New Studio Design - Opinions & Advice Much Appreciated

Hi there everyone. I've been a long time lurker on this forum and have gleaned loads of useful info from all of you clever people. Inspired by some of your impressive projects I've finally decided to take the plunge myself (with the help of my Dad). We have recently rebuilt a dilapidated workshop/outhouse with a view to fitting it out as a two room recording facility. From reading some of the excellent resources on this forum, what I can understand of the Phillip Newell book(!) and also the Gervais bible I feel like I can achieve my aim of being able to create a place to track drums any time of the day or night without bothering our closest neighbours (about 40 metres away). We currently have a good relationship with our neighbours (since we drove the others away!) and avoid playing loud music past 8pm. Whilst this is great for our relationship with the neighbours it means that we can't record in the evening when we are at our most creative! Our remaining budget is about £7500 for materials & treatment and I am making the construction element the focus of my time when I am not working as a musician (keep the working/musician jokes to a minimum please!) This budget can and no doubt will be stretched to accommodate certain unforeseen elements. We also have a number of friends in the building trade that are always on the look out for materials that might be of use to us. We currently have the walls up and are looking to get the roof on in late August/early September. The structure will have no external windows and we plan to build super doors for the two external doors. We already have a UPVC double glazed tilt and slide patio door unit and are looking to get another made to match for the doors between the live & control rooms. I have found very little information on the effectiveness of patio doors for studio applications but I see many in use in commercial applications. My logic is that the tilt and slide mechanism ensures a more effective compression seal as the door is closed as opposed to the typical slide mechanism of conventional patio doors. Not sure if I'm barking up the wrong tree? We have a friend in HVAC that has worked on a number of studio installs so we are hoping to pick his brains on the ventilation front. We have built the walls up using 100mm solid concrete blocks laid flat to create an incredibly strong 215mm thick perimeter wall. My hope is that this wall will be a great asset as the first stage in isolating the studio from the outside world and vice versa. My Dad is an experienced builder and electrician so I have plenty of support on those fronts but I would appreciate any thoughts you may have on my proposed use of the space. My justification for using the smaller end of the building as the live room is that I am aware that the control room could end up being too small to be an accurate mix room and we will probably track guitars/keys in the larger control room anyway. I am currently exploring the option of building some underground iso booths for guitar cabs etc. but I need to investigate the planning and structural implications of this intention - not to mention a method of digging deep into the solid bed of sandstone! At this stage I am not considering soffit mounting my monitors as I intend to use them on location twice a year and they (Genelec 8040s) are rear ported and also have an uneven baffle. I would certainly consider purchasing monitors for this purpose in the future and would be interested to know if people would recommend building the enclosures into the initial design with a view to filling the cavities with insulation/diffusion and adding the monitors later. For reference, the external wall height is 2.4 metres (8 feet) on the east side and pitches to 3 metres (10 feet) on the west side. I aim to keep as much ceiling height as possible and would be interested in effective treatment whilst keeping the maximum ceiling height (as I am sure we all are). Firstly, at this preliminary stage, can anyone see any glaring errors with my floor plan or maybe suggest a more suitable alternative use of the space? Does anyone have a suggestion for an efficient roof design? - I see plenty of info about ceilings but rarely any info on roofing. From reading the FAQs & Rod's book I can see that my existing wall is considered a single leaf. Would glueing insulation to the inside of this wall enable it to count as part of a double leaf assembly with the other leaf being a stud wall with two or three layers of drywall backed with insulation? I hope that my question is clear? Is this the most effective use of the materials? Would filling the UPVC frames of the patio doors with dry sand be a ridiculous idea (if at all possible?) Does the area marked 'void' need to be blocked up to even up the room under the trapping to avoid causing hassle with the stereo imaging? I must apologise for my crude Sketch Up diagrams, I hope they make sense. Does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong to end up with some of the lines thicker than others? I would very much appreciate any advice that anyone can offer. I hope I've met all of the requirements for a first post. Many Thanks, Olly

Sorry, I must add that the added lines in the second diagram (shape of the control room) would be framing but I'm sure you guessed that. One more question...(for now!) Would it be more appropriate to keep the angle of the glazed doors on the control room side and then straighten out the other glazed unit so it is at 90˚ to the live room wall?

Anyone? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I understand it's a bit of a long post but I'll make sure I keep a diary of the build for all to see... Did I get all of the requirements for a first post? Please let me know if I missed something. Thanks :)

i'd use the void for storage or additional bass trapping. back to back exterior grade sliders with seals will work decently. as far as roof construction goes, if you're doing it from scratch i'd suggest proper angle for water runoff, properly sealed and insulated for conservation as well as reducing rain noise, building code compliant, and then building a separate inner ceiling structure to the studio for isolation. you could soffit mount your speakers but it might be easier to start with them on stands and not frame out the soffits - just set up the CR angles to be symmetrical and use that deep corner for trapping.

A second on Glenn's suggestion. Andre

Thanks guys. Wow Glenn - I tried to work out something like that to make the best use of the space - I couldn't get my head around it. That's why you're the pro designer I suppose!! I'm always amazed at the trouble you go to to provide helpful answers. Thank you very much. I'm still unsure as to the assembly of my walls. I have an existing 215mm solid block wall. A single leaf. I assumed that adding insulation to this wall and then creating another single leaf of drywall and insulation to face would be considered a double leaf construction. Is this correct? As in the second construction, should I add a layer or two of drywall to the face of the existing block work to increase its efficiency or does that compromise the effectiveness of the wall? If I understand the Wall Construction section of Rod's book correctly then there is nothing to be gained from the second design. If I've missed the point then please could someone explain what would be the most effective wall construction? - obviously taking my budget into consideration. I hope the diagrams help illustrate my question effectively. Thanks again.

From what you have described, number 1 in the drawing is better. If you do want to add additional drywall, add it to the inner leaf. Andre