Building a large studio - sketch up 3d included

Hello, I am building a studio in Curitiba, Brasil. The location is quite big, I am converting an unused section of my house into a full blown studio but I have never done this before so I am not sure if I'm going at it in the right way. I have read the articles in John's Recording Manual as well as some of the threads here but since this is a rather large project I think show and tell is an easier way to get help. I have a large area, there are 4 spaces that can be converted into a studio with a total area of 81.93 square meters. I want to have a control room, an iso booth, a roomy live room and a sound lock. I am not using a full blown console therefore I don't need to account for that in the control room. [EDIT] - As requested, I have updated the sketchup model with the measurements and indication of where the windows are as well as what each side of the building leads to. Here are the google sketchup models I have made using the measurements I have of the room. The walls are mostly bricks, with the structural pillars being built from steel reinforced concrete. The floors and ceilings are also built from steel reinforced concrete. This space is located on the second floor, with the first floor being the garage. Above are the living quarters (bed rooms and an office). Anything that isn't structural can be changed to accommodate the studio. Since this is a residential area SPL at the street has to be below 70 dB, luckily the studio is about 15 m away from the street, and the closest neighbors are across the street from me, which would put them at least 50-60 m away. I do have a lot of windows in this space however. The budget isn't really an issue but of course I would rather spend less than more. More importantly however, the live room has to sound spot on. And here is my current design: Please have a look at the blueprints and sketch up models. I need some input to see if I am going about this the right way. Thanks, Lucas

Hi, Unfortunately, I am not one of the people that can be of most help to you with your design. However, I think you should consider showing the following in your sketchup file. 1. where all of your windows are 2. where the street is 3. what sides the closest neighbors are 4. measurements for all of the rooms, including ceiling height 5. what are your existing walls made of now? drywall? concrete? brick? etc. Then, I know sometimes it helps if you go outside and measure the noise on the street, and if you can, find out what your local noise laws are, post them here. This way it will let the people here have a better idea how to help you. For instance, if your drum and amp room is on the street side, that room will require significantly more isolation than if your sound lock was on the street side. The more info you give in the beginning, the much more the nice people on here can help you. Then, after all of that, please upload your sketchup file as an attachment. It was a real pain in the rear to wait 60 seconds to download the file, enter the code, only to find out i typed the wrong code, and then have to wait another 60 seconds to enter a different code. By uploading it as an attachment to the forum, you will make things much easier and quicker for people trying to help you. Looking forward to seeing what happens here, it looks like you have a lot of potential. Beau

Thanks for the reply. Sorry about the file download but it seems I can't upload anything bigger than 500kb and therefore I couldn't just attach the file. I'll update the sketch up file with the measurements as soon as I figure out how to do it as it should be an easy fix. I will also indicate what is the street side as well as other information you have requested. Unfortunately I am currently in the process of moving back to Brasil (I am currently living in LA) so it will be a couple of weeks before I can get some pictures of the room. I do have the blueprints and measurements and I know what its all made of so at least I can get some stuff done :D. Thanks again for the help! Lucas

If you simplify the SKP file, remove all things that aren't really necessary, then purge it, yo should be able to get the size down under 500 k, unless you have a REALLY complex design... I'm a bit tight on time right now, but I'll try to take a look at your design over the weekend. - Stuart -

Ok, I updated the sketch up model so that its considerably smaller. Don't really know why it was so huge in the first place but oh well. Please check the new models in the original post.

Don't really know why it was so huge in the first place but oh well.

SketchUp is quirky like that. When you delete an object, it doesn't actually remove it from the file until you purge it :shock: so files can get pretty big as you try things out and then deleted them. 3D text also takes up a LOT of space. Regarding the second design, I reckon I'd switch around the control room (CR) and live room (LR) in your design: put the CR where the LR is, and vice versa. The CR would be oriented with the door to the sound lock at the rear, and the outside window to the front. The window (door? :) ) to the LR would be on the right. That would accomplish lots of things together: Good symmetry for the CR, which is absolutely critical for a good CR, but most likely not wanted at all in the LR. It would give you space to soffit mount your main monitors. It would give you space for bass trapping in the rear corners of the CR (which you cannot do at all with the current layout). And it would leave the bay window area available as a small machine room / storage closet / mini-iso booth. It would give you a nice non-symmetric shape for the LR. Etc. Another comment: You have lots of doors and windows in there! That's great, but what about your budget? Doing doors and windows right for high degrees of isolation is not cheap: thick glass, heavy solid-core doors, multiple seals, etc. If you have the budget, then fine! If money is tight, then you might want to re-think your door/window plan. One final idea: if you do it right, your sound lock could do double duty as an extra iso booth... :) - Stuart -

Hello, Thanks for the suggestion. I guess flipping things around would indeed be a better solution. It would also reduce the amount of windows that would be blasting away to the street. I've been toying around with the design in sketch up and what you said makes so much sense I can't believe I didn't think of it myself. I guess if I remove the "iso booth" in that design and combine it to the "control room" and make that the live room instead I end up with a big and roomy live room that is pretty asymmetrical. The other advantage is that I will have an extra 30 cm worth of floor under the room to help isolate stuff. Also that is on the side away from the street. I will update the design in sketchup and see if I can get a more accurate sketch. Thanks again for the help, Lucas