Plenty of space but sharp budget...

Hi all, First of all I am amazed by everything I have read so far on this forum, in 2 days reading I have found more than I achieved after a month of planning. well done! here's my situation: I am a composer/producer residing in holland. so far I have worked strictly with analog gear, but I have decided to break this dogma and I am going to upgrade to a more hybrid work environment, on the analog side I am using a Trident 80B, an otari MTR90 mkII, a Studer A80 and a lot of outboard gear. I will upgrade this using the CLASP, a Burl mothership and protools HD. the workspace I have is a 300m2 empty space which I use as a liveroom with a smaller, around 20m2 drumbooth. this leaves me with one crucial part: I am in need of a proper control room. right now I am working in a far-from-optimal sideroom with not enough space to put all this stuff, let alone work in a comfortable way. since my liveroom is huge, I figured I have all the space I need to build a new cubical to work from. I am thinking of a hexagon/diamond shaped controlroom with a minimum size of 30m2. major downside to this all is that I do not own the building itself and the owner is planning to demolish the lot so he can build an apartment complex in the near future (somewhere between 2 to 5 years from now). so I am looking for a very cost-effective way to still build a control room without spending more than 15k (euros). what kind of materials should I be looking at? how should I be layering my walls? will a construction of woodboards and rockwool be enough to build a room with minimal bleed to the liveroom, or are there other methods with better (cost effective) results? and what setup will work best if I want to be able to bring the room with me when I leave? any and all help is more than welcome, thanks in advance! sincerely, Colin Benders

Hi Colin, and Welcome! But please read the forum rules for posting (click here). You seem to be missing a couple of things! :) A couple of quick answers, questions and comments on your post: If you want to do build something that will have to be taken down again in a couple of years, then do as much as possible modular. For example, all of your treatment can be made modular and re-usable: even your speaker soffits, if designed with care. You might even be able to make your walls and ceiling modular, to a certain extent, using bolt-together sections that might perhaps be re-usable some place else in the future. It will be more complex to design, of course, and a bit harder and a bit more expensive to build, but it will save you money in the long run, as most of it will be available for re-use.

I figured I have all the space I need to build a new cubical to work from. I am thinking of a hexagon/diamond shaped controlroom with a minimum size of 30m2.

30 m2 is the minimum recommended floor area, according to both ITU and EBU specs for critical multi-channel listening rooms (ie, 5.1, 7.1, etc.). 20 m2 is the minimum for plain old stereo. So that's a good size to be working with. However, unusual shaped rooms are more complex and more expensive, so if this is just a temporary place and you know it is going to be taken down in a few years, that might be a consideration. A room based on a simple rectangle, or even one with splayed walls, is easier and cheaper.

what kind of materials should I be looking at? how should I be layering my walls?

Plain old ordinary common construction materials, such as 2x4 studs, plywood, drywall, mineral wool or fiberglass insulation, caulk, nails, screws, etc. It's not so much a matter of "what" you use, but rather of "how" you use it. The secret is in the design and the construction techniques. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The materials are combined in certain configurations that work to your advantage.

will a construction of woodboards and rockwool be enough to build a room with minimal bleed to the liveroom,

Yes, if done correctly. That absolutely is an excellent way of isolating a room.

or are there other methods with better (cost effective) results?

Only if you need very high levels of isolation, and in that can you can forget "cost effective"! :) Seriously, you can get very good levels of isolation from a simple structure of 2x4 studs and drywall, IF it is designed and built correctly. Basically, your walls and ceiling need to be designed as a tuned resonant system, where the resonant frequency is much lower than the bottom end of the audio spectrum, or at least lower than the part of it that you need to isolate. There are equations and methods for figuring out how to do that. So what you want to do can be done, your budget might be a little on the low side (since tehre are things that you will need but that you aren't considering yet, (such as electrical and HVAC installation), but overall I think you are in the ballpark. Check over the link I posted, and give us as much detail as you can about what you have and what you want to do, and probably someone here will guide you on the path you should take to get there. - Stuart -

Hi, Thanks for your swift reply. And indeed, I am sorry for leaving out all the important details, I had them all in my head but by the time I started writing this post, I forgot what I needed to put in... :shock: Tomorrow (my time) I will write a post with all the specific details, including pictures of the hall I am working in right now, to give you a better understanding of what I am working with. Thanks again! Colin