Home Studio Design Step 1: Room Layout

As with any new project, the first step in home studio design, is to make a plan! Specifically, I want to start with the layout of the room. The space I have to work with is not huge – it’s about 13″ by 17″, so, in order to make sure all of my things will fit, I created a diagram (below) in Adobe Illustrator, that is sorta close to scale, to give me the ability to play around with different layout ideas.

The main things I wanted to cover in my home studio design:

  • Position of main control area (mixing area where my desk, main keyboard, monitors, etc will be)
  • Position of a side desk (a separate workstation I use for computer programing, graphic design, video and other personal/work projects.)
  • A lounge area that could also be used for recording limited live instruments (small ensembles, not a full band)
  • An isolation room (in case I need to record a loud amplifier or singer)
  • Placement of speakers
  • Initial plans for acoustic treatment (including bass traps, diffusers, absorbers, etc)
  • Initial plans for sound proofing

Other things I needed to keep in mind:

  • Placement of existing mounted TV, left by previous owners (see diagram)
  • Existing windows and doors (see diagram)
  • Sound proofing, specifically for the Front Door (see diagram)


Position of Main Control Area (Mixing Area)
When deciding where to position your main control room area, the first thing to understand is the dimensions of the room. I’m lucky in that my new room has decent dimensions (approx. 13′ by 17′); note that this creates a rectangle and not a square. My previous studio was a 10 x 10 perfect square (I didn’t even know rooms were made perfectly square anymore!!) For a recording studio space, a square room is the worst possible dimension you can have. The reason for this because a square room will amplify the standing waves that are created between each of the parallel walls. The result is the that sounds will now echo and create that lovely “boing” sound as they reflect back and forth between the 2 walls (yup, like a tennis ball.) To be clear, echo and “boing” from standing ways occur between any 2 parallel walls, including those in a rectangular room; but the perfect square helps to amplify these sounds and it can be very difficult to make things sound better, particularly in a small space (like my 10 x 10 room.) So, whenever possible, use a rectangle room and avoid a square room for your music studio!

Now that I know I’m working with a decent rectangle room, my next question is: which wall will I face when I’m working? In other words, which wall will I set up all my main gear against? For the best sound, the best approach is to set up “lengthways,” with the speakers facing the longest distance from wall to wall. Looking at my diagram below, this would mean placing the speakers against the far 13′ wall so that they will face the opposite wall 17′ feet away.  

It’s also important to set up the main control area equal-distance from each side wall. So, you’ll see from my diagram below that the Main Control area is positioned same distance from the left wall, as it is to the right wall. This makes sense when considering that sound reflections will be bouncing off the walls and back to your ears. If one side is too close to one wall, it will return to your ears faster than the other side and will give an incorrect perception of the stereo balance.

* If you’ve ever been inside a professional recording studio, or seen photos, you might have noticed that they have odd shaped, non-parallel walls. This is because they are making sure, there are no parallel walls (standing waves) in the room. While most of us home studio folks don’t have the luxury of building a pro studio from scratch, with non-parallel walls, we must do the best with what we have. So, we start with a rectangular shaped room, we add the proper sound absorption and acoustic materials, and then we can potentially build wall panels that can be positioned at an angle (to help prevent a parallel wall scenario).

Position of Side Desk
Not every home studio owner will need, or want this, but I have always liked to have a separate desk to the side of my main control desk. It usually takes the form of an “L shaped desk,” as shown in my diagram below. I use this desk more as a regular office desk with a single computer monitor, mouse, keyboard and other items I need handy. I usually keep most of the desk clear, so that I can use it as a workspace for sketching (drawings), quit written notes and even some minor construction projects. Since I do a lot of computer programming and web/software design, I’m using the computer here for that work (keeping my music computer separate.)

A lounge area that could also be used for recording limited live instruments
My last 2 studios were so small that I didn’t have room for a sofa (or even a second chair!) I’m so happy that this room gives me a little extra space to fit a nice sized sofa and there will even be a little extra room in case I need to record a small live instrument. Solo acoustic instruments, and potentially small ensembles or vocalist could be recorded in this space.

