New Studio, a few questions....

Hi John I am moving to Bundaberg Queensland. I am presently located in Rye, you helped me out with some control room layout questions a couple of years back, and it worked out great. In Bundaberg, the council allows for 60sq metres of outbuilds on a normal house block. I am going to build a new studio up there, and will be purchasing a house with an appropriate block of land. I have a few questions for ya, and would be extremely gratefull for your advice... I am considering building a colourbond shed(s) and then lining. One Idea I have, as Its a clean slate to start form, is building two sheds, one a control room, one a tracking room, seperated by the minimum distance council will allow, and having glass sliding doors, in each building, facing each other, and using that as the visual communication between the rooms. For example,.... say I build two 6X5m sheds, side by side, seperated by a metre. Both sheds are on a slab, but the slabs dont touch, now I have seperation from the tacking room and mixing room. I put a glass slider in each buiilding , facing each other, this allows access from one to the other, and visual communication. Of course I have to run some sort of underground conduit between the two for cabling. I line, each room, and put acoustic treatment in each room appropriately. What do you think? Is this a better option than building one large room and splitting. My wife teaches singing, so I planned to set her up in the tracking room so that way I can be mixing , tracking in the control room and not interfere with her students. Also I thought, drums are usually the only thing that I have going every now and then, that would annoy the neighbours, and If needed I only have to up the soundproofing in one space if its really a prob...later on. As its a clean slate, and I can order these buildings to order, I can set up the room ratio's and everything to suit. So given the above Idea, and using 60 Sqm as the limit, what sizes would you suggest? thanks mate any advice appreciated... Peter Knight (Wiz)

That's an interesting idea mate - I'd give it a go - Eric suggested the biggest problem with tin sheds is the noise in the rain and as you know Bundaberg is high rainfall. (not now as we are all in drought) ;) nice rum though :) cheers john

thanks John Peter

BTW another advantage with the steel sheds is that they are termite resistant!! cheers John

Made me go look up what colourbond was you did. The idea of two separate outbuildings seems novel. How you build up from a steel shed to get a decent mass-air-mass isolation seems more of a trick.

Yes - that's a good point. As I see it the steel outer shell doesn't count. It's not an airtight seal and not really a mass wall. The inner shells you build would create the isolation. I would appreciate Steve and Eric's opinion on this. cheers John

Ah, it is the old 'how thin or flimsy must a surface get before it no longer counts as being a 3 leaf system' argument. Since I hadn't heard before yesterday what colourbond even was I can't offer much of an opinion. How generally is it used to make a shed there? Is it screwed to a steel stud frame? If so of what size and spacing? How thin is the sheeting?

Hi Guys At this point, i am considering it, based on cost....8^) a prime motivator. Here is my thinking........... I will line the inside of the shed with fibreglass (mostly for thermal control) and then line with gypsum. Then at that point, assess wether its soundproof enough to mix in, not track drums, just mix, thru nearfields.( of course if its okay soundproof wise, I will then acoustically treat the space. If it is great, if it isnt, then I have to do some more construction. Then I would build a mix room within that space. In the "tracking shed" again the same line of thinking, but build a room within the room, which is soundproofed, for tracking drums, micing guitar amps, tracking vocalists, if it is pissing down outside etc. Most of my time, I dont need a soundproof space, I need it really, only when doing drums. I really only need the isolation of a normal house, most of the time. Wiz

Wiz, "I put a glass slider in each buiilding , facing each other" - if you do this, your isolation between "pods" should be fairly good at lower frequencies, possibly getting worse at higher ones - this would depend on glass thickness and (somewhat) door sealing at the sliding joints. Using 6mm glass for one slider (NOT double-glazed) and 7mm glass for the other, with an air gap of 1 meter, your mass-air-mass resonance is around 21 hZ (meaning good isolation down to about 1.5X that, or 30 hZ) and as I predicted before running the #'s, higher frequency isn't as great as it would be with higher mass (no surprise there) - overall, looks like around STC 54 between pods, with about 32 dB Transmission Loss @ 50 hZ. Not too bad. If you don't need much iso between either pod and the rest of the world, this could work - however, when checking isolation between either pod and the rest of the world, you're down to STC 29, with only 14 dB isolation @ 50 hZ - this means that your neighbors will "enjoy" your drum solo much more than your wife in the other pod - possibly to the point of wanting to "share" it with the police... If you try to solve this last problem by enclosing the area between the pods and building good iso-walls to accomplish that, it could probably be done - you would, however, need to make sure that the joining to at least ONE of the pods is totally elastomeric, and NOT resonant at audio frequencies - otherwise, flanking would negate much of the advantage of the separate pods. Also, by closing off this "breeze-way", you couple more bass frequencies between the pods because the sound pressure between the pods isn't being "vented" through a VERY low impedance acoustic path anymore. Essentially, what you're describing is a 2-room studio with a WIDE double wall between rooms (good), and a MASSIVE sound leak to the outdoors. However, it brings up a valid point - when doing double sliders between rooms, if you can spare the floor space you will get better iso at lower frequencies with a wider gap... Steve

Man, makes a guy wonder if his deodorant is workin...

Hey Steve sorry, I didnt get back to you sooner, family issues, ah well. Hey thanks for the reply. You bring up some good points. Mmm, my dilemma is really about how MUCH isolation to have from within the tracking room to the outside. Mostly I do my own material, and its very flexible schedule wise. But I do like recording live drums. I am considering at this point, building one of the 'pods" as you call em...8^) and seeing how it goes. I am also considering building a cavity brick (besser block??) room within the tracking room pod, for putting drums, and anything else that needs isolation, eg if recording a vocalist and its pissing down outside...... As with everyone , its always a balance of cost vs functionality. Having run a studio, out of the bottom floor of my home here over the last 18mnths - 2 years, has shown me what clients REALLY require out of me, and has shown me what I really NEED out of a room......which sometimes doesnt match ones desire, in my case anyways. I need to do some more cost research and then pop back here with a few more questions, thanks guys, the advice is invaluable... Wiz

:) :) "If a tree falls on a mime in a forest, does anybody care?" - Yes - they generally applaud, and NOT silently... :twisted: