Pepper Tree Studio: Zero to Mix Room in 75 Days

Welcome to my little studio construction diary. Anyone that’s embarked on even the simplest of construction projects knows the true feeling of joy they feel once things finally come together. They also know the true fear and utter dread that comes with planning, budgeting, and trying to keep construction moving moving — juggling contractors, materials, design changes — not to mention finances. Did I mention budgeting? Now that I’m through the fog, I wanted to document the build — not just to memorialize this journey I took, but also to provide a resource to anyone else out there contemplating doing something similar.

Starting Materials

In early 2020, we purchased our new home in Pasadena. It’s a lovely old Tudor house with a detached one-car garage (uhm, shed) that I had always earmarked to be a studio. I had been leasing a studio in a different part of town and once the pandemic hit, I switched gears from recording & mixing records to almost exclusively mixing records. For folks not in the music business, that means a lot of time spent alone in a sound-proof, windowless room. I hit my breaking point about 6 months in and decided to fast-track a home-studio build so I could be near my family and not lose my mind.

I was starting with a roughly 16’x12’ shed with 16’ cathedral ceilings. The roof was melting away and it needed quite a bit of work to even begin soundproofing & acoustic treatment. I hadn’t figured out a contractor to take on the bulk of the work yet, so I began to work on the basics that I knew needed to get done. Step one was clearing out the jungle to the south of the garage. I never snapped a good picture pre-clear-out, but you can see the the front picture above the ivy and madness taking over the left side of the structure. Clearing this area out was meant to provide access to the side of the structure — as I didn’t want the main entrance to be in the front. It also made me realize how much space was available and made me ponder building a deck to the side of the studio. A 16’x12’ room isn’t large by modern standards, so having some outdoor spillover space makes sense in Southern California.

One of the things that’s always bothered me about mix rooms I’ve worked in is the lack of natural light. Since I was putting on a new roof anyways, it was a great opportunity to incorporate some skylights for a very small additional cost (thank you Craigslist). The garage is about 15 feet away from my toddler’s bedroom, so soundproofing was always a consideration — and putting in a skylight did pose a problem. Still, vitamin-D seemed like a worthwhile tradeoff.

Soundproofing

After some headaches finding a contractor to do the heavy-lifting, I had finally met a great crew and they were eager to get started promptly. The first big task was taking a shitty old shed and reinforcing the structure so it would a) be airtight and b) be structurally strong enough to hold the additional mass from all the soundproofing materials. I found out on the first day that the structure didn’t even have a back wall. It only took 3 hours of construction to go over budget. The idea of ‘throwing up some drywall’ and calling a day became a distant memory.

My goal with the front of the garage was to seal up the old doors so maintained the look of our house and to keep things discrete for people driving by. Making the side the main point of access solved this problem and also gave the studio a gorgeous view of its neighboring pepper tree. I had intended on buying some cheap french doors from Home Depot but after checking them out in person, I realized that the cheaper option would have no chance of containing the sound coming from inside. I did some Craigslist sleuthing and came across a set of new Anderson doors at a great price. They were double-paned and well built so they seemed like a great fit.