[stealthtastic]

Hey guys, my families probably going to be acquiring another house soon; luckily for me I get the basement all to myself to turn into a rehearsal/studio space :hbang:

Seeing as I know absolutely nothing about this and had no idea I'd have a crazy opportunity like this coming up, I'll need your guys input on how to design everything. I'm not looking for a full fledged recording studio or anything too crazy. Would probably just need enough space to:

a) Fit a 5 or maybe 6 piece band.

b) Room for a computer and decent set of monitors.

c) Room for around 10-15 guitars, 4-6 heads, maybe two or three cabs, and obviously loads of space for extra pre-amps/power amps :evil:

d) Kind of spacious.

How much room do you guys think I'd need to accommodate all of this? Is there anything else I'm forgetting?


Now onto my assload of other questions. :lol:


1. I'll need to soundproof the space, what's the best way of doing this? Should I just say fuck it and hire someone to do it?

2. Whats the optimal flooring?

3. Any special needs as far as air circulation goes? Anything to consider?

4. Lighting, once again, anything special I should look into or think about?

5. Power needs...do I need a stupid amount of power for any reason? :lol:



I'll worry about what other gear to buy later; for now this is all that needs to be solved :ugh:


Cost isn't too big an issue...

 

[Demeyes]

The best way to soundproof a room is to pretty much built a room within a room with a small gap between the wall layers. That will help keep the noise down but it is expensive to do right and will make the room smaller. All those eggshell foam things and carpets on walls don't really help make things quieter, they will make the room sound better though. If you plan on doing some recording and mixing in there then you should probably stick some bass traps in there too and find a nice spot for your monitors. There is a load of info about room treatment online, I only know a small bit about it.
You mention flooring, I'd thing that wood or carpet would be better than tiled flooring, with carpet probably being best because drums won't move around as much on it and it probably won't reflect sound as much as wood.
As for power, I'd recommend you put sockets in various places around the room, it'll save you running extension leads all over the place. It's probably worth having someone qualified coming in to put the lights and power in, as if you get some grounding issues you'll have trouble with hum. It sounds like you'll have a lot of gear running too so you want the place to be able to handle it without tripping all the time.
You can fit a lot of people and gear into a room if you are smart about the arrangement, we fit 2 bands with full kits and stacks into a small storage place where we used to practice with everything being set up all the time. If you built some shelving for storing all the heads, and get some wall hangers and multi guitar stands you can save a good bit of space.
Other than that, I'd recommend you make the room as comfortable as you can with the space. A nice room with couches and a fridge to keep your beer cold can make a jam room seem way nicer.

 

[7deadlysins]

I found this a while back, and its got some great info...

John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum • Index page

 

[105]

Go here and read:

John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

To achieve a high level of isolation (there's no such thing as soundproof) you need isolation and mass. Both are expensive. The details are insanely important. The construction will take a long time, and cost a LOT more than you think. You will need to define your goals.... like, I need enough isolation so that the band can play and the neighbors can't hear it in their house, or I need enough isolation so that the band can play and the baby upstairs can't hear it. One is going to be a lot more difficult that the other.

Unless you want to sweat a ton, you'll need dedicated HVAC including fresh air.

You will need additional power for sure, and a dedicated sub panel would be ideal, but not completely necessary.

Once that's done you'll need to treat the walls so that the room sounds better. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE make sure that you use class A fire rated materials, because once you have your room isolated, if a fire breaks out it will engulf the room quickly.

To have an acoustical architect design the space you're probably looking at a $1-2 per square foot. For the build, if you hire it out, plan on $150 per square foot. If you do the labor yourself, that probably drops to $50 a square foot, assuming you have all the tools you need.

Do NOT over look the process of getting the proper permits. If you finish a basement without permits and an accident happens your homeowner's insurance is under no obligation to cover you.

This is who I used to design my space: Running Brook Design - Recording Studio and Home Theater Design Services

Also, get this book: Amazon.com: Home Recording Studio Build it Like the Pros (Book) (0082039530345): Gervais Rod: Books, it is the bible for DIY home studio construction.

 

[noodles]

Matt speaks the truth. I've been in his studio, I know how long the project went on, and I don't want to know the pricetag.

