Diamondshape control room with Louden 1x1.4x1.9 dimensions

Hi, Finally, I'm about to build a homestudio in my garden! Through the years I watched this website/forum with interest. I have a question about 'ideal' control room dimensions. Everywhere on the internet I see this Louden 1 x 1.4 x 1.9 thing. It seems that a lot of control rooms are built this way, so these should be good dimensions and a good starting point, I guess.... My question is about a 'diamond shape' implemention into this room. I've attached an image with a floorplan, but in my opinion the Louden 'principle' is killed that way! Am I wrong, or is this the way to do it? My 2nd question is about the angles of the build-in gypsum walls, I cannot find those in this forum. Cheers and thanks in advance, Rob

Hi Rob, and welcome! One quick question: How much of that is built already? - Stuart -

Hi stuart, Nothing is built yet... This is the first plan, I'm going to build from scratch, so any suggestions are welcome ! -- Rob --

The reason I asked the above question, is because there seem to be some conceptual problems with that drawing. The basic idea is fine (rough dimensions, layout, etc.) but the isolation and treatment concepts seem to be a bit confusing. For example, there is a 3-leaf window between the CR and the LR, but no isolation walls! 3-leaf is always a bad idea, but why go to all that trouble when there is only a single leaf wall? Also, the angled side walls on your CR cannot be gypsum with that design: you seem to be confusing isolation with treatment. Those should probably be slot walls. To answer your questions: The front angles depend on your speaker geometry, and what you are trying to accomplish. The diagonal "walls" at the rear are not walls either! They are your bass traps. The angle there is not important at all: just make them as wide and as deep as you can. Most people try to make them 36" (90cm) wide (the diagonal) and angle them at 45°, but neither of those is critical. As long as you have them at least 60 cm wide and somewhere around 30° to 60°, you'll be fine. But it is important to know how much of that has been built already, and what can be changed. - Stuart

Nothing is built yet... This is the first plan, I'm going to build from scratch, so any suggestions are welcome !

Cool! OK, so tell us some more: what are your goals here? What type of music, how loud are you, how much isolation you need, your budget, etc. etc. etc. - Stuart -

Thanks for al the info Stuart! Here are some details: I have my company called Audio Muziek Produkties (www.amplibrary.com) and compose music for documentaires, commercials, I also record voice-overs. I compose all kind of styles, from doom to minimal music. However I'm not planning to record drums at night. In my free time I play/record rock/metal with singers. I'm not going to record bands and popgroups, I have done that in the past and I'm tired and too old for that kinda work :-) My budget is around € 50.000, I hope that's enough to build a descent small studio... cheers

OK, starting to get the picture. Lets try to put some numbers to that: So what you do is mostly electronic, very little recording of acoustic instruments, and most likely monitoring at around 85 dB. Does that sound about right? Do you ever go louder than that? Or more specifically, what is the loudest instrument you are ever likely to record in your studio?

My budget is around € 50.000,

Sounds about right. Not sure how construction costs go in the Netherlands, but find out more or less what it would cost to build a house in your area (cost per square meter), add about 30%, and that should give you a rough estiamte of how much this will cost. OK, so I'm assuming that you have an empty piece of land, and you plan to dig a hole, pour a concrete slab, and build your studio on it. Right? - Stuart -

I think you're just about right, mostly electronic stuff, except I'm planning to record more acoustic stuff like marimba, trumpet, brass, woodwinds and latin percussion. I think the loudest person is a singer... I'm a guitarist, so I record a lot of acoustic guitar, I will do that mainly in the control room. I work/compose on low volumes, mastering is done on somewhat louder, but not too loud.You know how it works... quote: OK, so I'm assuming that you have an empty piece of land, and you plan to dig a hole, pour a concrete slab, and build your studio on it. Right? Yep, that's what I've been dreaming of all my life! € 50.000 = $69784,57

robbiemaas wrote:

but in my opinion the Louden 'principle' is killed that way! Am I wrong, or is this the way to do it?

It does change the way a room developed with any of these ratios interacts with the vibration but it does not change the notion that you have to start somewhere...and this is a better place than a guess.