Small Home Studio Control Room - Design ideas?

Hi All, Firstly, thank you so much for an amazing resource, and to the experts who freely give up their time to help those with lesser knowledge ie. me! It is greatly appreciated and I will donate to this forum shortly. I'll try to keep this brief. I intend to build a control room in the downstairs rumpus room of my house. I'll attach some pics of the space to help you visualise the area. I realize it will be small but it's all the missus will let me have! Basically, I can use the rear of the room up to the centre beam. I've posted a couple of design ideas & I would appreciate any expert input. At this stage, I'm looking purely for the best layout of the space - I'll worry about the actual construction methods afterwards (got a copy of "Build it Like the Pros" on the way). Here are some details - Area Size (that I'm allowed to use) Approx 5640mm x 3700mm (although the door to the garage eats into this width) Height approx 2350mm (to the joists - based on the garage side of the house which doesn't have a ceiling) Intentions A relatively soundproofed space for mixing (generally about 85db mix volume with the odd louder boost). Also recording acoustic & vocals. Moderate isolation from the rest of the house would be the aim. I'm realistic though - this isn't a commercial facility - just me and the missus. I can quite easily time my recordings around any disturbances, and we live on a quiet street so that won't be a big factor. Also, the bigger plan is to build a larger recording room at the back of the house (for my drumkit). This will be accessed by the current rear sliding door. For now though, I will wall over the top of that door until needed. Plans (apologies for my poor design skills!) Nothing is to scale - just giving you guys a feel for the design. Design 1 - this was my original plan. It's basically a room within a room with the outer shell being 3 existing walls (2 exterior brick walls & 1 internal wall with bathroom on the other side) and a new wall built flush to the internal beam. However, after delving into it, I think this design will leave me with too little internal space. I also think that the degree of isolation might be overkill for my purposes. In this design I would be facing to the right (where the window is on the external wall). This would mean that I would likely block the sliding door when I eventually open that up to use the planned larger recording room. Also, due to the internal stairs, I've left a fairly large dogleg to walk through to the internal garage door. It's not that the clearance below the stairs is too low, but I didn't want to make it too tight to get through. I don't like the lack of symmetry in this design. Design 2 This looks better to me but I'm not sure of the door placement at the rear. Also, I have moved the dogleg further back, so it is tighter to get to the middle garage door. The rear room could be for storage. Design 2b Same as Design 2 but moved the entry door. This looks the best to me, as in this design, I would face to the left of the plan, therefore leaving plenty of space to access the sliding door in the future. I have done a further update to this plan with some treatment ideas. I've put some approximate wall dimensions on here, although it will likely be less than this depending on wall thickness. I will likely do a staggered stud wall for the wall running under the beam and around to the storage room (so this will be a single 2 leaf wall). The remaining internal walls will be single stud with insulation/gyprock - the external brick wall will act as the outer leaf. I thought about splaying internal walls, but again, I think the space is so small that I'm better off keeping it a simple rectangle and using plenty of treatment! So, what are your thoughts on these ideas? Also, some other questions - 1. Is two layers of 13mm Gyprock better than 1 layer of 16mm Firecheck? (16mm is exactly twice the price per sheet so these options are exactly the same $$$ value) 2. Is resilient channel/noise proofing clip systems made redundant in a room within room design? Ie. do they have little benefit for the price in that design Thanks in advance! Cheers, Ryan

Hi Ryan, and Welcome! :) Design 2B is what makes the most sense to me, but it does look rather squarish: Did you check that you have a good room ratio?

Intentions A relatively soundproofed space for mixing (generally about 85db mix volume with the odd louder boost). Also recording acoustic & vocals. Moderate isolation from the rest of the house would be the aim.

That's very realistic, and very do-able. You are talking about isolating to roughly 45 dB or so, hopefully 50, and that is certainly attainable.

It's basically a room within a room with the outer shell being 3 existing walls (2 exterior brick walls & 1 internal wall with bathroom on the other side) and a new wall built flush to the internal beam.

Sounds like a good basic concept to me!

However, after delving into it, I think this design will leave me with too little internal space. I also think that the degree of isolation might be overkill for my purposes.

:shock: :lol: When it comes to isolation, there's no such thing as "overkill"! :) No matter how good it is, there will always be some reason, sooner or later, why you wished it was even better...

I don't like the lack of symmetry in this design.

Agreed! Symmetry is very important.

I've put some approximate wall dimensions on here, although it will likely be less than this depending on wall thickness.

Actually, this is where the game of "trafe-offs" begins: On the one hand, you need certain dimensions for the room itself in order to get the best possible ratio, while on the other hand you need to meet certain conditions for the wall itself in order to not compromise on isolation, and on the other-other hand (all studio builders must have at least three hands! it's a prerequisite...) you need to fit it all within the existing walls, floor and ceiling, while on the other-other-other hand (OK, make it at least four hands....) you have to do that within your budget! :) So firstly you obviously need a few more hands, so you can start balancing all these competing parameters... :) More seriously, this is an issue. Your room ratio is important, but so is your isolation plan, so you do need to do some trading-off here to get the best balance between them.

I thought about splaying internal walls, but again, I think the space is so small that I'm better off keeping it a simple rectangle and using plenty of treatment!

What is the prime purpose of this room? Is this just a hobby studio, for a bit of fooling around with your own personal stuff? Or does it also have a commercial side to it, where the mixes you create in here will end up released to a paying public? If the former, then I agree: just do a plain old rectangle. But if there are commercial purposes behind it, then I'd go for the full RFZ concept, with soffit-mounted speakers. 5.6m x 3.7 m is probably good for that, with some creative design. There are several examples right here on the forum of people who have built successful rooms around that size.

1. Is two layers of 13mm Gyprock better than 1 layer of 16mm Firecheck? (16mm is exactly twice the price per sheet so these options are exactly the same $$$ value)

13mm drywall is too thin, too flexible, and too low mass, with not-so-good resonant characteristics. The general recommendation here is to use only 16mm fire-rated drywall, or thicker.

2. Is resilient channel/noise proofing clip systems made redundant in a room within room design? Ie. do they have little benefit for the price in that design

Correct. If your inner-leaf framing is fully decoupled, then there's no point in decoupling again. If you are sitting at the bottom of a swimming pool, can you get any wetter by taking the hose-pipe down there too? Fully wet is fully wet. Fully decoupled is fully decoupled. Clips and hat channel, or RC, are useful in situations where the inner-leaf framing is not fully decoupled from the outer-leaf, but otherwise it is pointless. - Stuart -