Gone as far as I can Need Advice

Greetings all, This is my first post. I love the site and have spent weeks going over it, along with prior knowledge and discussions with my partner and have run into a block. I am looking for help with design of a new studio. The building itself faces the main street in town and runs long ways down a side street. I don’t believe the outside noise will be too much of a problem once the walls are put into place. The way the picture reads, West is the main street with large glass windows, east is a conference room/ load in for musicians with wall made of solid concrete, South is the stairs to the basement and side street with wall made of wood paneling, and North is another business separated by a solid Foundation Concrete wall. Materials I plan to use to build with are 2x4’s to do all framing, rolled roofing for sheet blok, rock wool for insulation, and a combination of drywall and slant wall. Spacing in-between double walls is 2 in. I hope that is enough information and the pictures should provide the rest. My problem is I just don’t know what to do with the vocal booth, and I think CR B is going to be a problem. I am not sure if I’m on the right track so if anyone has any ideas I would completely appreciate it. And I would be happy to email my sketchup file if that helps, it was just to large to put on forum. Thanks to everyone

Hello there, Do you really need the 2nd control room? I rather have a much bigger live room and just 1 control room. What type of music you do record the most? If you love roomy drum sounds, then you need a big live room. So, my suggestion would be , loose the 2nd control room, move the control room to the right, and get that live room bigger; You can still have the small vocal booth, and build it pretty dead.

Thanks for the reply, One thing I did leave out is the ceilings are 10ft high leaving a tin ceiling 2ft above that. Now to answer your question, We record all kinds of music, current projects are hip hop, country, gospel, and jazz. Live Drums are essential however if its possible I do need to have the ability for 2 engineers to work at the same time. However the larger CR would have access to the iso booth to, but the smaller cr room would only have access to the iso booth. But if I'm crazy I won't be mad, but if I'm not (which I hope) I just can't see it.

If you are planning to have two separate programs being worked on at the same time, double stud drywall with random construction WILL NOT give sufficient sound isolation. The low end will bleed through. You "don't believe that outside noise will be a problem" is not a comfortable appraisal. Not being negative, being honest. Andre

You "don't believe that outside noise will be a problem" is not a comfortable appraisal.

I'll start here my words were to lax before. Standing in the building now with traffic outside no vibration is felt and remains tru with semi trucks. The level of noise that does bleed through is equivalent to slightly above a whisper so from I have read on this site a 2 leaf system should take care of that.

If you are planning to have two separate programs being worked on at the same time, double stud drywall with random construction WILL NOT give sufficient sound isolation. The low end will bleed through.

I was hoping my methods weren't random, I was trying my best to mimic designs that I saw on the site. What would you recommend to accommodated 2 programs...or do I just not have the room, or could I at least maintain a mix room for smaller CR and lose the Iso Booth?

methyce wrote:

I'll start here my words were to lax before. Standing in the building now with traffic outside no vibration is felt and remains tru with semi trucks. The level of noise that does bleed through is equivalent to slightly above a whisper so from I have read on this site a 2 leaf system should take care of that.

You are going spend a significant amount of money building your studio. Measure the actual levels. The cost of measuring is less than the cost of building it wrong and having to redo it, or not being able to use it. If you are planning to have two separate programs being worked in at the same time, double stud drywall with random construction WILL NOT give sufficient sound isolation. The low end will bleed through.

I was hoping my methods weren't random, I was trying my best to mimic designs that I saw on the site. What would you recommend to accommodated 2 programs...or do I just not have the room, or could I at least maintain a mix room for smaller CR and lose the Iso Booth?

In your first post you wrote

Materials I plan to use to build with are 2x4’s to do all framing, rolled roofing for sheet blok, rock wool for insulation, and a combination of drywall and slant wall. Spacing in-between double walls is 2 in.

"Roofing felt for sheet blok" is random. Slant wall is not a construction material. Look at IR 761 for an idea of suitable drywall constructions. Consider using concrete block or brick between the two work spaces. IR 586 has data on CMU walls. The big problem between the two work spaces is low end isolation. It is expensive. Speaking of expense, what is your budget? Have you included HVAC, electrical, and high TL doors? All of this is not even addressing things like your vocal booth not have having double walls all around, of if you really need a vocal booth. Good luck. I'm not rude, just blunt. You can design your space to be fantastic with the people here helping, but you have to things yourself. ps. note my tagline. Andre edit: corrected HTML errors and improved grammar.

Hi Methyce, and welcome. Listen to André: he's one of the real experts around here, and what he said is definitely there to help you. I also agree with Javier: That 2nd control room just isn't going to work as it is now (it's not even symmetrical!) and anything you do to fix it is going to eat space out of other rooms. In fact, your main control room isn't symmetrical either, and your soffits seem awfully small. What is that empty space behind the rear wall of the control room? There might be space to do what you want, but you'd need to re-arrange all the rooms, I think. - Stuart -

This is great the new perspectives are exactly what I needed. I am going to do some re design and will post updates soon.

To begin with I wanted to answer Avare questions: The sound coming from the street is 54.1 dba. Budget wise we are looking at about 20k to begin with and our primary focus right now is the main CR and the live room with booth. And yes we are aware of what our guys will charge us for HVAC and electrical and our budget is on top of that, and we already have solid core Oak doors that will be used. What are your thoughts on the new design. I have removed the second mix room and enlarged the iso booth that was over there while moving the CR room over and enlarging the Live room and making a better sized vocal booth.

So far its much better. You need to work on your CR design tho, make those soffit frames right and everything, you know

much better - the iso room will become the Vocal Booth as it has visual contact - the vocal booth will become the iso booth ;)

You need to work on your CR design tho, make those soffit frames right and everything, you know

jbassino I was trying to copy the design of the CR room under studio plans...are my angles to sharp? And thanks john I will switch them that makes since.

I was trying to copy the design of the CR room under studio plans...are my angles to sharp?

Your angles are a function of the entire room: Start by correctly positioning your mix position (your head) in the room (roughly 38%), then set your soffits so that the front panels as are large as you can make them (within reason!), preferably at least 48 inches, with the speakers centered in the soffits side to side, and the acoustic axes at 1.2m above floor height. Now adjust the speaker and soffit angles until the acoustic axes of the speakers intersect at a point about 20 cm or so behind your head, such that the axes just graze your ears. The intersection angle should ideally be 60 degrees, but it can go as high as 90 degrees, depending on room geometry. That's the basic idea to get you started. That's what Javier was talking about. - Stuart -