Studio Design - 1,000 square feet, industrial unit

Hi all, I have been reading this forum for some time, and I'm gradually soaking up the valuable information available here! My name is Graeme, and I am in the process of designing a new studio. Here is the pertinent information: Building An initial measurement is 10.6m x 8.4 metres. The shell is a well built, modern commercial unit. It has concrete block walls on each side, There is a steel folding loading door, and entry door and a window. The ceailing beams are at about 7ft 2inches, but I have yet to have this confirmed. Purpose I intend to use the facility for three key purposes: 1 - composition / mixing facility for my media composition. This is mostly sample based, but will also benefit from live acoustic recordings. 2 - band recording. Recording bands of all genres, from jazz trio's to full on death metal. 3 - Voice overs etc. I will also be offering facilities to record dialogue and voice overs for corporate films etc. Neighbours The building is situated on a quiet trading estate. I have two responsibilities here: 1 - To keep as much sound out of the studio as possible, to ensure silent recording environment. 2 - A moral responsibility to ensure other businesses around me are not affected by my venture. As you look at the supplied plan, there is a neighbour on the left hand side, next to Studio A and Studio B. We are divided only by the concrete block wall. There are no other connected neightbours. My Initial Design I have adapted one of John's designs, which (maybe naively, hence my request for your thoughts!) seems to do a fairly good job of fulfilling my requirements. I intend to build a series of rooms within the building, leaving maybe a 6" gap between the concrete block outer wall and my internal stud-partition walls. I will be enabling movement between rooms via a series of 5' sliding doors. There is a steel sliding shutter door at the front of the property. I intend to utilise this as a loading door, so will have a 5' sliding door behind it as part of my construction. Other thoughts The rooms will need air conditioning - I really know very little about this. My hardware of choice is a Pro Tools 10 rig, with Avid C24 desk in Argosy furniture. My wall construction thoughts are: - 6" gap between existing building and my walls - wall construction will be 12.5mm plasterboard > 4 x 2 studding lined with rockwool > 15mm plasterboard > 12.5mm plasterboard. My first question.... The floor is a solid concrete floor. Will I need to build a new floating floor for each room? Alternatively, if each room floats on rubber isolators, can I put down a layer of thermal insulation and then laminate flooring? Budget I am still working as an IT contractor as I progress with the build, so my budget is flexible. Would £30k GBP ($45k USD) be realistic? Thanks for reading this information, and I look forward to some responses.

Hi Graeme, and Welcome! Great first post, too! :) Just some random comments about things I noticed in your post, in no particular order:

The ceailing beams are at about 7ft 2inches,

They look just a tad higher than that to me! Maybe you meant 17' 2"?

The shell is a well built, modern commercial unit. It has concrete block walls on each side,

That's a good start. That will work well for your outer leaf.

There is a steel folding loading door,

That's going to be a problem.

Recording bands of all genres, from jazz trio's to full on death metal.

The the loading door is DEFINITELY going to be a problem! You say that two of your main goals are a "silent recording environment" and to "ensure other businesses around me are not affected by my venture". That's a good starting point, but you need to put real numbers on those goals, in terms of how many decibels of isolation you need (TL, Transmission Loss). You can estimate that, based on rough rules of thumb, but a much better idea is to get a sound level meter and do some actual tests. Knowing that number (decibels of isolation required) is the basis for the entire design. It will dictate the types of construction that are open to you, which will also have an effect on everything else, including your budget. On the budget issue: You estimate around 45k (US) and you have a total of around 90 m2 floor space. That works out to roughly US$ 500 per m2. It might be OK, but sounds a little on the low side. But I have no idea what building costs are like in the UK. One good way of estimating the cost is to calla few local building contractors, and ask for their estimate for fitting out a 90 m2 empty shell building as a modern , up-scale office, with a posh board room, reception area, three private offices, and storage. What they quote you will be roughly what it will cost you to do this. Traffic paths. I mean internal traffic paths. Right now, if some comes in the front door and needs to go to the bathroom urgently, they either have to go through both Studio "A" and Studio "B", as well as the flight case storage area, or the need to go through Studio "C" and the control room, plus the storage area. Either way, they are interrupting something, just to go to the loo! That's probably not a good layout, from that point of view. Another item: You show a baby grand in Studio "B", but to get it there you have to manhandle it through Studio "A" and the sliding glass doors between "A" and "B". Doesn't sound like a job I'd like, and I'm not so sure a baby grand would even fit through such a small gap. Also, recording a baby grand in a small room like that is not going to sound good: Those things need air around them to sound decent. Yes, I know that you just put the baby grand in there as an example, not necessarily the final permanent fixture, but just showing it there seems to indicate that the layout wasn't fully thought through. Not trying to offend or insult! Just calling it like I see it. You also have your front door in your MSM air gap! Each time you open or close the front door, you play havoc with the isolation of all rooms.... also not a good idea. Roof: I'm guessing: thin sheet metal with panels of some type of insulation below that, and simple corrugated fiberglass skylights? That's another big problem. No isolation at all up there. I don't see any reception area, office or lounge. Anyone in the building who needs to take a break, or grab a cup of coffee, only has the toilet to use! I'd really suggest that you try to fit some type of small kitchenette and a lounge in there, a sort of mini "green room", where musicians who aren't doing anything right now can just hang out, take a nap, eat a snack, make coffee, watch TV, chat, or whatever else they feel like doing. A studio with no lounge is not going to be popular with musicians, no matter how great the acoustics and equipment are. Just a thought.

