Music "Shed"

[Rmgreg]

I have a small music room in a basement bedroom that's pretty cramped. I have my electronic drum set in the closet and guitars, basses and amps in the main room. I'm considering an acoustic kit and would like to build a "music shed" that could accommodate an acoustic kit and enough room for a couch and a few friends to come over to jam. At most I'd say we'd have a drummer, bass, guitar and vocalist. I'm in Colorado where air conditioning isn't needed so I will just have some sort of heat source. It's very dry here so it may require a humidifier. I'm thinking of a barn shaped structure that is about 15-16 ft to the peak. It could have an open or closed loft area depending on best acoustics. My real question is about dimensions. Most of the time it will be just me, but I'd like the option of a small rehearsal and hang out space without getting ridiculously big. Would 12'x16' work? In order to get "approval from the wife, I agreed that this would be a 2 room structure so she could have her own space. So if I do 12x16...the building would be 12x32 split in half. I can mill lumber from the property and I have the tools and skills between me and friends to construct an insulated shed hopefully affordably.

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on size and dimensions. I know bigger is generally better but I don't want a giant structure. I'm on acreage so space isn't the issue. On a side note I'm wondering if I could generate enough electrical capacity with some inexpensive solar panels and some deep cycle batteries so I could put it on a scenic spot about 200 yds from the house where there is no electric. Not necessary for the acoustic kit, but guitars, basses, amps, maybe a TV and PC. It will be a rustic structure with a porch like a small mountain cabin.

 

[cworrick]

Here's my project with details from when I did mine:

The New Drum Room

OK! It is finally presentable! This was an old shed behind my house. The basic size was 14 X 24 with a wall in the middle making two 14x12 rooms. I tore out that wall just to make the room bigger to use and that's when I found out that most of the walls were also already insulated. So... I...

www.drumforum.org

edit - I don't know why the pictures aren't showing. I put a note into the admins for tech support.

 

[Rmgreg]

Cworrick thanks! I couldn't get the pics to open. Do you think 14x24 is necessary?

 

[cworrick]

Would 12'x16' work? In order to get "approval from the wife, I agreed that this would be a 2 room structure so she could have her own space. So if I do 12x16...the building would be 12x32 split in half. I can mill lumber from the property and I have the tools and skills between me and friends to construct an insulated shed hopefully affordably.

On a side note I'm wondering if I could generate enough electrical capacity with some inexpensive solar panels and some deep cycle batteries so I could put it on a scenic spot about 200 yds from the house where there is no electric. Not necessary for the acoustic kit, but guitars, basses, amps, maybe a TV and PC. It will be a rustic structure with a porch like a small mountain cabin.

Depending on how many people you want to get together to practice, the room will vary. 1 guitar, bass, and drums you would be fine. Add another guitar, or even keyboards and you will want a little more room. One way I worked around this is by having no wall in the middle to separate the areas. This give you more flexibility to use the room. You may not need the full 32 ft you are planning if you go this route.

YOU WILL WANT POWER. Not just for the occasional guitar/keys, but like you said, TV, Maybe computer or other means to play along with music when you don't have somebody else...LIGHTS. Plus who knows what you wife may want to do in her half.

Insulate it and DO NOT PUT IT 200YDS FROM YOUR HOUSE. I'm in Northern Indiana. You said you're in Colorado.
Two words: WINTER and SNOW.
When it gets really cold, I will pass on my trips to the drum shed and mine is only about 30 yards from my house.

 

[Rmgreg]

Depending on how many people you want to get together to practice, the room will vary. 1 guitar, bass, and drums you would be fine. Add another guitar, or even keyboards and you will want a little more room. One way I worked around this is by having no wall in the middle to separate the areas. This give you more flexibility to use the room. You may not need the full 32 ft you are planning if you go this route.

YOU WILL WANT POWER. Not just for the occasional guitar/keys, but like you said, TV, Maybe computer or other means to play along with music when you don't have somebody else...LIGHTS. Plus who knows what you wife may want to do in her half.

Insulate it and DO NOT PUT IT 200YDS FROM YOUR HOUSE. I'm in Northern Indiana. You said you're in Colorado.
Two words: WINTER and SNOW.
When it gets really cold, I will pass on my trips to the drum shed and mine is only about 30 yards from my house.

View attachment 479681

Good point on the distance. It's just really great views up there

 

[cworrick]

Before I resided it last year.

Winter/cold makes trips a little less fun.

After I resided it. I got tired of painting it every couple of years.

Here you can see that it fills up pretty quick.

This shows that the whole shed is not just for the drums. There is another storage/workshop area in the back.

 

[Rmgreg]

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Awesome!

 

[Vistalite Black]

I'd ask the wife to reconsider the idea of a "She Shed" combined with the "Drum Shed." On a nice Saturday afternoon, would she really want to chill in a space connected to a room where someone is loudly practicing drums. Ask if she'd go for a free-standing treehouse rather than a building she couldn't enjoy while you are there.

