How to get space for a recording studio

[pkoch1]

So I'm trying to open a recording studio in a city. My apartment has no space for it, and is not very soundproof. I need to look for other property to lease/rent to record in. What kind of property should I look for? A house on the outskirts of the city? Some type of business real estate? When I search for that, I have the choice of Office, Medical, Retail, Industrial, Showroom etc. None of these seem right. Any help would be great! Thanks!

EDIT: forgot to mention I am pretty poor, so don't tell me to rent out a couple floors of a skyscraper or something

 

[CanadaRAM]

The classic answer is warehouse space in the industrial area of town. The second choice is loft area of a building (if you can find some that hasn't been turned into yuppie condos)

You want reasonably low rents, and a fair bit of open space and high ceilings. The view and the attractiveness of the neighborhood are not important. Good solid concrete walls and floor are an asset. Good clean power is important too, as is a relatively noise and radio-frequency free environment. Try not to choose a location next to a welding shop, forge, or radio station.

Keep in mind, that you will have a LOT of expense to fit out a space as a recording studio, no matter where it is. Essentially, you need to build a building within the building, for sound isolation.

Hit the library for books on studio construction. There are also a number of magazines to read - EQ, Mix, Sound on Sound, etc.

 

[pkoch1]

what kind of square footage do you recommend? For a small studio with basically just a live room, a control room, and a small closet-y room. I guess I just dont have a great sense of scale.

 

[CanadaRAM]

How long is a piece of rope?

It depends on what your needs are and what your budget is.

Hit the books to see if you can get a sense of what size room you need and the proportions that make a room work. The worst case scenario is a rectangular room with parallel walls and H x W x L dimensions that are simple ratios of each other. That can be a sonic disaster.

A 'live room', depending how you define it, will have to be a certain minimum size. Also, the space you need will not be just adding up the footage of Room + room + control room, because to make a space acoustically perform, you need to do things like have non-right angles on the walls and ceiling, and you have to have doubled walls (thick) to create isolation --- all of that wastes a fair bit of square footage.

 

[pkoch1]

Yeah, I know. I know a fair amount about acoustic spaces, how studios are built etc. Its not that I'm new to the game, I'm just new to aquiring new space for the studio, rather than using space that I have.

You seem to know a fair amount about this too, so you'd know that a small live room would have enough room for a drum set, with room to mic it, and space for a couple guitars/amps, bass/amp, and a keyboard/amp, with separation between them. So, how much square footage do you think that would need?

What about the control room? I'd need space for a largeish sized desk for the computer, monitors, board, etc. and maybe a couch behind it for other people in there. How much square footage do you think that would need?

EDIT: I'm talking about square footage inside the rooms by the way