My First Post Ever!! & My First Studio Design (in a 72'

First off,.. I'd like to sincerely thank John for sharing all of his knowledge/experience with the world in such a way that "we" (us regular people) can understand. I have a 72' x 25' concrete building with 10'-7" ceilings and think it's about time I build a studio for the first time in my life. I will equip the studio with my harrison console and bunch of other gear of mine and a few other guys nearby. My drawing doesn't have the rooms labeled, but it's kind of obvious what is what. I also haven't included any of the bass traps or acoustic treatment in the drawing since this is strictly the structural design. As of now I'm thinking of using the auralex U-boats (since I haven't had luck finding any other neoprene pads that I could just slap under the floor joints). 2 x 4 subfloor, triple layered surfaces on the floors, walls, and ceilings with some sort of material between each layer. As of Friday, the zoning department has decided to allow me to put my studio in this commercial building. Now I just have to play by the rules and get a design that myself and YOU can agree with. If you have ANY ideas or considerations about my design, feel free to throw in your $.02 because I can guarantee I'm lacking most of what you guys know or have done already about building a quality studio. Much thanks in advance.

My very first question that I can't stop thinking about is: considering I don't have any doors going directly from either ROOM to ROOM (I have every door open up directly into a hallway instead) do I need any sort of soundlock or make more doors throughout the hallway to keep the sound from traveling where it shouldn't? I notice most designs I've seen have the double door setup which I always thought I wouldn't need but am really not sure. I'd really like to keep the rooms as sound leakproof as possible (which I see why airtight construction is so critical)

I'd like to sincerely thank YOU for reading this: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3231 There will be a quiz...and some of the teachers can get mighty free with the ruler, if ya catch my 700 pixel wide drift!

Thanks for the hint. Sorry about that one. That one was more like a life size floor plan. Mike

You going to read that or no?

Aloha, Whoa! :shock: I got it. :wink: Aloha 8)

How do I delete this thread? I can't seem to get rid of it. Sorry for the hassle. Bye

Who said you need to delete it? What you need now is anything on this forum (mostly on top of the categories) that says "Read this before you post". If you do that (even better than you said you did) nothing goes wrong and you will have the power of this here fine forum at your fingertips. And tons of experiences from guys that are building, planning to build, or have been doing this as a daily routine. Lots of knowledge in here for those who respect the forumrules. Good luck with your studio project!

mike-661 wrote:

My very first question that I can't stop thinking about is: considering I don't have any doors going directly from either ROOM to ROOM (I have every door open up directly into a hallway instead) do I need any sort of soundlock or make more doors throughout the hallway to keep the sound from traveling where it shouldn't?

While I cannot see your door ways laid out on the print, I can tell you that there is a hallway directly in your air. The air part of the mass/air/mass? Anywhere that you have your double walls is defeated due to the single walls and any penetrations directly into the air that should be sealed between your double walls defeats the entire idea:).

Here's a shrunken down version of the 3d layout for some more details. What do you think would be a good remedy for this? Should I make a wall that runs down the hall and have that be the 2nd wall? or could I just put up more divider walls to seperate the areas where there are currently doors? I may also be missing something, so bare with me if I am :-) Thanks, Mike

You have been asked four times in this thread already. There is an announcement at the top of the forum about what to do to assure getting as many responses as possible. The announcement leads to this post. Actually, several people, who are experts on this forum, will not reply if you do not do what is written the post.

I've read through the whole announcement page a few times and am starting to feel more stupid each time I read it. The last time I read it, the only thing I noticed was that I didn't put a location in my profile (it never occurred to me that it wasn't there) But I highly doubt that is what all the fuss is about.... There's more attention on something I am missing in the announcements page that seems now like it's violating some moral code on this site, yet I must be too ignorant to recognize. I'm not sure what to say, thank you for trying to help me though. My aptitude appears to be the equivalence of a monkey :-)

Welcome to JLS RSD! Looking at your plan, the first thing that runs through my mind is SIX ISOLATED SPACES. Oceanway Hollywood only has 5! It is mentioned in the sticky to identify what type of music you will be recording. Is there a reason for the hallway at the back of the building? It takes up a lot of real estate. What is your budget? Also mentioned in the sticky. What are your isolation requirements? Yup, in the sticky. U-boats are untested, or at least no test data has been released on them. Unknown product, not recommended. Why do you think you need a floating floor? Lets work together on this. Andre

Thanks Andre. I personally play rock, blues, and jazz and will of course do lots of my own recordings in this studio, but alot of the other recordings will be of various types of music (I probably can't say because I don't know who will show up once the place is done, and what THEY will play in this studio) I'm hoping to work with recording mostly music that I know well, but myself and the other guys together would like to record all styles of music, and do some film audio, voice overs, etc... The hallway at the back of the building is intended to throw all of the "non studio" stuff such as a lounge area, kitchen sink, fridge, coffee and food type area with possibly a vending machine or such. My budget, well.... I'm prepared to pay "more than I'd like" in order to get this thing working the way it should. But I was HOPING I could keep the construction part to a budget of $50,000.... (I would hope doing the work ourselves could help keep the cost down to this range) Much of my requirements I've sort of left blank because I never know how I may end up using this place because this studio's uses will be so varied (I apologize for the vagueness, it's just that flexibility is important in this case). But I would like to plan for some of these sounds being LOUD so isolation is to the max. I would also maybe use some of the ISO booths just for amps, so small could still be useful for some of the rooms. (How big should a small ISO be to be comfortable for a single vocalist?) My original idea for the floating floor was to use the super W pad from mason industries,.. then I started getting lazy when I saw the U-boats.... Mike

I can't stand to mess this up, so I surrendered my will to a profession :D I decided to have Wes Lachot design the studio after speaking with him for over an hour. I will keep you guys posted as it progresses. BTW, do any of you have any personal experience with any of his designs or studios designed by him? Mike

Good decision to go with a pro. Wes has an excellent reputation. Andre

good thing ;)(: