Hello! I need to design a recording studio

Hello, I have just leased a unit in a commercial/industrial type building. Now that I have space, my next logical step is the design. I have read through this site on numerous occasions over the last couple years, and its always been an incredible resource. When it came time to put together a studio, my first thought would be to just hire John Sayers to do the design, since by now ive seen many of his projects on this site, and I really like what he comes up with. Unfortunately, I sent him a couple emails, and never received a reply (im sure he's a pretty busy guy). So long story short, I figured before I go looking for someone else, I might have a try on the forum! There seem to be quite a few guys in here that are quite sharp, and maybe the sum of the combined talent of the forum could be quite powerful? So if anybody/everybody is game, lets design a studio! Here are the details: Location: Southern California sq footage: 1025 type of building: concrete tilt-up commercial/industrial neighbors/noise: I was able to get the end unit, so only a neighbor on one side, I would like to be as quiet as possible, reasonably speaking, but the building is zoned for commercial zoning, noise wise dimensions: 54'x19', ceilings are between 14'-16' (will get exact dimension when I have my step ladder) floor: concrete walls: one side is drywall (the 54' side with the neighbor) the other side is concrete, the back is concrete with a roll-up and a walk through door, front is glass with a front door. HVAC: yes, dedicated to the unit, brand new ceiling: exposed beam bathroom: yes, small support pillars: none pictures?: soon poor/crudely constructed Sketchup drawing of floorplan?: Yes What I intend to accomplish: a studio consisting of a tracking room, a control room, 1 medium size iso booth plus two small iso booths large enough to accommodate an amplifier. I would like the tracking room to be as big as possible, mainly because it is not at all uncommon for me to track a 3 or 4 or even 5 piece rhythm section live, so having a setup that is conducive to that type of workflow is important to me. The control room can be on the smaller side, but it will have to accommodate a console and a two 2" multitrack machines. I would also like to soffit mount two sets of speakers, a pair of pro-acs and a pair of some big, old JBL's above. There will have to be a lounge area, but small as possible. And lastly, a great sound! hopefully it will be warm and natural in tone. In conclusion, I hope my post is clear and sufficiently satisfies the posting rules, and I look forward to building something great. Thanks! -Kris

There is an announcement at the top of the forum about what to do to assure getting as many responses as possible. The announcement leads to this post (click here). Actually, several people, who are experts on this forum, will most likely not reply if you don't do what is written in that post. Just a friendly reminder! :) - Stuart -

Hi, I read the post you put the link too before I made my posting. I feel that I have provided at least 90% percent of what was asked, including: noise, location, specific room details, goals, stage of development, the inclusion of hight in my dimensions, a drawing of what I have to work with, as well as addressing the issue of whether or not there might be a pole in the middle of the room. The only thing I didn't touch on yet is budget, but im still calculating what the final budget will be, but I am well within the grasp of reality, in the terms of building costs vs. what I want to do. If there is something I have missed from the "BEFORE YOU POST, YOU MUST READ AND FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS" topic that I missed, please inform me, thanks!

What type of console and big JBL speakers? It would also help to understand ambient noise conditions which can help in determining the isolation you need outside ini as well as your sounds getting out.

Kris123 wrote:

If there is something I have missed from the "BEFORE YOU POST, YOU MUST READ AND FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS" topic that I missed, please inform me, thanks!

Hi Kris. What you missed is about one third of the way down that page, in fairly large letters. It says:

Edit your profile to include your location. This is very important, because this is a worldwide resource, and as such, material costs and availability vary widely. For example, masonry is cheaper than gypsum in some parts of the globe, whereas it's the exact opposite in other regions. We're not asking for your address or credit card number, just a country will do. Nothing says "I didn't bother to read or follow these instructions" like leaving your profile location blank! :x

:) Anyway, you said:

my first thought would be to just hire John Sayers to do the design, since by now ive seen many of his projects on this site, and I really like what he comes up with. Unfortunately, I sent him a couple emails, and never received a reply (im sure he's a pretty busy guy).

He may not have been around when you sent those messages. Perhaps you could try again now. Try sending him a PM. He normally responds fairly fast to those.

dimensions: 54'x19', ceilings are between 14'-16' (will get exact dimension when I have my step ladder)That's pretty good! You have a fairly decent size space there.

floor: concrete

That's also good. Concrete makes a great floor, acoustically.

