Building A Home Studio

[Tweaky]

Building a Home Studio is very similar to building a Home Theater.

You need to know what are going to be the problem frequencies of the room you intend to use first and foremost.
You can do that easily online by putting in your room dimensions into the calculator below.
http://www.bobgolds.com/Mode/RoomModes.htm

Now you have that information, you need to work out the most effective way to nullify the worse offenders, meaning the frequencies that the room is sympathetic to, and will amplify.
Various was to go about that, depending on the frequencies and just how bad they are... [Hint - Old Egg cartons are not it ]
The other thing that comes into effect when dealing with this problem on paper is, do you intend to soundproof the room? and if so, just how far to you NEED [not intend] to go?

To soundproof, you have to build a room inside a room, and that inside room needs to basically Float, there is NO other way to soundproof, it's Physics, no matter what people will tell you otherwise, or what products you see advertising that they will soundproof a room, it's BS ....I've built one for myself, and help design and build 3 others.

Depending on how much soundproofing [DB lowering to the outside world ] you work out you NEED, your inside room dimensions would have changed, likewise the room modes, so you will have to calculate again.

That will give you the barest of bones to work with.
You then have the real problems to solve, VENTILATION is the most important , your not going to be making much music if you are passed out due to heat stroke and lack of oxygen, and I'm sure the paramedics that revive you will tell you that as well .... many a build I have seen go down the toilet because this wasn't factored in, and had to be deconstructed, then rebuilt to install it...the AVS forum is full of horror stores about this.
Where most people stuff up is they don't factor in the amount of heat generated by the equipment inside the room.
Nearly all pro recording studios that don't have a separate machine room, will have the control room set to be at 70F, which is cold enough to need a jumper, reason is it helps prolong the electronics from thermal failure.... gear going down costs time & $$ in a Pro studio, so they'd rather it not happen.

So Soundproofing [Tick], Room modes dealt with [Tick] Ventilation [Tick]....you next need to work out just how much electrical power is going to needed in the room [Don't forget Lighting ], this might mean that you have to have a separate mains spur installed - Electrician time.... TIP- add 25% to current power MAX power usage calculated...you never know when some vintage power hungry bit of kit might end up being used, plus power dips effect everything else in the chain, sound wise, and can cause PC's to crash.

While you are at this stage you need to consider cabling that you are going to want to use, and how....TIP - Use conduit along the walls carrying the cable to XLR/MIC termination boxes mounted on the walls at various places, it's neat and will save you hours of stuffing about trying to hook stuff up, especially MIC's [Always keep signal and power cables separate, if mixed the power cable can effect the signal = HUM or worse ]

That's it, install your gear and set it up - a whole other saga that is beyond this topic

[dave.king1]

To soundproof, you have to build a room inside a room, and that inside room needs to basically Float, there is NO other way to soundproof, it's Physics, no matter what people will tell you otherwise, or what products you see advertising that they will soundproof a room, it's BS ....I've built one for myself, and help design and build 3 others.

Spot on, back in the early 70s at the Festival studios in Harris St Ultimo if you listened real close to the monitors during silence in the playback you could hear the kegs getting bumped in and out of the pub next door and that was 2 floors below, couldn't hear the trains at Studio 301 though so being a more modern studio the build and technology was much better.