Starting from square one

Hello audio friends, my name is Billy Cardine and I've just joined the forum. I didn't know it existed until a few hours ago, and it's a delight! I am a full time musician, (slide guitars of all sorts) and I have been engineering records for the last 12 years in a very grassroots fashion. My wife and i have got 13 acres of land just north of Asheville, NC. I'm lucky enough to have an awesome father in law who has a skid-steer and I have managed to cut a swath thru the woods up the side of our mountain and clear a foundation site for a future studio. So I've got this big piece of flat ground, facing south, and a business partner who is a builder! Only thing is, we need a little nudge in the direction of what size/shape the space should be. I work with mostly acoustic instruments and would like to build a room to compliment their sound. I own a couple iso booths made by vocalbooth.com and planned on either moving them up to the new building or selling them and building a drum room, and at least one other iso spot for vocalists. I also would like the CR to be in it's own room. We'll be using mostly 'reclaimed and recycled' materials, and building ourselves, so the only constraints with regards to size are keeping it within reason (for my location, under 40x30'ish) and making the main room a great room to play acoustic instruments in. I've got my ground leveled and am pretty much ready to build with the big exception of not having a clue what to build! And, we'll be using the back side of the mountain that I cut away against the back wall of the studio structure, for erosion and thermal purposes. I'm know there's gotta be a bunch of things I'm leaving out and not considering, but any nudge at all in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!

Of course I read the "Read Before You Post" after I posted. I think i pretty much complied with the exception of not grouping my questions appropriately. Sorry for the confusion! Let me re-iterate my main question... What is a good resource for determining the ideal size and shape of my studio for my variables? Thanks very much in advance. I hope to be able to add some worthwhile info to the forum in the future!

What is a good resource for determining the ideal size and shape of my studio for my variables?

Look directly at your bank account. Edit: Thats a joke son, I told a funny and you ain't laughing :)

Like with anything you'll be doing in life...it comes down to purpose. You very well can't track an entire orchestra in a 4' x 8' booth...so likewise, it would seem inappropriate to build a 40' x 50' live room when you'll just be recording one person at a time. So really - how much space do you need?

As a start, look for roomtune: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2125

I do know how much space I need to work with. i'm interested in learning about some basic configuratons of room design...as in # of walls, ceiling height, dome, hexagonal, etc. I'm trying to get a handle on the expected sonic characteristics of different shaped rooms. Is there a resource for room construction plans and suggestions about what type of room would work out best for what I'm looking to pull together?

xSpace wrote:

As a start, look for roomtune: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2125

Am I talking to myself again?

Try here Billy: http://en.dahnielson.com/2008/03/home-s ... e-and-size 8)

magicdog wrote:

Try here Billy: http://en.dahnielson.com/2008/03/home-s ... e-and-size 8)

Or stay here and learn something just like Dahnielson did. The search function really does work :)

maybe some more questions are in order? what type of studio are you planning? residential (project) studio or commercial? a commercial studio typically will have a lot of different concerns than a home project studio. what type of music do you think you'll mostly record? do you need a large live space or more isolation? what type of noise do you need to keep out or in? neighbors? 30x40 is about 1200 sq ft. presumably you'll be pouring a concrete pad (or pads) for this. do you need bathroom, lounge, reception? as far as rooms, control rooms typically need to be symmetrical and reasonably low reverberation times. live rooms typically want to be large and variable in terms of reverberation time and acoustic qualities. isolation booths normally will be live or dead or variable depending on your needs. room shapes - make everything rectangular if you can. easier to build, design, and treat. make everything with at least 12' ceilings.

Hey, thanks magicdog. i don't have Microsoft Excel, so haven't been able to use roomtune yet, but the link you suggested answered some crucial questions. Gullfo, it'll be mostly for my own projects, but my partner will be working with some regional acts on a part time basis. Mostly in the acoustic vain, but I will need a space for drums. I'll tailor everything in favor of what I need, rather than what a commercial studio should have. i need a good live space (but how to choose what 'flavor' ?) with a few iso's. I have a couple booths from www.vocalbooth.com that have been working out pretty well. i have no neighbors. We haven't decided on the foundation cause we weren't sure what shape and size the building would be. I have cleared a big piece of land but it is on the side of a mountain and there is a fair amount of fill, so unless I push out a good bit more of the mountain, a slab may not work. I had considered renting an auger and putting cement posts in. i do want to include a bathroom. <<<live rooms typically want to be large and variable in terms of reverberation time and acoustic qualities. isolation booths normally will be live or dead or variable depending on your needs>>> How is a room variable? Do you mean according to how it is built, or are there some slick ways of varying the existing room for the project at hand? Thanks for the thoughtful responses, folks.

BillyC wrote:

<<<live rooms typically want to be large and variable in terms of reverberation time and acoustic qualities. isolation booths normally will be live or dead or variable depending on your needs>>> How is a room variable? Do you mean according to how it is built, or are there some slick ways of varying the existing room for the project at hand?

Rooms can be variable by using screens, hanging curtains, having different treatments on some internal walls etc. - all these things allow more flexibility when you are recording as you can move things around and tailor the room sound to suit the project.

exactly! you can hang or remove absorbers off the wall (assuming you build them that way) to expose harder surfaces, etc. or have the treatments reversible like this:

Cool, thanks guys. Sorry for the delay, I had to give Hughes net the Boot, so been out of internet for a week or so. Im using Sketchup, a free cad software from Google to help lay out the design for this studio...I bet you guys have already found that software, but I wanted to mention it just in case...

Glenn, your picture makes me wonder - would it be practical to hinge those (each one) along the narrow edge, so you could flip/swing them one way or the other? I know it would be fine with the soft side out, but don't know if you could get the expected result with the slat side out. Just a thought.

Hey Brian, i was wondering about that too. Good idea. I came up with a really plain studio design. I know it's not very exciting! As a novice, I was just following some of the room size ratios. We are planning to build a rectangle with a green roof (garden...my partner is a passive solar designer) and the back wall will be pressed up against our mountain...i cut away a piece of flat ground on a pretty steep slope, (with good drainage), right up the mountain from our house. Ihe idea I went with on this studio design is for as easy an acoustically pleasing set-up as possible. The Control Room and Drum room ceilings are both a bit lower than the rest of the rooms, though that isn't indicated on the jpeg. The structure itself is based on 15ft. The CR, Main Live room and Drum room all have the dimensions indicated by 1 x 1.14 x 1.39. The iso booths follow the ratio 1 x 1.6 x 2.33, though I flipped the LxWxH to making the H the L, guessing that a box will sound like that box no matter which axis it's based on (is that correct?) The other rooms, bathroom which will be shared with utility and storage and storage room are not to any particular scale. Have i gone the right direction with this thinking or am i totally off track? i don't understand all the curves and angles in some of the studios I see on the internet. They look beautiful, i just wouldn't know where to begin acoustic treatment...and if these ratios and a rectangle are the easiest to treat, why don't i see more rectangles in these fancy studios? Also, i haven't taken into consideration wall and ceiling thickness and know I have to re-do the specific math...I just wanted to see if I was even headed in the right direction! Thanks for checking it out, everyone.

Oops...I'll reload it.

Come on boss...your going to leave us scrolling here? Help an old man out! I'm gettin' vertigo!!!

Man, my bad. Sorry! This oughta be better (see above).

Aloha, Edited your post. Try 700 pixels wide. :wink: Aloha 8)

looks like you're heading in the right direction. then rectangular rooms are good choices as it leave space for the treatments, plus if you have to make them load bearing, it will be easier to construct.