New Studio Build

Hello all, I am new to the forum and I have read the guidelines and will try to comply. I am designing a new studio with a friend who is a successful TV Commercial composer, sound designer, songwriter, music producer, mastering engineer and voiceover artist. The studio is being built out of the existing garage space in his new Malibu, CA home. As you can see from the description he is very versatile and will use the studio for all of these purposes. I have attached a JPEG of a rough Sketch Up rendering of the existing interior dimensions and geometry of the space and this rendering also includes an indication of where we are adding walls, a machine room, etc. I have tried to clearly indicate these things in the file. I have placed a chair in the realtive mix position we are considering. The monitors are Barefoot Sound MicroMain27's but are not indicated in the file rendering yet. The location of the machine room right now is being determined by the existing window opening which we plan to us for a window exchange AC unit. This will cool the machine room and provide cold air through silent ducting into the main studio. You will also notice that there are some walls where we are not adding new interior walls. This is because these walls are thick stone masonry as is also the case with the ceiling/roof. They have significant mass and we don't think we will have to add anything there. We are planning on using a double 2x4 framed wall construction with a gap between walls. No drywall in the gap. R14 insulation in both walls and double 5/8" drywall on the inside and outside walls with Green Glue between layers. One thing that we are sort of going back and forth on is whether or not we should consider moving the machine room and mix position to take advantage of the existing sloped ceiling over the back half of the space. This will add time and cost but we are open to it if it is significantly better. Also, we are currently planning on building a freestanding 6' x 4 ' IsoBooth using plans from dawbox.com. We will place this in the back of the room next to the machine room. We would like to open up this to discussion on the forum. our intial questions are; 1. Should we move the mix position to take advantage of the sloped ceiling? 2. Should we consider building a true IsoBooth instead of a freestanding/removeable one? 3. Any general suggestions you think we should consider? Cheers, LittleTokyoRodan

"This is because these walls are thick stone masonry as is also the case with the ceiling/roof." What sort of prepping do you guys intend to do to this area before the build? Taking any notes on that garage door? They can be tricky :) I really want to see that ceiling/roof:) Oh, and that pix could be downsized to 700 pix width and no body would get upset ;)

We plan on framing in the garage door opening and sealing it and then building the interior wall with a 1" gap between. As for the masonry walls and roof deck above we could take some pics and post them. They are pretty massive but we are going to do some SPL tests to confirm the amount of sound transmission. The interior walls/ceiling are already finished and drywalled but if we have to we could add another layer of sheetrock with green glue to further reduce any transmission through those walls. Another thing that I neglected to mention in my original post is the location of the studio/house is very isolated from neighbors and extremely quiet. The ambient noise levels are minimal since it is located high up in the Santa Monica mountains of Malibu. Also, our budget is somewhere in the 5-10k range.

Why not begin by adjusting your picture size to meet the guidelines? Then people won't have to scroll sideways to read posts. Rod

Guys, My good friend has been helping with this. He is out of pocket at the moment. We both apologize for the big pic. Here is the Sketchup file itself. Hopefully within the guidelines, etc. Thanks to all for help with the journey.

Also, Mr. Gervais, we are reading your book like it is gospel. Nice to see you here!

rod gervais wrote:

Why not begin by adjusting your picture size to meet the guidelines? Then people won't have to scroll sideways to read posts. Rod

Done. Sorry about any inconvenience. We are eager to hear if anyone has some feedback for us on our questions. Thank you.

1. Should we move the mix position to take advantage of the sloped ceiling?

No.

2. Should we consider building a true IsoBooth instead of a freestanding/removeable one?

We do not know all your requirements. I would not. The space is small as it is.

3. Any general suggestions you think we should consider?

The garage door opening will be your weak link in isolation. Fill it with as much mass as you willing to up matching what the outer wall construction is, or duplicate the outer wall construction just inside the garage door. Andre

[/quote] The garage door opening will be your weak link in isolation. Fill it with as much mass as you willing to up matching what the outer wall construction is, or duplicate the outer wall construction just inside the garage door. Andre[/quote] Well, we could do the same type of stone masonry on the outside, but then we lose the appearance of a garage. Not necessarily a bad thing, just not what we had planned. The plan was to remove the door and frame the space. Construct a massive wall and then use the door siding on the outside, so it still looks like a door. I'll try to get some pics this weekend and post them up here so you know what I'm talking about.

Chappy wrote:

The plan was to remove the door and frame the space. Construct a massive wall and then use the door siding on the outside, so it still looks like a door. I'll try to get some pics this weekend and post them up here so you know what I'm talking about.

From what you are wrote, I believe that we are on the same track. Pictures are not necessary, but hey will not hurt and will help other people reading this topic to understand better. Andre

AVare wrote:

Chappy wrote:

The plan was to remove the door and frame the space. Construct a massive wall and then use the door siding on the outside, so it still looks like a door. I'll try to get some pics this weekend and post them up here so you know what I'm talking about.

From what you are wrote, I believe that we are on the same track. Pictures are not necessary, but hey will not hurt and will help other people reading this topic to understand better. Andre

Great. Always happy to help others, as I am grateful to have the input. cheers, Chappy

AVare wrote:

1. Should we move the mix position to take advantage of the sloped ceiling?

No.

2. Should we consider building a true IsoBooth instead of a freestanding/removeable one?

We do not know all your requirements. I would not. The space is small as it is.

3. Any general suggestions you think we should consider?

The garage door opening will be your weak link in isolation. Fill it with as much mass as you willing to up matching what the outer wall construction is, or duplicate the outer wall construction just inside the garage door. Andre

Andre, any suggestions on how we can get a good seal around the opening when we frame it in?

littletokyorodan wrote:

Andre, any suggestions on how we can get a good seal around the opening when we frame it in?

Use acoustic caulk with backer rod to fill the gap between the wall and frame. Andre

AVare wrote:

1. Should we move the mix position to take advantage of the sloped ceiling?

No.

2. Should we consider building a true IsoBooth instead of a freestanding/removeable one?

We do not know all your requirements. I would not. The space is small as it is.

3. Any general suggestions you think we should consider?

The garage door opening will be your weak link in isolation. Fill it with as much mass as you willing to up matching what the outer wall construction is, or duplicate the outer wall construction just inside the garage door. Andre

Also, are you suggesting that we forego an IsoBooth all together? As I mentioned in the original post, the client will be doing VO work as well as composing, mixing and mastering in the same space. Our goal is to make a small space into a mixing/tracking combo room. Would you recommend that we just go with moveable baffles and just focus on making the room quiet by locating the CPU, Drives, etc. in the machine room as we are planning on doing anyway?

I gotta have a booth. I like the modular concept, since this won't likely be the last room I'm in. Perhaps it doesn't have to be 4 x 6, but .... gotta have a booth.

Well here is our progress, if anybody is interested. http://gallery.me.com/stoneskipper#1000 ... olor=black