Hello all,

I am super happy to announce that on the weekend I bought a house!!! It was a fiery auction and surprisingly no one else bid after my last bid; I was sure someone would go higher.

The house has a basement, and a large part of it will become my home studio / study.

So this is the thing... I am planning on how to lay out the desks and other stuff in it, and I would appreciate suggestions regarding positioning, sound proofing, acoustic foam, etc. I don't have a huge budget, but I am happy to take it slow to get it where it works well. Also, keep in mind that this is not a "professional" studio. Making music is a hobby and an ever-growing passion; it doesn't pay the bills.

Let's see from the start...

This is the house floor plan:



This is what part of the basement looks like:



Basically, the ceiling will be insulated and covered with plaster, there will be new carpets and that little room around the corner will become a vocal booth.

This is the basement now; and what I am planning to do:



There are two workstations: one for music and visual design and one for "other stuff", which will be used by me and mostly by my wife.

Audiosexuals, any suggestion on placement, sound proofing, hints, etc. I think what I laid out for the location of the desks (I want them both to sit comfortably in the room, along with the e-drum kit).

Thanks in advance and sorry for the lots of images.

- Demon

 

Can't you move the drums in the top right corner of the bottom right picture (coloured picture)?
That way you will have space to place your whole workstation desk right in the middle of that wall (which should be better acoustically).

EDIT: Actually, i edited the picture so you understand what i meant:

 

Hi Evorax, that sounds good but to have a powerpoint on that stop would be a bitch, and the kit would be in the way of the entrance... I also want the edrums to be close to the main computer as it is connected to it with the audio interface. Good point though; it invites for some re-thinking...

Thanks!

Yeah, I understood, mate. The only thing is that I really want to have the kit next to the main desk, if possible. And there's no powerpoint on that side. I can possibly solve the computer proximity issue by hooking up the laptop to the kit (that white square-ish thing next to the kit, but still, no powerpoint on that spot (also running a midi cable al the way to the main computer would be a pain.

Though, you have given me some ideas and I might play around with the layout a bit more.

Thanks again!

Evorax, I moved the -ekit flush to the wall. This allows the main desk to be more aligned to the middle of the wall. You reckon that's better? See below.



Another question. How much accoustic foam is too much? I understand that for the vocal booth it's essential, but the main room would just need some foam here and there and maybe some bass traps. If so, where should these be located?

 

couple of points bro...

firstly, what a D O P E basement...here in the UK space is limited sadly so im soooo jealous of yours your lol

Dont overdo the acoustic foam, its there to control the sound not destroy it...bass traps in each corner of your control room, foam directly overhead and foam on each wall to the left and right of your workstation at ear level...

secondly, make sure your workstation in dead central, from your diagram it looks a little to one side, keep it central so your ears/speakers will need to be symmetrical to the room...

finally, enjoy every waking minute in that superb place...

 

Doesn't have to be essential at all in a vocal booth
depends what you want
of course if you treat it to death it'll be dead.
and if you have wooden floors etc it'll liven it back up.


you haven't specified dimensions
MAKE SURE YOU PUT THE SPEAKERS SO THEIR FACING DOWN THE BIGGEST LENGTH.

before you decide to place foam wherever you want.
check the room using a program i suggest fuzzmeasure. and a measurement mic i reccomend the behringer ecm8000 very cheap (ofc) but it'll get the job done.

make sure foam is in your blind spots as well.
a ceiling cloud wont go a miss.
and make your own panelling with rockwool it's very cheap and easy to do rather than buying them in.

 

Just my two cents -> position of second workstation should be on place that when you working on this comp in same time you should be able to listen your project from music workstation! (in your case opposite side). The best "picture" of your work you will get when you are concentrate on something else. Also, your wife can be good adviser and helpful to determine some anomalies in sound. Do not waste to much money on vocal booth because in year or two it will be nice place for keeping a things inside!
Also, sound treatment of room without professional help is dangerous thing. You will get something but what? Nice sound in which you will never be sure that is exactly what it should be. Al those advice's above are good but no one ask you basic thing -> which kind of monitors you will use?

 

Lynda Audio Mixing Bootcamp with Bobby Owsinski will help you with optimal placement of your audio setup within a room, I think it's the first lesson.

 

Monitors are down to personal preference and shouldn't matter when it comes to design and treatment.

