How should I divide up this area?

Attached is a GIF of what my house's second story will look like. I need to divide up the Shop/Office/Music area... 9’ Ceilings. Plan dimensions are approximate. The HVAC vents will be in the ceiling with air return in another part of the floor (this is all on the second floor.) I’m on a dead-end street and there’s not a lot of traffic. Music area usage in order of importance: drum set practice, music listening, recording. I’d like the office area to double as the CR…mainly so I can use the same computer or at least the same monitor. If that’s a major problem, then I guess that would give me an excuse to build another computer.<G> I have a large library which I was thinking about putting in glass front bookshelves where the doors could be opened/closed to add/subtract diffusion. I also have a number of spare cymbals which I thinking about mounting on the wall (bell out) to get them out of the way, but be easily accessible…don’t know if the hard, curved surfaces would be useful or problematic sound-wise. There are two drum sets and a marimba. One of the drums sets is an electric set and can be positioned anywhere. The acoustic set should be positioned for best recording. Marimba can be rolled around as needed. I’m looking at putting in a wood floor, but I’m not adamant about it. The acoustic drums are on a 4’ x 5’ mat…like one of the commercial dust mats you’d see when entering a commercial building. I was thinking about letting the builder wood frame everything and then come back with metal stud secondary interior walls to close off the practice/recording area(s)…but he’s game to do whatever is needed. My brother-in-law is the cabinet builder and can also build whatever I need. Any suggestions/thoughts? (I can pony up some money if this needs some time put into it...) --David

My first thought was to just divide the Office/CR and the Music area. My desk & monitors would be angled into the corner as drawn to use the full length of the Office and Shop areas. The 21' wall is a problem with the 9' ceiling. --David

Is there any information on the acoustic properties of non-rectangular rooms? e.g. triangular, pentagon, hexagon, etc. As the number of walls goes up you could begin to approximate a circle or oval...any information on that? --David

This is tricky David as the shapes don't naturally lend themselves to a control room shape. This is the closest I could get out of it. cheers john

<<< This is tricky David as the shapes don't naturally lend themselves to a control room shape. >>> Thanks! I keep laying it aside, coming back to it, laying it aside. The elevator smack in the middle of everything creates some havoc. Some ideas I've had: A. Similar to what you've drawn, what do you think about rotating the desk 90 degrees so that it's facing the window? Place a wall between the Office/CR and shop area. The Office/CR could then extend into the 20x21 area making a reverse L shape. That area could be further subdivided into a drum room and a library/music-listening room. B. Ditch trying to fit the Office/CR into the corner and place it against the stairway wall. This would further isolate the drum area from the rest of the house and allow working with larger areas. I will sketch these up and post them... --David

David - what if you placed the control room in the bottom section of the large main room so you access it from the door next to the elevator - Put the library area on it's right then open up the wall between the studio area and the CR/office room and extend the studio into it. Just a thought :) cheers john

John Sayers wrote:

David - what if you placed the control room in the bottom section of the large main room so you access it from the door next to the elevator - Put the library area on it's right then open up the wall between the studio area and the CR/office room and extend the studio into it.

Yes, that was what I was starting to think might be better all around...I'd give up a window in the CR, but I'd trade that for better sound. I've forgotten where I came across it, but one school of thought has the CR wider over depth. I guess so there is less (or easier to control) side wall reflection. Do you have any opinion on that? Have you ever tried to use a standard pocket door anywhere? If so, how did that turn out? Seems like it would be difficult to get an effective seal where the door comes out of the wall. (I'm looking at some way to avoid the dual swinging doors exiting the CR.) --David

Provided you have enough depth you can go as wide as you like - the depth is the important factor as it determines the delay of the rear reflections. I've used pocket doors - check out left bank studios on my main page. cheers john[/quote]

"I've forgotten where I came across it, but one school of thought has the CR wider over depth. I guess so there is less (or easier to control) side wall reflection." - WSDG (Walters-Storyk Design Group) tends to this approach; but they are a high end pro designer and the rooms I've seen are deeper the SHORT dimension than most here are in the LONG dimension - unless you have enough space so that your side walls are at least 15 feet from your head, you would STILL need first reflection points absorbed. Also, for a smaller room this would put the rear wall even CLOSER than before, making even MORE deadening necessary to control modes, etc... So until your CR is large enough to have a short dimension that's wide enough for about 10-12 feet behind your head, firing length-ways is more sensible... Steve

Yeah, Storyk has had a lot of wide control rooms that always seemed to surprise me as to how good they sounded. He's also done a lot of small stop sign shaped CR's that have produced a good amount of hits. And I mean small.

John, In this drawing my goal was to take your 2nd CR, flip it and move it over against the outside wall. (It's supposed to be symmetrical in all dimensions and somewhat longer.) Above that is a small gear closet. This leaves a fairly odd shaped room for the drums. Do you think something like this would work or end up being too weird for useful recording? (BTW, I anticipate a fair amount of "stuff" being in the room.) One option would be to remove wall "A" behind the drum set and replace it with wall "B". This would add volume, but make it kind of a T-shaped area. --David

OK, that last one just looked too choppy to work with. This one "feels" better... :D --David

How about something like this?? cheers john

John Sayers wrote:

How about something like this??

I like the drum area. I wish I had a larger area (we're basically working with a 2 car garage area), but we're built on the side of a hill in a special "zone" that makes it difficult to go outside the original structure's outline. :cry: The little room with a window next to the elevator...what did you anticipate it being used for? Vocals? Sliding glass doors are nice in a functional sense, but they're 2-3 times the cost of a 36" swinging door. I'll have to go count the pennies in my piggy bank. :) The CR is slightly non-symetrical on the line from the window to the couch...was this purposeful or a free-hand drawing artifact? I like this one and the last one I did (which I've modified slightly by putting the opposing walls by the drums in-line with the rest of the walls. Basically the square is somewhat diagonally cut.) Decisions, decisions...I need to have this sorted out before I end up with workman standing around staring at me. :oops: --David

OK, I went back to my original needs which will be 75% practice and listening to music. Recording will be irregular and will mostly be me recording myself...I'm going to use a laptop to remotely control the DAW in my office so having a dedicated control room won't be a good use of my area. I'll playback/mix using speakers and headphones in the Music Room. This gives me a practice/listening/recording/CR-Mixing area that's roughly a 21' x 21' trapezoid room within a room. Below is my target diagram and a picture taken of current construction from the hill above the house. The photo is upside down from the diagram. The small square opening in the trusses is the elevator and the larger rectangle opening is the stairwell. Anyone see any obvious problems? Thanks! --David