Making a useable composing & mixing studio in bedroom

Hi everyone, I've learned a lot here and am hoping to get some specific information. My wife and I are buying our first house and I will be using the second bedroom as my studio. The room measures 12'6" x 11' and I am trying to figure out the best positioning for acoustic treatment. We are also having some electrical work done to the house, so I will be able to create a circuit just for this room. We are also having central air conditioning installed. Background Info The house is located in southern California and was built using post and beam construction in 1940. We are hopefully taking possession the last week of February. All work will take place after that. I do not need to have a soundproof room, but I would like to be conscious of how any decisions I make will increase or decrease isolation. I will primarily be composing and mixing music in the room as well as recording electric guitars, acoustic guitars, and vocals. I'm usually working alone, but do have clients and musicians in the studio sometimes. I currently have 6 traps (4'x2'x4") and I am planning to buy more once I get in the studio. Air Conditioning There will be one vent installed in this room. I have asked the contractor to not share this duct work with any other room to help avoid noise passing from room to room. I have also asked that he take into account the extra heat that will be generated by the equipment in the room. Is there anything else I should be aware of? Electrical The house is going to have a new panel installed for the air conditioning and other reasons. I asked the electrician to create a separate circuit just for the studio room. He is also going to run new wire to this room and will be adding 2 new outlets. All outlets will be 3 prong. I'm not sure how to calculate the amount of power I will need, so I just told him to figure it would be the same as a high end home theater setup. I know nothing about electricity and wiring, so I'm not sure how to add up the requirements of my gear. Any tips? Is there anything else I should think about for electrical wiring? Acoustics I will be using my 6 current broadband traps. I would like to hang six 2" thick traps from the ceiling to create a very large cloud. (I will also be using this to hide some rope lighting to create indirect light for ambiance) I'm not sure what would be the best choice for the positioning of the traps in the corners. Because of the small size of the room, I'd like to keep as much of the treatment at the wall/ceiling corners as possible. With monitors that are ported to the front, will I need some traps on the wall directly behind them?

Two possible acoustic layouts. I could also mix and match. The first has one trap in each of the 4 wall/ceiling tri-corners and one behind each speaker. The second possibility is to run 3 traps down the length of each long wall ceiling corner. I'm also concerned about the early reflection points at each side of the desk, but this is made difficult by the placement of the large window to the right side. I may have to use 2" thick panels on stands when doing critical mixing. I'm open to any other suggestions... Thanks for reading and any input you can provide!

you should put the side reflection controls in place. you have enough windows there that you're not going to lose a lot of daylight by covering one or two up.

Thanks for the input Glenn. I'll be sure to add side panels to the list. I'd still love to get some more feedback...

Have you looked under the house/room yet? If it isn't insulated I would have it done, or do it. I don't know if you are installing a central air conditioning unit for this room alone or for the whole house, that isn't quite clear to me.

The central air conditioning will be for the whole house. There is not any insulation below the house. I'll have to look into getting some installed. Is that a difficult job to do myself?

depends on your skills... you might take the time to beef up the floor in terms of mass (if its a source of sound leakage into other areas and assuming it can support the added weight) prior to adding the insulation.

gullfo wrote:

depends on your skills... you might take the time to beef up the floor in terms of mass (if its a source of sound leakage into other areas and assuming it can support the added weight) prior to adding the insulation.

I'm not sure I'm clear about how this would work. Is this something that would be done below the house (in the crawlspace)? Is this something I need to have a structural engineer look at to determine if the floor can support the weight?

you might start with measuring how much isolation you need by running some tests with a sound level meter inside, outside, etc to see how much sound is getting in or out. if the crawl space is sealed from the outside (or mostly sealed) it might be a non-issue.

Thanks for all of the advice Glenn. We are closing early next week and I will be able to start checking the isolation levels. My previous electrician has disappeared, so I have two other electricians coming over tomorrow to give me estimates. I'm wondering if I should ask to have two dedicated circuits run to the room. Does anyone have any advice on this end of things? Anything else I should be looking at or asking them about?

I'm putting in two independent circuits because I've learned the hard way. One circuit will be dedicated to all sound reproduction/reinforcement/recording, the other for everything else...lights, HVAC, lava lamp, and most importantly, the beer fridge.

DCinFrance wrote:

I'm putting in two independent circuits because I've learned the hard way. One circuit will be dedicated to all sound reproduction/reinforcement/recording, the other for everything else...lights, HVAC, lava lamp, and most importantly, the beer fridge.

After talking with the electricians I've decided to go with two dedicated 15 amp circuits for audio gear. All of the outlets will have their own ground. The lighting will be on a separate circuit. Hopefully this covers all the bases.

generally - try to get the electronics on a single phase, star grounded system. the lights, motors, etc should all go onto another phase. electricians may balk due to "load imbalance" but your studio electronics are probably not going to be a huge load so finding one of your phases with the least amount of induction and other noise will be best. if not, consider isolation transformers etc... maybe post questions in the wiring forum.