Moving to a new house: minimum room size?

Eric J · 4th November 2008

My new wife and I are in the process of looking for a new house to buy. Part of my criteria is a decent sized room for the studio that I am planning on getting acoustically treated. Many of the houses in my area usually have bedroom in the 12 to 14 foot range, usually square or slightly rectangular. I have seen a few that have "game rooms" that were more rectangular, like 17 x 10.

I cant use a second living area, so I'll be setting up in one of the spare bedrooms. Since were still shopping around, I have an opportunity to try to find a place that has a room that will be suitable.

My questions are:

What would be the ideal room size acoustically, given the above criteria?
How small is too small? is 12 x 12 enough?

Ethan Winer · 4th November 2008

17 by 10 is okay, but 12 by 12 is too small, and being square is also a problem.

--Ethan

Chris Kress · 4th November 2008

I have a heard a minimum of 1500 cubic feet. I got really lucky because my wife liked a house that had a garage with 14' ceilings (my final room size is 3100 cubic feet).. I had to eat into my space a bit with the sacrificial laundry room but hey, not too bad. The bigger the better..

666666 · 4th November 2008

BEWARE

What do you plan to do in your studio? If you plan on tracking drums and making a lot of noise in general, figure you MUST place your studio on a concrete SLAB... as in the basement... or in a detached garage.

I made the HUGE mistake of SPECIFICALLY buying a house because it had a 20'X30' unfinished room with a high ceiling (second floor) figuring this would be PERFECT for my studio, for tracking drums specifically and so on... has a separate entrance, bathroom near-by and everything, seemed PERFECT... until I tried to "sound-proof" it.

I won't go into details, but... in sum, what I learned over the past 10 years of screwing around with it, you essentially CANNOT "sound-proof" a second story room in a 100% wood-framed building... unless perhaps you are prepared to REALLY go totally nuts and spend a ridiculous amount of money, major construction, etc.

In my neighborhood, I cannot emit ANY noise or the near-by neighbors will surely complain. This room could NEVER be a drum tracking room unless I had well over 6 digits $$$ to spend hiring some ultra top-notch acoustic professionals to tear half the house down and rebuild. So... my big beautiful 20'X30' room, which had once been the drum room of my dreams, and the one main reason I bought this house in the first place, can now only be a room for "lower-level noise" stuff. I can mix / edit in there on near-fields, so all is not lost... but NO live playing... and live playing is what I really need to do most of the time.

I wound up building a drum tracking room in my basement, sadly which has a very low ceiling. If I would have known better back before buying, I would have bought a house with a large basement with HIGH ceilings.... then I would have been set. Most folks hate the idea of spending a lot of time "underground" in a basement, but man, if you want to keep loud sounds in (and loud sounds out), without dealing with some insane level of reconstruction, you need to start on a SLAB of concrete... not up in a wood frame.

Another option is buy a house with a detached two-car garage and build a studio in there... a lot of folks around here do that... as long as you have a slab to rest your "room within room" on... that's the ticket... a SLAB!

The detached garage idea is great in that, being detached from the house, you can probably work all night in there without bothering your family. Plus, if you have strangers come to the studio, you need not let them in your house (except to use the bathroom I guess). But... that brings us to the downside of the detached garage... you'll need to add electricity, heat, air conditioning and perhaps plumbing too if you want a bathroom in there... starts to add up $.

The quickest, easiest, cheapest way to put together a studio room where you can make a ton of noise almost 24-hours a day is to get a house with a big basement with a high ceiling.... then build a "room within room" structure down there (relatively easy and cheap to do). A friend of mine just did this... got a brand new house with a 9' ceiling basement, built a huge "room within room" down there... has a separate basement entrance and a basement bathroom... it's perfect... this guy really did it right. Wish I would have known this back 10 years ago... oh well...

The purchase of my house for studio use was probably the biggest mistake I ever made in my life... I am now forced to track drums in a tiny room with a less than 7 foot ceiling... forever... or go to an outside studio and pay big bucks everytime I wanna record something (which is often). I am well settled into this house now and do not wish to move, wife has a local job that is good, etc... I am stuck here.

So... in sum... do NOT make the same mistake!!! If you are serious about having a real-deal studio in your house for the long-term, this one bit of advise may prove to be incredibly valuable to you.... I sure wish I had been guided back before buying... but back then I didn't even have a computer yet, the internet was still young, this type of info was not yet readily available... never would have dreamed it could be so hard to sound-proof. Ehh... still burns me up just thinking about it, I better stop now before I get all depressed again and ruin my day... best of luck with your house search!

