Creating New Studio (Would Like Your Advice)

[ryanformato]

I am moving into my new house in a few weeks and am going to set up the studio in my basement (It will be used for my personal uses only and possibly recording some friends). I will usually be recording guitars and vocals (I often use fake drums), but on occasion will record my real drum set.

The basement is unfinished, but I am going to have it finished (Floors, ceiling,basic heat/lighting/)

I want to make half of the basement a "den" (not for the studio) and half of the basement for the studio. You can see the dimensions of the basement below. (The red at the top left is my outside entrance). Ignore the markings for the living room and kitchen because that is on the 1st floor.

I was thinking about creating 3 rooms, 1 for the "den," 1 for the control room and 1 for the instrumentation/recording room. I was also thinking about just splittling the basement in half (den/recording and mixing)

Based on the size of my basement, does anyone have some suggestions/input to help me out before I get to deep into this endeavor? I am looking for suggestions for wall placements as well.

Some quick side notes (The walls and floors are concrete right now) When putting down floors, what should I get? Would laminate be okay (probably won't have the money to put down hard wood floors)...Would carpet be better? Thanks!

Thanks.

[Ethan Winer]

Half of a 40 by 28 foot space is large enough to have two decent size rooms. But the ratio of Length x Width x Height is important. See this page for help in picking good room dimensions:

RealTraps Mode Calculator

--Ethan

[ryanformato]

I just wanted to make it clear, the parts "X"ed out in red are not available as space as there is no basement in those spots. So its really a 28x28 room with another 12x12 room (although its all one big space)

[Ethan Winer]

That's still big enough.

[Weasel9992]

Originally Posted by ryanformato

I don't have time to do a whole sketchup design for you, but I'd start at dividing it roughly along the lines that reflect the first floor. The CR would be the room labeled "Living Room" and would extend roughly to the wall line to the right. Your sound lock would be on the other side of that wall, leading into the live room which is marked "Dining Room" and "Kitchen". The den can be that open area over to the right.

With a little tweaking you could make that work as a design.

Frank

[FlatBeat]

The Den! God help us all........

[jvkeboxHERO]

carpeting would definitely be the way to go. the softer and more absorbant the surface is the better.

make sure you leave room for bass traps and stuff. you dont want to have anything flush against a wall. especially if they are concrete.

also, a uick question, have you considered the den and control being one large room?

[Weasel9992]

Originally Posted by jvkeboxHERO

carpeting would definitely be the way to go. the softer and more absorbant the surface is the better.

*Maybe*. I personally prefer hard wood so long as there's no issues with an empty cavity underneath it. You can always put carpets down to knock down the decay time a bit. Not much you can do with carpet.

Frank