An isolation room
I’ve also always wanted a separate room that I could use to record loud instruments – like drums or electric guitars –  or vocalists. My new space has its own bathroom (something else I’ve never had in a home studio.) My diagram below only shows about half of the width of the bathroom; it’s actually about twice as wide and includes a full shower/bath that I might remove and replace with a small area to record an amplifier, drums, etc. It won’t be a huge space (so it won’t fit an entire drum set), but I will give me options for experimenting with louder sounds and keeping their volume isolated from the main mixing area.

Placement of speakers
Speaker placement is an important decision, and I plan to make a more detailed post when I get closer to that part of the project. The main thing I’m confirming at this stage, is that I’ll have enough room to have the speakers separated from the wall about 1 to 2 feet. Similar to other sound-reflecting concerns, if you place your speakers right against the wall, there will be a lot of bass build-up and timing issues as the sound first bounces from the back of the speakers, immediately hits that rear wall, and then travels to your ears (some reflections arriving sooner than others.) Having some space between the speakers and the walls helps to clean this up and should also produce a tighter bass sound. After I did all my measurements (including measuring the space my desk will take up), I’ve confirmed that I will be able to place my speakers at least 1.5 feet away from the wall (maybe even 2 feet!)

Initial plans for acoustic treatment
The full acoustic treatment of this space will be outlined, as I make progress, in future posts. For now, I want to get an idea of where in the room I will want to add treatment so that I know how much material to buy. I plan to make most of my own acoustic panels (also chronicled in a future post), so, understanding how much space I need to cover, will let me know how much building material I need.

You might have noticed that I have acoustic treatment and sound proofing as two separate things. When starting out in home recording, many people, including myself, think of these as the same thing. More specifically, I believe there is an assumption that acoustic treatment IS also sound proofing. While it’s possible that some acoustic treatment can help cut down on sound leaking in or out of your studio space, this is not the main intent of acoustic treatment. The goal of acoustically treating your space should be to make the room sound better for recording and for mixing; or, more specifically: to make the room sound more balanced and accurate so that you are not “hearing” oddities of the room in your recordings. For example, if the room has an area where the low frequencies are building up, then, I might hear too much bass while I’m mixing and therefore, I’ll turn the bass down in my mixes only to find that when I listen to my mixes in a different location, they now have too little low-end!

Of course, it should be noted here, that some live recording spaces sound so good, that you absolutely want to hear the room in the recording. For example, if I wanted to record a choir, I’d be looking for a great-sounding church and part of the magic of the recording would be to hear the beautiful reverbs created by the church room itself. However, in my case, I’ll be recording mostly individual acoustic instruments and then mixing the recording in this same room. Because this is a relatively small room, with no magical room tones or reverb, I want to treat the room so that the sound is absorbed instead of heard when it is reflected back off the walls. Unlike recording a choir in a beautiful sounding church, in my case, I’m looking for a more dry sound, by removing any possible opportunity for reverb or echo.

But not “too” dry!
Here’s the tricky part: if we cover our whole room in absorptive material, it can make the room sound too dead. It’s important to leave some reflective spots throughout the room so that the sound has areas to reflect off  of (to give it some life.) Also, realistically, few people will ever listen to your recordings in a perfectly sound-absorptive room, so, in many ways, it’s good to have some balance between dry and reflective elements. The key is to look for trouble areas in the room that, if left untreated, will have too much of a negative impact on your room sound. For example, one of the most common trouble spots in any room, are the corners. Which leads me to the next item on the list: bass traps……

Bass Traps
The first thing I notice in a future studio are the corners of the rooms. This is where the bass builds up and can give us an inaccurate perception of the low-end frequencies of a recording. I plan to place a bass trap in each of the 4 corners of the main control room (as shown in the diagram below.) As mass absorbs low-end frequencies,  effective bass traps should be at least 6-8 inches deep (the more “hardcore” bass traps are even deeper than this!)  This can take up space in a room, so bass traps are often created as a triangle shape in order to fit into the corners of a room. I have a few Auralex bass traps that I will use and I plan to make the rest myself. Also, the heavy sofa I plan to place in the back of the room (lounge area) will make a great bass trap as well!

