Building an External Music Studio Building

[pacificm]

I've been using a room in my basement for as long as I can remember as my home studio. It's sufficient, but also limited. Plus, I don't like disturbing my wife with the sounds composers and musicians can make. I have an opportunity to possibly build a studio building in my backyard - roughly the same size as my home studio - about 160 sq. ft. I keep getting referred to the shed building companies out there for a cheap way to acquire a simple framed structure. There are also some fairly nice artsy structures out there at some pretty steep prices. Any suggestions on building a decent music studio in your backyard? Thanks!

[stubbsonic]

Do you have to worry about keeping sound in and keeping sound out?

[HCMarkus]

My immediate thoughts:

1. If at all possible, build something bigger than 160SF

2. Whatever the size, use dimensions that avoid stacking of room modes. http://www.mcsquared.com/modecalc.htm

3. If acoustic isolation ("soundproofing") is important in either direction (to acoustically protect the neighbors from you or vice-versa) walls will need to be substantial AND the need for low-frequency absorption inside the structure will be increased, meaning your structure's footprint will be eroded from a useable space perspective.

Illustrating this point: my son rented a room in a terrible old house with cardboard-like walls that were essentially acoustically transparent for low frequencies. His drum recordings made in that fairly small room were excellent, as low-end energy did not build up in the room; it passed right thru the thin walls. That same room with heavy, rigid walls would have required extensive internal acoustical treatment to sound as good. When he moved to a more normally-constructed house, my son had to build and hang a bunch of acoustic panels to get the same quality of sound.

***

I've had a separate space on site for many years now. It is very liberating from a creative perspective to have a dedicated room, physically removed from one's home, where working at all hours is possible. But it can be an expensive proposition, with cost tempered by the amount of construction you can do yourself. If you are capable of doing at least some of the work, I expect you will find the project quite rewarding. I certainly did!

[stubbsonic]

I taught music in a cube-shaped space, and was able to improve the standing-wave problems by using large plywood panels at various angles. So if your budget requires a simpler structure with parallel walls, it's not the end of the world. The hardest/most-expensive part is isolation, so you'll just have to decide which aspects get you the most bang for your buck,

My home studio is about 10 X 14. I'm a multi-instrumentalist with bad G.A.S. (and gas); so it's pretty "hoardery" and feels cramped. I can't really track in here. When I've done vocals I have to put up LOTS of temporary quilts on mic-stands, etc., to absorb the wall reflections and it's not very comfortable. So I rarely track here anymore. But the speaker sound in here is fine.

[Rick Cornish]

Here's a plan view of the studio I built in 2014 along with a couple photos.

Floor_Plan-Electrical.png (193.13 KiB) Viewed 247 times

[HCMarkus]

That's so lovely, Rick.

[Rick Cornish]

That's so lovely, Rick.

Thanks! (Old interior photo before I got a bigger monitor and Mac Studio.)

(Cost was about $30k, which included the cost of trenching in clean power from the pole.)

[HCMarkus]

How much of the construction did you do?

[Rick Cornish]

I didn't do any of the construction, but I did lay carpet, etc.

Also, I learned it's cheaper to do the interior walls and ceiling with prefinished tongue-and-groove pine than to do drywall (by the time you do tape/mud/paint), so I saved some dough there.

[HCMarkus]

I didn't do any of the construction, but I did lay carpet, etc.

Also, I learned it's cheaper to do the interior walls and ceiling with prefinished tongue-and-groove pine than to do drywall (by the time you do tape/mud/paint), so I saved some dough there.

It all looks really nice. Your location (with woods in the background) doesn't appear to demand a lot of acoustic isolation, which makes things easier. Drywall would provide superior isolation, but if you don't need it, who cares?

[Rick Cornish]

Your location (with woods in the background) doesn't appear to demand a lot of acoustic isolation, which makes things easier. Drywall would provide superior isolation, but if you don't need it, who cares?

Unless you're doing 2-layers of drywall plus high-density fiberglass in the wall cavity, drywall won't do much for isolation.

Yes—my nearest neighbor is nearly a mile away. But I'm not sure I would have done it much differently if there was a neighbor 50' away. Of course, if you're tracking gangsta rap and want to monitor north of 90dB, you'll need to do more.

[HCMarkus]

Your location (with woods in the background) doesn't appear to demand a lot of acoustic isolation, which makes things easier. Drywall would provide superior isolation, but if you don't need it, who cares?

Unless you're doing 2-layers of drywall plus high-density fiberglass in the wall cavity, drywall won't do much for isolation.

Yes—my nearest neighbor is nearly a mile away. But I'm not sure I would have done it much differently if there was a neighbor 50' away. Of course, if you're tracking gangsta rap and want to monitor north of 90dB, you'll need to do more.

My neighbors aren't super close (I live on an acre), but their distance is not of the magnitude one would typically measure in miles. I did two layers of 5/8" hanging off resilient (not hat) channel, plus 6" loose glass between studs, plus drywall/wood sheathing and stucco exterior. I had to do a lot of bass trapping on the inside. The hidden downside of rigid walls. I put much of my bass trapping at ceiling/wall junction to minimize intrusion into floor space.

It is very quiet.

No, I don't do much rap stuff, but those dang guitarists like to crank their amps... and the drummers seem to have a hard time turning their drums down.