John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hey guys, thanks for making such an awesome resource available for wannabe's like me to learn more about studio design!
My band and I just recently moved into a house where we have free reign (sort of) to modify the basement to suit our needs. The space I'm working with is a pretty good sized area and suits us well for practicing, but we'd like to spruce it up a bit to allow for decent quality recordings.
The basement is mostly finished, except for a storage area (the red area in the picture) that I'd like to make into the control room. This area also houses the furnace and water heater (rectangle and circle). I'm dealing with the common issues with basements; low ceilings and support posts (which are the green dots)
My plan was to relocate 2 walls to open up a little more space for both the control room and the live room. the original walls are the green dotted lines. The area for the control room is roughly 14' x 12', which is about as much as I can muster. The two rooms to the left of the picture are bedrooms (mine and the singer's) which can double as isolation rooms if the need arises. The leftover of the unfinished space is storage area.
I really don't want to get into any major remodelling of the basement since the house belongs to my dad and modifications have to more-or-less meet his approval. Because we're paying rent to help my dad through his unemployment we have enough push to at least move around a few walls.
So, any comments? good design? recommended changes? any input you can give me is appreciated!
Thanks,
Jason

That looks cool Jason. The onlychange I'd make is to make the control room a bit deeper/longer maybe?? you've got a lot of wasted hallway space there.

cheers
john

I would really like to make the control room deeper, but I have to leave some room to access the water heater and furnace (thus the non-symetrical shape of the rear of the room) and there's a drain near where that wall is diagramed. The slab near the drain is uneven due to the drain... I don't really have enough ceiling height to build a level floor above the concrete. Do you think the current depth will be inadequate? Will the non-symetrical back be an issue?
Thanks,
Jason

I wouldn't be concerned in the lack of symmetry at the rear of the room - the greater depth would be much better. Build around the HVAC unit and perhaps raise the floor up a step where the couch is to cover the drain??

cheers
john

Hey, now that's a good idea! Maybe something like this? What kind of treatment would you recommend for the rear of the control room and live room? I was planning on slot walls for the angled walls of the control room and slot diffusers/absorbers for live room. Do you think the other areas of the large room should be treated as well?
Thanks so much!
Jason