OT: Small studio / rehearsals room

[Jose EB5AGV]

Well, I am debating if an 8 m2 (3 * 2,70m) room, pretty well isolated (double brick wall, with internal fibre glass isolation), with air-conditioning, wooden ceiling (also isolated) at about 3m height, located in part of what used to be a garage in a separate building from the main house, is suitable for an (obviously small) music studio and perhaps some 3-4 people rehearsals (usually two guitars, some electronic drums and a keyboard)

 

I would like to hear from people using a similar sized room (even some pictures would be really helpful!), because I am thinking if the work needed to empty it (which would require selling/discarding a ton of old electronic gear) is really a waste of time or not.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Jose

[Nathanael_I]

Dedicated space is better than no space!  
 

Square rooms (especially small ones) have fairly poor modal distribution. When all the walls are the same length, they all reinforce and cancel the exact same frequencies. The isolation seems helpful as far as neighbors are concerned. The modal response will affect the sound inside the room. 

 

For whatever reason, square rooms seem more common in the UK and are very challenging to make work for mixing on speakers.  By the time a desk and chair push one away from the wall, one ends up sitting exactly in a place with poor response. 
 

but, I’ll end with what I started with - having space is better than no space, and I’d use it if it’s what I had. Having dedicated space is so wonderful!  Instead of spending a lot on speakers, you might look at the Slate VSX headphone system which will not care one bit about acoustic treatment or modal response.  

 

 

[Stokely]

I am considering that myself, or something like it.  I'm not in an ideal room myself although I am considering adding some bass traps and panels.  I have good open mixing headphones and rely more on those than my speakers, referencing often to try to make sure I'm in a good place.   

As far as practice, glad you have e-drums   I've practiced in spaces that small (and maybe smaller) with acoustic drums and amps and wish I had those hours and whatever hearing loss I suffered back.

[Jose EB5AGV]

Thanks for your input. One good thing is that the ceiling is angled at about 20 degrees. I hope that, and the wooded material on it, will help on acoustics

 

Jose 

[stoken6]

The more you can keep the volume low, the better it will sound - because the reflected sound will make less of a contribution. I'm looking round my home office, and I notice it's roughly the same size. Yeah, I wouldn't want much more than a TV at medium volume going here.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[TommyRude]

I think we've crammed around 9 people in the same space, so yes - go for it!

[Delaware Dave]

In one of my bands 5 of us practice in a 12'x 14' room.  During COVID we moved but are now back in the room.  drums, bass w/ amp, two guitars w/ amps and keys and a vocal PA.  we make it work.