Sketching a good size home studio from scratch

Hi everyone, My name is Antoine and i'm a musician based in Paris, mainly playing bass and double bass for jazz and pop artists in France and sometimes abroad. I've been recently starting to do (with some encouraging success) some arranging, producing and mixing for some projects, not very visible but they're good music. My family and i have had for some time a house, an hour away from Paris. I've been taking more and more bands to do 2 or 3 day rehearsals there (great way to immerse and the music and really bond with musicians..) and i've been starting do a bit of recording, but now it's interfering with life in the house and we think of building a dedicated music space in the property. The shape of the new building will be pretty much restricted by the other buildings around (roof slopes must be equivalent) and the fact that it will be standing on grounds with a 10% slope or so, roof heights must follow accordingly (the green line on the sketch is the ground level) At first i wanted to do just a big room within a room in the building but then thought that, as i might do more and more recording of the bands, it'd be great to have the possibility to make things evolve ; so even if i don't have a lot of competences yet (nor a lot of gear), i might look ahead. I think the best would thus to have a big live room, really comfortable as it would be the main purpose of the building ; then have a correct size control room, that would be of use more in the future ; and then having a small booth for vocals, double bass or amps. I've been trying some layouts and hesitate between two options : - one of having rectangular rooms, all following good proportions (L/W = 1,22 as i read in Rod Gervais' book) - one of having more irregularly shaped rooms Each seems to have its pros and cons : rectangular rooms seem to be easier to build, to save space and (at least thats how i feel) one might feel better in them after a few hours of work ; irregular ones might just sound better. I chose arbitrary shapes based on designs i've seen but have no idea if they'd be good.. Another big factor that is quite unclear yet is the height. I'm not sure how much i can dig in the ground so what height will be available. I know I'd like to use the roof slopes to create a 12° angle ceiling, but then i don't know if the 1,22 will apply anymore for rectangle-based rooms. As for soundproofing, the building will be about 8m from the main house, separated by various other buildings (2 garages, workshop..). Neighbours are much farther away. There are no kids in the house (yet) but when there will be i'd like to track rock drums so nobody's bothered, and work late without waking them up.. I havent worked in detail on materials yet but i was thinking of outer walls in sand filled concrete blocks, and for the inner leaf, 2x4 studs with 2 layers of 13mm drywall (that's the standard in France). As for HVAC i haven't studied the question at all. The sketches that are here are pretty bad and have very poor detail but they are here just to illustrate how i've been so far.. i've been trying different door positionings, room combinations.. I think having the live room on the right where the roof is higher would be better of course. As Andre told me to do (on another forum) i started using Sketchup and am doing an in-depth readingof Rod's book ! Thanks to all of you in advance for your input ! Antoine

I just realised i forgot to provide some more data.. The dimensions of the new building will be between 10 and 11 meters long, and between 6 and 7 meters wide ; they can be adjusted to fit the best inner dimensions. I will get a quote for the building itself as we're gonna have it built ; for soundproofing, treatment, HVAC and electricity i'm aiming for 12-15.000 I'm rehearsing/recording next week in the house with a couple of bands and will do some sound measurements to see what noise reduction i'm aiming for (more precisely than i wrote in the first post) That's the most accurate i can be so far !! Thanks !

Hi Antoine, and welcome to the forum! :) Sorry about the delay in a response on your thread! I've been tied up with a big project the last couple of weeks, and not able to do much on the forum at all.

The shape of the new building will be pretty much restricted by the other buildings around (roof slopes must be equivalent) and the fact that it will be standing on grounds with a 10% slope or so, roof heights must follow accordingly (the green line on the sketch is the ground level)

Perhaps you could post a photo of the actual place where you are thinking of building?

I've been trying some layouts and hesitate between two options : - one of having rectangular rooms, all following good proportions (L/W = 1,22 as i read in Rod Gervais' book) - one of having more irregularly shaped rooms

Both are good options. Both work well, if designed carefully. The control room must be symmetrical, of course, but the live room does not have to be symmetrical: you can make it any almost shape that you like (within reason!).

rectangular rooms seem to be easier to build, to save space

Right! That's the big advantage of rectangular rooms. It is also a lot easier to predict the acoustic behavior of the room in advance. But you can't build a control room as a rectangle if you also want it to be RFZ.

I chose arbitrary shapes based on designs i've seen but have no idea if they'd be good..

Your live room is fine like that. No problems. And the control room is not bad, at least for the front section but you are wasting space at the back, and the rear half doesn't look symmetrical. The rear half does not HAVE to be symmetrical, but doing so makes it better, and also easier to build: you can just do the right half as a "mirror image" of the left half. I would suggest just going all the way back into the rear corner, then building a large bass trap across that corner, and maybe placing a sofa in front of that. The doors to the iso booth is not practical: it does not open fully. So you won't be able to get large things in and out easily, such as guitar amps, large instruments, etc. I would try to make that a bit bigger, so the door can open fully.

Another big factor that is quite unclear yet is the height. I'm not sure how much i can dig in the ground so what height will be available. I know I'd like to use the roof slopes to create a 12° angle ceiling, but then i don't know if the 1,22 will apply anymore for rectangle-based rooms.

Make the live room as high as you possibly can, but keep the dimensions of the control room to a good ratio, even if that means making the ceiling lower. As log as the lowest part of the CR ceiling is still above about 2m, and the highest part above 2.5m, you should be fine. The general rule is that the volume of the live room should be at least twice the volume of the CR, if possible (and as much as five times, if you really want it to be fantastic).

I havent worked in detail on materials yet but i was thinking of outer walls in sand filled concrete blocks, and for the inner leaf, 2x4 studs with 2 layers of 13mm drywall (that's the standard in France).

That will get you very good isolation. It would be better if you could get 16mm drywall instead of 13mm.

As Andre told me to do (on another forum) i started using Sketchup and am doing an in-depth reading of Rod's book

Andre is a very smart man! He taught me lots, years ago, when I was just starting out in acoustics. He's a great mentor, so listen carefully to whatever he tells you! And do send him my best regards, next time you talk to him.

i'm aiming for 12-15.000

Euros, I imagine? Not Dollars?

I'm rehearsing/recording next week in the house with a couple of bands and will do some sound measurements to see what noise reduction i'm aiming for (more precisely than i wrote in the first post)

Excellent! Those numbers are important for designing your isolation plan. - Stuart -