New Studio construction in the Blue Mountains, Australia

Hi everyone, I've been reading and visiting this forum for a while now trying to figure things out and also just out of interest in other studios. Since now i am finally building my own, i decided i would post about and ask some (hopefully simple) questions. The studio is free standing on the block of land next door to my house. It is single brick construction with timber inner frame, and bearer and joist floor construction. I would have liked a slab but living in the blue mountains is not really easy to do since the majority of land here is not flat. The windows are 5mm-airgap-5mm double glazed. It is still under construction. The dimensions of the building are 10m wide x 6m deep (outer building measurements). Ceiling height is 3m but is a pitched roof, so the highest point is around 4.5? meters. There is also an ensuite off one side which can be seen in the pictures. There is one entrance door which would lead into the live space. My plan so far is to have a control room on one side and a live space on the other. I don't want any other iso booths or anything, just the two rooms. I am planning to have to control room to be 4m wide by 6m (which is actually a bit less with the bricks and frame) and the live space to be 5.5m wide by 6m. My main recording is rock bands.....drums, guitar bass etc. I'm not sure about noise levels yet as it has not yet finished construction. I believe at this point that it will be reasonably "sound proof" in that sound leaving or entering should be ok, as it has to be built to "flame zone" standard as i live in a highly fire prone area. This means that the roof has an extra layer of plywood and insulation than it normally would and everything has to be sealed quite well. I guess the real test will happen once its finished and i get a drummer to play while i have a walk around outside :) I should also mention that i live in a quiet area in that there is not really any noise i'm worried about getting in. My main question at this stage is how thick should i make my wall between the two rooms? I am planning to have two walls with a glass sliding door on each, but just not sure how big to make the gap between them. Does a bigger gap mean a better noise reduction? My second question.... roof shape for control room. I've tried to look at a lot of studio control room ceilings for inspiration and ideas of what can be done. i haven't been able to find and info on the design of the ceiling, just walls. Should it be a dead surface? should it be curved, flat, angled etc. I am planning to have the control room direction facing side on to the live space so it will be a longer room rather than shallower. Hopefully i've put enough information for anybody to comment, Thanks in advance, Murray.

Here are some pictures too

Here is a floor plan and cross section so you can get an idea of the ceiling

Hi Murray and welcome to the forum. You're missing a bit of info there....budget. I know you would have already thrown a few bucks at the outer shell at this stage, but cost wise you might only be 50-60% of the way there so far :shock: You need to be very realistic with budget, especially if you aren't DIY'ing. And straight up, i'll say that your space (with the exception of the floor) is almost identical to mine in size, construction and layout. Have a look at Dog & Bear studio in Other Studios. That cost me around 50K with me doing 80-90% of the work

muzzasinger wrote:

It is single brick construction with timber inner frame, and bearer and joist floor construction.

By single brick, you mean 'brick veneer'? Bricks tied to the timber frame? If that's correct then don't put any plaster on the internal frame!!! To get the best isolation you're going to need to build a seperate and completely decoupled room within that shell. If you plaster the existing timber walls and then build this shell, you'l have three leafs which will give you worse isolation in the bottem end. You'll get better isolation if you take the plaster you were going to put on the existing walls and put it on your new inner leaf walls. Same amount of plaster, but better isolation.

muzzasinger wrote:

My main recording is rock bands.....drums, guitar bass etc. I'm not sure about noise levels yet as it has not yet finished construction.

You'll definitely need to get an idea of what kind of transmission loss you are going to need for this build. Rock band = maybe 120db + :shock: I've got relo's in the Blue Mountains so I know how quiet it can be. If you've got your 120db rock band in there kicking out the jams then you need something like 75db of transmission loss to not be annoying the neighbours or your own household. Even then you might be pushing it depending on how close your house and neighbours are.

muzzasinger wrote:

I believe at this point that it will be reasonably "sound proof" in that sound leaving or entering should be ok

OK is a very subjective term. If your house is 100m away from the studio and your nearest neighbour is the same then it might be 'OK'. If not then OK probably won't cut it.

muzzasinger wrote:

This means that the roof has an extra layer of plywood and insulation than it normally would and everything has to be sealed quite well

Extra layers of ply are good news, but if they aren't sealed airtight with a LOT of attention to detail then they become a moot point for isolation. Air tight, that's your goal, and most standard building practices don't come close unfortunately.

