UK based, new Studio builld - Advice sought and appreciated!

Hi, I live in Guildford, near London in the UK and am ready to build a small personal, studio from scratch on my newly purchased property - basically a piece of blank land needs to be turned into a living, breathing studio if at all possible. I make heavy, synth-laced, beaty music using Cubase , Reason, a host of vst's, a mixture of 'real' instruments that I also throw in the mix - I have a few mates that I play in a band with and would eventually like to move into audio on some level as a profession. All this means I am ready to achieve my dream of building a decent studio for my personal and potentially professional use. I have £20,000 of budget for the build only - no equipment is needed until a later date as for now, the construction is my one and only goal. I have done a fair amount of research but now find my head full of snippets of information and theory and this and that and the other and actually transforming that jumble into a sensible, design \ build plan without advice from more knowledgable people seems a stupid (and potentionallly catstrophic!) method of spending my hard earnt cash money! I am hoping for advice on if my thoughts and if they are workable within the non-negotiable space I have as I fear it may be a bit small. If it is possible to achieve, I am also looking for the required (soundproofing \ acoustic wise ) methods of doing it! The picture below is the high level floorplan - as it is a new build, the only definite factors are the exterior dimensions ie: width (6m) length (8m) and the height (2.5m). The height restriction is unfortunate but a UK based, construction law restricts it to this. As the pic shows I am aiming for 3 rooms : a control room , a bigger ‘live’ room and a isolation booth. I plan to use a airlock kind of system to serve as an entrance \ exit to each room and also to the studio itself. Each entrance would use two doors . I know it will be a messy system of opening and closing doors to move around but space reasons dictate this as the best system. I say that with space restrictions and also soundproofing as well. The location is within two metres of other houses so soundproofing would be heavily needed as I do like to make a fair old racket - the exterior measurements obviously do not account for soundproofing but I am unaware of what level I need to achieve .......I do know its got to be high with neighbours so close! Based on my research, and a chat with my builder, I have some rough ideas based on the use of blockwork cavity walls, a concrete floor and a ceiling a built from metal girders and blockwork as a basic structure. I am also looking to use a room within a room based system (the wall method diagram below) throughout the studio in the hope this is adequate soundproofing.......I should say, that is just a stab at the level required but is based on what I thought would be a 'worst case' scenario. I don’t know the exact STC etc details on that method of wall \ soundproofing construction but figure it would be enough?? I am unsure of acoustic treatment needed but have offset the isolation booth wall in an attempt to off set the room and therefore the chance of standing waves but hey, it’s a stab in the dark again.... Anyway , I could go on ....hopefully this is enough to kick off the thread and if not let me know..... Any help is MASSIVELY appreciated – I am ready to realize my dreams so could do with some good advice! Thanks in advance Nathan

GentlemenOfLeisure wrote:

I have done a fair amount of research but now find my head full of snippets of information and theory and this and that and the other and actually transforming that jumble into a sensible,

You may need to do a fair amount more. Stick to this site and read read read. I don't know where to begin, but 1st the control room needs to be symmetrical. You don't want to off set the room. Maybe in the live room. Have a look at John's corner studio design as a start. Lil

Hi Nathan. Welcome.

I have done a fair amount of research but now find my head full of snippets of information and theory and this and that and the other

Yup! That happens frequently, it seems, with surfing the internet and coming across so much "expert" advice, much of which is myth, worthless, or manufacturer hype. Or all three at once! I know, because that's where I was before I found this forum. You can safely ditch your search of all other forums, and concentrate all your research efforts right here. At least you ended up in the right place eventually!

The picture below is the high level floorplan -

First suggestion: Learn SketchUp, and use only that for all your design work. It's a really good 3D modeler, and best of all it is free!

I know it will be a messy system of opening and closing doors to move around but space reasons dictate this as the best system.

I'm, not so sure that it is "dictated" by the size! You have limitations on the overall envelope, but what you do INSIDE that is only dictated by the laws of physics, your budget, and your imagination. In that order! There are probably a dozen other ways that you could re-arrange things in there to make better use of space, and avoid "messy" soundlock door "openings and closings".

I say that with space restrictions and also soundproofing as well.

Just to clarify a common internet myth: There is no such things as "sound proofing". A sufficiently loud sound will get through any conceivable wall. What DOES exist is "transmission loss" and "isolation". You can reduce sound transmission through walls to an acceptable level by suitable design and construction. But you first need to define what "acceptable level" means for YOUR build. What is acceptable for me might not be so for you, and vice versa.

but I am unaware of what level I need to achieve .......I do know its got to be high with neighbours so close!

Then you need to start out by getting a clear answer to that! Get yourself a sound level meter, and do some testing to find out how loud you are, and how quite you need to be. In real numbers.

Based on my research, and a chat with my builder,

First big question: Has your builder ever built a successful studio? Does he have a sound understanding (no pun intended!) of acoustics? If not, then you will have to educate him, and supervise everything he does. Building a studio is very different from building anything else.

