20'x60' Recording Studio HELP!

Hey! My name is Francesca and I am a 4th year architecture student in Toronto. I am currently working on my Thesis projext which is an Indie Music Record Lable for Youth. I would like to get some opinions as to how to design a recordnig studio to fit in about 20'x60' space. The building is very old with solid brick construction. The space also has a set of stairs that gives access to the rest of the building. If anyone has some advice or starting points, I would greatly appriciate it! Thank You!

Seems like a 4th year architectural student would be more detailed then this? Maybe it is just me :) Too many variables as you would know. One thing that comes directly to mind is that you know where you are geographically and the types of common materials used for building, in your area. Anyone looking into this project would say a lot of things, then would be corrected because "we don't do that or have that" or " Oh, and there is a pole in the middle of the floor". Good luck, Brien

well the space i am considering is on the third floor of my building, the interior is free of any structure...so its free game. the exterior is solid brick, with all the standard building code requirments for a residential building. in response to your question, the building is in TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA most of the construction here is light wood framing, however since my building is quite old, its constructed with mostly brick... i just would like the basic elements of a recording studio, bare bones

Unfortunately there are no basic elements or bare bones when it comes to building a studio. Some people even spend years just on the layout of the space, and which materials they can or cannot use in there situation, not to mention how the existing structure is built, how the new structure will be built, and every detail involving acoustics of each individual room. I think it's almost like a puzzle, certain aspects have to go together, if you're missing one, u can't continue on until you find it. I would be willing to say that your best bet is to read the stickies and the threads on the forums, and try to learn as much as possible from what people here are doing, and as an architectural student you shouldn't have too much trouble getting through the terminology. :D

Thank you for your positive response...i definitely will look deeper into the stickies and threads

thanks for all your help...

No Problem

Francesca21 wrote:

well the space i am considering is on the third floor of my building

First thing you want to do is get familiar with the term flanking, if it is not already part of your lexicon. Anything that gets off the ground and tries to contain sound will be held hostage by flanking, air borne and structure borne vibration. Think of sound as air filling a balloon and this may be more clear as an example. Then you'll want to look into wall / floor assemblies, weight per square foot and how it will interact with the building. Mass is a barebones requirement to contain sound [sound proof, isolation,etc.] The more you have the better your isolation is. The question is, can your floor and wall assembly on the third floor stay standing with this additional load. And if it can, does the building have enough rigidity to stop this solid mass from making the building itself become the noise maker. A typical question asked here is "how much in dB do you need in isolation"? I haven't seen a typical answer :) But they are all different with different expectations based on different modes of thinking. A solid brick building and I am betting it has a solid wood framed floor assembly. This is your Achilles heel. You need mass and mass is heavy. You require mass because you are on the third floor. It could be the second floor, you would still need it. If you were lucky enough to be on the ground floor, the weight issue is reduced. Flanking is always an issue, but you will have far better results on the ground then in the air. But you may not be referring to isolation. Maybe you just want a "good" sounding room. Then this is a different process all together. Too little information to be accurate, but these are the things you will face in this space.