muzzasinger wrote:

I guess the real test will happen once its finished and i get a drummer to play while i have a walk around outside

You don't need a drummer to test the room so far. You need a good quality SPL meter and an amp that will pump out around 120db. Get hold of a recording of a 60hz sine wave and pump it out in the studio (wear ear protection). measure the level inside the room, then walk around and measure outside the room at various points around the studio at 1 meter away from the walls. Subtract the outside number from the inside number and you have your current TL. This dicatates what kind of construction you'll need to come up with the isolation you'll require.

muzzasinger wrote:

I should also mention that i live in a quiet area in that there is not really any noise i'm worried about getting in.

You'd be amazed at how loud you're average cockatoo is mate :roll: One of the reasons I had to build my studio for 60-65db TL is bloody cockatoo's.....and lawnmowers, chainsaws, brushcutters etc etc. The other reason is that I live in a quiet regional area as well. After 7pm it's sometimes 35db outside if there's no wind (oh, wind noise too, and rain noise on recordings ain't great!!) So if you're planning on doing any late night sessions, you'l need very, very good isolation.....unless you're on a 50 acre block or something.

muzzasinger wrote:

My main question at this stage is how thick should i make my wall between the two rooms? I am planning to have two walls with a glass sliding door on each, but just not sure how big to make the gap between them. Does a bigger gap mean a better noise reduction?

have a look at my build and you'll see the room-to-room wall construction there a some point. Layer by layer it goes.....inside out wall construction with 90mm studs, 2 x 16mm fyrcheck plaster, 200mm air gap with 24kg/m3 Bradford soundscreen insulation in cavity, 2 x 16mm fyrcheck plaster, inside out wall construction 90mm studs. All sealed and plaster gaps stopped as per studio wall construction standard. Doors are 2 x 16mm MDF with 10.8 mm glass windows in. Again all doors are sealed air tight when shut. Window between rooms is 10.8mm laminated glass 1m x 1m and one pane in each wall, all sealed air tight. Gives approx 60-65db isolation in the bottem end. bigger air gap means more TL, yes. But everything else has to be constructed with a LOT of attention to detail for that rule to apply.

muzzasinger wrote:

i haven't been able to find and info on the design of the ceiling, just walls. Should it be a dead surface? should it be curved, flat, angled etc.

pretend that it's another wall as far as isolation and acoustic treatment go. The angle will probably be dictated by your outer shell to a certain degree. Ideally it should slope up and away from the monitors past the listening position. This isn't always possible though.

muzzasinger wrote:

I am planning to have the control room direction facing side on to the live space so it will be a longer room rather than shallower.

Firing the monitors down the long axis id the way to go for sure. Have you dowloaded sketchup yet? I'd highly recommend doing so and getting familiar with it. Draw up some detailed plans of what you want to achieve and the post them up here. It will definitely save you some heartache in the long run with your build. I had some great advice (from Stuart particularly) based on my sketchup plans which have meant i've got the room I want, rather than room I 'thought' I wanted. There's a lot of traps for new players in studio construction and there's a lot of people on here who will try to steer you around them in advance if they can see what your planning ahead of time :D all the best, Steve

Hi Steve, thanks for your reply!! Its good to read about your wall between rooms. i've been going through your build page :) I only have about $6,000 left of my budget which has already been spent on the building itself and as you know is very expensive. I'm basically going to try and do things as i go as i am pretty busy with work and just need to get this studio up and running asap. I know that its not the best way to go but this is 80% of my living and need to keep making money to start paying thing thing off (and feed my family). I should also say that prior to this building, i have been working out of a garage with no treatment what so ever or any sort of noise reduction treatment either so this building will be a MASSIVE improvement!! :) I've actually been pretty lucky with neighbours in that i've never had any complaints ever and i have done recording in my house at that moment and my neighbours said they didn't mind at all. they'd rather hear music than lawn mowers. I also record every instrument one by one, so there's never a full band playing together. I should also clarify my "ok" term haha. I mean that what ever it may be, it will do for the time being until i can afford more treatment. My main goal at this stage with the rest of my budget is to just get this wall between rooms built which i'm hoping should come in that price. Everything else will just have to come when i can afford it unfortunately. I am going for the roof sloping up and away from listening position and sloping back down at the back. Cheers, Murray.