 

Should add some diffusion on the wall directly behind your monitoring position, either actual panels, or just furniture, bookcases, etc. The best thing you can do is stand in your monitoring position and clap. If you hear a bunch of weird slapback and echo and flutter, something is missing for sure. You can also use the test tone in Ableton to do a frequency sweep over your monitors and you will definitely hear where the trouble frequencies are in your room and also if you need to go further with the bass trapping (it's crazy when you get it right how clear things can sound). It's also super easy to frame a "temporary" wall with studs and plywood for your vocal booth, and you can build a door and put hinges on it, that's what I did, and that way you get a much more uniform surface to put treatment on, as opposed to a curtain.

 

Demon the last schematic you posted looks ideal to me, now just watch that Lynda video and make whatever small changes are necessary.

 

Thanks everyone!

remix: Yes, super happy with the basement. When I put the new insulated ceiling it'll look a lot nicer too. I moved the desk more to the middle on the last diagram, as I pointed to Evorax earlier, more like that?

rickbarratt: thanks for the advice, I am thinking of starting with small bits of foam and see the difference it makes. I am also considering the ceiling cloud (as remix also mentioned) and fuzzmeasure software (never heard of it!).

EDIT: Fuzzmeasure is for Mac, so no joy. Is there anything else similar for PC?

kope: that is very good advice, and I did consider this, but the thing is, the other computer most likely will NEVER be used for audio. In fact, when it is being used, I don't do audio and just design work, which is when I use normal little shitty speakers for random stuff (youtube, skype, etc), not for music. So I guess that won't be an issue. I am thinking of upgrading monitors (current ones are shit) in the near future, still not 100% sure which ones.

Catalyst: Thanks for the tip man! I have a premium lynda.com account, so I"ll check out that course tonight!

lampwiikk: That's a good point. I have some folding panels (you know those room dividers?) that I made with insulating foam in them a while back. I have 3 of them and will cover about 3 meters or more. I might place them behind me when I am working with music.

Thanks again everyone, keep the ideas coming!

As requiested by rickbarrat, these are the dimensions. I kind of put those on the very first image I posted, but it wasn't very clear.



Also, rickbarrat's advice to "MAKE SURE YOU PUT THE SPEAKERS SO THEIR FACING DOWN THE BIGGEST LENGTH" is a great one, and yes, this is the way it will be (phew!).


lampwiikk, Yes, I did consider a door instead of a curtain, but the storage area next to the booth will need access for storing some large items and an extra door may probe to making moving large things difficult. Is a curtain really bad? I am thinking of using an acoustic drape that goes flat when it's closed.

By the way, is there a brand or type of drapes someone could recommend, or is it just a standard thing?

Thanks again everyone! This gets more and more exciting, I can't wait to get this started. I'll post some progress of the place being renovated and then setup.

 

Hi D
Congrats for your nu place man.
I'm sure that will be a Super Metal Industry....
The Francis Buckley Studio Series on YT could help you also with some ideas.
Good luck my friend

 

Thanks Transporter! Watching the studio rescue videos tip. Watching now!

 

It never ceases to amaze me how much space a finished basement adds... btw, might want to think about leaving those beams unfinished in your music space, remember parallel surfaces=bad! And it would be so easy to stick some rockwool between the beams right over your head

 

Hey lampwiikk. Yeah, a friend of mine mentioned the same thing and I kind of liked the idea. The thing is... I would have left the beams open all over the place, but I have a serious chronic allergy problem and those open beams gather a lot of dust and what you see through the beams is the actual floor from upstairs. So every time someone walks upstairs, you get a tiny bit of dust that falls down and I get one of my famous sneezing attacks. In fact, closing the ceiling is going to be bloody expensive -and not too happy about it, but I have to close them. I am thinking of making ceiling clouds / panels though.

 

I hear you brother, I do construction and I feel like I spend my life in an allergic haze! Nasty stuff in houses for sure

 

Congrats!
I´m glad to see you`ve had a lucky shot at the auction. Looks like a really nice place.
Probably it`s to late... In Europe you can get insulation made of Industrial Hemp for a fair price. Very good if allergy is a problem and 100% bio-degradable.

 

Thanks mate. Yeah, the builder did mention the hemp insulation and it seems it's what we're going for.

Thanks again!

 

http://www.auralex.com/ these people know more about this stuff than just about anybody. Of course, they have products to sell. Their acoustic absorbing foam tiles are fire retardant and you can put them where you want. My computer drives my home stereo, besides just my studio, an it is Auralex™ treated and certified. You can't hear it run. I had some tiles left after turning a closet into a booth and put them on one of those folding 3 panel free standing screens, and I move it around my apartment when recording acoustic inst. to deaden certain kinds of ambiance.