My First Post, My First Studio

Hi all, first and foremost, I'd like to thank John and all the members of this site for the resources you have provided, I've learnt a lot from reading through the forums. Now onto the studio. I will have a room with the dimensions L=30 feet W=16 feet H=8.2 feet This room will be the upper storey of a garage (the nearest house is about 50 feet away) and will have a designated stairwell area (as you'll see in the 2 attached photos.) I got sketchup today, only the trial, so exuse my lack of knowledge with it. I'd like to know what needs to be done in terms of acoustics, layout, anything! I'd appreciate any knowledge you can share. Thanks in advance. [If you'd like the .skp let me know and I'll upload it. Right now I'm going to bed. it's 5:20am.]

(Thanks to Ro for teaching me how to upload the file.) Here's the .skp for you to take a look at. Thanks in advance for any comments you can provide.

I've been doing some more accurate designs now but I've got a problem, the roof of the building will be pitched and as the studio will be on the second storey headroom will be compromised. As I am designing the whole building I can choose the angle of the pitch. The maximum height of the building (incl. roof) will be 16.7 feet (5.1 metres) The lower storey should be 7.3 feet (2.25 metres) and about 11.8 inches (30cm) will have to be taken away for steels etc which leaves 8.3 feet (2.55 meres) for the upper story (incl. roof) I think the shallowest the pitch can be is 17 degrees which according to SketchUp would make the minimum height of the room 5 foot 11 inches (1.8034 meters). According to the National Center for Health Statistics the height of an adult male (in 2002, this was the most recent I could find) was 5 feet 9.2 inches (1.7 meters) So leveling out the height at 5' 11" is out of the picture as it's inevitable that someone will come in who is taller than this, so my question to you is; What is the best way to work around this acoustically? Should I level out the the interior roof at a certain height or leave the whole pitch? If I do leave the whole pitch of the roof what would need to be done to treat it acoustically? Any advice would be brilliant, Thanks, Joe.

Hey Joe, your ceiling height will most likely be a determination defined by local building constables. Where I am, 7 feet to the finished ceiling height is a minimum. Which means, on a ground floor level in a residential structure that the elevation of the walls, minimum are to be 7 feet. But since that is labor intensive and creates excessive waste, the walls are built to the taller and more accepted 8 feet height. It may be 2.438 meters or it may be 3 meters for you guys. It may be something else entirely. The diminsions of standard building materials often have been modified to conform with the minimim standards. My 8 foot tall wall can be built with 1 bottom plate and 2 top plates and a 92-5/8 inch stud which will yield an 8 foot tall framed wall. Typical 16 inch on center wall layouts covered with typical building products that are 4 feet wide by 8 feet tall, waste is minimum and installation time is maximized. Good luck