The Shipping Container Studio

Before...

Can an old container really be turned into a viable music production space?

Many SOS readers will be well aware of the pros and cons of having their studio set up at home, with the main positives being the convenience of having your gear close at hand and not having the financial burden of renting an external space. The negatives are noise considerations, having to work around other members of your household, and hosting clients, if you’re working in a professional capacity. The dream scenario for many, then, is to have a dedicated space detached from their house, and this ideal has seen people turning to garden studios as an alternative option for music production and instrument practice.

Outside of our world of music, the popularity of increasingly impressive‑looking self‑contained garden rooms has exploded, helped in part by the Covid lockdowns and people working from home. Yet, although they cost eyewatering sums of money here in the UK, an ‘off the shelf’ garden studio is not going to cut it from a soundproofing perspective, in terms of both not disturbing your neighbours and keeping external noise away from your music‑making. There are some excellent companies who will offer more ‘pro audio’ levels of soundproofing, but this can come at a substantial price for even a modestly sized space. If done right, this expense can, of course, be justified as adding value to a property you own, or balanced against the long‑term savings made from not renting another space. However, for producers or musicians on tighter budgets, who might rent or are not generally tied to a location long‑term, it would be hard to justify the financial outlay of having a semi‑serious space in your garden.

...and after.

Contain Yourself

As the owner of an independent recording studio for the last 16 years, I’m no stranger to the raised eyebrows of my friends and family as I discuss my latest DIY project — but converting a run‑down shipping container into a workable studio space was perhaps the toughest one to explain yet! Bear with me, though, as I explain why I thought this had some potential. The biggest plus point of shipping containers is that they are designed to be moved around. Of course, you need expertise and specialised equipment to move them, but with suitable access and enough space, you could potentially have a studio that can be taken with you if you need to relocate. The other big selling point is simply the relative cost when compared to a garden studio. Here in the UK, you can pick up a used 20‑foot long container for around £1500‑2000, which often includes delivery. You need to factor in the conversion — which we will look at shortly — but you could potentially have a workable studio space for a fraction of the cost of a commercial offering, and which could (with careful thought and planning) be taken with you to another location if needed, or even sold on to another musician or producer.

The biggest drawback is the typical dimensions of a shipping container, especially when considered in the context of soundproofing and acoustics. There’s enough length to play with — my typical medium‑sized container is six metres long — but it’s the width that can become an issue when it comes to getting enough mass into the wall space to stop sound entering or leaving your studio. A standard shipping container is only around 2.4 metres wide, and my main concern when approaching my project was that I was going to end up with a well soundproofed corridor at the end of it! Another practical consideration is the potential thermal effects of having a space that, once converted, is warm internally, but which still has a cold metal exterior. I’ll touch on how I allowed for this with my build, but I would encourage you to get some expert advice on this aspect, especially if your climate is more extreme than that of the UK. There’s also the issue of creating adequate ventilation and fresh air flow whilst also keeping your space soundproofed, which although not unique to the idea of a container studio, is made more challenging by the limited internal dimensions.

Lastly, if you’re considering this idea for a domestic garden or yard space, you would need to factor in the fact that many neighbours are not going to be thrilled by the sight of a shipping container turning up on a low loader. This could hopefully be managed with clear communication, and some inexpensive paint or wooden cladding to soften the external appearance. You would, of course, also need to clarify the planning situation with your local authorities, depending on where you are in the world!

Approaching The Build

As I’ve alluded to already, there was an experimental nature to this project, and I was keen to feel my way into the build without too much initial investment. The container in its original state was used for storage, so my worst‑case scenario was that even if I couldn’t turn it into a workable studio space, I would end up with a more comfortable storage/workshop area. With this in mind, I decided against attempting to cut any kind of window into the container, and stuck to a basic soundproofing scheme I have used before: framing the container out to create a Rockwool‑filled cavity, finished off with two layers of dense ‘sound block’ plasterboard.

With lack of width being my main concern, I deliberated about how much space my new internal walls could eat up before it became unworkable. Ideally, from a soundproofing perspective, I would have had a 100mm space and air gap from the external walls of the container, but I decided the most I could ‘lose’ was 150‑200 mm of the total width, or it really would have been a corridor! With...