24x28 Studio About To Built - NEED DESIGN FEEDBACK!

Hi - I have been lurking about the site for about 6 years and finally have funding to construct my dream studio. Will be 24x28 pole building with a single truss in center at 14' (+ the trusses on each end of the building of course). I am specifying a scissor truss for the center one so I can maximize volume. With my calculations, after 2nd ceiling, I will have about 9.5' equivalent wall height for volume calculations. I am planning to build the "room in a room" principle for maximum isolation. I live on 5 acres in a rural area with neighbors that are approximately 1000' radius from the studio site. I have boned up on techie stuff from Rod's book, F. Alton, and several others so I am familiar with acoustical engineering principals regarding splayed walls, resonators, flutter echo, calculator room resonances, etc. I really like John's design for Recording Oasis due to sightline superiority but I do not have as large a space (or budget) to work with so I am basing most of my design off of Oasis in a scaled down manner. I am planning to use this space as both band rehearsal and recording. I have tried to join elements of several of the best designs I have seen here. Please take a look at the two .pdf's and provide feedback. One is a planview and other is elevation view. My largest concern is the very small vocal booth and how to treat it (and if it is even large enough to use). Cheers, Mark

Mark - with your design you end up with a funny ceiling angle in your control room - oasis is based on this kind of design.

Thanks John for the quick reply! I only have that reduction in ceiling height directly over the C.R. wall with the window which is where the scissor trusses land (a set of scissor trusses that span interior of the building which are sandwiched between 6x6 posts on perimeter of building). This building is a pole building with 3 sets of trusses sandwiched between posts that are on 14' centers. Maybe that was not clear in my first post. Also, I stated that my head height was 9.5' throughout the building - that is incorrect as that only applies in the approximate 12" wide section in the middle of the building. In effect (other than the center of the building) I have approximately 12' ceiling height inside the building only limited by the purlins attached to the trusses. Should I build the inverted "v" shaped ceiling all the way back to the rear wall of the C.R. even though the ceiling height is not restricted for the rest of the building? I was thinking I would slope the ceiling from the low point at front of C.R. (as you illustrated) to nearly 11' high at rear wall of C.R. (with a 1' space for ducting) or does this only make the weirdness worse in acoustical terms? Yes I know I need Sketchup to illustrate in 3D - working on that! I will try to post something later that shows what I was thinking. Also what do you think about the vocal booth (it is actually 4'x5'x12' = 240cuft). I know I can get a person and a mic stand in there but, being so small, will I have some weird modal frequencies and flutter without a bunch of treatment that would reduce the interior space to be too small to use? Cheers, Mark

I was thinking I would slope the ceiling from the low point at front of C.R. (as you illustrated) to nearly 11' high at rear wall of C.R.

Theoretically, it's not so much the absolute height, but rather the angle. Assuming that you want a good Reflection Free Zone, and assuming normal speaker / mix position geometry (60° intercept), the ceiling should be angled at 12 degrees, and your side walls at 6° each (total of 12°). That might change if your speaker angles change, but that's the general rule. Of course, if you can get a higher angle than that, and a higher ceiling, then I'd say go for it! Higher ceiling is better, acoustically. - Stuart -

thanks Stuart! As you figured I have plenty of height so that angle would probably be greater than 12 deg. I think I will angle as great as possible while still leaving an approx. 12" duct run chase open. I am still awaiting feedback on the small voc booth. Is 4'x5'x12'ceiling too small? I may be able to squeeze one more foot in length to make it 4'x6' but that is pretty much the limit with the layout illustrated in the original .pdf. BTW the trusses will run the 24' width of building, my planview was probably confusing since I had dotted lines running both directions. Will try to get sketchup loaded to start doing models in 3D. Have a meeting with another builder Tuesday to see what they will bid - hopefully will make a decision by end of next week and get some pics of a ground breaking around 1st part of April! :yahoo: Cheers, Mark

Finally! Ground has broke for the studio and I will be posting pictures and requests for advice as completion progresses (John, Aaron or Kendale - I believe this stream needs to move to "Construction" area, but I am not sure how to do that). Here is "half" of the roof up so far. The builder built it up on the ground and then used boat winches to hoist it up into position. Mark

Progress continues. The pictures are from a few days ago and now the door and two windows are in as well as some siding. I have to bust my ass to get the in-floor conduit ran before concrete is poured in a few days. As you will see in the pics, I laid out the start/end positions of conduit with builders twine and then plumb bobbed to gravel and sprayed a bullseye to know where to center the sweeps. Will finish that tonight and tomorrow after work! Thanks to reading the posts from Lou's studio (Studio 4) I was able to take steps to prevent the floating of the conduit when the concrete pours. I found pre-cut short 3/8" rebar pieces that I am staking in the ground and then securely wiring to the conduit so it will stay in place and also hold the sweeps upright. Will keep up the posts as things progress! Mark

Mark, Looking nice. Now that the easy part is almost finished the fun begins!! :lol: Peace Tom

You got that right! Did get an interesting message from concrete contractor who stated I needed to lay vapor layer plastic BEFORE I installed conduit. Oh well.....will have to remove what I have done (at least I dont have to cut anything apart!). Hopefully this "easy" part won't get any harder than this :oops:

That's a beautiful structure Mark. I love the central scissor truss. You have a nice outer shell to start building within.

Thanks John for the nice words. I have a question for you about minimum size for vocal booth. I have space carved out that is 6'L x 4'W with potential ceiling height of about 10'. Can I realistically use a space this small and, with acoustical treatment, get high quality vocals out of? If so, what treatments would you suggest? Would it be worth it for me to angle the walls at 12deg in a space this small to reduce flutter echo or should I just concentrate on making it absolutely non-reflective? Thanks, Mark

Hi Mark, it's very interesting to see a building go up in roof-first. Keep the photos coming

Mark - check out the booth thread viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14147 remember you have 3feet (7' - 10') of space in the ceiling to add hangers that are very effective absorbers for a vox booth.

Ok - first phase complete. The structure shell is done, but needs painting and gutters. Builder completed last week and here are pics of what I have so far. Kids had a sleepover over the weekend -they think its their new playhouse! Next activity will to figure out my future electrical loads so I can get my service installed. I am also going to be providing a feed to the barn from the studio. Barn is pretty straightforward but I am a little unsure of how many total amps I will need to service the studio since I have no idea what the a/c requirements are (which I believe will be the largest current draw) as well as future equipment wattages. Any help in this area is greatly appreciated. Mark