vocal booth in a castle

Hi, I have been working on restoring my studio for nearly a year now. It's an old castle, built about 150 years ago. I am working during the week and spending all the free time and cash on this baby, so a familiar scenario! The building is really unique with walls a meter thick and four arch's on one side. The stonework is nearly all granite and retaining the integrity of the building is my number one priority. The drawing below is of the building as it now is. The ceiling is a quadrant shape rising from 2m on the left to over 4m high on the right, this is the "section through building" drawing below. In the small end room labeled "speaker cabinet", the walls currently have pockets (18x18x35deep) built into them, it looks like an old wine cellar/store. The live room has three beautiful arch's. I would really like to make 2 of these glass windows, double paned laminated with one slanting.. and the other one a door. The area on the left outside the arch's/doors was originally cobbled. About 50% of the cobble still exists and I hope to restore it all into a small courtyard feature. I have removed the floors, mainly old concrete ond dirt, and have a hardcore stone base now set in.I am now ready to pour concrete floors but have hit some problems in the layout. What I am going to use the studio for would be some use.. It has to cater for three main functions 1) Live act's 2) voice over for TV 3) writing my own music. My main problem (i think) is where to put the vocal booth, and whether it should be fixed or portable. The voice over service requires it to be reasonably close to the control room for communication with both myself and the clients. While not breaking the line of sight with band members farther back in the live room. I like the control room at its current size. There is a hole in the wall on the r.h.s. which I plan on Making into a silent computer cabinet. All wiring is being pre set into the floors, with a mlticore running back to the control room. All input is greatly appreciated, Thanks, Joe All measurements are in cm, and the drawing is to scale.

wow....No help here, but some jealousy. A Freaking CASTLE???? That's awesome man

Cheers man, I'll try and stick up a photo or two tomorrow. Joe

Still waiting for the photo Joe - I'd put the vox booth difrectly in front of the control room with a window allowing vision through to the main studio - like Bruce's Blue Bear studio :) cheers john

Sorry about the delay in possting the pic's but the work thing was a little crazy this week.... Thanks for the idea John, Blue Bears is a great studio. The Photo order is, control room, control room door and live room. I have 2 Questions: If i put the booth in front of the control room and fully blocked off the first arch with an external wall, wolud having the remaining arched recess as part of the booth make acoustics difficiult? Should the partiton go from floor to ceiling or do i need to ceate a level ceiling? Kindest regards, Joe

ah - so there is no window between the control room and the live room - just 3 feet of stone! are you going to use TV for visual. cheers john

The plan is to put a the double window into the wall. I am going to cut a "channel" out of the wall and fit a lintel. One half will be done at a time so as not to compromise the strength of the wall. When this is completed the window oap will be made. Sounds easy :D Joe

Hey folks, Since my first posting I have been just renovating the building. I am currently pointing up all the stone work and am about half way there.. The two photos are 1. from the control room into the live room and 2. the outside of the building from the kitchen end of the live room I am havin a problem working out how to design the control room with the arched door on the left hand side of photo 1. One thought is to move the vocal booth into the control room making the Live room bigger. A big plus. The only problem is that if the arch door is incorporated into the vocal booth i would need to put a new door in for access to the control room. Is this the best option or can the arch be intigrated into the control room? Cheers, joe

Joe - couldn't you have the access to the control room via the vocal booth with a glass door between the speakers giving entrance and view through booth to the studio?? cheers john

It is a cool option and would really save alot of work. I am hoping to get a decent size analog console (48-60 channels)? And had thought this would make this option difficult?

A 40 - 60 input console is damn long - here's a 3m (10') console to scale along with an alternative layout. Remember your room is only 3.36m wide leaving only .36m free to get around the console. cheers john

Brilliant John. I hand turning the desk in my head but thought it impossible because of speaker placement. Thanks. I marked it out on the studio floor today and it feels good :lol:

Joe - because you don't have room for trapping behind you use the ceiling space like this. cheers john

hi kie, first: jesus maria and joseph! a studio in an old irish castle. great! keep going the good work! i imagine there's lot to do in such a place. but finally, you'll have a quit uniqe studio for shure. cheers roman

The trapping info is great John. it has sorted out not only the bass management issues but also my electrical wiring for the room!! Would building some low level outboard rack spaces into the rear wall, inhibit the trapping? Joe

Roman, thanks for the support. Loads of work allright, but it's starting to take shape now. the renovation was slow and everything took much longer than expected. I cant wait to hook up the first instruments though... :lol: Joe

kie wrote:

The trapping info is great John. it has sorted out not only the bass management issues but also my electrical wiring for the room!! Would building some low level outboard rack spaces into the rear wall, inhibit the trapping? Joe

no - that should be fine.

