New Studio - Layout Help Required

Hi all, thanks for all of the information i have gained over the last few years from this forum. I am a bass player/producer/engineer/jack of all trades and i've recently been given the opportunity to set-up and run my own studio (using someone elses money) within the premises of an existing record distribution company. the brief i have been given is to create a studio with a large control room, large main recording room, secondary room for rehearsal/seperating elements during recording, a green room for guests/clients to hang out when not playing and finally a storage room. quite a lot i know but we have a fair amount of room to play with. trying to address each thing one by one, noise!!! we will be on an industrial estate with few neighbours. nearset neighbour is maybe 100ft away. the only noise issues i believe we'll have is an occaisional lorry turning round outside. The building is a typical industrial building (for the UK at least), approximately 40ft high with the bottom half built out of concrete blocks and the top half is corrugated metal, this includes the roof. it has a concrete floor and as much ceiling room as you'll ever need on the inside, a false ceiling will have to be built over the whole studio section, leaving the warehouse open. there is a door from the offices, marked on the drawing attached and we have to provide some kind of corridor through to the warehouse. my initial idea was to have the corridor as the green room (design attached) although in the last couple of hours that has been ruled out by the boss....he wants a corridor! ... this said the corridor can enter the warehouse anywhere, doesn't have to be a straight line. I am hoping that i've provided the nesecary info for some help. I'm not after hours of your time spent on explaining the construction of it, just a little help with the layout of the rooms. As you'll be able to see i'm not the most inventive of layout designers which is what i need your help with. many thanks, Rob

Hi Rob. Welcome! :) A couple of comments:

the only noise issues i believe we'll have is an occaisional lorry turning round outside.

No wind? No rain? Hail? Storms? Aircraft flying over? People talking? Car arriving/leaving? Animals? Radios? :) Lots of things outside make noise that you might not want inside. Lots of things inside, too: Telephones, radios, TVs, refrigerators, computers, printers, microwave ovens, bathrooms, toilets, people walking/talking, doors opening/closing... All of those should be considered in your isolation plan.

The building is a typical industrial building (for the UK at least), approximately ...

It would be useful to see photos of what you have, to get a better idea.

The top half is corrugated metal, this includes the roof.

A word comes to mind: rain! Rain falling on a tin roof makes a noise...

a false ceiling will have to be built over the whole studio section, leaving the warehouse open.

If you plan to achieve a decent level of isolation, then you are going to need rather more than just a false ceiling! For isolation, you need three things, basically: mass (lots of it), air-tight seals (at least two, all around you), and decoupling. A typical false ceiling has none of the above... Regarding your layout: you might want to keep both of your live rooms adjacent to your control room, even if you will usually only use the second one for rehearsals. When you DO use both at once, it would be good to have sight lines to both of them, and to have direct access from the CR, for things like setting up mics, etc. Having to run back and forth across the green room each time you adjust a mic position could get boring, real fast. I'm also wondering about the strange splay angles of the CR walls... They don't make sense, no matter which way you look at it. If you are after an RFZ design, the CR should start out narrow at the front and get wider as you go back, or at least half way back, after which it can get parallel again. But it should never get narrower again, at the rear! You might want to fix that. It would also be good if you could show the positions that you have in mind for speakers, console, racks, doors, windows and basic acoustic treatment, to see how it all works together. Finally, you also didn't mention your budget, but a project like this clear is not small potatoes, so I guess you have that under control? For a project of this size, you might want to consider hiring someone like John to do the design for you. - Stuart -

thanks stuart, you're right, i didn't think about rain/hail/telephones/angry wombles...i was more concerned about noise getting out to annoy people. don't know why noise getting in passed me by...but it did!!!!! i'm amazed at what has passed me by now!

It would be useful to see photos of what you have...

attached...tho i stress i'm not the photgrapher and just had these sent to me...i'll take better pictures when i can get to the unit this week the budget is under control yes, although not massive i've been told it is big enough...tho not been told exactly what the budget is. getting john involved is a good idea yes. i will send him a message...unless he's reading this.... i will have a look again at the layout and re-post later today/tomorrow. thanks again for the help so far, Rob

the budget is under control yes, although not massive i've been told it is big enough...tho not been told exactly what the budget is.

General rule of thumb: Building a studio will cost you about the same as building a high-end house in your area, per square meter: so call some builders in your area, and ask roughly how much they estimate per square meter for an up-scale home in your neighborhood. In your case, you already have the basic shell, so it's more like a remodeling job than a build from scratch, so ask them about costs per square meter for doing something like turning an unfinished bare garage into a guest bedroom or home theater. That will give you ball-park figures for the budget. You then also need to add in a bit more for things like HVAC and electrical, which aren't quite the same as for a house.

getting john involved is a good idea yes. i will send him a message...unless he's reading this....

I don't think he's been on the forum much the last couple of weeks, since he hasn't posted much. Maybe he's on a build somewhere: better to PM him or e-mail him.

tho i stress i'm not the photgrapher and just had these sent to me...i'll take better pictures when i can get to the unit this week

Good enough to get a basic idea! So it looks like you have a good solid concrete slab on which to build: That's a good start! What else is going to be inside that shell? Is it just the studio, or will you be sharing the space with something else? And the biggie: How much isolation do you need? That's where the whole design process starts. Try to put a real-world number to that, in terms of decibels. Based on that you can choose the type of construction you need to get that level of isolation, and that in turn dictates materials, techniques, and even part of the acoustic treatment that you will need down the line... - Stuart -

What else is going to be inside that shell?

the existing offices and a warehouse will be under the same roof, but the studios will be the only new construction inside there ie. no new offices. better pictures to follow showing the layout properly.

Try to put a real-world number to that, in terms of decibels

When i'm down there this week i'll try and do some experiments with a SPL phone app to get an idea. as a rough ballpark i would guess knocking out 40db would do it...i'm guessing that would certainly attenuate barking dogs and parking cars to a levelwhere a guitar amp is louder than it. Rob

so here is design idea 2. taking into account what was said about the shape of the control it has now been changed so that it is narrower at the front than the back. bass traps added at the back. i can't find a way to make sight lines into the second room work...so it may just be one of those things that it remains as a rehearsal room the vast majority of the time. there has been a vocal booth added and the storage space moved and now the boss has the corridor he wanted. thoughts? as i said, better pictures and and idea of noise reduction coming after i visit the unit tomorrow. cheers, Rob

since you're entering the main room to get to the iso booth, why not put the isobooth into the main room so the control room is square on to the main room and put the storage onto the second room space or the end of the hall between the CR and second room? this way you have better line of sight into the main room and a side view into the second room (maybe a pair of sliders on the second room?) and on the iso booth - french doors so you can open it up as needed and i'd make it big enough for drums.