2 - band recording. Recording bands of all genres, from jazz trio's to full on death metal. 3 - Voice overs etc. I will also be offering facilities to record dialogue and voice overs for corporate films etc.

That sounds like it is going to be a commercial facility? If so, then there might be other legal requirements applicable in your area, such as wheelchair accessibility, additional emergency exits, and things like that. You might want to look into that. Not sure about the UK, but I've heard that commercial facilities in some countries are subject to different rules than private, personal-use-only places. Worth investigating. Those requirements are real easy to incorporate into the design, and real hard to add on after the place is finished and didn't pass inspection... Isolation:

"leaving maybe a 6" gap between the concrete block outer wall and my internal stud-partition walls.".

The actual gap, materials and methods will be determined by your number: how much isolation you need. You can't just guess. 6" might be enough, or it might not. You have to do the tests, do the math and figure it out, to make sure.

There is a steel sliding shutter door at the front of the property. I intend to utilise this as a loading door, so will have a 5' sliding door behind it as part of my construction.

That's your biggest issue right there. In order to isolate, you need two massive leaves separated by an air gap, and both of those leaves MUST be completely sealed, air-tight. No mass=no isolation. No seal = no isolation. Those doors have neither mass nor seal, so there's no way you can isolated your death-metal band like that! You'll need to look for some method of replacing those current doors with something massive that also seals air-tight when closed. The other big issue is your roof: there seems to be very little mass up there either, and those fiberglass skylights are totally useless for isolation. ( I'd imagine that in heavy rain, that roof would sound like WW3 just started! ) The roof need to be done to the same level as the walls. So I'd suggest you look into other methods of roofing that place, if isolation is important.

The rooms will need air conditioning - I really know very little about this.

Right. You will need a full HVAC system capable of supplying the right amount of air to each room, silently, high volume, low speed, and also controlling humidity correctly. You'll need many in-line silencers, to keep sounds from leaking between room through the HVAC ducts. You'll probably need to hire an HVAC consultant to do the design for that, and one who knows about studios. The average guy who does offices and shops won't understand what is needed here. You also didn't mention the electrical system, and technical cabling system. Those are two other rather important systems that need to be planned.

- wall construction will be 12.5mm plasterboard > 4 x 2 studding lined with rockwool > 15mm plasterboard > 12.5mm plasterboard.

12.5mm is too thin. Use only 16mm. The thin stuff is too flexible, the mass is too low, and the resonant frequency is too high. Yes, in some places on the internet you might see "recommendations" that you MUST have different thicknesses of drywall (plaster board), in order to get maximum isolation. While partly true, the slight benefit you get from not having the coincidence dips of the layers in the same part of the spectrum, ad by possible slight refraction through the wall, is outweighed by the lower mass, and the lost rigidity. Just go with two layers of 16mm fire-rated plaster board.

The floor is a solid concrete floor. Will I need to build a new floating floor for each room?

Nope! You won''t need to build any floating floors at all! To find out why, take a look at this thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8173 And if you want more in-depth technical data on why floating a floor is a bad idea, read this publication: http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/obj/irc/doc/p ... /ir802.pdf Take special note of the reduced isolation in the low frequency part of the spectrum (read: drums, bass, keyboards) for all of the simple light-weight structures. And note the high cost of the ones that do work. So I'd say that there are no floating floors in your future in that building. Drum risers and amp pads are a lot cheaper, and very effective.

Alternatively, if each room floats on rubber isolators,

That's not an option: Floating a floor properly is not done on rubber pucks with 2x2's and plywood. It is done with proper spring isolation mounts, and concrete, and money. Lots of money.

can I put down a layer of thermal insulation and then laminate flooring?

Yep! That's the way to do it! Laminate is a great floor acoustically, and a great floor aesthetically. Easy to install, low cost (relatively). So just lay that directly on the concrete. Or you could also leave the bare concrete: that's also a great floor, acoustically. So overall it looks like you have a nice sized space with good potential, and a couple of problems: the door and the roof. Apart from that, with a good design and quality build, I think you can have yourself a neat studio there. - Stuart -

Another point I noticed, the walls between the studios, particularly between Studio A & B also between the control room and studios B & C, are not parallel. The maximum isolation you can achieve will be determined by the minimum distance between the two walls and I see no reason for this in your design. Design the walls to be parallel with the maximum affordable distance.

Hi Graeme Good post and some great detailed information. There are lots of ways of achieving what you are trying to do. Probably the best would be dedicated sound isolating modular rooms. To be fair this is the business that I’m in, so I’ll declare a vested interest from the start! We have a range of Music Practice Rooms in various sizes etc. These would certainly do what you need them to do both in terms of isolating sound getting in and dramatically reducing the amount of sound that escapes the room. For the technical bit our reduction room to room is Xxxxxx, basically very quiet. Your budget of £30k is a realistic value and the modular nature of the rooms means that you could install one or two rooms, and add the others later. Also the rooms are demountable, so if you ever moved you could take them with you! I see that you are in Swindon, we’re just round the corner from you, so if you wanted to meet up, I’d be happy to run through the options with you. Below is a link to a recent testimonial and feel free to email me direct if you would like any further information. Testimonial Link: Email: [UNAUTHORIZED COMMERCIAL SPAM LINKS DELETED BY MODERATOR] Best regards, Martin Loft

Martin, if you want to post spam here on the forum, you are going to have to get authorization from John first. This is his forum, and designing studios is what he does for a living. So your posting links here to YOUR competing service, is rather unethical, to say the least. - Stuart -