Yet Another Basement Studio...new construction

Hi, I have been lurking and have the opportunity to build a modular home with a basement. We are still in the planning phase. I am working with a contractor for the initial basement construction who is hired through the modular home company. We have several 2-3 acre lots, but they are still considered residential. Location: Santa Fe, NM, USA I will be recording bands from Death Metal to Jazz and everything in between. I work out of a commercial facility now. A very large portion of my recording is full bands, live at the same time. The other large portion is writing and recording my own bands, which are live and LOUD. Then of course all the time doing overdubs and mixing. So I am looking for a large control room, pretty big live room, and an isolation booth for vocalists where they can see the band. Since I know other engineers, I hope to use the other side for building a studio B and in the meantime using is as a lounge and storage. Construction notes: The basement will have an exterior entrance which I would like to have in the back of the house. Stairs are in the front. The bathroom roughly corresponds to the bathroom above. Right now i am getting a quote of the basement being 10ft below ground then a ribbon foundation of 3 ft high. Essentially hoping for 10ft high ceilings with enough space above for all ducting. Ceiling is free-standing. Walls are double wall with 2-layer 5/8" drywall. 1" gap between the walls. Exterior walls with a 1" air gap to concrete block. The control room conforms to a published MM Louden Ratio. The other rooms I just winged it. Personally I am fine with square rooms with treatment. Unless the odd angles really matter. I prefer to not have to look over computer monitors for tracking. I am hoping that looking sideways will be better. The only reason I angled the live room is for clearance to the stairway for gear movement. Floor is concrete. I read that floating floors and such aren't really necessary. HVAC: I am shooting for doing an exchange chamber I saw in a book. But here HVAC has to be done a pro, so there will be some consulting on that. I hope that any extra room I need I can cut into the live room since it is very large. Thoughts? Questions: 1. Is a 1" gap between walls enough? 2. What insulation should I use? I was thinking Rockwool (8lb/sqft) or OC 705. But how well does typical wall insulation do? 3. Sliding glass doors. I was thinking about putting sliding glass doors between the control room and live room instead of a window. Mainly to decrease travel distance for setting up mics and such. Do you think it would be worth the loss of isolation? I have to put a window anyway will there be a cost trade-off? But I am completely open to suggestions on layout or thoughts on workflow and such. I can post the sketchup files as well. Budget: 30-40k Hopefully that will include acoustic treatment. But I will build that myself and can stretch the budget after construction. Thank you!

Hi "OrtizAudio". Welcome! :) Sorry about the delay in response! I must have missed your post originally. Anyway, to answer your questions:

I am working with a contractor for the initial basement construction who is hired through the modular home company.

Does the contractor have any experience at all in building studios? If not, then you might be in for a rough ride in getting this done right. Building studios is not like building houses, shops or offices. Same materials, different techniques.

A very large portion of my recording is full bands, live at the same time. The other large portion is writing and recording my own bands, which are live and LOUD.

OK, so that sort of answers the first question that we always ask: how loud are you? So at a rough guess, we are talking of 115 dB plus, perhaps 120, across the full-spectrum. But you didn't answer the other side of the equation: How quiet do you need to be? Most likely you will find that answer in your local noise ordinance or other municipal regulations. Call them, and ask. The difference between "how loud?" and "how quiet?" is the amount of isolation that you need, which defines the type of build you need, including materials and techniques.

Since I know other engineers, I hope to use the other side for building a studio B and in the meantime using is as a lounge and storage.

So this is a commercial facility, not just a hobby facility? That brings in some other issues, such as wheelchair access, fire codes, parking, etc.

1" gap between the walls. Exterior walls with a 1" air gap to concrete block.

:shock: I hope you don't really mean a 1" air gap!!!! I hope that what you mean is there will be a 1" gap between the frames, or between the frames and the block! You need at least 4" of air gap, which can indeed be achieved with a 1" gap to the block, provided that you are not building inside out walls.

Personally I am fine with square rooms with treatment.

:shock: :shock: :!: :!: You must be the only guy on this forum who thinks square rooms are fine! Have you ever looked at the modal response of a square room? There is only one worse shape than square, and that is a perfect cube. You really, really should re-think using square rooms. You'll never be able to treat the modes well enough to get decent acoustics. You do need a slight difference in wall lengths.

Unless the odd angles really matter.

They matter, yes, if you are trying to do an RFZ or CID desing concept for your room. It's really hard to do that without splaying walls and ceiling. But what does that have to do with square rooms? Even if you are not doing an RFZ design, you still should not use a square section or square floor plan.

Floor is concrete. I read that floating floors and such aren't really necessary.

Yup! If you don't like the look of concrete, you can lay something like laminate flooring.

What insulation should I use? I was thinking Rockwool (8lb/sqft) or OC 705. But how well does typical wall insulation do?

For fiberglass, the optimum gas flow resistivity is usually found at around 30 kg/m3. For mineral wool, it is more like 50 kg/m3.

3. Sliding glass doors. I was thinking about putting sliding glass doors between the control room and live room instead of a window. Mainly to decrease travel distance for setting up mics and such. Do you think it would be worth the loss of isolation?

Why do you think you will lose isolation with sliding glass doors? If you buy the correct type, and design and install them correctly, then can be just as effective as any other type of door. John uses them extensively in his designs. But you can't just put in any old type of sliding glass door that you buy in Home Depot... One comment on your layout: The sight lines to the live room don't look good. You'll end up with a permanently bent neck! You say you don't like looking over monitors into the LR, but that's not the issue: The issue is to design the room, desk, windows and monitor positions so that you don't have to! :) - Stuart -

"Ceiling is free-standing. " What does that mean? If you are going to all the trouble of a double framed wall assembly, how does this "free standing" ceiling fit into this design and not remain the weak link?