Postal Recording Studio Design Thread

Hi, I'm building out a recording studio in an old post office in Indianapolis, IN. I figured this would be a fun and informative way to chronicle the journey and get some helpful advice along the way. I have a few questions now and am sure I will have more in the future so I just thought I'd get some opinions and knowledge from some of the gurus on this forum. First I'll post some pics and design Ideas. Here are some pics of the place in its original form: Here is the working floor plan I have going: In this plan the large tracking room will have a ceiling height of 14' 6" The control Room is 11' The small tracking room and iso booth are 12' Here are a few basics about the place. The building shell is brick construction and the interior walls are glazed brick. The floor is a concrete slab on earth. I will be tracking primarily rock bands some loud and some not. I don't have any neighbors right on top of me so I am not too worried about external noise. I would like some isolation between control room and tracking rooms but absolute isolation is not my primary goal. I am more concerned about having good sounding rooms. My budget for the first round of construction is $10,000 in materials. I know this won't get me to a polished studio. I'm just trying to get something workable first. Labor will be provided by me and a crew of friends / clients. One thing I have decided based upon this forum is to not do a floating floor. It is on a concrete slab poured on earth. The basement is only under the bathroom/lounge. One question I am currently researching is if I should use metal or wood studs. I have more experience using wood but some friends that will be helping in the build out have worked with metal. I will be doing a double frame / double leaf wall with 2" air space between the frames. Some people on here say that there is not much difference in metal vs wood in this wall type. Anyway any comments or info on the raised floor / wall construction / or general floor plan will be greatly appreciated. OK Here I go.....

Hi "adkerche". Please read the forum rules for posting (click here). You seem to be missing a couple of things! :) - Stuart -

Sorry. Hope I updated everything accordingly. Thanks, Alex

adkerche wrote:

One question I am currently researching is if I should use metal or wood studs. I have more experience using wood but some friends that will be helping in the build out have worked with metal. I will be doing a double frame / double leaf wall with 2" air space between the frames. Some people on here say that there is not much difference in metal vs wood in this wall type.

hey there, good to see you posted up before starting the build. really smart move :D As far as the metal vs wood question goes i'm not sure either way. Although when you say you're building a double leaf wall the alarm bells are going off. You already have a brick shell to build your internal structure in, which means you'll only need a single leaf drywall construction to make your two leaf system. If you're talking about a two leaf wall between CR and live room then great. spot on :D But given that you've got a fair bit of swinging room in there i'd extend that 2 inch gap out a bit to give you improved isolation between rooms. The CR layout also seems a little odd. You've got the side walls at the rear angling back in to the listening position. I'm no acoustics guru but I think if you make those walls 90deg to the back wall then you'll have a better shaped CR. Otherwise it looks like a great layout and it's a real bonus to have that amount of space to build in. well done!

Sorry. Hope I updated everything accordingly. Thanks, Alex

Yup! :thu:

Here are some pics of the place in its original form:

That's a nice looking space you have there, and it certainly seems that it could end up as a great studio.

Here is the working floor plan I have going:

That's a rather strange shape for a control room: I'd suggest that you go with something more conventional, to avoid "surprises". I would also suggest rotating the CR so that it faces the LR, and putting a window up front, for better visibility.

The floor is a concrete slab on earth.

Excellent! Nothing better.

I don't have any neighbors right on top of me so I am not too worried about external noise

What about noise coming the other way? Traffic, thunder, wind, rain, hail, people talking outside, phones ringing, dogs, etc. There's a huge number of potential noise sources outside that could trash your perfect take....

One thing I have decided based upon this forum is to not do a floating floor.

:yahoo: :yahoo: Smart move!

One question I am currently researching is if I should use metal or wood studs. I have more experience using wood but some friends that will be helping in the build out have worked with metal.

There's not much in it. There's a very slight advantage to metal if used 24"OC, but you'll still need wood for the doorways and windows, very likely. The extra strength, mass and stiffness is very useful there. If you need to span long distance for your ceilings, then wood is probably better for that. So you could do a combination, if you wanted to: metal for most of it, but wood for the important bits. For the rest, I'm agreeing 100% with what Steve said. - Stuart -