New studio build in Northern California. Help Wanted!

Greetings folks - I'm a long time lurker, but first time poster. My name is Jackie, and I'm a touring musician. I currently have (technically lease) a studio in San Francisco and i'm about to embark upon my first studio build. Basically, i'm moving the whole thing out of town into the country. I thought it would be wise to share my ideas and rough sketches with this community before I actually start spending a whole lot of money! Enough about me...here are the specifics: Where: The studio will be located in a rural town in Northern California. The space allotted for the studio is 45 feet long by 36 feet wide. The ceiling is 15' high at the center and slants evenly on either side (longways..umm hotdog style) to 9 feet. The space itself is a very very large garage with two room built into the back of it. There is a center wall (that will be removed) that will probably reveal some support beams. (which i actually like...!) What: the goals (besides the obvious of it sounding the best it can) are to retain a sense of "rustic-ness". I want my studio to be a place where I WANT to make music. To me that's the most important thing. It's what I do for a living, and i want to feel comfortable and inspired on a daily basis. That being said, to me a lot of that is simply cosmetics. I'll leave that discussion out! What I would like, is to create a really really great control room, and a really great live room. One small iso room would be ideal, though not completely necessary. My work-flow is generally "all in the room at the same time" kind of thing. I should also mention that this is not necessarily a "studio for hire" kind of ordeal. Just my own spot. The build will probably not be done by me. I will be hiring a contractor and IDEALLY someone who knows studio design to oversee and draft plans. But being the nerd that I am, I am striving to understand all of this and I want to at least have some idea of what's going on. I may pound a few nails, but in all honesty, i don't trust myself to do much more than that. A few other things of note regarding the space: *there is HVAC in the space and two vents in the existing rooms. *there is electric as well *it does NOT need a bathroom or running water. *soundproofing from the outside world is only partially necessary. the property is on 2.5 acres and the nearest neighbor is 150 yards away on either side. that being said, i would like it to be somewhat soundproof. i mean, to the extent that it needs to be. *it is ground level, and currently has a cement slab. *it came with a vintage 32 channel Neve console. just kidding. Specific questions: I've attached sketchup drawings. (actually, only one is a sketchup. the others are this interior design program that i have which only slightly resembles sketchup. i promise to learn sketchup better and make the rest of my models using it...)) I've very new to sketchup and these types of software, so i apologize in advance if they seem strange or funky. I guess my first big question is regarding the general location of the control room. Should I be concerned with locating it so that the highest point of the ceiling is in the center of the control room? i/e, in the middle of the space. this brings up another question: what about removing ceiling panels and letting the truss and roof be exposed? i like the look of that an it might be useful to get a few more feet out of the height. anyhow, that's all i can think of right now. i look forward to any help i can get ! thanks you guys jackie

Jackie, Ideally the CR finished height should be somewhere close to 11ft. and have good ratios - H-W-D. So, yes centered in the building is a good idea... but the space needed for a good CR might also be served in another position. --- I love those vintage Neves... even pretendy ones. :P The room you have drawn is close to a cube - careful there. -- The shape of your CR is the shape often taken by the interior acoustics and not the actual construction. In other words you need room for trapping. What design approach are you taking for the control room? RFZ? Non-Environment? Both of these designs require quite a bit of trapping. Also, do you plan to flush mount your speakers? This will make a difference the design approach as well. I like your idea of the rustic look and natural 'feel' in the studio. It always helps to be in an enjoyable, creative atmosphere. The problem that I see with removing the ceiling and exposing the trusses is rain, thunder, and aircraft noise. Though, you could build a sound proof ceiling higher up, it would be tricky. You will need good isolation between the tracking room and the control room. -at least STC60-65. I would recommend a MSM wall system. Cheers, John

Hi John, thanks so much for the speedy reply. That's good to hear about the 11 ft height. I believe that's easily attained within the current parameters. I also agree with you on the raising the ceiling part. Although i love the "exposed" look.. my first thought was about rain and jet noise, etc. I forgot to mention two crucial parts to this project. First: the budget: 50k. Although, depending on certain things, it may or may not be as strict. Second: I haven't moved in to the property yet. I plan to do so in the next two weeks. (So I get to have my hands full with that as well.) After I move in and can be on-site, the actual placement of those center beams will be known. I realize it's sort of an x-factor right now! Given the fact that I just bought the place --- I probably won't be realistically ready to build until early next year. In the meantime, I thought it prudent to study up and get some pointers...which is why i'm here! Yes - it looks like a cube. Darn, i thought nobody would notice!! ;) Ha! I've spent the last two days watching sketchup videos and have discovered the push/pull tool. It's like learning major 7 chords. All of a sudden - it's in everything you do! I've started some sketchup drawings and will post them. I should probably actually get real photos of the room too. Now it's time to display my ignorance. I'm not sure the design style of the control room. I'm not certain I know what RFZ is. I thought that it was a style best suited to flush mounted monitors --- but after some googling, maybe that's not necessarily true. I do know this: I probably will not be flush mounting the monitors. Another goal (and this may seem painfully obvious) but there must be good visibility between the CR, the LR and the ISO (if one exists). One other detail : the rear side (small side) of the rectangle connects with the house. I would want to build another wall, or add a really serious barrier of some sort between that and the house. I didn't really show that on any of the models. Again, thanks kindly! Jackie

