New Studio Project

Hello- I am in the planning stages of turning a datacenter into a studio. I have attached a diagram of the facility. All walls are cinderblock, ceiling is 10' and floor is tile with concrete slab. This will be a work in progess as the main room will serve as a reheasal room as well as main recording area. What would everyone consider to be the top priority in construction? If you had to pick 1 room would the control room be the one to complete first? I'll be posting questions as I go. The building is bare, it mine and can do anything with it so throw me some ideas. thanks! Earl

Hey Earl, welcome to the board; Concrete slab on earth, or suspended above a lower floor? So, when you say "empty", does this mean that those gawd-awful parallel walls aren't built yet? How loud are your neighbors, and how loud are YOU? What's your approximate budget level, and are you a "hammer dulcimer" band or a "Pissed off Spinal Tap" kind of band? Are the cinderblock walls filled, or hollow? What kind of covering is on the inside and outside? Ceiling joists - how far apart, what size, what's hanging on them, are they trusses or just straight joists? Air handler - is is isolated with rubber, loud, quiet, metal ducts or other? The double doors - already there or future, well-sealed or crap, anything else that may be pertinent... Anything else that my questions may have triggered, please elaborate - this type construction lives or dies with the details... Steve

Steve - thanks for the response I've answered the questions best I could. I am going to take some pics today or tommorrow and post them as well. See below for answers: Concrete slab on earth, or suspended above a lower floor? Concrete Slab on Earth So, when you say "empty", does this mean that those gawd-awful parallel walls aren't built yet? Oh no- They are built. I have been trying how to decide how to get rid of all the parallel walls. but the diagram is how it is now. How loud are your neighbors, and how loud are YOU? Well I can get pretty loud. Neighbors aren't too big a deal as far as leakage. We are not in a neighborhood. It's actually downtown. I was in a rock band. Loud Drums, Marshall Stacks etc... I have to be prepared for that but I would also like to be as versatile as possible even down to voice-over for video. What's your approximate budget level, and are you a "hammer dulcimer" band or a "Pissed off Spinal Tap" kind of band? Budget hmmm. I would like to get things right the first time. So if I have to put what I can into the control room for now I would do that. The main room will also serve as a rehearsal room for a while. I have basic equipment at present that will let me do some recording. Mackie 32x8, couple ADATs, ProTools, some OK mics etc.... Are the cinderblock walls filled, or hollow? What kind of covering is on the inside and outside? I think they are filled I will see if I can find out. Walls are just bare cinderblock in and out. Ceiling joists - how far apart, what size, what's hanging on them, are they trusses or just straight joists? hmmm - will have to get a ladder and check it out. Ceiling is not the acoustic tile floating ceiling. I will post pics later today. Air handler - is is isolated with rubber, loud, quiet, metal ducts or other? 2 air handlers. both supply entire building. being a datacenter you had to have backup. I have looked at using one for control room. The double doors - already there or future, well-sealed or crap, anything else that may be pertinent... Double doors are already there. Heavy metal doors but not well sealed. Anything else that my questions may have triggered, please elaborate - this type construction lives or dies with the details... I will take a bunch of pics. thanks! Earl

I've taken a few pictures and labeled them on the diagram so you can get an idea of what I am dealing with. This picture is from location Pic 1 and would be the Control Room. You can see the air handler in the back and a small closet that could actually be an iso booth. The door at left opens into the Main room. the wall is cinderblock and I am looking into cutting a hole for the glass. Also looking to build a room inside this room for the control room.

This is the main room. This was taken from location Pic 2. You can see in the back left the return for the 2nd air handler. The double doors go into storage room.

I'm going to nit pick because I'm jealous of your space. I think you need to correct a couple of the horizontal dimensions, unless the space is not rectangular. The bottom two dimensions of 25'-0" are presumably less. Best of luck!

Pix help, but I still need the rest of the questions answered when you get time... Steve

If I were to take out the 2 inside cinderblock walls and basically make it a 25'x50' building, what would be my optimum setup? In that size studio what size control room should I be looking at? I will find out about walls and roof monday or tuesday. Would it be better if I could raise the ceiling in some area? It's 10'. Earl

Here is a rough layout of one layout I am considering. I will get measurements in there shortly. the dotted lines are where the cinderblock walls are now. red line show live floor in main room (hardwood) the rest are walls.

The cinder block walls arent' load bearing are they?

I am going tommorrow to check. I have to get up in the roof to see the roof construction. They way the building was built I don't believe they are. Anyway, I got to thinking that by taking the walls out that would leave me more options... Earl

Earl, any updates yet? Just checking... Steve

Well we got started on tearing down existing walls. I am going to save part of the cinderblock wall as it will serve as a wall for the air handler. cleanup is going to be fun. The existing walls can been seen in the diagram by the dotted line -about 12' and 10' from each end. also attached is an updated layout of the studio. monitors are 8ft apart. I decided to make control room a little bigger. 2 ISO rooms and Drum Room. Comments and suggestions are Welcome. Knightfly - I am gathering the info you requested thanks Earl

I sure hope that wall isn't load bearing... :shock:

The Wall is not loadbearing. believe me I checked it out beforehand several times!

