New Studio Design Music City USA!

NEW STUDIO/MIX DESIGN Greetings, I’m a bit leary to post because I want to make sure I’m not wasting your quality time. I have read the forum rules and tried to abide by them. I am currently in the planning and research phase of my new studio mix facility in Nashville, TN. I have a fairly small space but from reading through your forums I’m excited to see past successes with all types and sizes of rooms! I will be starting construction in two weeks. I am looking for your wisdom on room design layout and materials with the space i have to work with. Regards, BB My facility work needs are this: 5.1 Mix Room I do a lot of vocal/guitar recording and programming work Most vocals recorded sitting at mix position Session singers in Iso Booth Occasional Guitar amps in the Iso Booth (most recording direct) Prefer Near Field monitors on stands Mix quietly 72-75db. We do crank it up when programming beats or playing mixes for customers. (95db) Current Facility: 10’ high drop ceiling parallel drywall walls concrete slab floors Entry Door and Window can be relocated on existing wall. Outcome Desires: Accurate sounding 5.1 Surround mixing room Isolation (75-100%) -I have offices to my right and left and need as much isolation as possible. Considering floating floor but depends on cost -small double door entry “foyer” to separate from main hallway of building. -great sight line with Iso booth Double wall and/or Resilient Isolation Clips Questions/Budgeting: Overall budget for materials: $3000 give or take Best friends are carpenters so labor is covered!! Can I avoid building hangers and slatting? Can I use a wall mounted ductless mini-split HVAC? Thinking about hardwood floor at mix position then carpet What type flooring in Iso booth?

Thinking today....would it be a good idea to use the "vocal booth" area as where the speakers and mix position start to make the room more rectangle and put the booth to the left and move the door?

Thinking today....would it be a good idea to use the "vocal booth" area as where the speakers and mix position start to make the room more rectangle and put the booth to the left and move the door?

Makes a LOT of sense! The room as it is now is a perfect square: Very bad, for modal response. If you can, moving the booth to the side would solve that. - Stuart -

Thx for the rapid response! Is it possible to get some Wall Layout ideas/concepts? Thank you! BB

Another question? How does the room treatment change with wanting 5.1 surround? does the back wall design change? thx BB

Ok here's an updated layout. Moving booth and giving room a rectangular layout....better? Please tweak design. Open to all feedback. thx BB

Is the floor raised for any acoustical reason? B

honestly i don't know...waiting for some wisdom on that as well...i just see that design alot! looks cool ha!!

Another question? How does the room treatment change with wanting 5.1 surround? does the back wall design change?

Oh yes! Everything changes! 5.1 is another animal entirely, since you have some speakers facing the "wrong" way, plus that sub down there somewhere, thumping away merrily. Different ball-park. A lot tougher to get a good reflection free zone, and a lot, LOT tougher to keep enough absorption in the right places while also keeping enough reflection in the right places, and also doing soffits.... 5.1 drives you crazy... :? :P :?: :yahoo:

Ok here's an updated layout.

That's a very long, thin room for 5.1. Correct speaker layout for a 5.1 room is based on a circle, with your head at the center and the speakers arranged around the circumference. Circles don't fit well into long narrow rooms. You should probably be looking at a room with a ratio more like Sepmeyer 1.

Is the floor raised for any acoustical reason?

It's normally raised more for practical reasons: so the client can look over your shoulder, and also feel like a king, way up high there on his mountain-top sofa... :) But acoustics also plays a part: the raised floor has the potential to become a resonant box, so it needs to be designed and built with that in mind. - Stuart -

ok thank for the info...above you'll notice i started with more of a square room which is the state its in currently. Will John be able to help any with a good design? just wondering. Should i go back to more of the square room starting point if im going to be doing some 5.1 work? would that help with the circle speaker setup? thx! BB

Soundman 2020 earlier you mentioned moving the walls around to make for better modal response...did that...now do you think i need to go back to my original square room for better 5.1 mixing?

Should i go back to more of the square room starting point if im going to be doing some 5.1 work?

The issue with square is that you were way TOO square with tie first one: just a 1/4" off! :shock: That would mean that all your modes related to length and all your modes related to width would line up perfectly, exactly on top of each other, making for a really lousy room. So you need to be a bit off square. Then with your second layout, you went the other way, to a very long thin room, which presents another set of problems. Try for something in the middle: rectangular, but neither very square nor very elongated. There's a large set of known good ratios that you could look at, and find one that makes sense for your space. - Stuart -

Ok, took your direction and re designed the layout for 5.1. How does this look? also is the back wall correct for 5.1? how deep do those need to be? thx BB

Here are the basic layout recommendations for 5.1 from the EBU: And from the ITU: That might help you come up with a better arrangement. The Recording Academy also has a very detailed document on setting up multi-channel rooms, called "Recommendations For Surround Sound Production", that I think you can download form their web site: I looked for a link, but couldn't find one. Sorry. Dolby, AES, IEEE, Genelec and many others also have some good guidelines on how to go about it. One of the AES documents that you might find useful is number "AESTD1001.0.01-05". The strange thing is, they don't always agree with each other n some of the details... :) But they all do agree on the basic concepts, so reading through them will give you a good grasp of what the generally accepted methods are for designing a good 5.1 room. - Stuart -