Moving to a new studio, help appreciated

Hello! I appreciate very much this forum since I've learned quite a bit from you guys. First of all, I'm from Santiago, Chile, and here studio design is not a rich culture. Ok, right now I'm renting a new house with some partners, there's going to be a 2nd studio in the same house, plus some offices and some rehearsal rooms for rent. However, what I'm posting here is my space and what I'm concerned about: Basically a control room, a live room and a smaller room for vocals, amps, etc. (for me) Its an old house, built probably with brickwalls or concrete, I couldnt tell but walls look very solid. Ceilings are 2.9 meters high. Flooring is wood on all the rooms. All rooms are independent from each other except for the live room and control room. Also, all you're seeing is on the first floor, and nobody is using the second floor, and probably , nobody will. I don't have exact dimentions for the 3 rooms you see below and I dont think it matters for the kind of questions I have, since I want to design something that will isolate all 3 rooms. I will take care of proper room treatment later. As you can see in the pictures, there is an opening between control room and the live room. Indeed, thats gonna save me from opening a big hole to put a window, however I'm not quite sure how to properly isolate them. Also, I'd like to keep the window on the control room, since natural light is always welcomed. I've read a lot about framing, MAM, double walls, etc, but in this case, we have two rooms conected to each other and the existing wall is a leaf itself, so my questions are : 1 - Whats the best way to close the opening (I want to put a double window there) btw Control Room and Live Room?., should I create a framing in both sides and leave the existing wall like a sandwich? 2.- Lets say I don't want to create a room_within_a_room in the live room (for budget reasons). Will making a new stud-drywall wall on the left side of my control room , isolate it ? 3.- I want to create a RWAR in the vocal booth, in order to crank guitar amplifiers without bothering other people in the house. What could be the best aproach to do so? Believe me or not having existing walls confuse me a lot. It actually looks easier when you have an open space and create walls-air-walls from stratch. 4.- I also want to put a window between the Control Room and the Vocal Both, any advices? I will probably have arround $4000US so I need to make it. However, I visited a friend's studio that has a similar layout than mine, and he didnt create new walls at all. just the existing concrete walls isolated the rooms pretty good, but I wanna make sure that I'm doing the right thing. If I forgot to mention something please let me know! I'm by no means an expert in this matter.. Thanks a lot !! Best Javier

Santiago, CHILE... you should meet up with Stu :)

I'm always open to new friends :D

Hola Javier, y ¡bienvenido! ¡Que bueno ver otro Santiaguino aquí!!! Yo estoy en Vitacura, construyendo un pequeño estudio en mi casa. ¿En qué parte de Stgo. estás tu? Pero creo que sería mejor continuar en Inglés, por respeto a los demás miembros del foro. :) A couple of comments regarding your post:

Ceilings are 2.9 meters high.

Great! More height is good, acoustically!

Flooring is wood on all the rooms.

That might not be so great... Do you mean that it is solid wood flooring glued down to concrete, like the typical "parquet flooring" that is common in many older houses in Santiago? Or do you mean that it is an American style wooden sub-floor, supported by wooden joists down below, with tongue-and-groove flooring (or something similar) on top? If you have "parquet on concrete", then that's fantastic! You can leave it like that if it is in good condition, or just take it all out and use the bare concrete for your floor, or maybe lay laminate flooring on it (called "piso flotante" here, not to be confused with with a "floating floor").

Also, all you're seeing is on the first floor, and nobody is using the second floor, and probably , nobody will.

Great! But you will still need to build an inner-leaf ceiling up there. If you don't, then sound will flank through the ceiling above, and you will not have good isolation. What is the ceiling made of? Is it concrete "losa", or is it wood laid on joists?

I don't have exact dimentions for the 3 rooms you see below and I dont think it matters for the kind of questions I have,

Actually, it does matter: It is important that your control room (CR) is built according to one of the good room ratios, which is the relationship between the height, length and width dimensions of your room. The exact dimensions aren't important for your rough plan of how to proceed in general, but they will be very important when you get to actually designing your inner leaf walls for your control room and live room.

Indeed, thats gonna save me from opening a big hole to put a window, however I'm not quite sure how to properly isolate them.

The easiest method is to fill in the space by building a "leaf" that matches the mass of the existing wall, and install one side of your window in that. Then build a simple 2x4 stud frame a few cm away from that, which will become part of your inner leaf in the control room, with a couple of layers of 15mm "volcanita" on only ONE side of those studs. Fill the cavity between these two "leaves" with rockwool (lana mineral). If you need better isolation, you should use Green Glue between the two layers of drywall, but you can't buy it here in Chile: You have to import it. I need to import some soon, so if you want maybe we could get together and import for both of us in one shipment, to share the costs a bit? It isn't cheap, though!

I'd like to keep the window on the control room, since natural light is always welcomed.

That should be possible. You will need to replace the existing glass with thick laminate glass, then put another pane of thick laminate glass in the inner-leaf wall of your control room. There is a place in Los Cobres de Vitacura that sells the right kind of glass, but it is not cheap!

