tell me about your unusual recording spaces

[permanent hearing damage]

i'm pretty over the subdivided warehouse i've called home for my studio for 12 years. looking intensely around Philly and suburbs and the only spot i found that was what i was looking for was impossible to get financing for. i'm likely going to buy a house and do some pretty wild renovations to get me where i want. just curious about others' experiences modifying structures - ripping out floors, digging down basements, etc.

i've read the hell out of Build it Like the Pros, but curious about other folks' experiences, especially in densely populated places. i'm going to get a building that is free standing, but i will have neighbors close by, no matter what.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

I'm in a converted back yard garage behind my house. Not super unusual. This my second garage space. I did the best soundproofing possible on my last garage space. The results were OK but not great. For a this one I sacrificed soundproofing for windows. The neighbors are fairly close but I'm mostly writing and mixing here. No band tracking really.
Before this garage space I was in a commercial facility in an old produce warehouse. It was great but also had tons of problems (bad landlord, leaky roof, questionable power, no AC, sketchy location). I'm much happier owning my space. Renting suitable space in Toronto means you're a place holder until the condos come. It's inevitable that once you've invested in your space and grown your business your landlord will sell and the building will be gone.

[markjazzbassist]

i don't have a commercial studio. But i'm on a bass forum and a guy on there in seattle bought a pre-fab unit that he put in has backyard. it's a shed, but it's way too big to be called that. he then soundproofed it himself and had contractors do electrical and an acoustic door, as a drummer he did some videos of him playing and his wife walking around the building with an iphone and the sound is so minimal, neighbors can't ever hear even when bashing.

he went a little overboard with it, but the Pre-Fab shed/garage thing might be an idea if you have a property that has space (or buy an empty lot).

[permanent hearing damage]

i don't have a commercial studio. But i'm on a bass forum and a guy on there in seattle bought a pre-fab unit that he put in has backyard. it's a shed, but it's way too big to be called that. he then soundproofed it himself and had contractors do electrical and an acoustic door, as a drummer he did some videos of him playing and his wife walking around the building with an iphone and the sound is so minimal, neighbors can't ever hear even when bashing.

he went a little overboard with it, but the Pre-Fab shed/garage thing might be an idea if you have a property that has space (or buy an empty lot).

curious to see any articles, pics, etc on this. links?

[markjazzbassist]

i don't have a commercial studio. But i'm on a bass forum and a guy on there in seattle bought a pre-fab unit that he put in has backyard. it's a shed, but it's way too big to be called that. he then soundproofed it himself and had contractors do electrical and an acoustic door, as a drummer he did some videos of him playing and his wife walking around the building with an iphone and the sound is so minimal, neighbors can't ever hear even when bashing.

he went a little overboard with it, but the Pre-Fab shed/garage thing might be an idea if you have a property that has space (or buy an empty lot).

curious to see any articles, pics, etc on this. links?

152 page thread best of luck LOL. again i will state this guy went a little overboard, he is an engineer so everything had to literally be perfect for him, but it's very close to his neighbors and not an issue so he has that going for him. he spent a lot of money (50k i believe) but he went premium on a ton of stuff and i think included gear in that (and only bought new when it came to gear), i think it could be done on the cheap if that is a concern.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/my-new ... d.1167698/

[permanent hearing damage]

haha. wow, quite a thread but def wanna check it out. i don't have the space for that, but this property is stand alone, so hoping to do whatever i am doing inside the exisiting house - may include ripping up floors/digging basements down, etc. i'm a drummer and i record stupidly loud bands.

[markjazzbassist]

haha. wow, quite a thread but def wanna check it out. i don't have the space for that, but this property is stand alone, so hoping to do whatever i am doing inside the exisiting house - may include ripping up floors/digging basements down, etc. i'm a drummer and i record stupidly loud bands.

in that case i think the basement is your best bet. acoustically 5 of 6 of the surfaces go into the ground, you'd need to completely seal and drywall in any basement windows, then the only thing you'd have to worry about is the ceiling, which is you have enough room you could drywall and build a door to the area to seal it off. also depending on what times you make noise and if other people live with you the ceiling treaments could be minimal. i've read about this before when i debated doing the garage thing that Dave has mentioned a few posts back. if you have decently high ceilings and it doesn't flood (or you're on high ground) basement is 5/6's soundproof already

[MoreSpaceEcho]

if it doesn't flood

THE CRUCIAL BIT.

Before sinking any money into a basement studio be absolutely sure it's waterproof. Trust me you don't want your studio to flood.

Neighbors close by and stupidly loud bands means you're gonna need serious soundproofing unless you enjoy talking to the cops. If it was me I'd probably do cinder block exterior shell and and isolated tracking room...you could probably get away without having the control room isolated, but the live room/iso booths would need to be room in a room for sure, I'd think.

If there was a suitable room in the house for the control room, you could do that and just build an addition for the live room...this would be a good way to go actually...but before I go off on that tangent, is it just you buying this for yourself or do you have a sig other/kids as well? I.E can you make the whole house a studio or does it need to be, you know, a home?