Building New Studio

Hey guys, Newbie here looking to endulge in the information available here. I'm looking to turn an available space into a Recording studio. I have been recording for over 4 years, I have the basement of my home transformed into a make shift studio and I have over 20 consistent clients that come in and out of my home. The home studio is a decent one but I'm looking to make a break into the professional relm. In the basement of a friends office building is a vacant room(2 rooms actually). One Room is 26'5 x 30' with 11 foot ceilings and the other is 26'5 x 17 with 11 foot ceilings as well (the future control room most likely). And I was told I could renevate this room and use it for nothing!! Like I said it is in the basement of an office building so neighbors above will be an issue. Behind the dry wall and above the ceiling panels is solid concrete. I haven't ripped out the tiles of the floor but I assume its concrete as well. The ceiling has steel braces to hold up the foundation that protrude down about a foot or 2. I really haven't had a chance to rip the room apart and find out exactly what its made of but I can try to find out what I can from the owner if you need to know. I like to be very loud, both mixing and playing, I don't have a sound level meter so I don't know if I can give you an accurate db level, but I would like to offer the space as a practice room as well. I bought "Home Recording Studio Build it Like the Pros" by Rod Gervais about a week ago and have been reading as much as I can and will continue to do so. Now finally the Budget. I am looking to spend a max of $50,000 could go over a little if I need to. Now I really just need anything I can get at this point. If someone would be willing to help me come up with a design layout, tell me what I'm going to need for the isolation and how I can do it. If anyone knows a good contractor in Chicago that I could hire the job out to. I have an Uncle that works construction and did the framing for my homes addition so if someone could help me with a blueprint or if they know of someone that could help me I would greatly appreciate it. I really just need help getting this project going. So I've decided to turn to the experts here! I'm sorry if I have not provided enough detail or intelligence on the subject, but I'd be more that willing to get you the details you need and obtain the information necessary for this project. Any help I'd really truely appreciate, Thanks, -Barrett

I'm working on something in Sketchup, just a starting point. Like I said I'm new to all this so my design might be pretty shabby and nonsensical. Hopefully I can get it up here soon.

Does anyone know any contractors or architects in Chicago that could help me out?

I liked some of the idea's here and I took some influence from other designs. I decided to go with a big live room a control room and 2 iso booths. Maybe one booth will become a gear locker instead, but I'll have to wait to see how things pan out. I'm not sure about door placement and where/how to do the air locks. So I need help with the doors and room isolation, also I haven't added any acoustic treatment so I was hoping I could get some Ideas for that as well. I want the live room to sound pretty live with some character so I'm not sure how to treat that accordingly. Other than this general layout I have nothing planned so far so I'm open for any and all suggestions. Thanks again, -Barrett

A couple of quick comments on your plan: 1) You seem to have your control room (CR) walls splayed the wrong way. They should be closest together at the front of the room (where the speakers are) and widening out towards the rear. 2) Your CR is also not symmetrical. There is some type of furniture on the right side that looks like it might be a bookcase or something like that, and it destroys the symmetry of the room. In order to mix accurately your room must be as symmetrical as you can possibly make it, so that bookshelf should go in the storage area, not the CR. 3) It's hard to say from that rough outline model, but it does look like you have a four-leaf wall between your CR and LR. If that's the case, then you definitely should fix that. Regarding door placement, the best place for the access door would probably be in the center rear of the control room, and perhaps with a pair of sliding glass doors between the CR and LR, in the location where you have the window at present. Or you could keep the window and use the vocal booth for access to the LR. You could put access doors pretty much anywhere you feel like in the LR, I think, as dictated by the surrounding structure. - Stuart -