Studio from scratch in NW Argentina, please help!

Greetings from NW Argentina, As many here, I have "discovered" this wonderful board and found more information that could possibly fit in my eyes for a month. The reason of why I'm posting is that I have the opportunity to build a studio from "almost" zero. This "almost" implies that the location is already chosen, maximum size and a couple of personal requirements as well. First thing first, I want to build this studio mainly for playing and recording myself and mixing friends bands. No drums, loud instruments, or things like that; at most I would need an amp room (but I'm looking into changing my guitar rig to full digital) and a vocal booth. I have worked at a professional studio but I currently have other profession of which I'm living of. I'm not planning on making money out of this studio but of course recording the best material possible and helping amateur musicians to put on tape their imagination. So on to the details, attached you will find the model in Google SketchUp. Please note the house (and my studio) is yet to be built, we are just making the holes for the pillars :mrgreen: 1) I need a window on wall A near wall B or on the corner these walls. The view is outstanding and I'm willing to sacrifice acoustics for this need. 2) I have drown a door on wall D where it would be easier to fit. The room next to wall D its the washing area and a small toilet. 3) The area below the studio will be a storage room with simple concrete hard floor. 4) The floor on the studio will be made of a very hard wood (yet enough flexible for supporting roofs) and with this storage below it makes it a floating floor? I cannot make it of concrete as it is extremely expensive. 5) Roof will be as same as the house (corrugated iron roof) and I can place whatever I need below. 6) Walls of the house will be made of 18cmx30cm ceramic bricks with 9 holes, but I can change it in my studio if I need it. 7) Sound leakage is not a problem, I will be next to the kitchen and as I wrote with almost no loud sounds. Its important to note that there is minimum noise where I live so I can open windows and there are no neighbours around. 8) I do not have neither I'm planning to buy a mixer/desk. A good recording interface with no more than 2 inputs, PC, and nearfield monitors (maybe some common big speakers for reference) is all I'm planning to use. 9) As I work mainly on my own with no physical office I plan on working while listening to music here as well. So a big sturdy desk with enough space for papers and files will be needed. Room size: Length 4m/13.2ft Width 6m/19.6ft Height 4m/13.2ft I know I should place the monitors and PC on wall B but would be EXTREMELY grateful if you could help me to place it on wall A. So, what I please ask you to help me with is design a comfortable mixing and recording room with good acoustics (not necessary isolated). I have looked into most of the designs here but I cannot find one that has a window to the outside with no need of isolation a no loud noises to be recorded. Above all and last but not least THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Mauricio

"4) The floor on the studio will be made of a very hard wood (yet enough flexible for supporting roofs) and with this storage below it makes it a floating floor? " ;) No it isn't...it is a framed floor coupled to the entire structure. Your room dimensions should be changed so that you do not have the potential for a square...as you currently have. If we use the 13' 2" height, based on the ratios of Louden (1: 1.40: 1.90) you would have a room dimensions of 13'2" X 18' 5" X 25' Whatever you do, do not have measurements that are the same or even divisible by one another. You create parallel surfaces and multiple the room modes which is never a good thing.

with that size room, you could put your mix position on "C" and your work desk down on wall A near your window. this way you can build the symmetry you need for the mixing and have the rest of the space open for musicians, etc as well as having the view. for mix down you could put a couple of gobos ~3m behind you if needed. +1 on Brien's comment regarding a square value between your height and width.

Thank you so much for the answers, and sorry for the delay answering. On to the studio: How should I treat the floor then? as I believe it will act as a "resonant box" with the storage room below? Should I place a plastic carpet like the one you have mentioned in many other posts? or should I treat the floor from below with mineral wool, etc? If I lower the roof to 3m/ with a plywood roof or whatever you reccomend I would be closer to the ratios of Louden, which would be 3 : 4.2 :5.7 and in my case 3: 4 : 6 I have attached the image below and I could treat it so the main window (and my work and recording area) is in wall A. Thanks for the reccomendation on separating the working area with the mixing area. following gullfos recommendation I would put it in wall B (as wall C is next to the house, I forgot to write that) and my working area in wall A. I have also come up with a different design with a "diamond" shape where A and C have the same measures as well as D and E and I would have the window on wall B. Of course it should be treated in the corners and back wall as well. For this design I have made an spare space for amp room/vocal booth to keep the shape BUT would it be possible to enlarge the room by narrowing the space in this booth area and not compromise the acoustics? The second image shows what I would be talking about without getting into much detail. So, resuming... Which design would you reccomend: 1 The 3 : 4 : 6 with main window and working/recording area on wall A 2 Separate working areas (one wall for recording and one for office working) 3 Diamond shape with booth In any case I have not considered the treatments in walls, ceilings etc as that should be considered once the shape of the room is defined. Thank you so much once again for the help and I promise progress pics once the the idea is ready!! Mauricio

i don't think you want to cordon off the space as the smaller room would now be useless. simply that you should transform the room shape itself to make it less square - or why not take some acoustic measurements and determine what treatments you need, isolation checks, determine if the storage below is a problem or a gift, and work from there?

I'm back again after more construcion and working! Thanks for answering my earlier posts regarding my thread. Well a couple of things have changed: The room is now: Height ??, long 13.2 wide 22.96 I know, I know Louden won't like this but I couldn't resist adding an extra meter to the studio. You will see height is still to be defined, would you have any reccomendations based on the other measures? Another thing is that wood is terribly expensive in Argentina and I have now decided to make a concrete floating floor which is cheaper. Also the house heating will be radiant floor, should I apply to this or should I place an AC? The studio will be above a deposit. Would you link me to some guides for acoustic measurements as you wrote on your last comment gullfo? I will be happy to do as much as I can with my little knowledge. Thank you and I will be back with some designs soon so you can tell how wrong I am!! :mrgreen: