Considering converting my car port to a tracking space...

Buy some cinder blocks and enclose it. Can make a pretty good reverb chamber too

Sounds great for backup tracks then too.
If there's enough space.
Chris

Yeah, it's close. That's why I've never really considered it before but it seems prudent to at least scope out what would be involved in making a tracking bunker.

Optimally, I think you'd want raise that ceiling several feet if at all possible since the toughest thing to pull off well is going to be drums and low ceilings are a real bummer for drum sounds. Compromise is probably to ditch that drop ceiling and treat the heck out of it, but that won't really help too much with the neighbors.

If you check out Don Gunn's instagram he is making a small drum room work with a ton of GIK Alpha panels. Haven't heard what that sounds like, to be honest, but he certainly knows what he's doing and I do think drums are a case where some binary diffusors in a small room would make sense. Is Don on this board?

And then the other thing is that you basically want to do Ward's cinderblock idea but then also (again this is optimally) build a room with in a room to minimize leakage. Which eats up space.

And because someone will say it soon enough, you should probably reach out to Jeff Hedback.

Yes, mass to stop sound and they're relatively easy to work with . . . if you've ever used a trowel and played with legos. Mortar them together with fillcrete instead of concrete (1 bag cement, 4 bags of sand, 2 cups of baking soda). Inside, build a 4x2 (2x4s turns sideways) treatment frame and wall up where needed.

Johnkenn, maybe this should be in Studio Building?

Yep, the critical distance is lower for binary diffusers though. Definitely need to be intentional where you place them.

I did not mean to suggest diffusion over the drums, more like broad band absorption in that spot.

This stuff is so specific to the use case, it’s hard to talk concisely online.

Room in a room is the only real way to tackle this if you really don't want to have to deal with neighbors. Anything less isn't going to cut it if you want to be able to play with abandon, especially if the neighbor's house is 10 feet away. That's not to say that you maybe can't make something sort of work, but there will still be compromises on what you can get away with, sound level wise, especially in the evenings.

A double wall assembly will definitely eat up extra space (my walls are 15" thick, though using 2x4s instead of 2x6s would knock four inches off that), and don't forget that you have to have two ceilings too, so that eats into your available ceiling height, and has to take load bearing into consideration. Either way, plan on losing a minimum of 6" of floor space for each interior wall (you'd lose a minimum of 12" total in each dimension), in addition to that which is taken up for the exterior wall.

Sound proofing (blocking) aside, when looking at this from an acoustics standpoint, I think low ceilings are begging for a front of kit kind of mic setup instead of the more traditional overhead setup. Then you can just treat the ceiling, as needed with absorbers or whatever, and forget about it. Trying to get good overhead sound with a pair of mics a foot off of an 8 ft ceiling is always going to be difficult, unless you just want a completely dead sound.

And the more sound proofing you add, the more acoustic treatment is going to also be needed to offset all of the additional bass that is now no longer leaking thru the walls. So you're again eating up more floor space with additional acoustic treatment. It's a vicious cycle. 14x20 of available space can quickly become 10x16 of available space, once you do the double wall assembly and add in some decent bass trapping. I get that it's a live room and not a mix room, so it's not AS critical to get the acoustics nailed down, but IF a double wall assembly is now keeping bass locked inside that you would otherwise be losing thru a traditional wall and IF you only put up some 4" absorbers to save on space, and nothing more substantial (bigger/deeper) to address bass buildup, you might end up with a pretty boxy sounding room, which then of course could get into your mics.

I'm not necessarily saying to not do it. I'm just saying that it takes a LOT of work to do right, and there's no room for cutting corners. It takes a complete system to work. Cut corners on any one of the three main cornerstones of sound proofing (mass, air tightness, and separate assemblies) and the effectiveness of the other two gets diminished significantly, and now you've spent all that time and money for not a whole lot of real gain.

I'm several years into my studio build, and just now getting to the end. And that's only the first phase. The second phase, if it ever happens, will involve finishing out the back half of the double wall assembly and second ceiling. Thankfully, all of the hard stuff (ventilation, doors, windows, electrical, angled walls, machine room, vocal booth, etc.) were all located in the front half of the studio, so they are all completed. What remains is just a simple double wall assembly and not much else. I just mention all of this to illustrate the time suck that this involves.

By the way, have you thought about ventilation? That was the most complicated part of my build. Getting A/C and fresh air into a sound proofed space, without mucking up the sound proofing in the process, is a challenge. I'd buy Rod Gervais's book on the subject if you're serious about this. John Sayers site used to be THE place to go for this stuff, but they lost everything when he died recently, unfortunately. Soundman2020 has tried to pick up all of the pieces (he has a site), but a lot very informative threads have been lost forever.

But maybe you're already aware of all of this, so I apologize in advance if this is redundant info.

14x20 isn't that large once you get people with gear in there. Coupled with a short ceiling and it's might feel pretty uninviting to spend hours in... Player comfort is important. My room isn't huge, but it has 14 ft vaulted ceilings and that helps to make it feel spacious even when people are somewhat close together.

If you did cinderblocks, they can be filled with sand to add mass. It's a pretty cheap way to start... But, as Quint pointed out, you footprint after construction will get smaller. Even after the cinderblock, you're still gonna need interior walls. 

A couple people have also mentioned HVAC, Greg said he's been there, so...Texas? That means stout AC will be a thing, a noisy thing.  In a small space it's harder to NOT hear HVAC running.  If you do anything acoustic that might be a problem.

Those are all concerns, but if I were in your shoes I'd be most worried about the neighbors.  Not only is there the noise (and that is what neighbors will hear, not music), but there is the factor of extra people being around. Cars parked, people hanging out on the patio, people standing around before they leave, chatting etc... Even if you've got a good relationship with the current neighbors, and you talk to them and get them on board. If you discuss things like agreeing to not go later than a certain time and things like that; what happens when then move?  And you most likely have neighbors on 3 sides.  Any one of them might get a stick up your ass and call the city.  Are you legally allowed to run this type of business out of your home?  Once the zoning board gets involved, whew that can get pretty hairy.  What if that happens in 5 years?  You've spent all the time and money and then you're told "no more!"

I'm not trying to be a bummer, just food for thought. 

You also mentioned a place out of town, will people drive out of town for your services?  If you had a commercial space in town that might be more attractive to perspective clients. 

For this reason coupled with Quint's suggestions, I think I'm going to just hold off until I can afford to build a freestanding structure on the bottom of my property.

I have an adjoining lot that is on the other side of a 20ft limestone bluff. It backs out to a greenbelt and then to a hike/bike trail. So we'd have a literal cliff to block sound from any houses and then probably 150 yards or so before the sound would reach the occasional frisbee golfer in the woods.

This is the way to do it, I'll just have to wait a few years.

In the meantime I've scored a pretty awesome rental unit to replace my rehearsal space and serve as more of a tracking/drum room/rehearsal hybrid. 10 foot ceilings and even what's there is a drop ceiling with a foot of insulation above it. Acoustician designed walls and doors. Owned by a bunch of jazz/gospel players in town. Good spot.

This seems like a great plan.  I wish you much luck in the new place, and with getting the other space built in time.

Yeah, that all sounds like a much better idea than the carport thing. I think you made the right decision.

Is that your new Lewitt on piano?