Studio Build in Orlando, FL, well Winter Park.

Hey Guys, Ive been lurking here for many a fortnight and i think i have absorbed as much as i can without bothering you fine people, the brain trust, with specific questions. I have also read Rod's book, bookmarked several pages, and i have the blueprints for a fairly famous studio here, Once owned by a tax evading boy band producer. Anyway, i have designed my control room loosely based on the blueprints from this studio, with some modifications for my purposes. The Space is a 1300 sqft warehouse (30' wide and 40') deep with 18 foot ceilings, Concrete Slab floor, Concrete Block walls, and a flat plywood ceiling. there is NOTHING built in it, in it, except a ton of gear and a bathroom, so i can really build the space how i need it to be. I would like to build a control room and leave the rest of the warehouse for tracking. (I may build a small iso booth later, but that's a little further away.) I plan to build the control room in the back left corner because the circuit breaker box is already there, and i want to expand at some point. It will be a Room within a room, with the rest of the warehouse around it for tracking, so essentially, a room built totally inside another room, without the isolation advantage of closing in the tracking space, does that make sense? The walls will be either independently framed metal studs or staggered stud wood. with at least two layers of drywall per side, with green glue between. I also plan to "float" the floor on 2x6s filled with sand, pretty much only so i can run cable under the floor. yes, alot of work, but HOW COOL IS THAT GONNA BE!? The warehouse is in an industrial area, so there's a ton of noise outside, and a ton of noise inside. i understand the principles of acoustic isolation between myself and the outside world, and when that needs to happen ill be back! But at the moment im asking specifically about the control room. ANd i record alot of drums, so, isolation in the control room is groovy. ;) isolation to the outside world is secondary at this point. So my ratio is 1, 1.40, 1.90, i plan to use a double insulated sliding glass door for entry and visibility. Budget is coming together. Id rather hear reccomendations, figure out how much they are going to cost, and then build a budget from there, i can GET money to build stuff, but i need to know where it is going and how much i need. SO my questions are: How to i run the AC into the control room and keep the sound out? At the moment im thinking multiple 90 degree turns made from ductboard and then layered on the outside with either drywall or MDF, so its actually a two layer duct for thermal insulation and also acoustic isolation. Any notes on the room design would be fantastic. Thanks in advance for everyone's help! Chris (still trying to figure out how to post my 5 meg Sketchup File, any advice would be well appriciated!)

Howdy Chris! Welcome to the mighty JLS studio build forum. You already figured, THIS is the right spot for studio builds :) Ordering Rod's book is another great step taken. Bravo. In your introduction you say you've read this forum, still I read things that makes me go "hmmm, dunno about that". Double leafed walls inside another leaf. It kinda depends on your design (how close are the exterior walls and internal walls (your studios)). Floating floor on an already concrete floor.. you sure? Check them stickies on that. Your .skp file is too big too post. Well, why not make 2D exports (.jpg for example) and post them here. Begin with an empty building, add dimensions. An 18' ceiling gives potential for a room-in-room :) You also might wanna "flush" your .skp file for dirty obsolete entries... (F1 for help) Looking forward for your pix :)

Hey Ro, Correct me if i am wrong, but two layers of drywall on one side of a framed wall is still only one leaf correct? Ive read alot about the various leaf arguments and i think i get it however im probably just not stating my intentions clearly enough. As the control room is a monolith unto itself, i was thinking the only way to properly isolate it would be to make it its own two leaf construction and let all the tracking and drum chaos exist around it. I plan to use a two leaf system with two layers of drywall on each side of a staggered stud wall. ANd, im not looking for any dramatic sound isolation from the floating floor, its pretty much strictly for cable management. Ill re read some stuff and re post, thanks for the heads up. Take Care Chris

I also plan to "float" the floor on 2x6s filled with sand, pretty much only so i can run cable under the floor. yes, alot of work, but HOW COOL IS THAT GONNA BE!?

I'm not sure I understand the purpose of doing that at all: If you build it with 2x6's and fill the gaps with sand, then it won't be floating at all. It will just be a bit more mas on top of a lot of mass, directly coupled to it, so it won't float and won't help you with isolation at all. If you just want to run some cable ducts, then why go to all the trouble of floating a floor that doesn't float? Why not just run the cable ducts in the air gap between your two-leaf (three-leaf? dour-leaf?) walls? Much easier, much cheaper.

ANd i record alot of drums, so, isolation in the control room is groovy. ;) isolation to the outside world is secondary at this point.

I guess I'm not understanding things very well today, because that doesn't seem to make much sense either! You say that the are is extremely noisy, yet isolation is not important? You say it is noisy, yet you want to track drums in there? I don't see how you can track drums in a noise industrial site without any isolation, nor why a well-isolated control room would help you track those drums better. I guess I'm just dull today!

Hey Soundman, Before i had any AC in the space, we recording drums for a few albums in the summer with the 12 foot roll up warehouse door wide open and fans cranking and the sounds on the album didnt suffer. Im trying to attack my various isolation problems in order of importance, given that there is not an infinite amount of money to be spent. The process of isolating the recording space from the outside world will be awesomely expensive in a way that staggers the most jaded among us. so i have to take the improvements of my space in stages, as i can afford it, beginning with the most helpful, which i think will be the control room for alot of reasons, not the least of which being protecting my ears from the drummers and making the kids think im super cool cause i have a control room. Anyway, running the cable in the walls is certainly a possibility, but it makes adding new cable rather difficult and thats why im here, to try and find some holes in my plan. Again, elevating the floor is not for isolation, its for cable management, and that might be out the window too at this point. Thanks Guys

Elevating the floor is a bad idea. It'll introduce resonances which are higher in frequency than your already concrete floor has. If it's "just" for cable management I'd look into a better solution. Elevating the floor will also take up, precious, space. To name a few...

but it makes adding new cable rather difficult and thats why im here, to try and find some holes in my plan.

You could install conduit in the walls / ceiling. Use oversize conduit, and install more than you need: If you figure you need 4 parallel pieces of 20 mm conduit, then install 6 pieces of 32 mm.... That way it's easy to install new cables in the future. - Stuart -

OK finally heres the graphic. Thanks again for your help guys. Chris