needing some suggestion on studio layout

Well I have been designing a house on My Cad Program and decided to design in Space for a basement studio. I'll be honest I have no idea how to design a studio. Designing houses is no problem because I build them everyday. so any suggestions and help are welcome and appreciated. Outside dimensions are 32' x 48' the foundation walls are 12" thick poured concrete The basement has a clear spanned girder system for the floor system above. The height of the foundations walls are 14' from the floor to the top of the poured concrete. I intend to put a drop ceiling in at the height of 10' because I'm sure the steel girders will be somewhere around 24" tall and that will give me plenty of space for any duct work, wiring, and plumbing for the whole entire house including the studio. ALL Interior walls will be 2x6 wood frame Heres the dxf file of the space thats left after adding the stairs, bathroom and a room that leads to the outside

For those without a DXF viewer -

thanks knightfly for posting the pic of my dxf file for everyone to see

wwell you certainly have a nice shell to start with. I wouldn't put in a drop ceiling as I'd create a new ceiling for each studio room. So what exactly do you want in the studio space?? cheers john

um lets see john, i know i want a drum room, control, mixing, listening room, a vocals, iso booth(s), live room. i was given some advise about my 12" thick foundation walls saying it would go against me for having some bass response in my rooms on recording.org, so im pretty sure a redesign of the shell is in order and if so by going to 8" thick walls will atleast give me a lil more room for my studio, i might actually have a lot more room if i move the bathroom and stairs around, let me get the redesign of my shell done again so i can post it on here for you and everyone else to see

Well I have gotten new info from someone on recording.org that my 12" thick walls won't really matter being the fact that it's below the grade of earth so just go with the plan I have posted here John. And thank you for your help it's greatly appreciated Oh and the reason behind the drop ceiling idea is to have access to all the plumbing and duct work if ever there would be a leak or if I was needing to add something electrical

Wes and Rod over at RO won't steer you wrong; one thing to consider, aside from whether your ceiling can "keep up with" your walls for sound isolation, is the idea of using "soft" inner walls a couple of feet in from the concrete, to allow more of the "brutal bass" to be trapped. Even a single layer of drywall on studs with that large an air gap can help quite a bit. Room ratios, as Wes mentioned, will be really important here - even if using splayed walls, taking the average of each dimension and keeping ratios near "ideals" can smooth out the room quite a bit. Might try a google search using "louden", "bolt", and "seppmeyer" along with the words "ratio", "acoustic"... I know that's a LOT of space to give up; but a small space you can actually USE can beat a larger space that never stops irritating you (and your neighbors or family) and can't even be USED when you want to... Steve

Knightfly would a gap of 18" work as the air gap you are talking about as a gigantic bass trap or do I need to go bigger. I hate to lose that much space but I trust your judgement and advise. Thank you much its very appreciated P.S Thanks for the google search keywords they'll come in handy but I'll be honest I'm not good at math soo all that info is most definately confusing

Here's your DXF file mate.

Thanks john

I'm a little confused - you say you are designing this from scratch - so is the entrance/bathroom/stairs area fixed?? My problem is you have only one way of getting into the studio area - that means you either go through the control room to get to the studio or visa versa, either way it creates problems. BTW - I see no reason to loose 2' all around. I saw Les's post at rec org regarding bass response and can't agree with him. Sure the more massive the walls the more bass stays within the room, but if you design the walls that way you must compensate with more trapping within the room. I like to know which control rooms he's refering to that have a bass response problem because of massive walls. cheers john

No John the entrance, bathroom, stairs are not fixed. Actually I sat up late lastnight looking at this myself and wondered if I was to move the stairs, bathroom, entrance how much more space I could create. And as we speak I have moved the stairs and bathroom completey. I also changed the run of the stairs which will make them steeper but will also give me more room since now the stringers are not at such a shallow angle. Original idea was to make it easier for me to walk down from the house and back again but I decided to go with more room as I'm sure it will come in handy. Now I'm just trying to figure out the best place for the control room Oh yeah before I forget, for the control room being that will also be the mixing and listening room as well ( Whos room dimension ratio should I go with I'm am so confused with the mathematics of doing the acoustics.

Well after starting over many many times I think I have a rough idea of a layout. I know that I should stay away from square and rectangle rooms but being a framer by trade and building houses everyday. It was easier for me to atleast make the rough layout using these general shapes to atleast give you all an idea of what kind of layout Will fit in the space I'm designing. Any Suggestions are greatly appreciated. Heres the dxf file of my updated drawing

Hey DDB, You mentioned that you're considering making your steps steeper. I see that you're a framer by trade (cool! Maybe we can run some framing questions by you from time to time!), so I hope you'll forgive the question -- will the steeper stairs meet code? Also, you may want to consider the effect of ease of loading and unloading gear. Stairs suck when it comes to this, and I would think that steep stairs suck even more. Hey, you're building from scratch, so why not include an elevator? :twisted: --Keith

here's the redesign. cheers john

Yes Keith, the steeper stairs will meet code. As long as the run is not less than 9". Sure no problem I'll help the best way I can if get thrown some framing questions. Doni

DreaminDrumBeats wrote:

Yes Keith, the steeper stairs will meet code. As long as the run is not less than 9".

Cool. :-)

Sure no problem I'll help the best way I can if get thrown some framing questions.

Great! Maybe you can weigh in on this one when you get a chance. Doni, I'm certainly not the authority when it comes to this, but the straight run on the stairwell looks great, and the loading/unloading area is a great idea. One thing you might want to consider is orienting your control room more in the middle of your shell, so that you can have all of your other rooms and booths directly adjacent to the control room with windows or sliding doors between them, so that you can maintain line-of sight with each of them... Except maybe the bathroom, of course! ;) You should also "forget all of your framing instincts" and stay away from 90-degree lines. Hmmm... I wonder if John is whipping something up in his mind about a better, more centralized, "air traffic controller" design... :roll:

yup - he is :):) that straight staircase really helps. Here's a starting point. cheers john

I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! :twisted: I'm now officially at the stage where I can read John's mind, so I now think I'm as smart as he is -- soon to be followed by a severe misunderstanding that will squash me down, back to mere mortal status. :roll: ;)

yup - you are now mere mortal status. check your titile :) cheers john

John Sayers wrote:

yup - you are now mere mortal status. check your titile :)

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: That is so cool! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Just in case John changes it back in the future, my ID info on the left says...

sharward mere mortal
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I love it! :mrgreen: I hope I can keep my "mere mortal" status and that this doesn't result in hundreds of PMs to John asking for their own special stati!

Keith I understand square and rectangle rooms are not idea but I was just trying to get a rough idea of what i wanted in the studio but I like Johns layout much better anyways. btw Keith I hit the link you sent on the door framing question. oh btw John I dont know if I'm overstepping my boundries by asking this but could you send me a dxf file of the layout you posted I really like it.

here you go cheers john

John what kind of file is a rar file? what program do i need to open it? and thank you much