New Studio Design in Peru (PandPStudios)

Overview Greetings to all! My name is Adolfo and finished my Sound engineering career almost two years ago, after spending this entire time recording in different studios and in my humble “home studio” I finally decided, after a friend of mine offered me to start a business with him, to build my own “Real” Studio. This would grand me the chance to improve my recording skills much faster and earn more money in the process. Some of you would say, well you just finished your career and already want your own studio, and I did think like that too, but this is going to be a mayor business including a café a music store a gig stage and more. I’m at the designing stage of the Recording/rehearsal Studio Part of the complex. And would really like to have an almost ideal environment to mix and record, and isolated enough so that two bands could rehearsal at the same time and no one could listen to the other. How loud are you I’m assuming there will be playing many different styles of music from Super Fast Blast beats and screaming vocals to some quieter jazz band. So the isolation will need to be pretty good. But there are several limitations that I’m going to specify later on. Existing construction detail The existing construction actually doesn’t exists, what I mean is that I need to make a kind of ideal but down to earth design which is going to be approved by several other persons ( my friend, constructors etc) and with this we are going to search the ideal place for this. It’s not much of a problem because my partner has a construction company and has many contacts to get almost any place he wants. But as I mentioned there are some true facts that are going to be in the “existing” construction: First floor on concrete slap, Concrete Walls 20 cm thick and 2.45 meters high (I’m assuming the worst case for the height), Concrete ceiling. As I don’t know the building there will be for sure pillars and more that are going to change my design. But it’s all going to be as close as possible to the current or resulting design. Budget My budget is of more or less 15000 U.S. Dollars in construction (Audio Gear is not included, but electric and Air conditioning system are). This budged is JUST for the control room and life room, the other room is an optional if the budged is enough. And obviously if it’s possible to make it cheaper we’ll be all happy :D . My design Well my design is the following, as you can see I have the control room in between both recording rooms so I can check both out at the same time, and or record them simultaneously. I was planning to go for an Inside out wall and ceiling for everything to not blow of my budged in treating the room afterwards and because of my room height (2.45m). And eventually would treat some of the walls (still not know which ones) with a slot finish to liven the room up. On the back wall of my control room and below my soffit mounted speakers I want to add hanger bass traps. The flooring is going to be wood for all rooms and a couch on the back of the control room will be on a riser. I didn’t used Sliding Glass doors instead of windows because I don’t want the musicians to have easy access to the control room, and for my access to the recording rooms there are two doors in the back of the room (with me the only key). I’ve tried to get the “sweet spot” in the 38 % of the room and have the soffits angled at 60 degrees. Questions What should I do with the ceiling is my height too small to angle it? If yes is the inside out ceiling enough because of its absorbent properties. Are the listeners that are sitting in the back of the room going to hear good enough? I think maybe the sound “spread” is to wide in the back. Are my Recording rooms in a way to odd shape? Are there any rules or guides to follow when angling the walls in the recording rooms? Is there any problem in having the windows that look into the recording rooms on the "slot resonator" walls? Or shouldn't I make that "walls" with slot finish? Any other suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks in advance

I can give you more comments later but right now I can only say that having to go through the live room to the control room is not good. What will happen if you are in a session and a band member wants to go outside? YOu might reconsider that

You don't have to. There is the airlock to the right of the control room where a door is connecting to the outside.

You have double doors (good) going into the airlock. The airlock is not needed assuming adequate doors and seals. I would recommend not having the airlock and using that floor area to increase the size the of the dead/live room. Andre

My problem with doing that I would have to go through one of the recording rooms to get to the control room. I was using that airlock as a mini waiting room/corridor where you can enter the control room or the dead room. If you still suggest in removing it, where could be the main entrance to the control room?

PandPstudios wrote:

My problem with doing that I would have to go through one of the recording rooms to get to the control room. I was using that airlock as a mini waiting room/corridor where you can enter the control room or the dead room. If you still suggest in removing it, where could be the main entrance to the control room?

It seems a waste of space. Rearrange the layout. Look at John's designs with non- 90° walls. Andre

I've been trying to change the layout but without any success, any suggestions? I need the musicians to be able to access the recording rooms without going through the control room. And an independent entrance for me.

