Recording studio in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) build

Hi all! I've been browsing the site for a while now trying to soak it all in... it's a fascinating science and I look forward to learning more about it. Here's the backstory: We've been at our current location for almost 10 years now. It was in the basement of a music store in town (Halifax, NS, Canada) and we were happily working away... we come to work one morning and the whole place is wrapped up in brown paper: they had gone out of business. Well, we get in touch with the landlords and get a new lease for the whole basement floor (which included 9 custom-built never-used 15'x16' soundproofed rehearsal rooms. Our studio was poured concrete floor to ceiling and for a year and a half we built a little community; rented room to and recorded some of the coolest bands on town. Most of these bands were metal/heavy rock. Well, a month or so ago we get served our notice from the landlord. They want to put in a two-floor spa or some such nonsense so we're being put out on the street. We scramble to find a new space to put the studio and luckily find a spot that would be absolutely perfect. It's in the middle of the city but it's a mini commercial area, we're surrounded by businesses on all sides. No residential neighbours- it's perfect. Naturally, since this move was an unexpected surprise to us, getting the budget together to build the place has been a little tricky. If we can design something that we can improve over time that would be ideal. SO, the space! It's a 750 sq/ft unit in a commercial centre: Here's the layout of the building: the wood indicates the common hallways. the main entrance is on the bottom left and there are doors to the self-storage warehouse at the top of both hallways. The building has two floors at the front, but we're nowhere near them. The control room and live room have two different ceiling heights because the building has had multiple additions over the years. We're signing the lease tomorrow (we're also moving out of our current space tomorrow- talk about timing!) and we'd like to hit the ground running as much as possible. If you take a look at the room layout all the walls are 2x4 with drywall and insulation (you can see the insulation in one of the pictures!) except for the wall to the "left" of the live room, which is a 2x4 wall in front of a concrete wall- as it was an exterior wall at one time. The ceilings in the control room are 14', the lobby area (which is already built and we'd like to incorporate it into the design) is 8' tall, and the live room is 16' high. The janitor's closet room is a respectable size and it is already double-drywalled. The floors are concrete and the ceiling is metal beams and wood slats in the control room and. I believe the ceiling is metal in the live room. There are no surprise poles or load-bearing walls in the unit except for the "north" side of the opening between the live room and the control room. I'd like to keep the dividing wall between the control room half and the live room half unmoved. What we need: - Enough space to track a band live off the floor (even if all the amps are in the same room- for lighter rock I can deal with that) - The ability to record metal drummers - The ability to record (or re-amp) metal guitars- Mesa + 2x12s on "stun" and high-gain basses - A booth that we can use for amps, possibly my hammond and leslie, and comfortable enough for a corporate client: ADR, web commercials, etc. - Sight lines are not important from the control room. It would be nice if the performers had good sight lines though. I plan on installing cameras and a LCD TV in the control room to see the performers. I did a "sound test" by having a friend of mine play a guitar and smack a kickdrum in the middle of the planned live room. You might be able to tell from the photos that the drywall is not totally sealed on the top so there's light (and sound!) leaking into the hallway like crazy. 95dB in the room, 75dB in the hallway, 65dB in the unit sharing a wall with the live room was what I measured. I'd like to get as much reduction as is possible but not go crazy with it. I plan on only doing loud bands after 5:30 when the other tenants have all left the building. Still, it would be nice to have the option every once in a while to do something loud during the day. Our budget is around $10,000 but if it costs more we'll find a way to get it. I have a friend who is a carpenter and we're going to do the work ourselves. A few photos: And here's what I came up with (sorry, my Sketchup skills are poor- I only started using it a few weeks ago). The square and the 45-degree corner in the lobby hallway are meant to be the mic cupboard (the square) and a broom closet (the triangle) Thank you so much everyone, I'd be happy to provide any additional information. I went down the guidelines list as I was writing this, so I hope I haven't missed anything important. Cheers, Rob

basically the layout looks good. some adjustments to the treatments. no angled walls for isolation - strip down and reuse existing drywall to build additional isolation walls particularly in the live, drum, and amp rooms. use as much height as you can for the live spaces. keep the CR room height to around 12'. if you could use the "live" room for the CR, you might be able to get a slightly different arrangement but it might not be a good workflow for you. for treatments, a variety of slats and panels. overhead clouds in the CR and overhead absorbers and polys in the live room. use the extra space over top for your HVAC.

I like it! Thanks for the quick reply. I chose the left side to be the live room because it was up against a heavy outside wall. Also, that lobby area was already built so I figured incorporating it into the design might cut down on material costs. Thanks again, Rob

We took possession of the space today: and I really think that the studio would look and function a lot better without the drum room... just have one large open live room. What do you guys think?

I really think that the studio would look and function a lot better without the drum room... just have one large open live room. What do you guys think?

I think that drums in a small room generally don't sound all that good (with one or two exceptions, of very carefully setup drum kits in very carefully set up rooms). So if you don't think it will work for you, then ditch the separate drum booth and just track your drums in the bigger room. - Stuart -

agreed