Building My Studio: Part 1 (Planning)

This is the first of several installments on the process of designing and building my new home recording studio. I am not an acoustics or construction expert, but after years of reading and studying related topics both in print and in person, (and learning many lessons the hard way!) I've certainly come to a point where I am comfortable tackling projects of this size and scope. I have had numerous questions about my studio - how I did certain things, why I did certain things, and so forth. While I won't cover every last detail, I will hit all the major highlights. Feel free to email me in person if you have further questions. This is not just meant to be a recap of my own experience, but a guide to help you with yours. At times, I'll write directly about my own experience and at other times I'll write this in the form of advice/instruction to the reader.

When building a home studio, there are a lot of things that need to be taken into consideration from day one. Some of the top things you need to consider are:

(1) What are the physical limitations of your available space? For many it is a basement, an empty bedroom, a garage, or an attic. All have challenges and benefits.

(2) What is the PRIMARY purpose of the studio? (Is it a mixing room? A Mastering room? An "all in one" room?) Different uses should drive the design and construction in slightly different ways. In addition to primary uses, are there secondary uses? (ie: will you teach guitar lessons in there? Use your mixing room also for a little bit of overdub work? etc.)

(3) Are you going to build a multi or single room studio? With limited space, you really need to think this out carefully. It's easy to think that you can subdivide a room to put in a small control room or iso booth, but more times than not you'll find yourself squeezed into a tight space that is uncomfortable to work in. Use tape on the floor to help you visualize the space before you commit to any subdividing.

(4) What is your budget? Can you afford to go "all out" or do you need to stretch the buying power of your dollar as much as possible?

(5) Finally, in the large majority of home studios, one must often make some compromise between ISOLATION (ie: keeping the room quiet) and ACOUSTICS (ie: keeping the room sounding good). Which is most important to you?

For me, my studio was to be in my basement. It is a walk-out basement with good light, and a fair amount of space. Ceiling height was acceptable, but not ideal. Some framework had already been done when the home was first built, and due to the fact that some of the walls were load-bearing, I opted to work my design around the existing framing.

The primary purpose planned for my studio was.... well, everything! I do a fair amount of mastering, so that was a key issue, but I also do tracking, mixing, writing, and just practicing. I do most of my work on my own or with a small number of friends, but I also needed to be able to record a full band. So, I needed something that would handle all of these well.

I wanted a multi room studio, but also wanted to use my space wisely - most of the time it will just be me and up to a couple of other people in my studio, so I'm not going to be using the other rooms all the time. So, here is what I came up with:

- My "main" studio room would be a spacious control room with acoustics suitable for mixing, mastering, tracking, and rehearsing. 90% of the action in my studio would be in this room so it was important to have a comfortable space with acoustic properties that could handle a wide variety of tasks

- I wanted a machine room to keep my computer and hard drive from making too much noise pollution in my main room. This was mostly to ensure that when mastering, I can have no background noise clouding my hearing of the music, and also to help keep it quiet during tracking. So, I planned out a small room with ventilation that could not only house my computer and external drives, but that could also serve as a closet to store mic stands, cables, and other gear.

- Even though I planned on doing a lot of my tracking in my main room, I wanted a small iso booth that could be used to mic up loud tube amps, or provide a quiet space for a singer or acoustic guitarist to record when needed. Space was limited, so I made the booth just large enough for a guitarist to sit comfortably.

- Finally, I wanted a versatile space that could be used for the occassional large session, to hold a drummer, or put some extra amps. Knowing that I might not use this space nearly as often as the other spaces, I designed this room to double as a home theater for my family. I designed it to have a number of connection options to the main studio so that I could use it as a tracking room, a lounge with playback abilities, or even a second control room that could be used for surround mixing. When not in use, my family would have a great sounding room for watching movies in, thereby making the most of my space.

My budget was limited. I knew I would need to do as much of it myself as possible, and would also need to shop for good deals. I had a small nest egg to get me started, and expected that I could add a little extra to my studio fund from time to time as I went. I knew that if I spent the nest egg too quickly, I'd end up stalling the project near the end though, so I really needed to budget and plan wisely.

Isolation and Acoustics were both important considerations to me, but I made the decision early on that if design or budget limitations forced me to compromise or choose between the two, I was more willing to give up some isolation in order to maintain good acoustics. This was an easy decision for me... My house has a large yard so my neighbors are not terribly close, and the rooms directly above my studio are not the ones most often used in our home. On top of that, I just wanted to get the best possible acoustics out of my available space and budget.

One final design consideration I made up front was regarding the overall look or "vibe" of the room. You will hopefully spend a lot of time in your studio, so make sure it has a comfortable feeling and decor that lends itself to a creative environment. If you expect to advertise and work on projects for others, good looks can help bring in customers and enjoy the experience. I determined that it was worth spending a little extra money on cosmetics if needed, to make sure I had a comfortable, appealing, creative environment to work in.

After making all of these decisions and doing a little more research, I was ready to dive in. My next installment will show photos of my initial space and start walking through the early phases of construction.