Hi John, Would you be able to give me some dimensions on the plan of the control room, for the speaker wall? Particulary the angle between the wall with the monitors and the side wall to the vocal booth. Also the distance to keep from the rear wall. My drawings just are'nt looking like yours!! Since my last post i have finished pointing the building and have made the window from the control room to the live room into a door void. I plan to put sliding doors here to allow full accces through the whole space. I'll post a photo tomorrow. Cheer Folks Joe

here you go Joe cheers john

Thats cool stuff John, again respect. Attached are 2 photos one of the arch in the c/r, the door will be fitted flush with the outside, apparently on sep 18th, I've allready had 4 canceled dates!! With excuses about broken machines, sick employees and just too busy. Builders eh... :D The other is from the end of the live room looking back into the c/r. This is with finished pointing. To anyone else who may have to do this, it's slow, 8 weeks of 6/7 full days each week for my building, but the results are really worth it. With sandblasting the building first a new feeling of life has been injected into the studio. Sanblasting is another tedious job but make sure to seek the proper advice on the type of shot (grit u put in the blaster) for your surface. Normal silica sand is carciogenic and illegal/highly regulated in most places. Any yes it get's everywhere!! I bought a cheap 20 gallon blaster (200 euro), readily avaliable on the net, and replaced the hose and end nozzle with one's from a speciliast supplier (100euro). This saved me about 800 euro on buying the cheapest professional blaster and about 2000 euro if i had hired someone to do the work. Hope this can b of some help.... Joe

Yeah - I'm aware of sandblasting Joe - very slow and tedious but it does produce a great result. :) Looks good. cheers john

Hey John, When you get a chance could you clarify a few things? I can see by the amount of new posts you have alot on your plate.. 1. The false ceiling.. should i a) make the entire ceiling absorbent like Lapptops b) just create a cloud over the mix area (console width) kinda like Lens Sonar studio, live room c) Create a cloud that follows the entire outline of the control rooms walls just leaving the outer edges plastered 2 In the rear wall I have a small window 600x300mm (its in my original drawing), can i keep this for ventilation with out messing up the acoustics? 3 a) My rear wall. I should just construct it as a normal rear wall absorber, just slanted? b)If so should make the depth of 703 thicker, say 200mm, as the distance from wall increases. 4)The sliding door into the vocal booth. I have seen 3 different options on the site but havn't found why which one would best suit me a) the standard double door's with 12 degree deviation b) parrallel doors like in Scotts and Funkys studios or c) single door as in btween the two booths in Left bank which I must say John is a cool stdio design Cheers, Joe

kie wrote:

1. The false ceiling.. should i a) make the entire ceiling absorbent like Lapptops b) just create a cloud over the mix area (console width) kinda like Lens Sonar studio, live room c) Create a cloud that follows the entire outline of the control rooms walls just leaving the outer edges plastered

I'd go with version (a)

2 In the rear wall I have a small window 600x300mm (its in my original drawing), can i keep this for ventilation with out messing up the acoustics?

yeah - have some curtains over it maybe.

3 a) My rear wall. I should just construct it as a normal rear wall absorber, just slanted? b)If so should make the depth of 703 thicker, say 200mm, as the distance from wall increases.

Either will work I'd probably go with version (a)

4)The sliding door into the vocal booth. I have seen 3 different options on the site but havn't found why which one would best suit me a) the standard double door's with 12 degree deviation b) parrallel doors like in Scotts and Funkys studios or c) single door as in btween the two booths in Left bank which I must say John is a cool stdio design

Thanks mate - just go with the parallel doors like Funky. A single slider will only give you 32db - it really depends on what you want it for - for just vocals etc a single is adequate but if you want to turn up loud guitar amps it wouldn't be sufficient. [/quote] cheers john

Thanks for the speedy response john :lol: It has really heelped when searching/ reading the site today. I have done a little sketch of the vocal booth, and included a photo of the back wall with my initended computer/machine cabinet. I hope to put a second machine area in the .8m gap behind the slat wall at the other end of the control room. I was planning place more 703 panels following the contour of the ceiling, again like lapptops 6x2 rail design. So a 2" gap between the 703 and ceiling. I have 2 questions.. 1) Is this ceiling design ok? 2) On the 4.2m wall how high should i bring the broadband absorbers Thanks Joe

Hi John, I have all the materials 703 etc to and the carpenter is going to start any day now, apparently!! I have decided to put a floating floor in thr CR/VO space for audio and electrical rn (seperate to each other). My intended construction of the floatin floor is 25mmx50mm on the flat, at 300 centres. With 12mm ply ontop of this. 18mm solid oak flooring is the finish in both rooms running through the door space like in Left bank. My Question is this, can i float the whole area and add my stud walls that seperate the cr/vo on top or do 1 need to seperate the floors along the between the 2 studs? Cheers, Joe