With that much space I would really make the control significantly larger! Good luck, Dirk

Here is an update on my studio project with updated answers to questions. Concrete slab on earth, or suspended above a lower floor? Concrete Slab on Earth So, when you say "empty", does this mean that those gawd-awful parallel walls aren't built yet? The building is a 50' x 26' Cinderblock Shell with 10' Ceilings. Sheetrock on ceilings. How loud are your neighbors, and how loud are YOU? Well I can get pretty loud. Neighbors aren't too big a deal as far as leakage. We are not in a neighborhood. It's actually downtown. I was in a rock band. Loud Drums, Marshall Stacks etc... I have to be prepared for that but I would also like to be as versatile as possible even down to voice-over for video. What's your approximate budget level, and are you a "hammer dulcimer" band or a "Pissed off Spinal Tap" kind of band? Budget hmmm. I would like to get things right the first time. So if I have to put what I can into the control room for now I would do that. The main room will also serve as a rehearsal room for a while. I have basic equipment at present that will let me do some recording. Mackie 32x8, couple ADATs, ProTools, some OK mics etc.... Are the cinderblock walls filled, or hollow? What kind of covering is on the inside and outside? The walls are filled with insulation not poured concrete. Both outside and inside are not covered. Ceiling joists - how far apart, what size, what's hanging on them, are they trusses or just straight joists? Ceiling joists are 24" apart. 1 layer of sheetrock hanging on them with insulation above. It is a truss system with straight joists. see picture below Air handler - is is isolated with rubber, loud, quiet, metal ducts or other? Air handlers have been removed to be readded whereever needed. 1 is large enough to cover entire building. I've checked with HVAC people on this. I was going to keep my second unit as a spare. If I used both, they are both so large I would have humidity problems. I figured with some good duct work I could get by with one. See plan for proposed air location. The double doors - already there or future, well-sealed or crap, anything else that may be pertinent... Double doors are already there. Heavy metal doors but not well sealed. Anything else that my questions may have triggered, please elaborate - this type construction lives or dies with the details... I have met with my frammer and he recommends taking the sheetrock down from the ceiling when they frame. I am not sure whether to do this or not. I would assume that if I am builing a room/s within a room I could leave it for extra soundproofing and building another ceiling above new walls Pictures: 1. Current Mess! Cinderblock walls are down. 2. Building Shell - Bathroom is what remains. 3. Truss System for roof.

Attached are: 1. Proposed area for Air 2. Outside of building

You still haven't said what SIZE the roof trusses are made of; looks like 2x4, are the horizontal chords ALSO that size? You're saying that the holes in the centers of the concrete blocks are filled with insulation? If so, probably the way to get decent isolation would be to add two layers of 5/8 gypsum directly to the inside surface of the block to compensate for the extra "leaf" created by future inside room walls - I would LEAVE the wallboard on the ceiling, put a second layer up, seal all around, and let the blocks and those two layers of wallboard be your outer leaf. More unfaced insulation in the ceiling will help isolation some. Then, one more leaf of 2-3 layers of wallboard on each wall frame on each inner room, so that anywhere a sound tries to go it has to get through two mass regions separated by air/insulation. I agree you'll only need half the AC - if that place was a server farm before, it needed a LOT more AC than a studio will. Your double doors may just need to be ignored if it's not practical to seal them, I'd need a lot more info/pix/close-ups to know one way or the other. If you do a lot of keyboard work you may indeed want to consider a larger CR, so you have room for a key stack without crowding - although optimum distance for speakers for 5.1 surround is about 7 feet all around. As to layout, John is the king; maybe we can get him to step in with some ideas... Steve

Ok thanks- A layout from John would be great! The guy helping me with the framing recommended the bathroom stay where it is. The air should probably go right beside it. That area could also be the "lounge area" to isolate bathroom and air from control room and recording rooms. It's possible to cut another door on the front of the building where the windows are. My monitor distance is calculated at 8 feet right now. With a decent size large room what would be the optimum size for a drum room? I am trying to figure a way to isolate the drum room but also open it up for rehearsing with the band. The web site for this project is http://www.4am.com/studio thanks- Earl

On my control room. Should I raise the control room floor off the concrete? The main reason I was considering this was for running cabling trough. However if it would be better sound wise to remain on the floor I can deal with that. Also consider the ceilings are at 10' now, so raising the floor and adding a inner ceiling will drop the ceiling in the control room down. thanks- Earl

Depending on budget, for really loud tracking the CR should be floated; the best way to do that is 3.5" concrete poured on 3/4 OSB resting on 2x6's which are floated on EPDM pucks, and joists filled with rockwool; this gets the m-a-m resonance sub-audible; lighter materials will be harder to control boom, and won't isolate LF as well. With a floated CR, you should be able to set mics based on what you hear out of the speakers, not through the walls/floor... Steve