Magrnetic Recording Council Design 1

Hey there I love this forum, its an invaluable source of information John you should surely recieve an Aria, Grammy or simular for your contribution to music. This is a design of a recording space I am planning to build in (St Peters Sydney) The property is 244m2 in total but is shared with a theatre rehearsal space. The space I have for the studio is around 95m2 At this stage I'm just focused on the issolating shell acoustic treatment will follow - im still questioning door placement ... thoughts The Warehouse is zoned light industrial and whilst there are nearby residential neighbours most seem nice. I don't expect any hostility from them. That said I'd like it to future proof. (ie. if a hostile neighbour moved in next door they would have no reason to complain about noise) the external walls are 3ft of concrete and brick the roof is sheet metal with that thin insulation attached to foil It is also located not far from a flight path and is subject to aircraft noise. Its not too loud though and has very little low frequency rumble. I will be testing the SPL of this shortly. The space itself is to be run somewhere in between private and commercial. A space for me to have all my stuff set up, to record my various projects and the music that I release on my label as well as friends that make music to hire if they want. Very importantly its a space where I can explore and learn more about sound as sound is my passion. I plan to keep my day job and do this outside hours. The overheads are really low and the way I am budgeting is not assuming there would be any income from this studio. The money I make working is enough to keep it going. I'm doing this cause its want I want to do. I could travel, I could save up for a house but, call me crazy instead I am building a studio. The music I make/record is rock and experimental music its often loud and sometimes really quiet This is not the first one that I have had either. I had a very DIY studio is Sydneys Western Suburbs for a bit. It was very much untreated un-issolated just a warehouse in an industrial area where even the incredibly loud shoe gaze record I made there for The Laurels never attracted any notice from the neighbours. It was bare bones, parallel walls, tiny control room, aircraft noise, but I made several very well received records that I am still to this day happy with Walls Double Stud with 2 layers of 13mm or 16mm firecheck plasterboard space 200mm apart leaving enough room for 175mm of glasswool which is really cheap in Australia at the moment due to a bungled goverment rebate scheme. Thats for each wall so for layers of plasterboard and two layers of glasswool each. internal walls will have a layer of green glue between. rubber or something equivlent bellow floor plate I am consiering resilent sound clips for walls Ceiling I plan to attach insulation and two layers of plasterboard via resilent sound spring system to the existing joists and then have a decoupled inner ceiling with 2 layers of 13mm plasterboard, insulation and green glue. probably no resilent channel on the internal ceiling the roof is on a 13 degree slant 5m at the tallest 3.1m at the lowest . there are structural joists placed at 3.9m intervals - 1 of which is in the live space. I will at least utilise the full roof height between joists but should i build around the joist so that it is completly Issolated from the innerwall or should I simply allow it to go straight through the space, giving the live room more airspace if I did so would problematic low frequency simply travel around these joists/struts diagrams/photos of this to follow soon I look forward to your comments suggestions and feed back

some more images of design done in ArchiCad...

There is an announcement at the top of the forum about what to do to assure getting as many responses as possible. The announcement leads to this post (click here). Actually, several people, who are experts on this forum, will most likely not reply if you don't do what is written in that post. Many others who are very helpful, will most likely not reply out of respect for the moderators' wishes. I'm also wondering why you have the mix position at almost the worst possible location in the room: It looks to be very close to the 50% position. Also, you seem to have the space and rough layout to soffit-mount your speakers, but they are not shown as being soffit mounted. Is that a mistake, or are you going to soffit mount them? If you do NOT plan to soffit mount them, then it looks like the splay angle on your inner-leaf front walls could be increased to get a much better RFZ around the mix position, especially if you correct the location of the mix position to get it out of the 50% null.

the external walls are 3ft of concrete and brick the roof is sheet metal with that thin insulation attached to foil --- That said I'd like it to future proof. (ie. if a hostile neighbour moved in next door they would have no reason to complain about noise) --- rock and experimental music its often loud ---

So you need good isolation. So your walls are not a problem, but your roof is a major problem. I guess that's where you will be focusing all your efforts?

