Hi Guys,

I am beginning a home studio project in my garage however from i have found a number of issues that are going to need to be tackled before i can even begin it. Any help/suggestions/ideas would be much appreciated. Here are some images i took, feel free to ask for more of specific areas:

http://s305.photobucket.com/albums/nn217/Marcus_C_album/

The garage itself is single brick walls with timber as the frame for the narrow attic above. The attic itself is quite narrow as you cannot stand up in it so i am thinking it would be best to completely seal this off (boards have just been attached to the timber beams to allow people to walk up there however it hasn't been completely sealed so leaks alot of dust down).

From the pictures you can see the garage area is in an L shape with the back left corner being a sealed off laundry and back toilet. There are a total of 3 windows with two wood/glass doors and a thin timber garage door operated on a motor. The floor is just plain concrete. Lighting is based around 3 fluorescents. Structurally it was built very strong and does not have any leaks or any integrity problems.

The plan is to have the main front car area as a live room with possibly an isolation booth and the back right corner as the control room seeing as the area lends itself to this simple arrangement.

Here are some problems i have noted:

1. Due to the laundry/toilet, plumbing noise/washing machine noise will occur.

2. The cheap sealing. On construction we skimped on the ceiling and put down wooden boards without covering the whole area creating a very dirty/dusty garage.

3. The door access is good as the live room would be entered from its left back area however the control room would have to be accessed via its back as that is where the current door is and its only other wall is squashed up against the neighbours fence. This means setting up the back wall to reduce reflections may be a bit of a problem.

4. The neighbours garage is almost right on top of mine and they go in and out alot in their cars and have a tendency to rev their engine.

5. There is lots of junk and cleaning it will take ages! Haha.

To be honest i think it is actually a very good building that would lend itself to a studio (maybe need to be double bricked though???) but due to my limited knowledge on studio design and construction i am a bit unsure. Let me know your thoughts on both this early planning stage as well as any materials you would recommend to improve its acoustics (or even redesigning the whole building!).

Cheers

Sounds like a fun and challenging project. From the sounds of it you've got a LOT of planning and work to do. Two major problems/challenges are the laundry/toilet area and the neighbors garage. water pipe noises and rumbling automotive engines have a real knack for vibrating their way into an ajacent studio. You'll basicaaly need to build a room-wthin-a-room for your studio. Is the neighbors garage on the same slab of cement? If so that makes that problem more difficult - harder to isolte sound that is vibrating right under your feet. You probably want to do a multi layered wall/floor/ceiling using a variety of materials including dead air spaces. For example a few layers of sheetrock, but have one layer 1/2-inch regular and have the other layer fireproof sheetrock. The difference in the density means they vibrate at different frequencies. Or more to the point they will block/allow different frequencies to push their way in/out.
Set your new studio room within-a-room on some solid rubber pieces. I haven't really studied the pics; so these are some basics. There are some basic questions to ask: What will you use this for? Vocals, electric gitar? drums? cello? Are you hoping to use this professionally, as a personal project? Is it to record your own music?...for others? Are they paying you?
On the realistic side; If it's your own studio and you can choose when to record you'll want to choose a time when the neighbors car won't be chugging. Also, ask your housemates to go poop and do laundry another time when you are in the studio. A little "Recording" sign with a red bulb that has a switch on your console in the studio will be helpful.
I'd leave that ceiling as high as possible. Just build your walls up and make another high acoustically sound ceiling that incorporates the beams. You'll have a lot more control over the sound and have a much more "natural sound in a bigger space - not so many frequencies crashing around in a bad way.
All pipes should be securly fastened. Add some rubber or something between the pipes and hard surfaces to dull the vibrations. Double bricking would be good....or perhaps cinder blocks. Remember different density; different substances are good. Try to leave a sealed air pocket between the walls.
There's some food for thought. Answer those questions and explain more about your budget and plans and I'll try to give more input.

Appreciate the response, just the kind of help i was looking for. I actually forgot to mention that an underground train system is being built (the tunnel has already been bored so no constant noise and the first train has only just been tested underneath, we couldn't hear anything as it is at least 70 metres below the surface however the vibrations could definatly have an effect on a studio) Yes problems galore! I am an audio engineer in training so this studio will be for proper, paid recordings once it is done so needs to eliminate any external noises. It will be used to record whatever i am asked to do so an acousically dead room is the end goal. Fortunately the garage is separated from our neighbours and built up on its own concrete block so that is some good news.

In regards to double sealing the walls, is it best to add the second layer on the outside of the building or the inside (effectively reducing the space inside but seeing as the concrete base would allow a smooth and strong surface to build up on i would think this would be the best way to do it)

Currently my budget is around 8-10 thousand per year which from doing readings i think will probably impede my progress so the project itself may take quite along time. I myself have very little labouring skills however i would want to do as much of the work as possible to cut costs and so that i am actually learning from this whole process rather than taking a back seat and then never being able to fix anything.

