Making a drum room: recording room or not?

[AllTheCoolNamesAreTaken]

I am finally realizing my dream of making a drum room, and even managed to find engineers to do it who know what it is, how to isolate a room, etc.

The overall space I have for the outer construction is about 18 feet by 17 feet (5.49m x 5.30m). Their plans call for allocating about 3 1/2 feet (1.10m) of one of the sides for a control room / recording room. There would be one main door in the outer shell into a kind of vestibule, with inner doors going separately into the recording room and performance room:



I'm just wondering how useful the recording room will be. I don't really have plans to do full band recordings and it might be nice to have the extra space for the drum room - to put a couch, bookshelves, etc. My drum teacher's shed had a control room and he just piled books in it ... I don't know how useful such a room really is. Plus, being a separate room, I would have to setup separate airflow and air conditioning for it.

On the other hand, it's really one shot at making this. And it would be lame to make it and then wish that I had made a control room.

What do you guys think? If you have a drum shed, do you have a recording control room and do you use it? Or if you made a drum shed would you think one useful?

 

[MrInsanePolack]

I would keep it all in one room. To record yourself, you have to leave your drums, go through 2 doors, hit record, go back through 2 doors, then play. If it was right next to you, it could all be done from the throne.

Or you could hire a sound engineer.

 

[No Way Jose]

Yes, keep it all in one room. You can still make recordings.

 

[Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX]

also agree...a 3' wide control room just seems to be too cramped to me...extra space in the main room will be better used...

 

[MrInsanePolack]

Another thought about a second room. Electricity and lighting. Each room will need to be lit, ideally independently from each other. That's more work and $$$. If it's all in one room, you only gotta light one room.

Nice plan regardless. I used to do architectural drafting half my life ago. Good to see some real plans.

 

[dwsabianguy]

Yeah a 3'-wide control room would sound like donkey meat. Keep it all one big room.

My studio is all just one big room (converted garage) and there really haven't been too many times where I've felt like I really needed the separation of the two rooms; that's primarily because someone couldn't control themselves, and had to leave.

 

[Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX]

Another thought about a second room. Electricity and lighting. Each room will need to be lit, ideally independently from each other. That's more work and $$$. If it's all in one room, you only gotta light one room.

Nice plan regardless. I used to do architectural drafting half my life ago. Good to see some real plans.

good thought...and architecture was my first declared major in college, so I was also excited to see real ones as well!!

 

[SomeBadDrummer]

It really depends on whether or not you will have mixing boards, engineers, etc.
If the goal is soundproofing to minimize outside noise then put your money into that. A control room requires a big thick piece of glass, countertop space, expensive equipment and someone who knows how to use it.
Unless you are that person in addition to being the drummer your initial instinct sounds right that building a control room will simply limit your ability to have other musicians, and more likely end up being used as a really expensive storage space. The plan with the CR appears to accommodate maybe 2 others, with no extra space for anything or anyone; without it probably 4 more instruments. And some breathing room.

 

[MrInsanePolack]

good thought...and architecture was my first declared major in college, so I was also excited to see real ones as well!!

Lol, so does the entry door into the live room bother you too? It should be hinged on the opposite side. Doors are supposed to open against walls, not into open space. Honestly, that whole 45* wall bothers me.

 

[Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX]

Lol, so does the entry door into the live room bother you too? It should be hinged on the opposite side. Doors are supposed to open against walls, not into open space. Honestly, that whole 45* wall bothers me.

yeah...I think if the control room goes away, that will fix the 45* thing, and definitely get it so the door opens against the wall...not into open space...and make sure it is 42" wide or more!!!

 

[AllTheCoolNamesAreTaken]

Lol, so does the entry door into the live room bother you too? It should be hinged on the opposite side. Doors are supposed to open against walls, not into open space. Honestly, that whole 45* wall bothers me.

That's on me. They originally had an extra 'relaxation room' to the right, and I cut that off and used MS Paint to patch up the plan. I'm not a door scientist When I pitched them my alternative above they kind of glanced at each other and then politely pointed out that the door doesn't make sense. My indecision regarding keeping the control room has kept me from getting a realistic draft of the door setup.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm going to just ask them to redraft the inner design without the control room.

 

[MrInsanePolack]

...and make sure it is 42" wide or more!!!

Truth. Big doors are musicians friends.

I'm not a door scientist

It's okay. It's an often overlooked thing that most folks dont consider. Unless you look at it all the time. It's like non-drummers setting up the kick backwards, they dont know, it's not their fault.

 

[wraub]

Similar, but different- One story of building a room, primarily for recording, but I think it's applicable info.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/my-new-studio-build-perhaps-overly-detailed.1167698/

 

[dboomer]

The control room might be ok if you need to isolate noise you might make there from bothering the studio. But it will be useless for listening to a playback. I’d rather have more space in the studio part. Since you are doing construction I would consider angling a wall or two 5° to minimize standing waves.

 

[AllTheCoolNamesAreTaken]

The control room might be ok if you need to isolate noise you might make there from bothering the studio. But it will be useless for listening to a playback. I’d rather have more space in the studio part. Since you are doing construction I would consider angling a wall or two 5° to minimize standing waves.

Hey thanks for the reply. I'm curious, how bad is the standing wave problem with Sonex on the walls?

The engineers are planning to 'cancel' the corners of the room, and to further reduce waves they proposed putting several Sonex panels on two adjacent walls and making a series of Vs with the drywall on the other two walls (so they're not entirely flat). I'm a little hesitant about this because it would make the walls useless for hanging anything. So I suggested a 5 degree tilt on two of the walls and they are concerned that it wastes space, as the gap obviously gets wider at one end. So both approaches have drawbacks.

Maybe a good compromise would be to make a single V on one wall, to minimize wasted space, and Sonex the other three?

Here's a rudimentary MS Paint drawing of what I'm suggesting:

 

[dboomer]

Way over exaggerated but better like this (red) 5° or more on each wall. In any event on yours don’t split the wall in the middle (yellow). Sonex won’t help low frequency standing waves much at all. The goal is for nothing to be parallel.

 

[MrInsanePolack]

You could also frame the walls so the 5 degrees is done vertically. I'm not sure if it would have the same effect as horizontally, but it would allow you to keep the same sized footprint.

FWIW it's easy to tilt a wall vertically. You frame the wall normally, but take the 5 degrees out of the foot and header boards. You dont have to mess with the studs.

 

[dboomer]

You could also frame the walls so the 5 degrees is done vertically.

Should be done in addition to the side walls

 

[dboomer]

Hey thanks for the reply. I'm curious, how bad is the standing wave problem with Sonex on the walls?

Just to be clear ... You will not get rid of standing waves no matter what you do. The idea here is to get them to not bunch up. So when you have parallel walls every standing wave off that wall is the same frequency(s). By slanting the walls you broaden those standing waves to different frequencies so they are not so noticable.

 

[troutstudio]

My recording room is about that size. It's a double sized brick garage. I had to have complete quiet for the vocals and acoustic guitar, so I built a vocal booth from plans online. I tripled it in size, so I could fit a small kit in there, but I didn't like playing in it, so now it's just for vocals and guitar. I covered the walls in mass vinyl and high density batts. It's not soundproof, but it doesn't matter since I don't play late at night. I still use the front of the garage and all my drums are stored in there. It's pretty tight, but the drums sound good, in part because the ceiling is sloped. I agree that if you record on your own, having a separate room would be a drag. but 5 x 5 metres can work if the ceiling is not too low. Good luck.