new studio in a new small ny loft

Hey guys, So I'm moving out of the basement and into a better loft space which finally gives me the opportunity to build something decent. Unfortunately, New York living requires the dimensions to be small. The guy who layed out a plan for me drew a control room with dimensions of 10' by 12' with an 8'4" ceiling. The unfortunate thing is that I don't really know how much larger we can make the footprint. The fortunate thing is that I will finally have a room floated and built right and can make music 24/7 without hearing anyone or them hearing me. Here's a link to the floorplan: http://www.discod.com/studio/studiolayout.pdf so before I dive in and do this, any advice? I know I am going to need tons of bass trapping in a room this size. Should I try to pull it out a little more and compromise something else in the apartment? Thanks guys. D

here's the plan. D - what is all the area to the right in your plan - you appear to have a window looking into it from the control room - are you going to record in there?? cheers john

The area is basically a hall/wall of windows with a really amazing view. I don't want to eat it all up. We were going to put some desks there, and I thought some vinyl shelving might be good as well as I have a lot of vinyl. Since I posted here the plan I think the max i can really bring it out is to like 5 feet i suppose. The guy drew the window in for ambience but i don't really think that's necessarily the way to go. Here's my background - I produce, record and mix urban and electronic music - a lot of hip hop and R&B. I have some decent credits including a production on 50 Cent's new 'Massacre' album and a top 40 airplay record for Nina Sky. Currently I live in a basement loft with very little natural light, below a woodshop that makes noise all day, and I share a wall with some neighbors that hate me (even though this is a commercial building.) The space I am in used to be one big, dirty space with 2 entrances and the landlord did a shitty job isolating them. The neighbors have now begun counteracting my music by blasting their own music, because banging on the wall and threatening to call the cops hasn't worked. My lease in my space is up July 1st and theres a lot of pressure for me to leave and now that I'm engaged its time to move out of the basement. My studio right now is set up open to the entire loft. The acoustics in the low end are pretty inaccurate but I am used to them. I record vocals in a 4 by 4 whisper room. I would like to graduate to something a little bigger and better than a whisper room, but my "live room" really just needs to be a vocal booth. The ceilings in the new spot are 14 or 15 feet total - concrete deck above and below. The contractor wanted to do the new studio ceilings at 8 ft 4" to allow me to use above the studio as storage or even like a 'gimp lounge' of sorts. I looked for a bigger place but this is really what I could afford right now without moving out of the area. So basically, what do you suggest? I monkeyed with the drawing a little last night and had some dimension ideas of maybe 13.5 by 11.5 (pulling out the live room 1.5 feet south and 1.5 feet west) or 14 by 12 or something like that. Again this really has to be "live/work" to a certain extent so I can't cut into the living space more than I am or my fiancee might decide to stay in Brasil permanently :). Also some advice on the inside ceiling height would be good - if we can pull off the 'gimp lounge' above, great - if not of course the studio is most important! Thanks for such a wonderful site. DD

Over 90 views and no advice? :(

maybe something like this?? cheers john

Unfortunately the closet cannot be removed. it's a utility type thing where the water heater is. This looks amazing though. I guess the lowermost right corner on the vocal booth can be tucked in more to allow for a corridor. A few questions: -what is the length of the back (longer) wall of the control room? -What type of sliding glass door would that be exactly? Please excuse my audio construction ignorance. - with this design, the interior height is 8' 4" I'm assuming? - What type of flooring would you recommend for the control room? how about the live room? - unfortunately I don't have the opportunity to monitor in 5.1 at this time (or the current need). Does this affect the design at all? - does the need for additional gear, like a turntable setup in the control room and a rack of keyboards, affect the design? Thanks again so much for your help!

Disco D, how well does the whisper room work? I assume from your post, not good enough. I was thinking about getting one. can you give me some insight.

nah the whisper room works and sounds great. We did half of the Nina Sky album in my whisper room. I just moved and wanted to use the opportuninty to physically build something.