I've heard alot of talk about floating floors and seeing as you are suggesting building a room within a room would you also suggest a floating floor? I assume this will ramp up costs alot too but anyway want to get it right and not worry TOO much about cost.

I am trying to get together a total cost budget though so i know exactly how much i am in for (so that i can double it and maybe triple it to see what i will actually be paying =D...or rather ) so if you can suggest how much of certain materials i may need (rockwool etc) that would be good. Bit hard at this early stage though i suppose....

Sounds like a good project. I see from the pics that it's a 2 car garage; Nice looking building. Hard to really tell how big it is, but looks like ample space. As far as the double brick wall there will be a few considerations. Yes, it may be easier to start the 2nd brick wall on an already existing cement slab (inside), but to start a wall outside is not so difficult......dig a little trech. maybe throw in metal re-enforcment rod fill small ditch with cement. Done. The advantage to the outside wall is that any exterior noise (vibrations) will travel through the wall but will NOT travel through your cement wall directly. That isolates your floor from the outside. That's a good thing. The real work may come from finishing that exterior brick wall in a fashion acceptable to your neighbors. Ha! Well, a layer of cement or plaster will be one more layer that will help to block the sound. So, I'd recomend the outside wall. I'd still build a room within a room. You could go with wood framing for the inside.
Floating the floor: Yes! That's the idea behind the hard rubber pads under your floor and walls. Try not to have solid rigid objects touching. No wood frame sitting directly on the cement. That's a sound highway in and out of your studio.Basicly you don't want your studio room to physically touch the existing building. You will have to scrutinise your location, existing building, space requirements, budget (or lack thereof), building skills (or lack thereof).
A lot of this is simplified counsel and suggestions. Some of what I have suggested is theory that you must build upon. Good luck and keep asking questions.
Another whole topic is your comment about "an acousically dead room is the end goal". Well, that depends. If you'll be recording string quartets and robust vocals you want an acoustically live room where the important frequencies will play off each other and have enough life so it doesn't sound like it was recorded in a bathrrom. If almost everything will be electric and played directly into the computer; well, then perhaps "dead" is fine. Acoustics is a fine art and sometimes having sound bounce around a room is rich. Sometimes it's echo-ey.

I made a rough measurement of the dimensions of the space and it is 9.5mx7mx6.5m(frontxsidexheight) for the front room and 5.2x6x6.5 for the back room (the potential control room) so there is defaintly ample space for a good recording studio. With the idea of the room within a room is that going to make the windows i have currently in the garage side wall redundant so no real light wil get into the recording studio? This isn't a problem really just curious. Not too worried about the neighbours not liking the view as they cant really see the front of the garage so blocking it all up wont matter.

I see what you mean about a dead room versus one with character. Kind of hard to decide on that as if i managed to use the studio for a profit and brought in a lot of different projects, then a room with character is going to lend that to all the recordings so they would all have a similar feel whereas a dead room i can do whatever i want with effects and dynamics to create a sense of space....I've always read though that producers and engineers prefer a room with character but then they might only use that room for one of their recordings and go back to the dull room for everything else so that their record doesn't all sound the same.

Wondering also, what sort of wall type (material, thickness) would you recommend for between the live room and the control room and whether you would suggest putting a window in it to see into both rooms or just block it off and use a video camera setup to see the live room from the control room. The window would only be to one side due to the layout of the garage so reflections might not be such a bad thing......I guess it would lend character

To window, or not window? That is the question. In all questions pertaining to the studio it comes down to whether it will let sound in and out of the studio. The easiest thing would be to build the studio with no windows. You can find studios that have windows, but they have multiple layers of glass at varying angles (Not parallel)
Also, if you build your studio as truly a "room within a room", that means that you minimise any physical direct contact between the studio structure and your garage structure. Of course you can't float it on thin air so you will need to sit it on as acoustically neutral material as possible. If you set the wooden floor and wall frame on the cement floor; there will be a sound channel. If you nail your wall into the ceiling beams of the garage; there is a sound travel. The vibrations will follow the physical material. So, if you have the garage window frame touching the wall frame of your studio there will be another way for sound to travel.
As far as the window "between the live room and the control room" I'd probably go for a window instead of a camera set up, It would be easier and most studios have them. I'm assuming the folks in the control room aren't going to be playing loud music and making noise that would filter in to the live room. However, the main thing is that you don't put the 2 windows parallel. Seal the frame so the frame isn't a sound leak. If you can get those dual layer windows and put in 2 of those (total 4 layers) that would be great.
A small but important detail is to seal the exterior and interior windows well. This is for 2 reasons. to block any small air gaps AND to stop any vibrations that may occur. Nothing like a loose pane of glass to make a small noise. It may not be noticeable normally, but it will stand out in a real quiet sound room. That goes for all boards, pipes, doors, door handles, etc. Make sure everything is not loose and vibrating. Excellence is in the details. Along with that don't put any cheap sheet metal office desks in the studio. Nothing that can vibrate!