 

[stealthtastic]

The best way to soundproof a room is to pretty much built a room within a room with a small gap between the wall layers. That will help keep the noise down but it is expensive to do right and will make the room smaller. All those eggshell foam things and carpets on walls don't really help make things quieter, they will make the room sound better though. If you plan on doing some recording and mixing in there then you should probably stick some bass traps in there too and find a nice spot for your monitors. There is a load of info about room treatment online, I only know a small bit about it.
You mention flooring, I'd thing that wood or carpet would be better than tiled flooring, with carpet probably being best because drums won't move around as much on it and it probably won't reflect sound as much as wood.
As for power, I'd recommend you put sockets in various places around the room, it'll save you running extension leads all over the place. It's probably worth having someone qualified coming in to put the lights and power in, as if you get some grounding issues you'll have trouble with hum. It sounds like you'll have a lot of gear running too so you want the place to be able to handle it without tripping all the time.
You can fit a lot of people and gear into a room if you are smart about the arrangement, we fit 2 bands with full kits and stacks into a small storage place where we used to practice with everything being set up all the time. If you built some shelving for storing all the heads, and get some wall hangers and multi guitar stands you can save a good bit of space.
Other than that, I'd recommend you make the room as comfortable as you can with the space. A nice room with couches and a fridge to keep your beer cold can make a jam room seem way nicer.

Thanks dude, excellent suggestions.

Go here and read:

John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

To achieve a high level of isolation (there's no such thing as soundproof) you need isolation and mass. Both are expensive. The details are insanely important. The construction will take a long time, and cost a LOT more than you think. You will need to define your goals.... like, I need enough isolation so that the band can play and the neighbors can't hear it in their house, or I need enough isolation so that the band can play and the baby upstairs can't hear it. One is going to be a lot more difficult that the other.

Unless you want to sweat a ton, you'll need dedicated HVAC including fresh air.

You will need additional power for sure, and a dedicated sub panel would be ideal, but not completely necessary.

Once that's done you'll need to treat the walls so that the room sounds better. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE make sure that you use class A fire rated materials, because once you have your room isolated, if a fire breaks out it will engulf the room quickly.

To have an acoustical architect design the space you're probably looking at a $1-2 per square foot. For the build, if you hire it out, plan on $150 per square foot. If you do the labor yourself, that probably drops to $50 a square foot, assuming you have all the tools you need.

Do NOT over look the process of getting the proper permits. If you finish a basement without permits and an accident happens your homeowner's insurance is under no obligation to cover you.

This is who I used to design my space: Running Brook Design - Recording Studio and Home Theater Design Services

Also, get this book: Amazon.com: Home Recording Studio Build it Like the Pros (Book) (0082039530345): Gervais Rod: Books, it is the bible for DIY home studio construction.

Alright, thanks for the information Crooks.

Ideally, it would be dead quiet outside of room. I don't mind spending money to get it done if need be. I'll order that book tonight and read through that link.

Matt speaks the truth. I've been in his studio, I know how long the project went on, and I don't want to know the pricetag.

For sure, Crooks always seems to know what he's talking about so I'll definately do what he says. Other than vote republican of course!

 

[105]

Canadian Rebuplicans FTMFW!

 

[Durero]

That's awesome Mehtab. Where are you moving to? Still UBC area?

Canadian Rebuplicans FTMFW!

:lol: Our federal government is pretty much just that :crooks:

 

[Reverend 7 Strings of Hate]

That's awesome Mehtab. Where are you moving to? Still UBC area?

:lol: Our federal government is pretty much just that :crooks:

????

 

[stealthtastic]

Wirelessly posted (A Destroyer of short people: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

That's awesome Mehtab. Where are you moving to? Still UBC area?

Canadian Rebuplicans FTMFW!

:lol: Our federal government is pretty much just that :crooks:

Yup; buying the place next door (will find out for sure on friday, its 95% sure). You're more than welcome to come and check it out once it's done...and also forget some of your ERG's here :evil:

7SoH; leo is making fun of how our government acts the US's bitch.

 

[Durero]

Yup; buying the place next door (will find out for sure on friday, its 95% sure). You're more than welcome to come and check it out once it's done...and also forget some of your ERG's here :evil:

I'd love to see it when it's done. Guess it doesn't hurt that you're dad's a musician too eh?

7SoH; leo is making fun of how our government acts the US's bitch.

:agreed:
One glance at the devastation that is the Alberta tar-sands oil project and you know that corporate profit and campaign support is more important to our politicians than trivial little concerns like, water, air, trees, still having a liveable biosphere for the next generation, etc.

 

[stealthtastic]

I'd love to see it when it's done. Guess it doesn't hurt that you're dad's a musician too eh?

:agreed:
One glance at the devastation that is the Alberta tar-sands oil project and you know that corporate profit and campaign support is more important to our politicians than trivial little concerns like, water, air, trees, still having a liveable biosphere for the next generation, etc.

Absolutely, makes convincing him that I'll need more condenser mic's to record tablas that much easier :lol:

 

[stealthtastic]

Wirelessly posted (A Destroyer of short people: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Deal went through; house purchased :woot:

Will probably have 145-150 square feet to use

 

[Durero]

That's awesome - congrats my friend