4th November 2008	#1
Eric J Lives for gear Joined: Sep 2008 Location: The Lagrange point between Jupiter and Io Posts: 1,044 Thread Starter	Moving to a new house: minimum room size? My new wife and I are in the process of looking for a new house to buy. Part of my criteria is a decent sized room for the studio that I am planning on getting acoustically treated. Many of the houses in my area usually have bedroom in the 12 to 14 foot range, usually square or slightly rectangular. I have seen a few that have "game rooms" that were more rectangular, like 17 x 10. I cant use a second living area, so I'll be setting up in one of the spare bedrooms. Since were still shopping around, I have an opportunity to try to find a place that has a room that will be suitable. My questions are: What would be the ideal room size acoustically, given the above criteria? How small is too small? is 12 x 12 enough? __________________ Beatport \| SoundCloud \| Website \| Twitter \| Facebook

4th November 2008	#2
Ethan Winer Gear Guru Joined: Oct 2002 Location: New Milford, CT, USA Posts: 12,334	17 by 10 is okay, but 12 by 12 is too small, and being square is also a problem. --Ethan __________________ Ethan's audio book is now available!

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4th November 2008	#3
Chris Kress Lives for gear Joined: Jul 2005 Posts: 552	I have a heard a minimum of 1500 cubic feet. I got really lucky because my wife liked a house that had a garage with 14' ceilings (my final room size is 3100 cubic feet).. I had to eat into my space a bit with the sacrificial laundry room but hey, not too bad. The bigger the better..

4th November 2008	#4
666666 Lives for gear Joined: Jan 2005 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 2,564	BEWARE What do you plan to do in your studio? If you plan on tracking drums and making a lot of noise in general, figure you MUST place your studio on a concrete SLAB... as in the basement... or in a detached garage. I made the HUGE mistake of SPECIFICALLY buying a house because it had a 20'X30' unfinished room with a high ceiling (second floor) figuring this would be PERFECT for my studio, for tracking drums specifically and so on... has a separate entrance, bathroom near-by and everything, seemed PERFECT... until I tried to "sound-proof" it. I won't go into details, but... in sum, what I learned over the past 10 years of screwing around with it, you essentially CANNOT "sound-proof" a second story room in a 100% wood-framed building... unless perhaps you are prepared to REALLY go totally nuts and spend a ridiculous amount of money, major construction, etc. In my neighborhood, I cannot emit ANY noise or the near-by neighbors will surely complain. This room could NEVER be a drum tracking room unless I had well over 6 digits $$$ to spend hiring some ultra top-notch acoustic professionals to tear half the house down and rebuild. So... my big beautiful 20'X30' room, which had once been the drum room of my dreams, and the one main reason I bought this house in the first place, can now only be a room for "lower-level noise" stuff. I can mix / edit in there on near-fields, so all is not lost... but NO live playing... and live playing is what I really need to do most of the time. I wound up building a drum tracking room in my basement, sadly which has a very low ceiling. If I would have known better back before buying, I would have bought a house with a large basement with HIGH ceilings.... then I would have been set. Most folks hate the idea of spending a lot of time "underground" in a basement, but man, if you want to keep loud sounds in (and loud sounds out), without dealing with some insane level of reconstruction, you need to start on a SLAB of concrete... not up in a wood frame. Another option is buy a house with a detached two-car garage and build a studio in there... a lot of folks around here do that... as long as you have a slab to rest your "room within room" on... that's the ticket... a SLAB! The detached garage idea is great in that, being detached from the house, you can probably work all night in there without bothering your family. Plus, if you have strangers come to the studio, you need not let them in your house (except to use the bathroom I guess). But... that brings us to the downside of the detached garage... you'll need to add electricity, heat, air conditioning and perhaps plumbing too if you want a bathroom in there... starts to add up $. The quickest, easiest, cheapest way to put together a studio room where you can make a ton of noise almost 24-hours a day is to get a house with a big basement with a high ceiling.... then build a "room within room" structure down there (relatively easy and cheap to do). A friend of mine just did this... got a brand new house with a 9' ceiling basement, built a huge "room within room" down there... has a separate basement entrance and a basement bathroom... it's perfect... this guy really did it right. Wish I would have known this back 10 years ago... oh well... The purchase of my house for studio use was probably the biggest mistake I ever made in my life... I am now forced to track drums in a tiny room with a less than 7 foot ceiling... forever... or go to an outside studio and pay big bucks everytime I wanna record something (which is often). I am well settled into this house now and do not wish to move, wife has a local job that is good, etc... I am stuck here. So... in sum... do NOT make the same mistake!!! If you are serious about having a real-deal studio in your house for the long-term, this one bit of advise may prove to be incredibly valuable to you.... I sure wish I had been guided back before buying... but back then I didn't even have a computer yet, the internet was still young, this type of info was not yet readily available... never would have dreamed it could be so hard to sound-proof. Ehh... still burns me up just thinking about it, I better stop now before I get all depressed again and ruin my day... best of luck with your house search!