Lofi Studio space - small hupdated skippy thing

Ok, here goes... Where am I? Bolton in the United Kingdom, North West England to be more exact, if you want to find us on a map just look for a rain cloud and we are right under that. I am lead to believe that Noah set up his first boat yard around here What am I attempting to do? At the moment i use the place as a rehearsal room with added recording, i want to go mainly with the recording side with a couple of rehearsals a week. there are very definite limits to how far i can take this room, just want to make sure that i get as near to those limits as i can Where am I right now in the project? the rooms already being used for rehearsals with minimal treatment, and a couple of 'albums' have been recorded here, i had given consideration to moving, but i cant find anywhere the right size, so am gearing up to shut down rip out, rebuild and then grand open type thang. How loud am I? Not had a complaint yet, and in two years i only ever balled out one guitar player, but as i needed ear muffs outside the room it was more a health and safety issue, my neighbors have never complained, but i do go out of my way to recognize and respect their times and days (mainly Muslim residents) What do I record? both sorts, punk and rock, although ska, electronica and one set of guys who just record and sample everything are also fairly frequent visitors, oh and a very healthy dose of metal. What is my budget? £18.50? to be honest it will be minimal at about £2000, but that will be parts only, I can sort the labour myself. as i said the rooms 'usable' so just looking to try and improve whats there and add some aesthetic treatment along the way ... or make the Abbey Road of the north (think i will go for the first option) I will be going for rooms within the room, but only doing what will make a difference, so no floating floors for a start. I want a CR, vocal booth and live area, first idea here :- What do I have to work with? its on the first floor. 9760mm(L)x4330mm(W)x2360mm(H). south wall has three large windows with double glazing that are covered with rockwool and gyprock at the moment, but after they will be full of this stuff (first weak link identified). the only door is in the North West corner, as in right in the corner. now the biggest problem!! the floor!! joists at 400mm, 25mm floor boards, joists are 225mmx50mm aprox, and there is a 250mm void under that to a 2" thick concrete roof to the room below there are also 3 air vents 150mmx150mm. the roof is a flat roof. What’s it made of? brick all around, north wall is a mill wall and about 625mm thick, south and east walls are standard cavity wall, west wall attaches to the mill toilets (the studio is an old storage space). What questions do I have? i will edit this as i think of any more to reflect asking them in the thread. 1. What do i do with the floor? first thoughts are to use the air vents as inputs/expel for air (I wont go to full HVAC as i dont need it) attach a couple of the baffle things that LOU used in his build to silence them down, but just going for air movement. then fill the void with acoustic hangers, very happy to rip all the floor boards up if this is a workable item. replace the boards with Birch ply boards 2400mmx1200mm as the floor boards are not air tight, and replacing them would be cheaper than trying to make them air tight. Iain

I would find a way to put the booth and the computer space inside the live room...it's eating up too much floor space / room volume with these separate spaces. Then turn the control room 90 degrees to the left and back it up into the hole created by the removal of the voice booth. Also, if I was doing this, I would go for simple and straight wall lines, not angled.

i had wondered about getting guitars/drums/cabs in and out of the live area. I will be using a soundtracs Quartz console that is 1700mmx1000mm, when i put the CR left to right i kept ending up with a corridor to allow large equipment movements, back to sketchup methinks, thank you for looking!!! Iain i was looking toward this as inspiration,

is this what you meant?

or may be this? the bib window in the booth would be a sliding one

Here is where my thinking is Iain. I don't know, specifically, studio control room , tracking room layouts, proximity, etc. But I am thinking that square footage which leads to room volume(cubic space) is gold and anywhere you give up square footage it needs to be a super reason. That said, I would look into getting rid of the hall. I keep suggesting to get rid of things but in the end, you have to do what you have to do. I am not in the space so I cannot tell one way or the other about it, everything that I am thinking is based on rooms I have heard, larger being better. That simple.

i just cant work out how to get this sorted :shock: i only have the single entrance and just under naff all square footage, any booth area can be used for storage when rehursing (i can also gain access to other areas for storage on a very limited time bass) and shift stuff to record might have to go back to the north south cr but leave the booth where it is .. Thank you for your help, six words or six pages, its what you read not whats written that counts Iain

Iain, could you post an export of those Sketch up files? (a jpg) and post it here ? I don't have SU installed yet, and it talks a lot easier having the pix right in front of us.

padded cell wrote:

... its what you read not whats written that counts

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for Ro,

xSpace wrote:

padded cell wrote:

... its what you read not whats written that counts

?

just that it matters little how detailed your replys if i am unwilling to read and act on them. Thanks for any help or suggestions you can give Iain

"...replace the boards with Birch ply boards 2400mmx1200mm as the floor boards are not air tight, and replacing them would be cheaper than trying to make them air tight. " /quote Would it be easier still to install the plywood directly on top of the existing floor?

much much easier, just wondered if that very large air gap underneath could be used to try and trap bass frequencies? but if its more work than effect then its ply straight onto the floor boards :D will make some of the baffle boxes Lou had built to baffle the air bricks then. so all of the walls will get floated on neoprene strips, should i go for the floor as well, to try and reduce sound loss only. I know that the consensus is against, but worth an ask .... :wink: Thanks Iain

does this look workable to you guys? apart from the double walls i havent worked on the treatment, just starting with the wall placements at the moment Iain

if i went this way i would put a window from the booth to the 2480 area (drums?) and leave the two non glazed sides of the booth as soft...

Looks like a better usage of space. The tracking room is often asymmetrical (absence of symmetry) as room allows. Where your doors are, if you could move the one wall on the tracking room side about 5-6 degrees into the tracking room, how would that work for you?

if i was to go this way i could build a small cupboard into the void for the computer, or would visa versa be better? Iain

What happens if you flip the design 180 degrees( left to right)? It takes the existing door out of your much needed bass trap area and allows access to the live room via the sound lock/vocal booth?

for a start it would give me a much bigger couch against the back wall. I would not be able to use the vocal booth as storage (which in turn means lazy muso's dont get to off load all their equipment onto me) but more than this, and i mean much more, it solves some of the probs i kept coming up with :D would you mind it i dont draw it as i cant work out how to flip it :oops: indebted!!! Thank you so much Iain

Edit>Select all Tools>Rotate

mercy bucketts :D :D :D

Is that door on the left the exit/entry door? Is it fixed? (didn't see it on ye other pix) If so, I'd move the CR back to the left side. You don't want ppl coming in the live/tracking room while recording. Right? Are there any other, already build, walls in the room? Of is it just one big square room right now? If not wall; you'd be looking into splayed walls a bit more, the rooms are square like this. If you can, change it. You mentioned inspiration on John's design earlier in your thread. Look closely and you'll know what I mean.

rough idea,

Well, if your going this way, you would take the angled wall in the tracking room(with the glass door) and angle it back towards the control room. You still have the angle but gain the floor space.

I have an idea... check GULLFO his profile and check his posts. here's a direct link http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/searc ... hor=gullfo He's done some amazing proposals to other builders this year. Go check ALL his drawings, there's much to be learn concerning floorplan design!