 

[owr]

Sounds like a fun project, I'm a bit jealous of your space. Sounds like sound proofing is not an issue? If so, thats great, that will save you tons on effort and costs.

I am not an expert in the area but there is tons of science and knowledge out there on this subject. By getting the room dimensions right, you'll be able to make the natural sound in the room great from the start and you'll save a ton of money not having to buy excessive sound treatment for inside the room (totally separate from sound proofing).

My limited knowledge on this suggests that bigger is better, and stay away from square or cube dimensions, and avoid 90 degree wall/wall or wall/ceiling angles where you can.

Here is one random article on the subject I found to start you out, I would run with searches on any keywords in the article that stand out:

Ideal Room Size Dimensions and Ratios for Audiophile Listening

In this article, we're going to talk about the ideal room sizes and dimensions. This is such an important issue because nearly everybody gets it wrong, and if you get it wrong in the beginning, ...

audiophilereview.com

And if you want to get into it there are calculators that will estimate what the standing wave room modes will be based on basic dimensions. I can confirm with my near 10' cube small practice room that this is a real issue, and I've spent thousands on room treatment trying to deal with it. But I have a tiny backyard and did what I could.

amroc - THE Room Mode Calculator

HTML5 room mode calculator. Read and hear the tune of axial, tangential and oblique modes. Scientific sources included.

amcoustics.com

This may be confusing but check out how focused the resonant frequencies are in a small room (like 10' cube) and how high the frequencies go into the audible range, vs a larger more irregularly shaped room.

Good luck, sounds fun!

 

[Rmgreg]

Sounds like a fun project, I'm a bit jealous of your space. Sounds like sound proofing is not an issue? If so, thats great, that will save you tons on effort and costs.

I am not an expert in the area but there is tons of science and knowledge out there on this subject. By getting the room dimensions right, you'll be able to make the natural sound in the room great from the start and you'll save a ton of money not having to buy excessive sound treatment for inside the room (totally separate from sound proofing).

My limited knowledge on this suggests that bigger is better, and stay away from square or cube dimensions, and avoid 90 degree wall/wall or wall/ceiling angles where you can.

Here is one random article on the subject I found to start you out, I would run with searches on any keywords in the article that stand out:

Ideal Room Size Dimensions and Ratios for Audiophile Listening

In this article, we're going to talk about the ideal room sizes and dimensions. This is such an important issue because nearly everybody gets it wrong, and if you get it wrong in the beginning, ...

audiophilereview.com

And if you want to get into it there are calculators that will estimate what the standing wave room modes will be based on basic dimensions. I can confirm with my near 10' cube small practice room that this is a real issue, and I've spent thousands on room treatment trying to deal with it. But I have a tiny backyard and did what I could.

amroc - THE Room Mode Calculator

HTML5 room mode calculator. Read and hear the tune of axial, tangential and oblique modes. Scientific sources included.

amcoustics.com

This may be confusing but check out how focused the resonant frequencies are in a small room (like 10' cube) and how high the frequencies go into the audible range, vs a larger more irregularly shaped room.

Good luck, sounds fun!

Yup I've gone down that rabbit hole and I feel like it's hyper technical but not very practical. I'm hopimg to get some personal experiences that have worked well enough. I don't need perfect acoustics or soundproofing since I'm out by myself with no close neighbors. Just comfortable and not claustrophobic. I chose barn style to eliminate tricorners and will use acoustic foam as needed.

 

[Rmgreg]

I'd ask the wife to reconsider the idea of a "She Shed" combined with the "Drum Shed." On a nice Saturday afternoon, would she really want to chill in a space connected to a room where someone is loudly practicing drums. Ask if she'd go for a free-standing treehouse rather than a building she couldn't enjoy while you are there.

I've known her long enough to know if won't get used and I will get to takeover the whole space . Right now she just thinks we'll if he gets his space, I want mine.

 

[Cauldronics]

Yup I've gone down that rabbit hole and I feel like it's hyper technical but not very practical. I'm hopimg to get some personal experiences that have worked well enough. I don't need perfect acoustics or soundproofing since I'm out by myself with no close neighbors. Just comfortable and not claustrophobic. I chose barn style to eliminate tricorners and will use acoustic foam as needed.

One mistake far too many people make is using acoustic foam. It only absorbs sound in a narrow range of frequencies. What you want is rockwool or compressed fiberglass like Owens Corning 703 and 705, which absorbs a far greater range of frequencies.

You can buy premade 2'x4' wrapped panels of the stuff relatively cheaply these days, or make your own. There are tons of instructional videos online.

