Studio Layout Advice

Hey all, I am designing a studio in London mainly for audio mixing, sound design, and musical composition. The budget for the building the 2 rooms will be £25000 Do you think this is enough? Vague question I know... :/ The space needs to be split into 2 rooms with enough space outside of them for a 3 video editing workstation (basically a desk and computer each). One studio for mixing and one for editing/composition. Both studio should be adequately sound proofed to reduce the sound by 45db (estimate). Attached is the blueprint and a rough drawing I put together myself of a potential layout. I was wondering what you guys thought of my initial plan or if you you have any other suggestions of a layout. I have estimated my walls to be 400mm thick in order to sound proof adequately. We have the space on the left of the stairs of the which is 9m wide, 6m deep and 3.2m high. As there are rafters in the ceiling we can go up to 3.2m without touching them. You will also see from the blueprint that there are windows at the front and back of the building. It would be great to incorporate some of them into the studio rather than just blocking them off. Thanks Guys,

Hi "boingrock". welcome. Please check the forum rules for posting: you seem to be missing something important! :) But regarding your questions:

The budget for the building the 2 rooms will be £25000 Do you think this is enough? Vague question I know... :/

Yes, rather! Yes its vague, I mean: not yes 25k is enough! Enough for what? :) Isolation only? Isolation and treatment? Isolation, treatment and HVAC? Electrical too? Etc... To get an idea: call some local building contractors in your area, and ask them for their flat rate per square meter for building renovations, such as for outfitting an empty office space, or building a home theater in an existing garage. Add about 20%: That's roughly what it will cost you to build in your area. 25k might be fine, or it might not.

The space needs to be split into 2 rooms with enough space outside of them for a 3 video editing workstation (basically a desk and computer each).

Video post! Yipee! Finally someone comes along with a project that is my specialty!!! :yahoo: :)

One studio for mixing and one for editing/composition.

Is the editing suite on-line or off-line, or both? Will the customer be working alongside the operator all the time, or just dropping in occasionally, or never in the suite itself and only checking progress in the presentation room? Layout for an on-line suite is rather different if the customer needs to be there full time, and different again if it's just an off-line suite. Also, are we talking high-end systems here, such as Smoke/Flame/Inferno/Quantel/etc., or just middle-of-the-road Final Cut type of suite? Another big difference...

Both studio should be adequately sound proofed to reduce the sound by 45db (estimate).

Sounds a bit on the low side, I'd say. I'd be shooting for something closer to 60, especially if you are doing sound for video, even more so if you are doing surround with lots of LFE.

Attached is the blueprint and a rough drawing I put together myself of a potential layout.

That's a lot of stuff to go in 54 m2. It will be a tight fit.

I was wondering what you guys thought of my initial plan or if you you have any other suggestions of a layout. I have estimated my walls to be 400mm thick in order to sound proof adequately.

Isolation doesn't depend just on wall thickness: it depends on a number of other factors, including what you are trying to isolate, and the materials available to you. You can build a fantastic isolation wall in less than 10 cm, but it will cost you a fortune as it needs some exotic materials. Or you could have a one meter thick wall that offers almost no isolation, built with other materials. In any event, 400 mm (that's nearly 16 inches!) sounds rather thick for just 40 dB TL! With that much space to build a wall, you should be get at least 70 dB, if built half decently, and even more if built really well.

We have the space on the left of the stairs of the which is 9m wide, 6m deep and 3.2m high. As there are rafters in the ceiling we can go up to 3.2m without touching them. You will also see from the blueprint that there are windows at the front and back of the building. It would be great to incorporate some of them into the studio rather than just blocking them off.

Are those windows operable, or fixed? Meaning; can you open them, or are they solidly glued in place? A couple of other comments on your layout: Machine Room! I don't see it. This is a video post facility, right? So where is your machine room going to be? Video equipment is noisy and needs cooling, especially if you have things like VTRs in there, or routing switchers, disk arrays, format converters, signal management, etc. Even basic sync generations and DA's need to live somewhere! And your editing systems should be in the machine room as well, if you want them to last long and run well. HVAC: I don't see that either. It can take up a lot of space for video post, especially if you also need a quite system with good isolation between rooms. I've been in some facilities where they never considered HVAC until it was too late, and it is MOST unpleasant to work under those conditions! And I've been in others that I helped design, where the HVAC was practically inaudible, and isolation so good that you sometimes wondered if you were alone in the building, and all the equipment was turned off! There's about a million other things that need to be considered in designing a video post facility, but let's start with the above, to get you on the right path. Anyway, please check the posting rules, and fill in that "missing detail". Also, please provide more details on what you plan to do in those rooms, and on the construction of the building itself. Sounds like a fun project! Right up my street, too! :) - Stuart -

Thanks Soundman for taking the time to answer my post.

