Recording Studio in New House Build

Started by jkasko on 20 March 2010. 0 replies.

Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 14211.

We just broke ground on a new house that will incorporate a recording studio. We had one built in our previous house and are going to doing one again in this current build. Unlike our previous studio which was a dedicated addition off the main house, this one will be incorporated into the basement of the new house. Above the basement where the studio will be located with be a sport court which can be tied into the studio as a very large live room when needed. We don't have to worry too much about sound leaking into the sport court area as the won't be any bedrooms, family room, or general living space above the studio. We can achieve a reasonable degree of sound isolation that should be acceptable. I have atttached the architects foundation plan for the basement, the plan for the first floor, and the cross section construction view of the sport court. Prior to digging starting, we decided to add 12" to the overall dig and make the entire basement 12" deeper to have higher ceilings overall in the basement area. This is not shown an the architects drawings as we did this just prior to excavating. The over height in the studio area will be 10.5 feet prior to finishing off. We decided to go with an ICF basement. Our prior studio had ICF walls so we were familiar with the benefits of the ICF construction, plus our new house is incorporating many energy features (SIS board, 2x6 walls, BIBS insulation, and geothermal HVAC). The ICF is 2.5" of EPS on the outside, 10" of concrete, and the 2.5" insulation of EPS on the inside. Since we are in basement, the plan for the exterior walls will be to hang the drywall from the ICF walls with resilent channel and then add 2 layers of 5/8 drywall with Green Glue between them. We will be using the earth for a big layer of the soundproofing. The big design question in this is how to design around a sump pit that needs to be in this portion of the basement. Being that the walls will be roughly 10 to 10.5 feet finished I used the ratio of 1:1.4:1.9 for the control room. I was debating between making a smaller control room with an iso and a walkway, but after doing extensive research, the 1:1.4:1.9 ratio seemed to be one of the best choices for room sizes. This ratio also allowed me to enclose the sump pump while making the size of the room conform to this dimension. There is a load in area that will double as a small tracking space. The load in area will not be used a main entrance so we can put an iso in there. I tried to orient the control room so I could have visual contact with both rooms via sliding glass doors. I like sliding glass doors as opposed to windows. I have attached my premilimary design of the studio along with the architects plans. I would love some input on this design and any suggestions one might have. My whole house was already in Home Designer and my Sketchup skills aren't up to speed yet to quickly transfer the design. I am working on creating a Sketchup model, but since I need to tell my concrete guy on Monday the exact location of the sump pump pit, I figured I would attached what I currently have and hopefully get some suggestions. I was also working on a corner control room plan, but I don't know how to get the angles and the dimensions of the room so that it fits properly for the ratio selected. I really appreciate it.
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-Joe Kasko
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