Hi! After playing around with other layouts and moving the rooms, I’ve finally come up with one that might work and don't "waste" any space. But because of this new design appear a few questions: First of all has the Waiting area (corridor like) enough width? Its 2.13 m, Is it enough so that the walls don't act as a four leaf system? And if not which is the minimum distance I would need between walls? And second, I can't decide what purpose the room in the top left corner should have. Maybe I could use it as a Vocal/amp booth. Or maybe as a bathroom (as I said in the beginning of the post it will be a rehearsal space too) or maybe just some nice hanging out space between brakes. I incline myself for making it a Vocal/amp booth, but that could work as a relaxing/waiting area if not in use. As for the stuff in the official waiting room they’re soda dispensers and a couch. Suggestions? I still don't add more details such as wall surfaces, because I want to first have the layout working. Thanks Adolfo

Sorry Bump. Could anyone help? I still would like to have my first questions answered. And if my second design works? One new question. Is angling the side walls in my control room 6 degrees to poor? If yes could I Reduce the width of my "corridor/waiting room" without having it creating a 4 leaf system. Please Help. Thanks

Adolfo - you now have a plan which is around 10m x 10m - 100sqm - yet you say you have a budget of $15,000 - so you are expecting to build a studio from scratch for $15/sqm?? - realistic prices are more like $500/sqm+ so for $15,000 you could realistically look at 30sqm or 6m x 5m. If the building is already built and you are just refurbishing an existing space you could probably increase that size slightly.

Thanks for the response John, even if it wasn't any of my questions. It is a very important note. I'm not building it from scratch. I'm assuming the whole concrete structure is already built (Floor exterior walls and ceiling). So all the work that I’d had to do would be The Rooms inside the big room, (all the work in wood, drywall, insulation and so on). My budget can expand a little bit but preferably it doesn't. Also, it isn't that necessary to have both rooms completed from the beginning, the most important part would be the right side (control room, waiting room, life room). Is my budget still to poor? Also I’ve already made a research in materials and stuff and there are not THAT expensive here in Peru. Adolfo

Could someone please help me in at least answering my questions? I'm getting pretty stuck in this and can't go on. I’ve waited for several days as in the “before posting” thread says. And still nothing. Thanks Adolfo

Adolfo - yes it would be better to go for the 12 degree splay over the 6 degree in a room that size. your corridor waiting room doesn't have to be room within a room so you could eliminate all it's inner walls.

Thanks John, and sorry for being that insistent with getting answers, it's just that the post has been here for quite a while and don't really attract that much of attention/help. I wanted to still leave the inner walls of the Waiting room corridor, because I do want it kind of isolated, and if I wanted to "walk inside my airspace" I would have made it not that wide. Therefore I was asking if the width is enough to not act as a 4 leaf system. And my other questions that I posted at the beginning of the Post were these: What should I do with the ceiling is my height too small to angle it? If yes is the inside out ceiling enough because of its absorbent properties. Are the listeners that are sitting in the back of the room going to hear good enough? I think maybe the sound “spread” is to wide in the back. Are my Recording rooms in a way to odd shape? Are there any rules or guides to follow when angling the walls in the recording rooms? Is there any problem in having the windows that look into the recording rooms on the "slot resonator" walls? Or shouldn't I make that "walls" with slot finish? Any other suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks in advance

Hi! Sorry if this counts as spam. Could someone please answer the rest of my questions? I've waited for like a week like the sticky said. I'm getting pretty much stuck in this. The main question I would have answered would be if the "waiting room/ corridor" is broad enough to not act as a 4 leaf system with the other walls. But it would be very nice if you could answer the other questions. I will be basically changing the whole design to a somewhat smaller because of the budget issue. Anyways I would like to have some answers for general knowledge. Thanks Adolfo

What should I do with the ceiling is my height too small to angle it? If yes is the inside out ceiling enough because of its absorbent properties.

With the ceilings being concrete, they give little low frequency absorption. Cover them with 100mm dep at least absorbent material.

Are the listeners that are sitting in the back of the room going to hear good enough? I think maybe the sound “spread” is to wide in the back.

Meaningless question. The people in the back are not in the "sweet spot", but are in a treated room. Other thatn bass buildup form being near a wall, they will have good listenng.

Are my Recording rooms in a way to odd shape?

No.

Are there any rules or guides to follow when angling the walls in the recording rooms?

What are you angling them for? When doing it for flutter echo control, 1 in 10 angle is usaully used.

Is there any problem in having the windows that look into the recording rooms on the "slot resonator" walls? Or shouldn't I make that "walls" with slot finish?

If they are not in the first reflection points, there is no problem. Andre