What Room Should I Use for A Recording Studio?

The best room for a recording studio is the largest space you can isolate, with solid walls, a ceiling of 9 feet or more, unequal length, width and height, and as little outside noise as possible. Frangioni Media and David Frangioni evaluate rooms for studios across Miami and South Florida before design begins.

Our Tips for the Best Recording Studio Design in Miami, FL

When planning to include a professional recording studio in your home (as most serious musicians do), the room you choose may affect the way your studio needs to be designed. In a perfect world, we could all build brand new studios from the ground up. But if you’re repurposing an existing space or purchasing a new house, there are things to consider when choosing your recording studio’s location. This is a very common scenario in my experience, in fact, I often get called by a client to view a new space before they purchase it to ensure that it’s useable.

To see how the structure of your room will affect the installation and recording studio design, learn more below. As a studio designer in Miami, FL, and worldwide, we know just what your space needs to produce the best music possible.

SEE ALSO: Your Recording Studio FAQs

Spare Room

First floor rooms that you may otherwise use for an office or guest room can make fine recording studios. You’ll want as large of a room as possible, so a room that could have served as a family or media room is preferable if it has walls all around it and does not have an open floor plan.

Small rooms pose some obstacles. Walls that are too close together create sound reflections, which will tamper with the direct output of speakers and muddy the stereo image. Even with acoustic treatments, bass frequencies are still problematic in small rooms. Wooden floors, plasterboard walls, and frail doors make soundproofing more challenging. Noise can still leak into the rest of your house, but by soundproofing the door, window glazing, and carpeting, the sound shouldn’t be too overbearing. It all depends on how much isolation is truly needed.

The Loft

Lofts can sometimes be used for a studio space, as you won’t have to worry about dampness or creaking footsteps overhead. If the roof is already lined with felt and the area is clean, you can lay down boards on rafters, connect electricity and lights, and get to work on the studio design. The key here is that the loft is isolated from the rest of any living spaces. Most lofts are part of an entire home, so they don’t work for a studio, however when you find one that IS standalone, it can be an option.

Soundproofing an attic can be a challenge, as vibrations will likely travel through the rafters and down to the rest of the house. But if the loft is large enough, a ‘room within a room’ structure could isolate vibrations. We’ll carefully design a structurally sound layout and a soundproof design to grant the rest of your household peace and quiet. The key is always matching the available space options with a final result that meets or, ideally, exceeds expectations.

Of course, if you already have a dedicated room ready for a studio design then you’re ready to rock! To get started on your high-end studio design, contact Frangioni Media.

What Makes a Room Right for a Recording Studio

The best recording studio room is the one that can be isolated from the rest of the house and shaped acoustically on the inside. We look first at ceiling height, room proportions, how close the space sits to bedrooms and mechanical systems, and whether a room within a room is possible. A basement, a garage conversion, a loft or a dedicated outbuilding can each work when the design answers those questions from the start.

Frangioni Media projects include work for Aerosmith, Elton John and The Rolling Stones, and the same principles apply in a private home. See our recording studio design in Miami and who designs recording studios for major artists. David Frangioni also writes about building a studio at home in Your Music Deserves a Real Studio.

Planning a recording studio? Frangioni Media designs and builds recording studios and Dolby Atmos mix rooms for artists, producers and homeowners. Request a recording studio design consultation, or start with the planning guide below.

What Kind of Room Is Best for Recording

When I walk a space for a client, I look at five things:

• Size and shape: bigger is better, and rectangular rooms with unequal dimensions sound more even than square ones.
• Ceiling height: height gives the sound room to develop and leaves space for treatment.
• Isolation: distance from bedrooms, neighbors, streets and mechanical equipment, and construction that can hold a room-within-a-room build.
• Floor and structure: a concrete slab isolates far better than a wood-framed upper floor, which matters for drums and bass.
• HVAC and power: quiet air conditioning and clean, dedicated power, which in South Florida humidity is not optional.

Garages, detached guest houses and ground floor rooms often win in Florida homes. See how we approach building a recording studio in Miami and our studio design services.

FAQ

What kind of room is best for recording?

A larger room with solid walls, a ceiling of 9 feet or more, unequal dimensions and minimal outside noise is best. Basements, detached buildings and rooms away from shared walls usually make the strongest studios.

Can a small room be a good recording studio?

Yes, with the right treatment. Small rooms struggle with bass buildup and early reflections, so they need bass trapping, absorption at reflection points and careful speaker placement.

Is a square room bad for recording?

Square rooms and rooms with identical dimensions stack the same room resonances, which causes uneven bass. Rectangular rooms with unequal length, width and height are easier to tune.