Studio build in Spain by novice

Hello, I originally posted my questions in the Studio Construction forum but I believe we have to go back to square one , so it's now a design question. My original post will be of help so here's link viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11603 My question now relates to the overall design. Imagine a large T. The horizontal bar of the T is a 40cm thick stone wall, stones held together by cement. To the left of the vertical bar of the T is the control room. On other side is live room. Obviously that stone wall is common to both, which I believe is very undesirable? The trouble is, the stone wall is very beautiful, so we don't want to hide it by doing room within a room construction in live room. Question: Is there any way we can keep that stone wall as it is, or is the idea a total non-starter? Thanks in anticipation of help.

We've also been considering buying an old stone outbuilding for a studio in Spain, so have been doing some reading about the pros and cons of having a stone wall. I wouldn't necessarily say that it is "very undesirable", as this depends. For the control room part of it, you generally would want the room to sound as neutral as possible, and there is a lot of help in these forums for that - if you search for Wes Lachot's control room design and read up about reflection free zones/the problems inherent in any room, that might be a useful start. As for the live room side of things, having a stone wall would be not a problem at all, as far as I'm aware; rather you might find yourself with a room that gives you special character you might otherwise not achieve. On the whole, you would still want to eliminate general room problems such as flutter echo. Unless you're aiming for a completely dead or really neutral space to record in, I would keep the beautiful wall, at least in the live room!

Hello, great minds! Recording studio in Spain. You're in Oxford and thinking of buying here - which region? It took us along time to decide and find. Thanks for replying. Yes, we really appreciate acoustic and visual properties of that lovely stone wall. Just very worried about flanking fron live to control room...major headache. Good luck with yours. Feel free to ask if you need re materials - it is not easy here!

Hi La_inglesa. There are a lot of basic questions that you didn't answer, so it's really hard for folks to help you, if you don't provide that info. 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 in the post. Many others who are very helpful, will not reply out of respect for the moderators' wishes. For example: How loud are you? How quiet do you need to be? (both of those in real numbers). What do you want to accomplish? What budget do you have available to work with? What do you record? etc. etc. etc. A 40cm solid stone wall might be perfectly fine for you, or it might be the worst idea in the world, depending on the above factors, and others. An accurate SketchUp model of the space, and maybe a few pictures would help folks get a much better idea of what you have, and then they can suggest what you could do with it. - Stuart -

Hi Stuart, Sorry, I did read it but obviously not well enoough.... I will go away and come back again trying harder! Thanks

We're looking around Malaga near Antequera, and Subbetica area. And you?

That's a beautiful area. We've ended up in Valencia. I don't see much social chat in forums so will stop here!

Trying harder! First problem – I can’t format text to underline or bold OVERVIEW Please bear in mind that I am a real novice, but have had some help along the way so far. Existing space, average internal dimensions Metres 9.40 x 3.75 x 3.10 high Feet 30’ 10” x 12’ 3” x 10’ 2” high Average because the whole building is old and of rural construction and I don’t think there are any true right angles in it anywhere. Existing walls on 3 sides 40cm stone and cement. Would guess that stone is some sort of sandstone. Definitely not granite. One long side of structure is open. Ceiling / roof terrace beams one end are blocks threaded on metal rods (a local thing) and other end are cement. Holding up cement ceiling / roof terrace with ceramic tiles on top Want to convert this to a control room and live room, suitably isolated / separated for recording mostly bands (of any music genre but probably mostly rock / pop) and mixing. Neighbours are other side of single lane road (about 8’ wide?) and their house is also thick stone walls. Top two foot or so of our stone wall this end is only hollow blocks, laid so that wall is still 40cm thick, so weak point. So want to put control room this end. No neighbours other end. Given height (aircon ducts) and width restrictions and desire to have folk listening at times in control room, we expect id of control room to be 3.2 x 3.7 x 2.7m high (10’ 6” x 12’ 2” x 8’ 10” high). We think we have insufficient space to splay walls. Construction did start but we’ve put this on hold. For several reasons need to resume ASAP. Second problem - copying in this from Word my diagrams disappeared. Will produce in sketchup and upload. Neighbour Road This end is where we put control room HOW LOUD ARE WE Errrm – I am a novice Drummer max 120 dB ? Mixing 85 – 90 dB ? Band listening to mix a bit louder 110dB ? Spanish ways are very different – it’s so hot here in summer people (including children) sit out in the street chatting till 2 in the morning. We will not record after 10 or 11 p.m. Although neighbourhood is generally quiet, there are noisy peaks when neighbours talk to each other during day – they all shout and there’s the odd burst of loud music being played. Also the odd motorbike (whiney kind, not Harley), dog bark, and one dog howls almost constantly. Biggest external noise problem is in summer months when hundreds of cicadas chirp(?) in a row of pine trees about 30m from us. I’ve read that at 3m, a cicada produces 60dB. As room is currently open on one side I have not yet bought one of those gismos to measure levels, but will. I forgot to say HOW QUIET WE NEED TO BE when I posted this earlier. Spain I'm told is the second noisiest country in the world, and despite speaking excellent Spanish I still haven't fully understood exactly what the law is. They do seem to be years behind e.g. UK in implementation. Additionally I have been unable to find an official source on permitted noise levels - loads of official documents but no mention of actual dB. Second hand sources say 55dB during day and 45dB at night. Noise will not be continual but I would guess if we are not to annoy neighbours, generally noise should be in region below 50dB with occasional louder short peaks. As I said earlier, we are just as worried by those noisy cicadas. CONSTRUCTION A lot of typically used materials are not available here e.g. Stop Gap, and Green Glue has a four week lead time (we really need to start sooner.....) What we had envisaged is on my construction post, and there are some material details there. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11603 The floor – isolated concrete slab laid directly on bare earth with low water content and no direct contact with bedrock. BUDGET For finished construction, €9000. The less we can spend, the better.... Plasterboard prices range from €8 - €20 per m2 according to spec Hollow 20cm block filled with sand and rendered on one side max €30 per m2 (best guess as builder gave me quote for all walls) Spanish rockwool product Rocdan 231/40 (40mm thick) €7.84 m2 Sika Flex 11FC €70 for 12 x 300ml tubes QUESTION So, back to original question. Is there any way we can do this (where the dotted lines represent new walls of 20cm hollow concrete blocks filled with sand) without having to build room within a room in live room, thus preserving the view of the long stone wall at the back (top of diagram)? Again, diagram gone awol, will do in Sketchup Once I have submitted this I will try and upload photos. Thanks

I can now see where bold and underline are This is a very poor diagram of existing situation (I'm even more novice at sketchup)Sorry, this doesn't seemed to have worked - will try again And that hasn't worked either - sorry, totally lost Finally got photos to upload properly

More photos

Very bad Sketchup of what we hope to be able to do - see original question I still don't know if forum users can actually see these diagrams?

How do I send a private message ?- it apperas in outbox but I do not know if it has been sent or not.

lilith_envy -pm was to you. Did you receive anything? I am not sure I'm pressing right buttons here.