Studio with Recording room and two Practice rooms

Hi everybody!!! I am looking for some good advices and help how to begin and finish a studio project in the basement of my new house in Novi Sad, Serbia! Studio is for my brother to record stuff with his band but also to run it and offer recording and practice services to other customers. And that's where the problem is since two practice rooms will be very close to actual recording studio so its going to be quite a challenge to do sound insulation and get right acoustics setup. Here is the story from the beginning: LOCATION AND HOUSE DESCRIPTION I am doing a construction of a house with three floors. In the basement I plan to make a recording studio + two practice rooms with live instruments and drums. House itself is in a crowded and condensed neighborhood which means that GREAT sound insulation is a must. Side of the house that you can see from the street is also a side where two practice rooms will be. Control room and recording booth will face the backyard. House will have a driveway on a left hand side that will take you pass the house entrance all the way to the backyard. Like I said construction is brand new and I have already done foundation, concrete pillars, concrete floors/ceilings and outside brick walls. Budget for studio construction only should not exceed more than $20K (excluding the audio equipment of course). USE OF STUDIO, LOUDNESS AND MISSION Studio will be used for recording sessions but it will also offer bands to come and do live practice in one of two practice rooms (practice rooms are very popular and profitable in this market). Considering that there will be two practice rooms that could be occupied at the same time great amount of noise is expected although I am seriously thinking to limit the loudness and not leave it to people who are playing in there. And in some cases it could happen that Recording room is occupied at the same time as two practice rooms and it must remain operational. I don't know if that is possible or not but it would make sense time wise and money wise if you could do those both things at the same time. I am looking for a way to sound proof Practice Rooms and Control room from each other and also stop the noise from getting out on the street as well. STUDIO FLOOR PLAN DESCRIPTION Studio will consist of: Hallway with front desk, two practice rooms on right hand side, control room with recording room on left hand side and restroom (so far). Studio is planned to be a room within a room. I am not sure about floating floor even tough basement has fresh made solid concrete floor. Size: 14,31m x 8,57m (47' x 28') Height: 2,88m (9'5") Concrete Height of Ceiling/First Floor: 0,20m (7.87") Walls are made out of concrete from ground up to 1 meter (3' 3.4") and then bricks are laid on top of that for another 1,88 meters (6'2") on three out of four wall sides. One wall side is all concrete all the way to the ceiling. Windows are there but are fully optional. There are four concrete pillars standing in the middle of the Studio that will form a hallway which will separate Practice rooms 1 and 2 from Control and Recording rooms. Inside the Studio is still one big room that has not been divided according to the floor plan yet. Like I said there are only outside walls, concrete floor and four concrete pillars inside of it so far (No drywalls, no nothing) I would appreciate it so much if someone could take a look at the floor plans and tell me if I am going into right direction or not. [PICTURE 1 and 2] QUESTIONS 1) [PICTURE 3] People that work on this project are mostly concerned about the wall that separates Practice Room 1 from Practice Room 2. They are not sure how to build it in order to get the best sound insulation possible between two rooms. Obviously it has to be some compromise between good insulation and loudness of who ever is playing inside. We got all sorts of advices like one being to make two separate brick walls with air space between them and than fill out that air space with quartz sand. Nice concept but problem is if that sand becomes wet during time and stiffs up. 2) My biggest concern is if Control and Recording room will be useful if one or both Practice rooms are occupied and in use. And how to make that possible. 3) Keep the windows or get rid of them? Get A/C? If so how to implement it This is only the beginning of my little project and I will make sure to update you on progress and hopefully see you soon in Studio Construction section :) In the mean time I would be updating this thread with more pictures from inside the studio and giving out additional information to people that ask me for or if it simply pops in to my head. Thank you so much

Hi Vlad, your floor looks a little damp down there. You will need to include moisture barrier in your budget. If you keep building with blocks/bricks for your dividing walls that will be a great start for isolation. thirdly your live room looks pretty small? Will you only be recording a person at a time?

lilith_envy wrote:

Hi Vlad, your floor looks a little damp down there. You will need to include moisture barrier in your budget. If you keep building with blocks/bricks for your dividing walls that will be a great start for isolation. thirdly your live room looks pretty small? Will you only be recording a person at a time?

Thanks for posting here! I appreciate it. Floor is damp beacause of the fresh concrete ceiling that is still dripping water. Because I live in a region where underground waters are real threat I had to hire an engineer to secure my house from ever being flooded and leaks so I hope I will not have problems with moist down in the basement. People who did the work guarantee it. So brick walls are way to go I guess. I am still not sure about filling the airspace with quartz sand. As far as the recording room goes I guess plan is to have only one person inside at a time.