Which Shape for my Building

I have a, for me that is, once in a lifetime opportunity to built a wooden backhouse, max 50m2, for my studio. I need a decent sized controlroom, I´m thinking 12-14m2, since I spend a lot of time there. I also need a small room for my guitars, no more than 4m2. Then I need a larger recording room and a smaller one. The latter one will also be used for hangout-area/drumbooth depending on the material I´m recording which means that it can´t be supersmall like a vocalbooth, maybe 10-12m2 would be a good size. I would like some advice on which shape this building should have to meet my demands the best, obviously it´s all the acoustic phenomenons that I don´t fully comprehend since just making a 50m2 building with these room would be pretty easy if the rooms didn´t have to be built right acoustically.

HKC - first - could you please update your profile and tell us where you are. For all I know you could be in the arctic circle or on the equator. So what are you asking for? a plan? what are your layout ideas? care to offer something yourself first? cheers John

Sorry I didn´t mean to be rude. I am a 41 years old danish musician who has run a studio in my basement along with playing livegigs for....well a long time. During the last couple of years I have been so busy in the studio that the basement solution just doesn´t cut it anymore. Originally I wanted my studio to be a project studio, using programmed stuff and guitars/bass mainly. Things have however turned out quite differently so I have ended up doing bands mostly probably due to my long "career" in the club-circuits. I don´t consider my studio to be a real business but I do make some money from it and therefore I have decided to take it a step further which is building a seperate house for it. I of course have ideas for it but I have never really had room for any acoustic treatments in my basement so I know very little about it. Ie all my room have been square rooms which I knew wasn´t ideal but what can you do in half a basement. So what I really would like to know is how would a more experienced man than myself form a 12-14m2 controlroom, the other rooms would just have to be placed around it.

I´m not sure how to post drawings but maybe this will do. Any ideas are welcome, I am aware that the recording rooms aren´t that big but neither is the controlroom and the hall really is neccesary as a place to hang my guitars. At the moment they are placed inside my present rooms but they are definately reflecting the sound. Another thing is the noise from the computer and poweramps, there´s no way that they can stand in the same room as you are recording vocals or acoustic guitar in. I also need the controlroom to be quiet because I also record myself a lot and that is almost always done in that room.

Here it is

I'd be looking at treating your rooms along these lines. cheers john

Thanks a lot, when you say heavy absorption what do you mean by that.

Heavy Absorption could be a number of things depending on your budget and which materials you want to use. I.E. 4" Mineral wool 4pcf insulation, etc. 4" 703 Insulation (which is a tad more expensive than the mineral wool) :) These are just 2 examples of heavy absorption. Also If I could add. I would (behind the couch) build a false wall frame maybe 6" from the wall on the rt side and to the rear of the couch (if space permits) and use that false frame to "lift" the insulation off of the wall a bit wiithout losing a ton of space in the room. This Will increase bass trapping a bit. :) Realize I am only speaking of in the Control room, as I see no need for it in the live room. The space behind your resonators is adequate for hanging bass hangers, etc....

Oh another new word, bass hangers, what do they look like.

Another thing that I have been thinking about, is it really a good idea to place the speakers in the wall. Mine are ADAM 2.5A and there´s no mentioning of this at their homepage and on this site it is debated quite heavily....there seem to be pros and cons.

Well I am a pro guy for soffited speakers. I have the mackie 824's In the speaker section one of the guys did soffit mount his admas search that forum for the thred. So far as bass hangers, do a search. here is a pic of them installed in a ceiling (not a very good cross angle, but you get the general idea)

One last thing, on the drawing, what isolation should I use under and above the windows, slot resonators or absorbers.

As your windows are to the side of your room, I;d do slat resonators above and underneath :) Should look really classy.