New Studio Construction, Dallas, TX

Hello all, this is my first time to post to this forum, although I have been reading posts on here for years now. I have been tasked with a project where I am designing a studio for a client here in Dallas. The project hasn't been in my court the entire time. They already had walls up, spray foam insulation in, and the ac designed. I am basically trying to take their existing layout, and tweek it to where it will work better for the client. I started by having them tear down some existing walls that were going to be used for an isolation and drum booth. The new design takes their existing control room, and builds out a vocal booth, isobooth/airlock, and the main tracking room. I have done a ton of research on this site, so I hope that I have gotten to the point where I can post design ideas. I am a bit nervous though! So here is my third draft. My ceilings are 9'6". They actually did the air and electrical properly. The "P" shaped room is existing and I am trying to make that room work for the control room. Any assistance would certainly be appreciated. Also, we are looking to spend somewhere in the ballpark of $30,000 on materials for the installation. Because there is a mechanics shop across the street, we also plan to float the floor. My plan is to use U-Boats, and float the floor on 2 x 4s (because of the low ceiling) stuffed with 2" mineral wool and covered with a layer of 5/8" plywood, sheet block, and finally 3/4" partical board (mdf). As you can see, the room is already built inside of an existing warehouse. I plan on floating the floors, and building additional rooms inside of that room....if that makes any sense! That should address the issue of mechanics reving engines at all hours of the day. On the outside walls of the studio plan, there is about 1' of spray foam insulation on top of 4 inch insulation that insulates the entire warehouse. They basically built walls 1' in and fulled the cavity with the spray foam. That is why I want to build the rooms inside of these rooms to give some air mass between the layers. This is a warehouse district, so noise is not a factor. I am not trying to build a space that needs to be isolated to the surrounding area, but rather isolated from. The entrance to the studio is through the ISO booth, so it will serve as an air lock as well. It isn't drawn on the current design. If you have time, I would appreciate comments on the general design and layout of the rooms, placement of diffusion, panels, and bass traps, and if you have any suggestions on how to make that control room work better, I am certainly open to them! The guys that I am doing this for are ready to start swinging hammers as soon as I can supply them some plans, but I am in no way in a hurry. I want to do it right. That is why I am here! Thanks for the help!

What caught my eye is that your control room is not symmetrical at all, and has a large kink in one wall! From what I've learned here, that's pretty bad. If I understand the concepts right, you'll have a hard time ever doing a decent mix in there, since your stereo image will be totally shot, and your mixes won't translate well at all. If you ask me, that "kinked" wall would be the one that I'd tear down, and replace it with something that allows the control room to be absolutely symmetrical. FWIW. - Stuart -

Just a suggestion: how about turning your control room 90 degrees to the right, so that it occupies the space currently marked "vocal booth", and has a direct view into the main room? Then you can put the vocal booth where the rear part of the control room is on your plan, behind the iso booth. That would solve your symmetry problem, and seems to be a better use of space, too. - Stuart -

I have a fourth version that does exactly that, butting the control room in the middle, and removing that vocal booth. I think I will continue working through those plans and see if I can move forward with the client and a more assymetrical room. That kink has been a thorn in my side. I already had them tear down two booths that were entirely in the way of a good design, and was trying to find a way to make this wall work. I agree...but fear the response of asking them to tear something else down. These guys spent allot of money on poor advice, and I am trying to dig them out with the least amount of demolition possible. Here is a quick draft of a center control room version.

Aloha & welcome to the forum, Any chance you could post a skp file of your space? It'll make it easier to put up a few ideas. Aloha 8)

Here is the studio as it currently exists. It has 2x6 construction with spray foam insulation filling between the joists. I appreciate your help!

Aloha, In Rod Gervais’ book “Build it Like the Pros,” http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5670 he points out both L.W.Sepmeyer’s & M.M. Louden’s formulas most widely used in professional studios worldwide. He also notes that the orders listed are (top to bottom) the first to third best ratios in both cases. L.W. Sepmeyer 1.00 1.14 1.39 114” x 129.96” x 158.46 9’6” x 10’8” x 13’2” M.M. Louden 1.00 1.40 1.90 114” x 159.6” x 216.6” 9’6” x 13’3” x 18’ Eric Desart on Louden’s Ratios 1.00, 1.35, 1.85 114” x 153.9” x 210.9” 9’6” x 12’8” x 17’6” So, in regard to the basic layout of the control room, perhaps something like this? 9'6 x 13'3" x 18' Notes: • doors, windows yet to be added • relocate rear door to center of rear wall to keep rear corner bass traps intact • room may be a bit short for diffusers on the rear wall Here are some bits of info collected along the way. Use what is applicable. • It is better to start with a longer front to back dimension than the side to side dimension because you don't want rear reflections to interfere • Soffits angled 30 deg. in from a flat wall result in speaker baffles being perpendicular to the two legs of equilateral triangle comprised of two speaker centers and a point about 10" behind your head • The baffle extension (the face of the soffit) should be as large as you can make it, up to about 45" in each direction from the woofer in a system with a LF cutoff of around 45 Hz - There's a formula based on LF cutoff that ensures full 2 pi response for the woofer if the baffle is at least the size obtained in the formula's solution - • Distance to wall behind speakers will change response drastically - there is a wall bounce calculator on the Acoustics forum that's fun to play with (needs Excel) • Moving either speakers or your head by as little as an inch or two can sometimes make drastic changes in response, due to modal peaks and dips. • Left/right room symmetry (at least within a foot or two of ear height) is important for good stereo imaging. • Roughly 38% of total room length from the front wall • Equilateral triangle formed by left, right mix position • Monitors should NOT sit on the console but either soffit mounted or behind, placed on heavy decoupled stands - console placement causes early reflection problems in most cases, unless the console is slanted down in front a LOT. • Monitor angles 60 degrees (30 degrees each) • Monitor height – tweeter at ear level (avoid woofer @ midpoint of floor to ceiling measurement – either sit higher or lower if necessary) If you want to mount them high you must angle them down so that they point at the engineer. • Angled side absorption panels – left/right of mix position • Side walls 6-12 degrees • Ceiling 12 degree slope Hope this helps, Aloha 8)