Home recording studio best placement
Once a person decides that the need for a high isolated and acoustically true recording or listening room is required the obsession can take over good reasoning.
There are times when we have to take whatever we get in reference to what we have in the way of an existing structure or single room and what we can afford to either spend or give up in way of actual real estate.
When looking to construct a dedicated or recording or critical listening room, it may be easier to develop a recording or listening room with a high degree of isolation from the ground up, the placement of this area in an existing backyard or even in an inside room is critical.
The reasoning behind this should be obvious, but will often be overlooked in the haste that becomes part of a build.
If you have a high traffic road in the front of your home you want to get as far away from this as possible with your new structure, you want to reduce the sound and vibration that already exists in this traffic area by putting as much space as possible between your room and it.
With a new building this should be easy enough, as a starting place.
With an existing residence that you are looking to make a highly isolated audio environment in, the choices will become smaller.
You still have to consider all of the possible interference from external noise.
A basement is often the “go to” position as a starting point.
In an older home you may find that the headroom, e.g. the ceiling height, is lower than eight feet, thereby hindering you ability to get a room with enough volume to allow the music to breath and develop as you would want.
A newer residence may have a taller overhead in the basement which is always better, since more volume is the by product.
Depending on where you live in America or in the world, you may not have the option of a basement.
You may not even have a concrete slab to build directly on.
Attempting to isolate a wooden structure is full of compromise, and has many, many things to consider if one can even build any type of room that will produce a satisfactory degree of isolation.
Let us look at this from the best beginning point in reference to building an audio room, to the least desirable.
Least desirable means only that you may not be in the current position to achieve a stand alone and dedicated structure specifically for music recording, since you may be faced with different circumstances that can not be overcome.
It does not mean that you will get lesser quality or have a room that is sub-standard in any way.
It does mean that each project is different in the approach, and the details can change as to what is going to be more important in one versus one of the other options.
Number 1.
A fully detached structure dedicated to your audio recording is going to give you the best results and have the least amount of issues since the build will be a “purpose” built room.
Number 2.
A garage area completely detached from the residential structure could also be given the number 1 spot.
The issues are many since HVAC is not usually a part of a garage and electrical is minimal and often a part of the existing residence.
In an ideal build, you would want to establish a completely separate electrical environment for a garage to include the HVAC.
Developing the typical “room in a room” may require some demo work in order to press on with a well developed high isolation audio room.
Number 3.
A basement area with adequate headroom, 9 feet +, is a desirable place to build since you have the entire house above you to aid in restricting sound from entering the environment.
The basement build will come with some issues that can be easily overcome with the newer integrated techniques of building stand alone walls.
HVAC and electrical may present challenges, but these can be overcome with the proper design and attention to detail.
Number 4.
Any room in a residence, at ground level on a concrete slab, that is as far away from the interior noise of the house and the external ambient noise of the existing area.
HVAC and electrical will still present small challenges but can be overcome with the proper design and attention to detail.
Number 5.
A concrete slab in an elevated level, e.g. in an apartment building with light weight concrete floors.
Number 6.
A wooden framed floor in an elevated level as in above a garage, but fully decoupled from the residential structure.
Number 7.
A wooden framed floor structure at ground level in a typical residence/home.
Number 8.
A wooden framed floor on an elevated level, e.g. the second story of a typical residence.
Number 9.
A thin metal sheathed shed with a concrete floor with minimum floor space.
Number 10.
A thin metal sheathed shed with a wooden floor.
Based on the above, decide either what you can afford, or which one you are currently going to be involved in to determine how it is you should approach your project.
