The Nest - Garage Studio Build

[JonRaven]

Hello there GS Users,

I have been reading this forum for quite some time without being a registered member. Trying to grasp the techniques and tricks in studio construction of all sizes and reading about potential gear purchases.

I am finally buying my very own house (FIRST TIME BUYER WOOHOO!!!). One of the selling features for me was the attached oversized 1 car garage it has. Dimensions being 22' x 14'. Sitting on a thick concrete slab, It is currently already framed, rocked and painted and has 8 foot ceilings approx.

There is a crawl space above that with a pull down ladder that I am hoping to remove the ceiling and raise it to the rafters to gain the height (approx 12') and add an access door to the crawl space for the rest of the house somewhere else. Of course there is the typical water heater in there that will need to be boxed in and the big garage door I don't want to remove.

I am thinking of definitely going the room within a room approach to make it the most sound proof as possible. Would like to do hardwood flooring so I am also thinking of floating the floor somewhat.

I am not a trained architect but I have mocked up a few potential floor plans using the software many of you also use on this forum.

I was thinking about just a simple CR and multi-purpose Live room, separating the two with a double sliding glass patio door to add line of sight as well as access but not sure of the best way to go yet.

You will find one attached which is control room and live room with a small air lock between which acts as a vocal booth, ornamental fireplace in the corner of the live room.

Any thoughts on potential designs would be great before I get started. I have lots of ideas here just not sure of the best way to go with a room like this.

Thanks for reading.

[JonRaven]

here is a quick 3d version of the potential floorplan.

[RTFMPleez]

Hey man, the plan looks good. If you didn't already know, Auralex has a form online where you send them a blueprint like this and they will sent you a diagram.The diagram will give you a layout as to how and where to treat the room for best acoustic results. I don't know if you deal with someone at sweetwater already, If not, feel free to contact me because we have a really great relationship with Auralex.

[Kris]

Do you have neighbors? Take that into consideration for sure. You might not want to get rid of your ceiling/crawl space completely as that would be an easy place for sound to transfer outside. Also float the floors to help stop the low end from bugging your neighbors.

If you don't have neighbors to worry about, these ideas are much less important.

[JonRaven]

Thank you for replying to my preliminary posting.

First off, I wasn't aware of the Auralex form I could fill out so when my floor plan design is complete and I am about to start building I will do that form to see what types of treatment I will need in the end. Thank you for letting me know about that as that will for sure come in handy.

Second, I do have neighbors about 4 car widths away? Is that close enough to really worry about or does that give me pretty good distance? The outer walls of the garage are brick with an inner wall already there, I was intending on adding another wall inside of that as well. Not sure if I have to remove the sheet rock from the current wall so that it's insulation meets the insulation of the new wall? Or whether I should just leave it alone and add the new wall?

I want the space to be able to track a set of drums, but let it be known that I don't generally do that in my current space so besides the every now and then type of occurrence ... I need the space more setup for vocals, guitars, bass, keys, etc etc. I just felt if I went with the bigger live room then I would have a all purpose room. I could even go without the air lock iso in my design and just have the control room and live room if that makes more sense?

I think I will try to remove the ceiling and get rid of the garage crawl space in order to gain that height... And seeing as there is no insulation currently in that part of the roof or ceiling... Wouldn't it be a good idea to do so?

Thanks so much for your feedback... I really do want this to be a group project. We all have mental and technical limitations in things sometimes so in order to have the best result I am a huge believer in the collective mind that this site allows us to have. Plus then the project isn't so scary to take on haha.

Cheers.

[JonRaven]

Hello again,

As per the previous recommendation for Auralex's form that we can use for free for suggested treatment. I found another cool link:

Ready Acoustics - FREE 3d room acoustic analysis

Hope that is helpful to everyone looking for treatment.

[JonRaven]

As per some advise on here sent through a private message... I was told to go look at Mr. Sayer's site for a floorplan called "Small Studio".

I checked it out and although it is a little different then my space... it looks great!!! And much better then my little design for sure.

His design has only 1 window and 1 door in the outer shell of the room.

I have 2 doors (minus the big garage door I will be covering) 1 coming from the kitchen of then house and one from the backyard outside. I have 2 windows, which I hear cause a lot of permit issues if you want to remove existing windows so I intend to either leave them and cover them with the new walls, or include a second window in the inner walls like another design I saw on this site. I will upload a floor plan of the existing room shortly so you will be able to see what I mean.

I also have the water heater to deal with. Anyone know whether the new
On Demand Tankless ones are more noisey then the older style? Or is that not an issue? I don't really have anywhere to move the unit to but I could opt for the newer tankless to make the room needed for it much smaller.

Thanks everyone and I hope your all enjoying the summer so far.

[JonRaven]

As promised here is the empty floorplan as it is now with the doors and windows all shown.

Thought I would add... the lightning bolt is what I used to show the power panel location for the house.

[Kris]

Hey there, thanks for the kind message...

Speaking of Auralex, they have a great primer on Studio building... Check out:

Acoustics 101...Practical guidelines for acoustic construction: building a sound studio, listening room, home theater room, and any other sound control room project. if you haven't already.

[JonRaven]

Wow... so as if I couldn't become more of a fan of the localized posting site craigslist.com ... wow...

So... yesterday I call this guy who says he has a bunch of the thick insulated quilt moving blanket for sale cheap. I show up at his house and he opens the garage door and he has a mound of them almost as tall as I am. I said wow man... how much each... he looks at me with a smirk on his face and says... "got $30? get them out of here".

Yeah so... I am heading back down the highway, just barely able to see out the back window of my 4 door grand am, the trunk...back seat...front passenger seat.. full to capacity... as you can imagine... I took them all.

I looked it up and these things are like $12 a piece... I got approx... 40-50 of them for $30. I think it was one of those deals that will never and should never have happened. haha.

So... If nothing else I am going to need them to move anyways. But, once moved... couldn't I use these things as "hangers" in the air space between my double walls as an even increased sound absorption? Wouldn't this make it almost impossible for the neighbors to hear anything or vice versa? Combined with my current plans from John Sayers floor plan?

I should even still have plenty to use as make shift absorbers inside the booth if I want a really dead sound from time to time?

Hope your all having a rawkin' day in this summer heat.

[Rripror]

...hey jon, im a big fan of the shipping blankets.

...im also a 'garage logician'. 24'x34' single space.

...shipping blankets are a great 'low end theory' / DIY solution to tame a room down and it sounds like you hit the 'motherload'!

[JonRaven]

Yeah for sure I hit the mother load. I spent the morning folding them all into nice neat pile groups of 10 and I am very amazed at how many there is and at how heavy each one of those suckers are. Wheew. Done now though.

Anyways, I also just bought 2 studio design books on amazon.

"Home Recording Studio: Build it Like the Pros" - Rod Gervais
"Acoustic Design for the Home Studio" - Mitch Gallagher

I paid for the extra shipping to make sure I get them this week so mI can start reading.

I am now wondering if I shouldn't have started this posting in another part of this site and not in the actual build sub group?

Should I start it over in another part and use this part for my actual build?