New studio build from scratch in Germany

Hello studio people, finally it is time for my own place (you know that feeling it is almost like birth of your own child :-)). This board is the most informative I know in the whole Inet, so I thought I share my experiences with you. Maybe you are able to participate and help me out, maybe you learn from it.. But hopefully you like it :-) The details : Location : Germany, 4th floor in an partly used office building Length of whole room : 10,00m Width of whole room : 12,00m Height of whole room : 2,40m (it is 2,20m where the ceiling beams are) Purpose : I am a songwriter and producer working in the pop/dance/hiphop/electronic field. I work mostly inside computer, recording vocals very often, sometimes acoustic guitars and percussions, no drum recording, no guitar amp recording. Soundproofing is not neccessary as it is already workable now. But I need within my budget best possible acoustics for producing and mixing my work. I only rent the room so I prefer construction and dividing the place with objects that I am able to take with me when I need to leave, think of semi portable gobos where possible for example but I am willing to build non removable walls where it is needed. Budget : Around 3000 - 4000 Euro for materials. Luckily work is for free provided by friends How I want to divide the place : - A big comfortable control/mix/production room - A seperate machine room - A comfortable chill out/lounge room that also is used for recording vocals and some small live instruments - A storage room which I have to make for the owner of the building around 20 - 25 square meter. My concerns : I would also love to hear real life experiences from you guys. Maybe I overthink too much but the low ceiling really worries me at the moment. it is 2,40m (exactly 8 foot) and puts my nearfields and my ears directly in the middle of the room height. I read a lot about peaks and nulls and wonder how much this effects the sound of my nearfields ( Klein & Hummel O300D ) in a negative way. I know there are a lot more variables that define the acoustics of a room so maybe someone can bring in some light before I spent all my savings. There may be an opportunity a floor below with same dimensions but a 3,00m ( 10 feet ) ceiling and a much higher monthly rent. Is there a big difference if everything else is the same ? Am I able to remove or at least minimize significant the peaks&nulls problem with clouds or similar ? Here the sketch of the empty room : Here is a raw sketch of what I would like it from a look & feel point of view but that doesn´t mean it will also "sound" on a professional level. So if I divide it like this will I get usable acoustics ? Thank you all for visiting my thread :-) And sorry for my not so perfect english... Greetz, Frank

Hi Frank, and welcome to the forum! :) Sorry about the looooong delay in responding, but there's a lot of activity on the forum right now, and not many moderators around!

I only rent the room so I prefer construction and dividing the place with objects that I am able to take with me when I need to leave,

It should be possible to build modular furniture, devices, treatment, so you can take it with you. Modular walls to separate the rooms might be a bit harder, especially on a tight budget.

Maybe I overthink too much but the low ceiling really worries me at the moment. it is 2,40m (exactly 8 foot) and puts my nearfields and my ears directly in the middle of the room height.

That is hard to avoid in many rooms. You could consider lowering the effective ceiling a bit, perhaps with an angled, hard-backed cloud. It won't make a huge difference, but should be enough to accomplish something useful. You could also perhaps combine that with raising your chair, desk, console and speakers a few cm higher than normal. The combination of those two should get you away from the worst location. For example, raising the furniture height by 5cm and with an angled hard-backed cloud that is 30 cm down from the hard ceiling over your head, puts your ears at about 60% of the effective room height (or 40% down from the cloud back), which is much, much better.

Is there a big difference if everything else is the same ? Am I able to remove or at least minimize significant the peaks&nulls problem with clouds or similar ?

You can't minimize peaks and nulls with clouds: all you can do is to change their relative location, but that should be enough. The room modes will always be there, as they are a direct consequence of the dimensions of the room. You cannot get rid of them, but you can choose dimensions that spread them around smoothly. A cloud can help to do that. So the issue is not so much the absolute dimensions, but rather the relative ratio of those dimensions to each other. So the best idea would be to look for a good room ratio for your control room that allows your head to not be in the middle on all three axes, and hopefully only one axis: Since the room must be symmetrical (left-right) about your head, you are already on the center line of the room (although your ears are offset a couple of cm each way, of course). That doesn't seem to be too much of a problem for most people, as long as you are not also on the center line in the other two axes. Bass trapping also helps to damp those modes, so with sufficient bass trapping, plus the angled hard-backed cloud, you should be able to get a decent sounding room.

Here is a raw sketch of what I would like it from a look & feel point of view

What are your plans for the yellow lines? Are those solid walls, built as stud frames with drywall on them? I would suggest that you turn the room 90° to the left of right, so that your speakers are aimed down the longest axis of the room. They way you show it now, your head does indeed appear to be very close to the 50% depth of the room (front back). I would also suggest that you use SketchUp to do your design, in 3D, to give you a much better idea of how things will fit into the space, and how they will look. - Stuart -