Planning Studio in Asia - Help with Layout Please.

This is my first post. But I have been hanging out for a while. Hope this meets the guidelines. Location: I currently live in Louisville, Ky. But the studio will be in Southern Coast of Vietnam Little city called "Rach Gia. Weather is 80s-90s year round with 3 months of rain a year. Project Description: Small recording studio. 2 rooms of split level house. 1 large Live room, 1 room with Control room, and maybe 2 or 3 small ISO rooms. Goals of the entire building project: To make the most sound-proof and energy-efficient as possible on a reasonable budget. Labor and materials are CHEAP in vietnam, any and all bass traps, diffusers, etc will be made DIY. I may be able to take a couple kits of Auralex products with me, but for the most part, everything will be made their. Budget: Since labor and materials are cheap in Vietnam, budget for inside construction will be $3000-$5000. Recording and Production Space for solo projects, band projects, Production Space for outside recording projects, and A/V post-production. Live room will double as rehearsal room for me (I am a drummer) Since the rooms are seperated by a stairwell. Communication between Control Room and Live Room will be done by CCTV and Monitoring System. Project Status: Planning phase. Just making decisions, no time frame set. Known Construction Challenges: In existing house, which is built like a condo, as there are 8 identical houses build next to each other, so we share walls on the left and right, although they are pretty thick so sound through the walls should not be an issue. If you have ever heard the term SHOTGUN Style House, that's what it is. Very narrow about 15 feet wide from inside wall to inside wall, about 90 feet deep, and has 5 bedrroms, each on it's own split level off a winding staircase in the center of the house. I will be using the first 2 bedrooms as my studio. All OUTSIDE walls are 3 or 4 layers deep of brick and morter, INSIDE walls are 2 layers deep of brick and morter. FLOORS and CEILING are CEMENT Noise Issues: Typical vietnam neighborhood noises - MOTORBIKES. If you have ever been to Vietnam, or any other country in Central Asia, you know what I'm talking about. Both rooms have very large windows that I will need to deal with, even if I need to create a room within a room to isolate noise. Vocation: I will run my business out of our split-level 5-story SHOTGUN style home. Audio Production - Presonus Studio One Pro / 32 channels for instruments-vocals Special Interest / Corporate Audio/Video Production Remote Audio Recording - Live Concerts etc. 32 channel mobile rig. Record Drum tracks via Internet. Recreation: Travel, Swimming, considering putting together progressive rock band, as rock has become very popular with the young Vietnamese culture. Research: I've been doing my homework, searched the forum, reading up on the Auralex & GreenGlue sites, at John Sayers' forum, and joined at recording.org to name a few resources. Attached Removed: is a rough drawing of the floorplan. Each room is 15 feet x 15 feet x 9 feet (L x W x H) The room at the bootom will be the LIVE room, and I just need to come up with a way to isolate that HUGE window and door leading to rear balcony. Maybe remove the window all-together and have some masonry guy to fill it in. The room at the top will house the Control Room, and 2 or 3 small ISO rooms. I just need to come up with a way to isolate that HUGE window and door leading to front balcony. Filling in the window is NOT an option. So I am hoping that maybe splitting the room in half and leaving a little hallway down the middle. Control room on the right, yet leaving access to the bathroom, and the balcony. ISO rooms on the left side, leaving space at the front of the house so windows can still be accessed. Any ideas on laying out the Control Room and ISO rooms would be greatly appreciated.

"I've been doing my homework, reading up on the Auralex & GreenGlue sites, at John Sayers' forum, and joined here at >>>>recording.org<<<< to name a few resources." Wrong answer ;)

2 15x15 rooms is probably going to be 1 CR and 1 LR with some adjustments to move them out of square. plus you need to consider flanking via the structure. thick hard materials transmit sound pretty well. where do you actually enter from outside?

The stairway comes up from the first floor, outside the 2nd floor room. I know it's not ideal, but it's the only option I have. I understand I will have to make some adjustments to get the rooms out of square, optimized acoustically. I will post an updated picture with some layout ideas I have been thinking about. Does anyone else have any suggestions or layout ideas?

Please read the forum RULES (stickies) that can be found at this link: viewforum.php?f=17 Then make certain that this is reviewed: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3231 Please correct your initial post to conform with these rules and guidelines. Many here will not only NOT help while waiting in respect for owners and other better qualified persons to proceed, but will simply ignore these type of posts completely. You may want to immediately ask "what is it that I have missed". Most often it is as simple as including your geographical location in your profile. It might be that you have not included your budget! Trust me in that the more you know the better others can help you and that the answer to that question is in the forum rules linked page. Until then, good luck,

Picture removed since it did not meet forum guidelines. More information also provided. I will download Sketchup and attempt to make a drawing.

We have similar construction here in Indonesia. As Glenn said, you will have to deal with the flanking noise through the structure. What kind of ceiling do you have? Concrete or wood. Many times they will build the ceiling out of wood framework and attach 3mm plywood panels for finish. Above that, many times, is the roof rafters and roofing tiles are laid directly on wood strips. - No acoustic isolation at all. Check to see if the separation walls are structural. Cheers, John

jhbrandt wrote:

We have similar construction here in Indonesia. As Glenn said, you will have to deal with the flanking noise through the structure. What kind of ceiling do you have? Concrete or wood. Many times they will build the ceiling out of wood framework and attach 3mm plywood panels for finish. Above that, many times, is the roof rafters and roofing tiles are laid directly on wood strips. - No acoustic isolation at all. Check to see if the separation walls are structural. Cheers, John

Ceiling is Concrete in both rooms. In between the 2 rooms is about a 15 feet x 20 feet area where the spiral staircase is located and the landings for each split level. The entire house is 14 feet wide from the inside walls. floor to ceiling is about 9 feet on each level. Regarding the seperation walls, they are structural, but like I said before there is about a 20 feet space beween the 2 rooms.

Can we assume a concrete structure overall, walls, foundation, ceiling and party walls, assuming a party wall is part of this dwelling?

Yes..

Photos would be useful! Just re-size them to follow the forum guidelines, or if you can't re-size them, then upload them to one of the many free services and link to them. - Stuart -

I tried to download Sketchup, but for some reason, its not letting me. So, here is a link to the original picture. http://cid-7d1ac6a046b1bcd3.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Floorplan.JPG