Studio plans

Here are the 1st set of plans for my studio. Take a look at them and tell me if there are any major issues. This is just the audio studio part of a complex that houses video editing, photography and audio production. So all the utilities bathrooms and what not are in the larger plans, I'm just worried about the audio part myself. This is all the space I have to work with, if you want to suggest any other layouts please do so as we are still in demolition of the space. The back wall in the Control Room is a bass trap that is too large (I think) on the plan, I don't really know how wide it should be, so any help there would be great. Also, I would like 14 foot ceilings, but we are looking at doing a suspended tile ceiling a foot below the 14 foot height to allow for future servicing and maintenance, I don't believe that 13 foot ceilings are an issue, but if there is any reason to have a 14 foot ceiling, please note that in your comments (the total ceiling height on the building is 18 feet). Studio A is of course the main live room, and will house a grand piano. Studio B is a drum room/multi purpose overdubbing room for small choral work and other instruments. Vocal Booth is just that, and also used for other purposes as it is a fairly large room. Then the control room... it is going to house a Neotek Series III, and the outboard gear, and then have a producers desk and couch behind the engineers chair... the plan doesn't totally reflect that, but it will as we figure out how large the bass trap (width) in the back corner should be. Thank you for any comments and help, Josh

Hi Josh! Came up with nearly the same layout for my room. I just left out the Studio B because we want to use the big room for rehearsals too. I like your idea of having sliding doors on both sides of the controlroom. I'm curious what John has to say about absorbers/bass traps in that kind of controlroom. cheers, Carsten

Bump... Any suggestions on the width of the bass trap in the back wall (of the Control Room) and ceiling height? Thanks, Josh

Ok - first here's musikman316 drawing

Both designs have the same layout basically. In this design the two rear walls are important as if left untreated they will both reflect the signal straight back at the listening position and therefore must be heavily treated to be dead and non reflective. i.e 4" 703 as far off the wall as will fit. The rear corner can then be made as a hanger trap. The front walls and an added angled ceiling cloud are the only walls where you can add reflective surfaces to stop the room from becoming toooo dead - especially in the highs. Now the glass doors and windows are reflective but you need to add the slots on these walls and to the ceiling cloud as well. I noticed that neither of you have drawn in a soffit mount which is a pity as this is how this corner design works best - when you use only nearfields you usually make the front wall dead to absorb the rear projection from the free standing nearfields yet when you soffit mount this is eliminated except directly below the speakers. I've attached a drawing showing a method of adding a corner reflector that directs the direct signal so it is reflected away from the listening position with a hanger trap built behind it in the corner. The rear wall is then covered with heavy 703 and cloth covered to hide it. hope this helps cheers john

Hello John! Thank you for replying with the drawing. Yet two questions arise for me: 1) If I put 4" 703 into the corner how can the hanger traps and the corner reflector be useful? Can the sound go through the insulation onto the reflector/hangertrap and back into the room? 2) Could 140 cm offset from the wall be enough, as I don't want to lose valuable space in my room? The countdown started, there are only three weeks left before we can start to work. I'll let you all see pics by the time there is something to report, so others can share from my experiences too. Josh, did you start to work already? Cheerio, Carsten

The answer is Yes to both questions :) good luck :) cheers john