Now it's time to display my ignorance. I'm not sure the design style of the control room. I'm not certain I know what RFZ is.

Reflection Free Zone. Basically, everything that you do in designing your room to ensure that only direct sound from your speakers reaches your ears, that no first reflections get there at all, and that on other reflections get there at levels higher than 10 dB below the direct sound, within the Haas time. Roughly.

I do know this: I probably will not be flush mounting the monitors.

Why not, when doing so produces so many major benefits, with so few drawbacks? It probably is the single most important thing you can do to your speakers and your room to improve the overall sound (after acoustic treatment, of course). Why do you not want to do that?

Another goal (and this may seem painfully obvious) but there must be good visibility between the CR, the LR and the ISO (if one exists).

That can be accomplished in two ways: 1) A properly designed and built window. 2) CCTV.

One other detail : the rear side (small side) of the rectangle connects with the house. I would want to build another wall, or add a really serious barrier of some sort between that and the house.

That won't work. You cannot isolate a room by building a barrier on only one side, any more than you can make an aquarium hold water by putting only one piece of glass in the frame. Isolation is an "all or nothing" proposition: Either you do all sides of the room to the same level of isolation, or just don't bother at all. Sound will simply get around your barrier, in exactly the same way as water will get around the one single piece of glass in the aquarium. The only thing that you achieve by putting a barrier on one side is to make your local hardware store happy with their increased sales for all those expensive materials. But you don't achieve anything useful acoustically. In other words, if you need isolation between your studio and the house, then you have to isolate your ENTIRE studio: you cannot isolate just one wall. Also, like John said, the current shape and dimensions of that room are pretty bad, acoustically: you have your listening position roughly in the middle of a cube! About the only worse shape I can think of, would be a sphere... :) You should re-shape your room until it is reasonably close to one of the known good ratios, and re-arrange the geometry to get your speakers and your head in the commonly recommended positions and relationships.

The ceiling is 15' high at the center and slants evenly on either side ... to 9 feet.

Then by far the most logical layout, acoustically, would be for your control room to face one of those 9' walls, and to have the 15' point at the rear. That would remove the possibility of having a front window into the LR, of course, but from an acoustical point of view it is the best possible arrangement, hands down, no questions asked. It makes the best possible use of space, too.

There is a center wall (that will be removed) that will probably reveal some support beams. (which i actually like...!)

Did you check with a structural engineer if you can do that? Central walls quite possibly are central because they are supporting something important above them! That might not be the case for you, but you can't just rip out a wall without getting a structural engineer or other qualified person to make sure that you can do that.

the goals (besides the obvious of it sounding the best it can) are to retain a sense of "rustic-ness". I want my studio to be a place where I WANT to make music. To me that's the most important thing. It's what I do for a living, and i want to feel comfortable and inspired on a daily basis. That being said, to me a lot of that is simply cosmetics.

Mostly cosmetic, yes, but not all. That does have some acoustic implications too. For example, you might want to consider the kinds of construction materials that you consider "rustic" and that you consider would make you feel "at home" and "inspired". For example, if you like stone, consider it rustic and inspiring, then stone can be part of your finish, and stone can give you good acoustics... if you design it right. On the other hand, if you like wood but hate stone, then wood can be part of your finish, and can give you good acoustics... but that would imply a different type of design, acoustically.

*there is HVAC in the space and two vents in the existing rooms.

Have you done the calculations to make sure that it will provide the correct volume and speed of air flow, and at the correct temperature, humidity and duty cycle for your rooms? You might be OK. You might not. You say that you like to record "everything together", implying several people and lots of equipment in the LR, all at once, all of them working hard. Can your HVAC system handle that load? On the other hand, much of the time you will be alone on the CR with just a bit of equipment turned on: can the HVAC handle that minimal load too, with a sufficiently long duty cycle to ensure proper de-humidification and air replacement? Important things to think about....

*there is electric as well

Is it on a totally separate circuit, and is it star-grounded? Two very important issues.

I guess my first big question is regarding the general location of the control room. Should I be concerned with locating it so that the highest point of the ceiling is in the center of the control room? i/e, in the middle of the space.

