Music Room/Studio Size

General Information

Moderators: ajish4, cjj

Post Reply
User avatar
cjj
RRF Moderator
Posts: 10900
Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:17 pm
Contact:

Music Room/Studio Size

Post by cjj »

OK, I was hoping that when we moved, we'd buy a place that had enough space that I could have a dedicated music room/studio. Well, unfortunately, the house just doesn't have the space. And add to that, my wife wants a nice space to set up all of her easels and other oil paint stuff, preferably separate from my music stuff.

So, it looks like I need to build an addition to the house to accommodate these desires. The house is a bit odd in that it really only has one bedroom, the other bedroom being almost too small to even fit a queen size bed. So, adding a couple of bedrooms would be nice and would probably add to the value of the house immensely.

So, what's a good size of room for a music studio? I'm not talking about being able to fit a whole band, with a separate control room, etc., just a decent sized space to set up a few amps, keyboards, and perhaps a drum kit (yeah, I'm thinking of picking up drums). What do other folks have/use? Would something like 14x20ft be a decent size? Seems like that would be OK, but since I'm considering building, I might as well make it a good size 'cause I'm sure whatever it ends up being, it'll work as a bedroom too...
I have NO idea what to do with those skinny stringed things... I'm just a bass player...
User avatar
harborcoat26
Junior Member
Posts: 101
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:19 pm

Re: Music Room/Studio Size

Post by harborcoat26 »

Based on the pictures I've seen - there's not enough room on you property to expand :D
1987 360/6 Mapleglo w/black (retired)
1998 360/12 Jetglo w/white
2008 360/6 Amber Fireglo
2003 Vox AC30HW Limited Edition
1965 Vox A.C.10 Twin

"Damn, the STUFF - stuff is my weakness!" Dale Gribble
User avatar
jps
RRF Consultant
Posts: 37132
Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2003 6:00 am

Re: Music Room/Studio Size

Post by jps »

14x20 would work just fine. 8) Just remember to make the inner room floating to minimize any external sounds from entering the music room ans disturbing the vibes in it. :wink: :mrgreen: So, the basic room size should be more like 18x24 or something similar. :D

Since we are not allowed to link to other forums, search for this: Floating room. Costs. at gearslutz.com in the Studio construction & acoustics section.
User avatar
gibsonlp
Technical Admin
Posts: 1725
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2005 10:40 pm
Contact:

Re: Music Room/Studio Size

Post by gibsonlp »

Kareene and I are building our first house here in the Kibbutz (we live in a really small apartment in the time being).
My lifetime dream was to have a huge basement, roughly 100 square meters (1076 sqf) in size and 10m meters high, yeah, I had abbey road studio 2 in mind when I thought about my home studio...
Reality can be cruel sometimes, not only I don't have enough redundant (or non redundant for that matter) internal body parts in my body to sell in order to pay for such a monster - the building rules where we live don't permit basements!
Eventually I settled on a 20 sq M room (5x4m or 16.5x13.1 ft) which is enough for a 4 members band (or even 5-6 if I ever need).
I do have the luxury of having the control on a separate room, new houses in Israel must also build a shelter (at least 9 sq meters), this will be my control once I'll actually have a control...
Here is a diagram I did in visio in order to see that everything fits in such a room, the room my architect designed for me was actually a bit larger so I'll have a bit more room, the diagram is to scale so it should give you the right idea. I put a pretty big drumset (keith moon large) so I'll know even monstrous sets can fit and of course - the bass amp is my full SVT rig

EDIT: this room is supposed to be floating too, I added 10cm of isolation material in my drawing and an acoustic consultant will design everything, including the room walls, This is important so before you build everything - hire a consultant in the drawing stage, it will save you money afterwards (easier to move a wall when you only need to draw it...)
Attachments
music room2.jpg
So long and thanks for all the fish!
beatbyrd
Intermediate Member
Posts: 808
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:45 am
Contact:

Re: Music Room/Studio Size

Post by beatbyrd »

Hi CJ, I'm in the 14 by 20 or larger camp. The plans that gibsonlp included look great as a place to practice or jam, but for recording, you'd need space for a control desk (PC, recorder, mixer, monitors, etc.) and possibly a rack. I'd also think about adding a large, walk-in closet that could be used to store guitar cases, mike stands, mikes, effects, cables, CDs, etc. If it was large enough, you could acoustically treat it and also use it as a vocal booth. The 10 foot ceilings sound like a good idea. I'd recommend 12 feet in the center of the room, with the sides angling up from the 10 foot walls to the 12 foot center. If recording, you should avoid a cigar box shaped room, if you can. Angles are good. There are books on recording studio design and, if that's your intention for the room, it might be good to incorporate some of the principles in the design. I wish I had the luxury of building a dedicated room like this..... Best of luck with it. Tom
It's a Byrd, it's a playin'..........

'73 4001 MG
'09 360/12 FG
'10 360/6 FG
User avatar
cassius987
Senior Member
Posts: 4702
Joined: Mon Aug 04, 2008 2:11 pm

Re: Music Room/Studio Size

Post by cassius987 »

jps wrote:Just remember to make the inner room floating to minimize any external sounds from entering the music room ans disturbing the vibes in it.
That's news to me, is this basically a design scheme to reduce physical resonance/propagation of external sound waves into the room?
User avatar
cjj
RRF Moderator
Posts: 10900
Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:17 pm
Contact:

Re: Music Room/Studio Size

Post by cjj »

Great info so far! Thanks for the diagram Gil, looks like my proposed size would work.

On the floating room, from what I've read, it's to acoustically isolate the room, both from outside noise coming in, and inside noise going out. For recording, this can be very important, for practice, etc. it can be important in keeping the peace with the neighbors. Of course, in my case, with the nearest neighbor being well over 500ft away, it's less of a problem, and noise from outside is fairly nonexistent as well, except when my neighbor is sighting in his high powered rifles.

My initial plan was to build a 20x30ft addition, split into 2 rooms, with a sound isolation wall between the two (my wife plays her stereo rather loud when she's painting, so I'll need to isolate that for sure :wink: ). I was actually planning on 9 to 10 ft walls with a peaked center, so each room would have about 15ft on one side, 10 on the other. And, I was planning on putting a basement under the whole thing, so maybe that would be a better place for a studio, especially for recording. That will certainly have a lot more space, but being able to see outside would be nice too...
I have NO idea what to do with those skinny stringed things... I'm just a bass player...
beatbyrd
Intermediate Member
Posts: 808
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:45 am
Contact:

Re: Music Room/Studio Size

Post by beatbyrd »

The basement will give you more room, but also a bunch of headaches. It puts you back into a rectangular prism. There are usually humidity problems, and sometimes flooding issues. They are tougher to heat and cool. One other potential issue is HVAC noise. I curse every time the A/C comes on and ruins a good take. In SoCal, it happens a lot. From your prior posts, it seems like the heater may be running quite often. Good luck with it. Tom
It's a Byrd, it's a playin'..........

'73 4001 MG
'09 360/12 FG
'10 360/6 FG
User avatar
cjj
RRF Moderator
Posts: 10900
Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:17 pm
Contact:

Re: Music Room/Studio Size

Post by cjj »

Ooh, more good info! Yeah, that's true, back to square corners again. Well, like I said, I don't really want to be a troglodyte in the basement anyway.

And I never even thought about HVAC. That could be an issue, but there again, I guess I'm lucky. We don't generally need AC, in fact, the house doesn't even have it, it just doesn't get that hot here. And for heating, well, the existing system is virtually silent - hydronic radiant heat (hot water pumped through pipes). I'll be adding on to that for the addition too - really nice for my wife's art as it never blows dust around...
I have NO idea what to do with those skinny stringed things... I'm just a bass player...
Post Reply

Return to “Trivia”