I am also looking to use a room within a room based system (the wall method diagram below)

You will probably want to revise that! You seem to be wasting a lot of money there, and probably not getting the result you need...

I don’t know the exact STC etc details on that method of wall \ soundproofing construction but figure it would be enough??

That would be myth #2: Forget STC. STC is a useless rating for studios. It tells you nothing at all about the low frequency isolation. STC works fine for voices coming through party walls, but not for music. And most certainly not for "I make heavy, synth-laced, beaty music ". STC can give you a very vague idea about how good one wall might be vs another wall, but it isn't any real use for figuring out if a particular wall will do what you want.

I am unsure of acoustic treatment needed but have offset the isolation booth wall in an attempt to off set the room and therefore the chance of standing waves but hey, it’s a stab in the dark again....

Like Lilith said: Bad idea for your control room! And angles walls are usually done for flutter echo, not for standing waves. Your control room needs to be symmetrical, not square, based on a known good ratio, the speakers should fire down the long axis of the room (not across the short axis), they should be located at 1.2m above floor level, angled such that their acoustic axes intersect at an angle of somewhere between 60 and 90 degrees (optimally 60) at a point about 20cm behind your head, and your ears should be located roughly 38% of the distance from front wall to back wall, give or take a few percent. Ideally, your speakers should be soffit mounted (flush mounted), your rear vertical corners should be very large bass traps ("superchunk" is recommended), and several of the other ten corners in the room should also have bass traps on them. The front half of the room needs to be very symmetrical, and designed with a Reflection Free Zone (RFZ) around our head. So you need ample absorption on all first reflection points. That should get you started on a usable design for your control room (CR). Now, about your wall design: Forget the resilient channel (RC) (what you have labeled as "resilient bar"). It will gain you nothing, since your stud framing is already decoupled, and the RC will cost you money. You don't need it: it will do zero to help your isolation. You can also dump the the "acoustic membrane": I'm guessing that you were thinking of MLV? (mass loaded vinyl) for that? Once again, it won't help and will probably hinder your isolation. It might even act as a third leaf, depending on how massive and rigid it is. Apart from anything else, MLV is expensive! You can also forget the "acoustic plasterboard", and just go with plain old ordinary plasterboard, also referred to as "drywall" and "sheetrock", among other things. 16mm drywall is great acoustic isolation. It is massive, inexpensive, and easy to work with. You also don't need two different thicknesses of drywall, despite what you might have read on the internet. Yes, differing coincidence dips and impedances are wonderful things, but the slight effect you get isn't really worth the trouble, and in any case using thin drywall (12mm) is not a good idea, and reduces the total mass. So, to review: Build yourself a 2x4 or 2x6 stud wall about an inch or so away form your outer leaf (the concrete block wall), and put two layers of 5/8" (16mm) drywall on the room-side of the studs, perhaps with Green Glue in between if you need better low frequency isolation. Seal both leaves airtight, and fill the entire cavity between the leaves with rockwool or fiberglass insulation, that has a density of roughly 48 kg/m3. The inner leaf ceiling will rest ONLY on those inner leaf walls (the stud frame). No part of the inner leaf can have any mechanical connection to the outer leaf at all. Nothing touches. Not even a single nail. The two leaves are entirely independent, with the only contact being through your floor, which should be a nice thick concrete slab cast directly on the ground. So, with your floor, walls and ceiling in place, you can think about how you are going to match that mass density with your doors and windows, how you are going to get multiple seals on your doors, how to do your electrical system, and how to do your HVAC system... That should give you some basic direction of which way to go! The details can get filled in along the way... At least you are in the right place, and on the right track! - Stuart -

Hi Stuart, Wow! What a response - firstly let me say thanks, I had posted on another forum and found the reply most discouraging but from you ......all good, and vey inspiring.... I see now that there are a few fundamentals that I have either ignored or been mislead on or both - I am downloading sketchup in order to come back here with a revised idea asap. Nice one....will take in what you said, rethink and be back! Cheers for your time Nathan

Hey Nathan. One more thing that I forgot to mention last night: Do yourself a huge favor, and when you order your sound level meter from Amazon, also order "Home rRecording Studio: build it like the Pros" by Rod Gervais (who posts here regularly), and also "Master Handbook of Acoustics", by F. Alton Everest. After devouring those two, you should have a great understanding of acoustics and studio construction. Those two books alone are worth their weight in gold, and will save you countless dollars throughout your build. The first one, (often referred to simply as "Rod's book" here) is a practical guide. Light on theory and equations, heavy on how to actually build the thing and get it right. The second one ("MHoA") is light on construction, heavy on theory: why things work the way they do. Together they give you all you need to know. Plus, of course, start checking out some of the many construction threads on this forum, to see how others did it, so you can borrow from their good ideas and avoid their bad ones. Like the say: "Learn from the mistakes of others: you'll never live long enough to learn from your own". - Stuart -

A primer on walls: http://johnlsayers.com/Recmanual/Pages/STC%20Chart.htm