Enough for what? :) Isolation only? Isolation and treatment? Isolation, treatment and HVAC? Electrical too? Etc...

It's actually 30,000K for isolation, treatment + electrical. Will be calling a variety of construction companies. Thanks

Is the editing suite on-line or off-line, or both? Will the customer be working alongside the operator all the time, or just dropping in occasionally, or never in the suite itself and only checking progress in the presentation room? Layout for an on-line suite is rather different if the customer needs to be there full time, and different again if it's just an off-line suite. Also, are we talking high-end systems here, such as Smoke/Flame/Inferno/Quantel/etc., or just middle-of-the-road Final Cut type of suite? Another big difference...

The edit suite is primarily for the editor but with enough space for one other person (not client). I guess that makes it offline. There will be another area upstairs for clients to view projects. It will be a final cut/ mayer type suite.

With that much space to build a wall, you should be get at least 70 dB, if built half decently, and even more if built really well.

Fair point, 70db is definitely preferable. It's not essential that the room are fully sound proofed.

Machine Room! I don't see it.

The machine room will be on the floor above so I haven't included it in the plan. My focus is initially on the size of the 2 mixing/editing studios and whether or not they are big enough in my plan. Can you see another way around this plan? Yes it is a tight space but it is imperative we have 2 separate sound proofed rooms for the bulk of music projects. Also, the main room would ideally have a sofa at the back of the room so clients can attend mix session and listen to final mixes. What would be the ideal space for the main mix room in the area even if this means we have to lose some of the video suites to the other side of the floor? Thanks in advance Andy

Fair point, 70db is definitely preferable. It's not essential that the room are fully sound proofed.

OK. In that case, aim for something in the high 50's, low 60's.

The machine room will be on the floor above so I haven't included it in the plan.

So it's a multi-story building? Is this part on the ground floor, or on a higher floor?

My focus is initially on the size of the 2 mixing/editing studios and whether or not they are big enough in my plan. Can you see another way around this plan?

There's several ways of laying out your rooms, but it would be good to get more details on your design goals, and the full purpose of each room. For example, you show "Mix studio A" and also "Edit Studio", plus two off-line suites and "Audio Edit Suit 1". What do you actually mean by these terms? Different people use different terminology. The two off-line suites I get: no need to explain those. But what happens in "Audio Edit Suit 1", and how is that different from what happens in "Mix studio A" and in "Edit Studio"? In sound studios, we normally speak of the "control room", where the actual console and speakers are, and all the magic takes place, which is generally the heart of the facility. It's where the actual tracking (recording) mixing and maybe also mastering are done, and needs to be as acoustically perfect as you can make it, with absolutely neutral frequency response and carefully controlled RT60 times that meet the normal recommendations for each frequency band. Then you have normally have a "live room" where acoustic instruments are played and recorded (drums, bass, pianos, keyboards, guitars, etc.), and one or more "isolation booths" or "vocal booths", for recording individual voices or instruments. I'm guessing that your "Edit Studio" is what we would call a "control room", and your "Mix studio A" is a "live room"? Is that correct, or did I confuse myself there?

What would be the ideal space for the main mix room in the area even if this means we have to lose some of the video suites to the other side of the floor?

If we are talking "control room", then the ITU and EBU recommendations for critical listening rooms, are a total room volume of greater than 1500 ft3 (roughly 43 m3). There are also recommended ratios of room dimensions (height vs. width vs. length), so based on your available room height you can look at possible footprints that would give you at least 43 m3 in total room volume. If we are talking about "Mix Studio A", you are allowing 5.5m length and the available height is 3m, so your room needs to be at least 2.6m wide to meet that criteria. However, that volume is the FINAL volume of the room, after installing all the isolation walls, so you'd need to add a bit to that, to get good volume. Also, if you splay your walls and/or ceiling for a good RFZ (or any other reason) then that reduces final room volume, so you'd need to consider that as well. If we are talking about "Edit Studio", then you are spot on 42 m3, but once again you need to allow for the isolation walls, treatment, etc.

Yes it is a tight space but it is imperative we have 2 separate sound proofed rooms for the bulk of music projects. Also, the main room would ideally have a sofa at the back of the room so clients can attend mix session and listen to final mixes.

All of that can be done. You have the space, and there's no reason why you can't have two great rooms, both with sofas if you want. But once again, it would be useful to know what the exact purpose of each room is! - Stuart -