New build with a tricky control ceiling issue.

Greetings fellow recording enthusiasts! I'm in the very beginning stages of designing the floor plan for a new recording/post production studio in a warehouse here in New Orleans (picture linked below). This is my first studio design (love it), and while the space is absolutely amazing, there is an issue which I am hoping is not an issue... if that makes sense. Problem: The warehouse has a cathedral style ceiling, and the studio space is up on the second floor. The northern wall (control room, editing bay, and storage) meets the warehouse's upward slanting ceiling at a height of only 6 1/2 feet! It slants up quite a bit, soon reaches a comfortable height, and goes upward, allowing for a very high ceiling on the live room. My concern is for the control room ceiling. Moving the control room from that corner is an absolute last option, because on the back wall of the control room (west wall) there is an undepicted window to be placed in that will look down on an very large, already existing space to be used for tracking as well. Would be really nice to keep vision on that! Also, if you will notice the broken lines in the sketch... those represent iron beams that are suspended from the ceiling at the same 6 1/2 foot height as the northern wall. I've had to take certain design steps to avoid them (iso door opens inward, walls are built around them to avoid sound of them vibrating). Just something to keep in mind when viewing the drawing. Question: Is an asymmetrical ceiling, or any ceiling starting that low (7 ft, after the new inner wall is acounted for) in a control room horrible? Would a miniature cathedral style ceiling be preferable for it's symmetry? I read everything I could find, but this just seems to be a very unique situation. The material on splayed control ceilings is all on front to back splays, or vice versa. Couldn't find anything on side to side angles. I would love to get some recommended angles if possible, or some reference material if available. Unfortunately, I forgot to measure the the angle of the existing ceiling, but I beleive it's between 20 and 30 degrees if that helps. Picture of space: http://instagram.com/p/Ocab21EyPE/ Not the best pic, as it's taken from the first floor, but you can get a feel for what I'm talking about with the ceiling. Studio is going right on the other side of the hand rails. I only started researching studio design yesterday, and this drawing is the best I've come up with for the space thus far. If anything else looks off to anyone about the initial sketch, I would greatly appreciate some feedback. Mind you, there is no pre-existing south wall, that's why the lines aren't "box in box" style. Either way, thanks for your time! I've already learned so much from this site, so...THANK YOU ALL!!!

Hey guys I could really use some help with this. If I didn't meet a requirement or something else that would lead to me getting no response, then please let me know... Thanks again, and I'll be posting some more pics as I get them.

Here are a couple of pics. The top one shows the corner the control room is to be in. Thoughts? THANK YOU :)

Hi there "1instrument", and welcome! Sometimes it can take a while to get a reply here on the forum, as there's a lot of activity right now, with many folks asking questions, and not too many responding.

Here are a couple of pics.

Ouch! Those truss chords are really in your way, for sure. It is not gpoing to be easy to work around those for your ceilings. Have you considered the option of modifying the trusses, to get more height in the rooms? It is possible to do that, but the cost might be a bit high.

I've had to take certain design steps to avoid them (iso door opens inward,

But that's only one of the doors: the other one must, necessarily, open the other way... You cannot have the inner-leaf door and the outer-leaf door opening in the same sense.

Is an asymmetrical ceiling, or any ceiling starting that low (7 ft, after the new inner wall is acounted for) in a control room horrible?

If it is asymmetrical from side to side, then yes, that is a problem. But asymmetric from front to back is not so much of an issue, provided that it is lower at the front of the room (over the speakers) and higher at the back.

The material on splayed control ceilings is all on front to back splays, or vice versa. Couldn't find anything on side to side angles.

Exactly! That's the point: you can't find info on how to do that, because nobody does it, for a good reason.... Lousy acoustics.

I would love to get some recommended angles if possible, or some reference material if available. Unfortunately, I forgot to measure the the angle of the existing ceiling, but I beleive it's between 20 and 30 degrees if that helps.

The angle for the ceiling depends on many factors, including what you are trying to accomplish. But generally you do not want it angled less than 12° upwards from the front wall, and probably more like 15° or 20° if you are going for an RFZ design.

the studio space is up on the second floor.

Ouch! That's another big issue. Isolating an upper-floor studio is much harder than for a ground floor studio, plus you have the additional challenge of structure: you can only add so much extra weight to an existing building structure, so you'll need to get a structural engineer involved to look at what you have and tell you how much extra mass you can add safely.

I only started researching studio design yesterday,

I'd suggest two books: "Master Handbook of Acoustics" by F. Alton Everest (that's sort of the Bible for acoustics), and "Home Recording Studio: Build it Like the Pros", by Rod Gervais. And also read John Sayers own work @ http://johnlsayers.com/Recmanual/index.htm There are others too, but between them, those give you all the info you need to get started.

If anything else looks off to anyone about the initial sketch, I would greatly appreciate some feedback.

You seem to be showing only one leaf on your sketch: Isolation walls are always done with two leaves. I'd also suggest that you do your design in SketchUp, which is a very powerful (and free!) design program that is fairly easy to use. Paper is only 2D, but sound is 3D so you need to design in 3D from the start. Overall you have a nice space there, but it is going to be a real challenge to work around those trusses. I'd really suggest looking into modifying them to get you more reasonable ceiling height. - Stuart -

Wow! Thank you so much Stuart for your insight! I"m infinitely grateful. I will look into modifying the trusses, and keep you posted. I would love to see this space become a studio. Also, I hope this helps others with same question I had about the side to side slanted control room ceiling. Take care. -Rock-