1 - Whats the best way to close the opening (I want to put a double window there) btw Control Room and Live Room?., should I create a framing in both sides and leave the existing wall like a sandwich?

No. That would create a three-leaf system. Like I said above, the best thing is to build a "wall" that closes up the gap in the wall, and install one window in there. That wall should be built to match the mass of the existing wall. Brick would probably be best, or many layers of drywall on a stud frame. Then you will build the inner-leaf for your CR (control room) as an entirely separate stud frame wall, about 20cm away from all of the existing walls and a new ceiling a few cm below the existing ceiling.

2.- Lets say I don't want to create a room_within_a_room in the live room (for budget reasons). Will making a new stud-drywall wall on the left side of my control room , isolate it ?

Not really! If you only isolate one side of a room, then sound will still be able to get out through the other FIVE sides. If you need good isolation, then you need to isolate all six sides of the room. Tell us about your neighbors. How close are they to your house? What do the municipal regulations say about sound in your area? And what do you plan to record in there? If you need to record drums in your live room, then you definitely need to isolate all of the rooms, all around on all sides, or you might get a nice friendly visit from the pacos.... :)

3...in order to crank guitar amplifiers without bothering other people in the house. What could be the best aproach to do so?

Use the same basic idea: build a stud frame within the existing walls, with a couple of layers of drywall on one side. Build a new inner-leaf ceiling across the top of those walls, also with a couple of layers of drywall. Fill the gap between the walls with rockwool, and make sure everything is sealed air-tight.

4.- I also want to put a window between the Control Room and the Vocal Both, any advices?

Depends on that wall! Is it a load-bearing wall? Brick? Concrete? The basic idea is to cut a hole in that wall, and install one pane of thick glass in there. The other pane goes in the inner-leaf wall of your CR. If that is a load-bearing wall that is supporting part of the second floor, then you will need the advice of a structural engineer to tell you how to proceed. He will probably say that you need to install a concrete lintel across the top of the window frame, extending a long way into the walls on each side. If that's the case, then you probably need to hire someone to do that for you. Don't take chances!

However, I visited a friend's studio that has a similar layout than mine, and he didnt create new walls at all. just the existing concrete walls isolated the rooms pretty good, but I wanna make sure that I'm doing the right thing.

Concrete is a pretty good isolator, but you can still improve things a lot by building the MSM walls that you see all over this forum, and that I outlined above. Good luck with your build! I'd love to drop by your place, meet you guys, and look at the place, if you aren't too far away from Vitacura. Saludos! - Stuart -

Thanks a lot Stu!! I'm actually from Providencia, not too far away. My current studio is located in Salvador/Bilbao, I guess you can stop by whenever you want. About your questions, I'm not really sure about the exact construction of the house, since we only saw it one time.. we will sign the contract next week. But i'm pretty sure is concrete floor under a old long stripes parket kind of floor. Now, the guys we contacted to see our project told me that creating a new leaf on the left side of the control room will do just fine, since its the only wall thats adjacent to the live room, and the front wall is facing the outside. But i'm not quite sure. Logically, framing all over is the best thing to do always, but you know, money is always an issue here. About your answers: 1.- If I fill the gap of the current opening, put a window there, and then put the second window in the leaf of my control room. whats gonna happen with the live room? If we decide to create a inned framing all across the live room, then we will have a 3 leaf system... like (Live room) New drywall wall - Current wall/window - New wall C.R./window What am I confusing here? 2.- Yeah, we plan to record drums, but I guess creating a new framming all across the live room would be very expensive, considering me and the other partners have to invest for the rest of the business (rehearsal rooms, etc) I guess we'll have to first measure the current isolation of the walls itself and then plan whats the right thing to do, maybe just sealing the windows on the live room and puting good doors we'll do fine. I guess 55db at day is the current regulation and 45db at night. 3.- Thats what I thought 4.- Same thing with 1.-.. if I put the first glass on the inner leaf of my control room, and the second glass on the hole we made on the wall.. whats gona happen for the inner leaf of the iso booth? Again, we have 3 leafs.. Thanks again Stu and like I say, you can stop by at my actual studio any time. plus It would be great if you take a look of the new place. My cel is 8 239 1528 and my email is jbassino at mi.cl We (me and my partners) will hire a couple of acoustic engineers to take over the entire project, but I'm the kind of guy that likes to learn his shit so I can suggest other methods or ways to get a more cost-effective solution!

I think I figured out most of my questions, Here is a little design . please correct me if I'm wrong: Since I already have an existing concrete wall, it will act as a leaf itself, so I guessed its NOT necessary to install framing in both rooms, since it will make a 3 leaf system, even if the potential framing on the left room (not shown in the picture) its directly attached to the concrete wall with no air gap.... So, saying that. will only create a room-within-a-room in the recording room will create a pretty good isolation system?