 

[owr]

Agree with the comments on the foam, if you design right and have a decent size room most things wont be an issue, and you can probably get away with some decent corner bass traps that you can build yourself easily. Keep in mind a ton of the advice/knowledge online about room treatment is geared towards mixing rooms or hyper critical listening rooms where folks want a flat environment. For a live room for playing with friends you'll want a little character in the room (IMO) and some reflections will help with that. Anecdotally, a buddy of mine was building a new house on his property and for a few months we got to use one of the rooms as a jam room. It was completely unfinished, so no treatment to speak of, but I played in a nook by the window that was under a high semi circle shaped ceiling (like an arch) and I loved that spot - the mix of the instruments was just superb.

I also understand not wanting to get too deep into it. I think there are some standard recommended room dimensions you can find pretty easily that will be a good starting point, and anything is better than a cube. Again Im not an expert, but I think barn style ceiling is good, but dont have too sharp of a pitch because I believe a narrow apex can create resonance issues. Perhaps just a flat but angled ceiling that is not parallel to the floor would do you well, like one half of a barn style roof.

Good luck!

 

[Rmgreg]

One mistake far too many people make is using acoustic foam. It only absorbs sound in a narrow range of frequencies. What you want is rockwool or compressed fiberglass like Owens Corning 702 and 705, which absorbs a far greater range of frequencies.

You can buy premade 2'x4' wrapped panels of the stuff relatively cheaply these days, or make your own. There are tons of instructional videos online.

I've seen the rockwool at home depot but where are you seeing "wrapped panels"?

 

[Cauldronics]

I've seen the rockwool at home depot but where are you seeing "wrapped panels"?

Here's one of many company selling panels with covers. https://www.gikacoustics.com/product-category/acoustic-panels/

A search for "acoustic panels" will return a lot of similar results. https://www.google.com/search?q=aco...i67i395i433.1629j1j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I bought boxes of 703 and 705 and found a company selling just the covers, which saved me a lot of money. No building of the panels needed, since the panels are semi-rigid and the covers have cloth handles on the back so they can hang anywhere.

705 is thicker than 703, which are 4" thick (great for bass traps) and 2" thick, respectively. You can make a high performing bass trap by straddling a corner with a panel of 705. The air gap does a good job of containing low frequencies. While not quite on the level of a dedicated bass trap, it's close in performance.

 

[Rmgreg]

Here's one of many company selling panels with covers. https://www.gikacoustics.com/product-category/acoustic-panels/

A search for "acoustic panels" will return a lot of similar results. https://www.google.com/search?q=aco...i67i395i433.1629j1j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I bought boxes of 703 and 705 and found a company selling just the covers, which saved me a lot of money. No building of the panels needed, since the panels are semi-rigid and the covers have cloth handles on the back so they can hang anywhere.

705 is thicker than 703, which are 4" thick (great for bass traps) and 2" thick, respectively. You can make a high performing bass trap by straddling a corner with a panel of 705. The air gap does a good job of containing low frequencies. While not quite on the level of a dedicated bass trap, it's close in performance.

Do you remember where you got the covers?

 

[Cauldronics]

I think it was GIK but I'm not sure if they sell just the covers anymore. You can also use bedsheets or muslin.

 

[Cauldronics]

Found the company I bought from. Again, I can't tell if they still offer the covers and their website looks like they haven't updated it since I placed an order 10 20 (!) years ago. Here's a link to a question about their covers so maybe they still have them. Give them a call or email, I suggest. https://www.readyacoustics.com/index.php?main_page=faq_info&fcPath=13_6&faqs_id=53

 

[bigbonzo]

Before I resided it last year.
View attachment 479683

Winter/cold makes trips a little less fun.
View attachment 479684

After I resided it. I got tired of painting it every couple of years.
View attachment 479685

Here you can see that it fills up pretty quick.
View attachment 479686
View attachment 479687
View attachment 479688
View attachment 479689

This shows that the whole shed is not just for the drums. There is another storage/workshop area in the back.
View attachment 479690

Whoah! Love your marimba! Is that a 5-octave? Make? Play much?

 

[rayboomboom]

My 2 cents on this is not of size but warmth in the winter. I live in Northern New Mexico, have a 'drum room' made mostly of wood frame and partially of adobe. The room started its life as a shed and we insulated it. But it's downright cold right now and the insulation isn't enough. And the adobe needs heat from the inside to store the heat so it works the way it's supposed to. I really wish we had built it so I could have added south facing windows to take advantage of the sun light/warmth to take the edge off and then add heat from there. Solar panels are a great way to go, just add the battery storage for heating along with amps and computer if you go that way. You also may think about a trombe wall. Or maybe a wood or pellet stove. But you'll be way happier up there in CO if you do.

I'm going to add another 2 cents about size relating to the above suggestions. And that is, the bigger and taller the room the more it takes to heat it.

Sounds like fun though. Let us know how it progresses.