The music I make/record is rock and experimental music its often loud and sometimes really quiet

So isolation is going to be an issue, for sure, which means that the roof is going to be even more of a problem!

Double Stud with 2 layers of 13mm or 16mm firecheck plasterboard space 200mm apart leaving enough room for 175mm of glasswool

Why double stud? You already have a really good outer leaf. You only need an inner leaf. Also, forget the 13mm drywall: too thin.

I am consiering resilent sound clips for walls

Why? You don't need them. You already said you are going to decouple your inner leaf with a new stud wall, so why do you also want to use RSIC?

I plan to attach insulation and two layers of plasterboard via resilent sound spring system to the existing joists and then have a decoupled inner ceiling with 2 layers of 13mm plasterboard, insulation and green glue. probably no resilent channel on the internal ceiling

That sounds like you are planning to do a three-leaf ceiling! :shock: But you don't seem to have anywhere near enough mass and air space in there to compensate for the triple-leaf effect. And certainly not with just 13mm drywall. You might want to re-think that plan! - Stuart -

Thanks Stuart your quite right mix position is totally out - its funny how I have overlooked that originally I had the control room a bit longer due to restraints I had pulled the rear walls forward without considering the consequences. I will rethink that. The design shown is for soffit mounting but I am still underdecided about whether to soffit or not. where ever Ive stated 13mm plasterboard I should have specified two layers of 13mm plasterboard seperated by geen glue. (so approx 26mm) do you think thats enough or should I go to 2 layers of 16mm. Good Issolation is needed the double stud walls are there mostly to decouple the ceiling and to keep the space that is shared with others relativly quiet but I see your point about the triple-leaf effect of the ceiling... I think first I have to work out what to do with the ceiling and design down from there. The ceiling is the weak link and the most complex part of design I still have this really big question about the load-bearing beams. should I allow them to run through the live space or build around them. they are 290mm tall x 70mm and located every 3.9m wide see attatched picture also note those sky lights on the left hand wall... this adds to the problem

to clarify Im still in research stage - but I have signed the lease so the building doesn't change but designs can. nearest residential residents are about 4m away from the external wall on the right handside if looking from the top view design. there are no windows or doors on that wall simply one big concrete/brick wall. there is plaster warehouse next door and we share the wall on the left hand side (looking from the to view design) that wall is not as thick as the external walls - around 120mm thick concrete rendered brick (I think). They seem fine about noise so issolating for them is not the aim. But I'd like to keep their noise out as much as possible - initial tests show they make up to about 60db noise heard in my space. mostly flanking over the ceiling. Again the Ceiling is the weakest link and with planes running overhead making up to around 70db heard in the space are really I think the biggest issue. I'm still waiting on my new SPL meter to arive so these tests may be inacurate The front of the space has a garage door sound can easily pass through that. Hence placeing the control room between the live room and the front of the building - this also means the slanted sky light which you can see in one of the pictures doesn't run all the way through the live space giving me less issolation problems. Also when I say live space I am refering to the space where all the noise will be made

Ok here is a very basic new plan for the control room. I decided to go without Soffit Mounting. I haven't detailed any acoustic treatment. At this stage I just attempting to get the bassic room dimensions. The only problem I see areline of sight issues. which I can live with I would welcome any feedback even if its just a thumbs up or thumbs down Cheers Jon

...but I am still underdecided about whether to soffit or not.

If you can, then it is definitely worth it!

I should have specified two layers of 13mm plasterboard seperated by geen glue. (so approx 26mm) do you think thats enough or should I go to 2 layers of 16mm.

Definitely! 13mm is too thin, and even doubling it up does not help all that much, since the panels still act both individually and together. Much better to go with 16mm.

initial tests show they make up to about 60db noise heard in my space.

Have you decided how quite that needs to be in your room? EG, if you need to be at 35dB in your room, then that means you need at least another 25dB additional isolation, beyond what you have now. - Stuart -

ah I just started reading the speaking of speakers section... maybe ill soffit but I'll keep reading spl meter reads planes to be up to 75 db (with C weighting)