Ideally, you should be concerned with getting the highest point at the rear of the control room, and the lowest point at the front, preferably with a ceiling slope of 12 degrees or more, and absolute symmetry for the entire studio on each side of the center-line. Major big time important!

this brings up another question: what about removing ceiling panels and letting the truss and roof be exposed? i like the look of that an it might be useful to get a few more feet out of the height.

You can do that, but not if you want good isolation to the house. Or you can still do that with good isolation, but not cheaply and not easily. That ceiling will most likely have to come off anyway, since otherwise it will be a third leaf in your isolation (between the existing roof and the new inner-leaf ceiling that you will have to build), and you NEVER want to have a 3-leaf situation if you can possibly avoid it. 3-leaf construction is a bad idea for studios.

That's good to hear about the 11 ft height. I believe that's easily attained within the current parameters.

Not really, since you say that you only have 9' for what you are currently showing as the rear of your control room. You should never have the ceiling of your room sloping down towards the rear: only sloping up. On the other hand, if your ceiling slopes the other way (side to side) you will end up with a concave "point" up there, which is not a good thing, acoustically, and will need treatment.

Now it's time to display my ignorance. I'm not sure the design style of the control room.

Your basic layout looks like a good starting point: it needs some adjustment, of course, as outlined above, but the basic idea seems fine. And as John already said, you are going to need to add the second leaves on all of those rooms, to get good MSM isolation. - Stuart -

another idea on layout. i'm only showing one booth but it would be easy enough to add some more across the live room.

Thank you very much, gullfo! I'm confused though -- Soundman says to not have the ceiling at the rear of the control room slope down? This looks like the higher ceiling would be at the front of the control room, looking out to the center of the space. Soundman - thanks for answering these questions! I appreciate it! Okay - Reflection Free Zone. Got it. I can feel my brain getting larger! I guess the reason I'm concerned with flush mounting monitors is the monitors themselves. What happens if I want to change them? I don't really have the super big monster monitors anyways. I'm using 8" genelecs, ns10s and barefoots. The barefoots have that side speaker on them too...how do you deal with that if it's enclosed? I always thought that the smaller speakers needed to be a bit closer? Okay, so we isolate the entire studio. I guess there's no way around it! That's probably the best idea anyways! About the HVAC and Electricity --- I have no idea! I'll google the star-grounding thing. I've had separate circuits done before and I anticipate having to do that again. We did that at our current place (we share the building with a restaurant!) Thanks fellas -- good stuff to ponder! Jackie

Thank you very much, gullfo! I'm confused though -- Soundman says to not have the ceiling at the rear of the control room slope down? This looks like the higher ceiling would be at the front of the control room, looking out to the center of the space.

I imagine Glenn is thinking of going with a flat ceiling, at whatever level the lowest point of your existing roof allows. That will work just fine too, but it would be nice to make use of that space up there, if you have it. - Stuart -

Stuart, Glenn and John -- thanks for the advice! I'm going to go back to the drawing board and i'll post soon. Thanks again jackie

Jackie, Some good suggestions there. Very good point brought up by Stuart. --- posts/beams - structure points. Please have an engineer (or at least a licensed builder) look at any posts/supports and/or walls you intend to remove before proceeding. ;) Electric: You do not need a 'star-grounded' system but you do need clean, dedicated outlets for the audio run in a 'zero-loop-area' configuration. You must have a good ground connection (ground stake) per code. I recommend a dedicated sub-panel in the studio mechanical room with SurgeX filters. Better yet - transformer isolated/filtered feed to the studio sub-panel. The ceiling slope of the shell is irrelevant. (it should be rectangular for good modal distribution) Ideally, there should be enough room for adequate trapping. Your inside surface of the front of the CR (for RFZ design) should be reflective and slope up from the front to the back to direct reflections to the rear of the mix position. Trapping is behind this reflective facade. The rear of the CR should be fully absorptive for the Non-Environment approach or with the addition of diffusive elements for the normal RFZ approach. I'm sorry I do not have the time to do any drawings for you. I look forward to see what you might come up with. ;) Cheers, John

Jackie - a quick estimate shows you are about to build a 1620 sqft studio. Based on the lowest estimate of costing you are looking at well over $100,000 worth of construction. I seriously doubt that you will receive, despite the excellent group knowledge on this site, sufficient design and construction information to support that kind of expenditure. cheers john

my thinking was you'd put in a lower but angled ceiling over the CR so it didn't matter about the upper ceiling. plus you could then use some of that leftover space for ducts and live room trapping etc. As Mr. Sayers rightly points out, your space looks like over $100K to build out ($100/ft is a good rule of thumb to start with but it certainly isn't the limit where $200+ is more likely.)