We are on the fourth floor of a 12 floor, steel-structured building with thick concrete floors and brick walls. The building originally housed heavy machinery on each floor, but now contains music rehearsal spaces (most of which are not well isolated). We plan to isolate outside airborne and flanking noise via room-within-room construction.
Double doors lead into the space from the vestibule, and are part of our M-S-M strategy denoted by the outer and inner room lines. The inner room is roughly 18.5' x 15' x 9' ceiling.
For the existing outer leaf, we completely covered the original plaster-on-brick walls and plaster-on-concrete ceilings with 5/8" drywall backed with a healthy dose of GreenGlue. We then affixed 4" Roxul to the aforementioned surfaces.
For the proposed inner leaf:
- The floating floor will be double 3/4" plywood/GG mounted on 2x6 joists insulated with 4" Roxul AFB. The joists will rest on a properly calculated distribution of neoprene (yes, we read that thread :D ).
- The inner walls will be double 5/8" drywall/GG on 24" OC 2x4 studs and insulated with 4" Roxul AFB.
- The inner ceiling will be double 5/8" drywall/GG mounted on 2x4 wood frames and insulated with 4" Roxul AFB. These frames will be hung from the outer ceiling using neoprene isolation hangers.
Studio goals:
*** Accurate mixing environment (near-field monitors w/ sub)
** Vocal tracking (no booth)
* Live drum tracking (occasionally)
With this thread we're hoping to gain insight on the most strategic use of our inner space given our spatial constraints and studio goals.
The red lines represent a proposed inner-room which would make maximal use of the inner space. Any suggestions pertaining to room shape, layout, treatment, and mixing position would be greatly appreciated.
Please let us know if we can provide any additional information.
Thank you.
Inner Shape of Small Production/Tracking Studio
Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 14869.
what is the available ceiling height? floating floor - have you considered laying down polyethylene foam or Sorbothane (http://sorbothane.com/) and putting layers of MDF and plywood on it instead of using joists?
The original ceiling height is 10'10", which will leave 9' of "inner" height between the top of the floating floor and the bottom of the hung ceiling. We haven't checked out polyethylene or Sorbothane yet (will look today)... the floor joists/frame will be supporting the inner walls, though.what is the available ceiling height?
you could do both - support the inner walls separate from the overall floor.
Very cool... we'll definitely investigate this further. I wonder if a floor like this will sufficiently thwart flanking from the drums and live instruments below...
Construction methods aside, what we are grappling with the most currently is the layout/shape of the inner space (denoted by the red lines in our first post's graphic). Given that the room will be used for both mixing and tracking (no booth), we are trying to figure out which mixing axis orientation would provide the most accurate monitoring situation.
Attached are three possible layouts of the mixing axis (these are quite rough, but for the sake of discussion, should suffice).
The east-west setup does not provide symmetry for the monitoring environment, but perhaps this could be offset by proper room/reflections treatment?
The north-south setup utilizes more room symmetry. (Not the best positioning of mixing chair here, but it's just a rough drawing to demonstrate the general axis).
The diagonal setup may not be symmetrical in the room, but is fairly symmetrical from the perspective of the engineer's chair.
All three layouts leave the live area in the same part of the room (that happens to be the least symmetric given the corners). We assume that less symmetry is better for the live area.
Any opinions on which of these scenarios are better? We're assuming that while treatment can compensate for asymmetry, it's no match for a symmetrical mixing scenario.
Additionally, would angling one or more of the walls (red lines) would be beneficial for the live area?
definitely north south. set up a futon couch so you can fold it and move it out of the way for tracking (and or as a big absorber...)
the "floating floor" shown is really meant for a solid floor underneath. you could build something like this as an isolation platform on top of your floating floor to reduce vibration from the drum kit and bass amp etc.
But did you read this document?: http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/obj/irc/doc/p ... /ir802.pdf I ask for one reason.If we all agree that mass is the beast it takes to isolate sound then the addition of the lesser mass, even though mounted on a resilient stand changes the properties of the floor. What you have is something of lesser ability [mass wise] that is, even though decoupled, becomes a resonating factor in the room by the limited mass properties of the material used. Granted on the fourth floor of any building, the building will introduce the flanking and most attempts to overcome that are not easily, if ever, overcome. Mass and if you divide that by 4, you will fight against the heavier portion that the building will inject and try to overcome that with something that basically lives and dies on the abilities of the building. You do not necessarily overcome it but attempt to mitigate it and this is a hard fought battle in a vertical situation. And we must assume glass is surrounding this area.For the proposed inner leaf: - The floating floor will be double 3/4" plywood/GG mounted on 2x6 joists insulated with 4" Roxul AFB. The joists will rest on a properly calculated distribution of neoprene (yes, we read that thread :D ).