rooms within that room, would i have a poor 3 leaf system?

Hardboard siding+osb (leaf 1) insulation + 2 layers of sheetrock (leaf 2), Air Gap +insulation+ 2 layers of sheet rock (leaf 3)

would i be better off just not adding in the outer shell, and going with 3 or 4 layers of sheetrock on the inside, and possibly beefing up the outer layer somehow?

I have a very rough layout (2d) for what i've been thinking and a couple pics of the house from front and rear, hopefully they will help explain my thought process.

The ceiling within the garage is fairly open, right now, so i was thinking about adding in a vault of some kind to maximize ceiling height.

By the way i record all styles of music, from solo acoustic to metal, and drum isolation is my biggest goal, mostly from the neighbors.

im hoping i got all of the required info.

Also... sorry my set up is pretty much all digital, running logic9/apogee ensemble, a few outboard pres/eqs/comps.

and i was thinking about basing my control room off of Garage Studio 2 in John's studio plans

Hi Greg,
Looks like a fun build!
I think you have answered your own question.

Do not drywall the exterior wall. Beef it up after pulling the insulation then put the insulation back.

What are all those small spaces in your drawing?

Steve

cool thanks, and yeah i forgot to include the room names in the screen shot i posted, sorry bout that.

basically the very top small room on the right would be storage/hvac

directly below that im planning an iso room of sorts for vocals and maybe guitars

on the top left i was planning a hallway/entry way to provide a little extra separation between the house and live room, mainly to have multiple doors between the two, and also i was recently at matt goldmans studio, he had a fairly small hallway that he put room mics in when doing drums, and controlled the sound by opening/closing the doors in between the two, its kind of a weak attempt at copying that, it sounded so cool, and i really want to work something like he had into my plan.

The control room will be in the square room, (obviously going to add some angles n stuff) and the big room would be the live/drum room.

but the drawing is super rough, i actually wont move into the house for another month, but im trying to get the design process going so i can start right away after we close on the place.

This area I have circled in red is of concern as it is a reduced TL area of the build.

_________________
Brien Holcombe
_____________________________________________
Sound: You can't stop it, you can only try to contain it.

what would be the main problem that your seeing?

btw, the wall with the angled separation, the gray rectangles are supposed to be windows

i had color coded doors/windows in the drawing below, this was the one i tried to upload in the first place.

The way you have it laid out is going to be awkward for load in and sight lines.

I would aim more towards this:


( sorry about the messy finger sketching)

Can you sort of see what I'm going for?
This would still leave a dead spot where your current iso booth is, but this could be used as a guitar amp booth etc.
If you really want your hallway, put it as a storage area beside the new position iso booth. This will also help with your close to square room.
I would use 6' sliding glass doors between the control room/live room and as the entrance to the iso booth. Positioned best for a compromise of first reflection treatment and sight lines.
Put your desk with the outside window directly behind you.

At least something to consider.

Steve

The problem that Brien highlighted is two-fold. Firstly, you seem to have a three-leaf wall there, which is bad, and secondly you have one part of the air gap much narrower than the other part, thus reducing isolation.

Steve also has a valid point about sight lines. I would reverse the rooms: Put the CR where your LR is right now, but make it into a proper corner CR. That would solve the issue nicely.


- Stuart -

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I want this studio to amaze people. "That'll do" doesn't amaze people.

Thanks for the suggestions steve, and i had planned on laying out the control room how you had it, i had even thought about making some sliding diffusors that would go over the window in the control room, allowing sunlight or accurate listening depending on what i was doing.

I agree with the awkward load in, i had been struggling with that.

also, i had tossed around the idea of having 1 big room instead of walling everything off (like you laid it out), the only thing i dont like about that (or havent figured out yet), is the big room would share a direct door with the house, or at least a parallel door if i went with 2.

And one more thing that im struggling with, as for the layout, is working in doors/glass in the control room while trying to keep the room fairly symmetrical.

I appreciate all the replies and ideas, as i am extremely amateur at studio design

thanks stuart for the reply as well, the 3 leaf wall your seeing is due to my terribleness with sketchup, i'm not sure how i missed that.

but thanks for sharing about the angled wall/narrowing airgap, i guess i didnt know that that would reduce isolation.

I had thought about switching the CR and LR around before, but it always seemed to make for a weird live room, and also there is more potential for higher ceiling's in the tracking room the way i have it laid out now, which is important to me.

I realize with a 2 dimensional drawing that is impossible to tell.

i'll try and draw up one with a corner control room, and see if i'm thinking the same way you are.

Just in case anyone else wants to scribble in some walls, or has ideas, here is a more open floor plan.

I'm fairly positive the remaining wall is load bearing, so it will either have to stay or be replaced with a massive header.

What about using the door in your back yard?
Does that currently access the studio area?

Or add a dedicated studio entry ?

Steve

That door does go straight into the garage area which the studio will be, i haven't quite figured out what to do with that yet.

it would be nice to have that access point, but it does add another isolation problem.

The other thing I don't see in your design is a lounge or bathroom.

Where are you putting the fridge?



Where do you want the musicians smoking?

Do they pee in the bushes or tromp through your house?

Actually the lack of a bathroom was the first thing my wife pointed out while looking over my shoulder.

You may even want to consider a new door off the side of the garage.