The control room can be on the smaller side, but it will have to accommodate a console and a two 2" multitrack machines.

You might want to consider putting the multitrack machines in a machine room: they can be a bit noisy and distracting in the control room. Especially if you ever decide to record someone right there in the control room.

And lastly, a great sound! hopefully it will be warm and natural in tone.

If the tone is "warm", then it isn't natural! If it is "natural", then it isn't warm! :) The usual goal is to aim fairly flat response in your room, with fairly constant RT-60 across the entire spectrum, no first reflections at the mix position, excellent symmetry, and a clear, tight, precise sound stage. - Stuart -

Hi Stuart, the very FIRST thing I did when I created my profile, was to include my location, I understand now that it is not showing up! so im sure I hit the wrong button or something, I will fix this right away. Id rather skip the machine room, I like to be able to keep an eye on the tape machine if I need to. Also, you are right, the frequency response should be flat, I guess I was just trying to purvey that at the end of it all, I will have built something that sounds great.

Hi Glenn, thanks for the reply, I should have remembered to address the ambient noise situation! The unit is sort of tucked away at the end of the complex, so it is away from the main road, so im getting no road vibrations, and almost no road noise and the other tenants are pretty quiet (no automotive or machine shops etc., the building manager doesn't allow it). its pretty quiet, but as far as sounds getting out, it is an industrial building so although I would like to live in harmony with my neighbors, so if there was some noise, its not like it wouldn't be expected to some degree. I have a choice of putting in one of two consoles, either a 36 channel Neotek, or a very hip custom 28 channel Auditronics 501. for the JBL's im either going to use a pair of 4311's or a pair of 4430's. there is a chance I will be able to score a pair of vintage Westlakes from an old friend, and that would be rad, but although they are on the smaller side (as far as westlakes go) they might still be too big, so for now, Im just going under the personal assumption that I will be sticking a pair of JBL's up there, above the pro-acs. -Kris

bump?

Kris, I didn't actually see a question in your post. Maybe I missed it? What do you need help with? - Stuart -

Hi Stuart, I am starting from the start, so my question would be this: giving what I have to work with, what type of layout do you think would be the best use of my space? I feel like it could go a couple different ways, so Im really interested to see what other people think, as far as it could be laid out. Ive seen some other threads where people have contributed great idea's where I thought "wow, it totally didn't think of that".

one thought - you'll need this to be stable during seismic events so when considering room within a room approach to isolation that you will want your engineers to address this.

Hi Glenn, Awesome, I can't believe you drew this up! Im going to give this layout some good thought. If you or anybody else out there have any other layout ideas, Id love to here them! Glenn, what do you think about maybe rotating the control room 90 degrees and putting at the back wall? that way I could use sliding glass doors on the side, and have a nice sight line of the room. Also, thanks to everyone for their patience, I am obviously new at this, and the sheer mass of information to take in, to design something of quality is pretty overwhelming. -Kris

depends on access to the live room. in this case the hallway provides an air lock and isolation gap. if you will allow traversing the CR to get to the live room or using the exterior doors, turning it sideways could work.

Hi Glenn, You make a good point about the hallway being a good airlock, but I would like to utilize as much space as possible, and on the the side of the unit that the hallway is on there is thick concrete wall, and no neighbor on that side, so In not too worried about it. Also I don't mind the idea of going through the tracking room to get to the control room too much, since the control room would have its own entrance from the back. Also, I will see if I can snap some pictures and put them up by tomorrow, and get some more dimensions, like the exact size of the bathroom and ceiling hight. -Kris

very good!

Hi Glenn, here are some pictures of the space, I know its somewhat frowned upon to post a link to the pics instead of of just putting them right on the post, but for whatever reason, I couldn't make it work, so here is a photobucket link : http://s326.photobucket.com/albums/k402/cargolost/ I attached a new Sketchup file with every dimension carefully measured out and correct to the 1/2". Also, I attached a sketchup of a basic layout that I dreamed up, I don't know if it could work, but its a start. Please let me know what you think, thanks! -Kris

what is the glass door in front of the rollup door for?