Mid-to-High Frequency Sound Absorbers
While the bass traps are absorbing the low-end in the corners, the remainder of the walls will need some treatment to help absorb the mid and higher frequencies. This types of absorbers don’t need to be a thick as a bass trap; 2-4 inches should do the job.

Diffusers
If you look at the back wall on my drawing below, you’ll notice an odd looking spikey- shaped object, that I labeled (Back Wall) DIFFUSOR. (Note that I misspelled diffusor, should be diffuser!) Diffusers are indeed crazy-looking things in that they are made up of many differently-shaped objects for the very purpose of breaking up the sound reflections in a room. As sound hits each of the points of the diffuser, it breaks up the sound energy into smaller reflections, and thereby creates a more “open” sound to the room (think of it as not allowing the sound to build up in any one area.) Diffusers are often placed on the back wall (where the speakers are facing), but they can also be placed around the mixing area as well. I’m currently thinking of placing a large diffuser on my back wall as shown in my diagram.

Diagram for music studio design

 

 

 

Initial plans for sound proofing

As I mention above, sound proofing a room is different from acoustically treating a room. Where acoustic treatment is aimed at making the room sound good, sound-proofing is focused on preventing the sound from leaving, and/or preventing outside sound from coming in. Just like with acoustic treatment, there are many different levels for how far to take the sound-proofing of a room. On one extreme, the ultimate way to really keep sound from escaping a room, is to literally build a room within a room – leaving a small air gap between the walls, ceiling and floor of the two rooms. While I will not be doing anything this extreme, I will be using the concept of the air gap for some elements of my solution. I will also be doing a much more in depth analysis of sound-proofing in a future post.

If I was planning on recording a large drum set, loud electric guitars or a loud singing group, I might explore a more robust sound-proofing solution. However, my studio is mostly used for composing, recording and mixing with small live acoustic instruments (acoustic guitar, violin, small percussion, etc.) So, nothing too loud.

The room is only connected to the main house by the front door. The bathroom shares a wall with a hall closet in the main house, and, one wall in the lounge area is also shared with the family room of my house. But that is all! There are no rooms above or below me and no rooms on any side other than the family room I mentioned. My house is located in a quiet area, almost in the country, and there is no traffic or other outside noise. We also have no neighbors on this side of the house. My space looks out onto a wooded area and the nearest house is about 60-75 yards away. Therefore, I don’t have to worry about noise other than my own family (wife and daughter.)

So, for now, my sound-proofing will be focused on treating the main front door, the window above the front door and potentially the one wall that is shared with the family room.

 

Door
Doors are one of the main areas sound leaks from rooms. Even the smallest little opening will allow a significant amount of sound to travel in or out. Similar to the “room within a room” concept I reference above, the ultimate way to sound proof a door is to literally build a second door with an air gab between the two. But, for my situation, I think I can get by with something more basic. I plan to use weather striping around the entire door as well as a door stop on the bottom of the door. I also will explore different types of wall coverings for the door itself, including heavy blankets and mass loaded vinyl.

Window above door (internal window)
While there are several windows to the outside, there is also a window above the door to the main part of the house. I did some research and learned that I could buy a piece of clear 1/4″ acrylic, cut the to same size as my window, and then build a frame around it to create a double window. I will leave a  small air gap between the original glass window and my new acrylic piece as this will be the key to keeping the sound from escaping, and, I will angle the new acrylic piece slightly so I’m not creating a parallel relationship with the man glass. Ideally, I’d want to angle the original glass window as well, but I’m not quite that ambitious !

While this won’t be perfect, it should help keep the sound in good enough for my needs.

Below is a photo of the lounge area with (1) the front door and window and (2) the side wall on the right in the photo. These are the areas that I will focus my sound proof treatment.

 

 

Window above front door that I will sound-proof using a second layer of clear acrylic to create a double-window.

 

 

Watch the video on YouTube!!!

 

 

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