Your oppinion on bigger studio design project

Hello people and especially John :-) There has to be a new Studio build at the place I work (a music shop) and they asked me to do the design.Because of the size of the project I am searching for the knowledge of more experienced people. Every help and oppinion is appreciated. So this is the task : - Building a recording studio into a 140 squaremeter (sorry but only used to use metric dimensions :-)) place. - There have to be also two practise rooms for bands. these rooms have to be accessable without going through the studio complex.They will be connected to the studio for further recording applications.But room acoustics are not so important there so I left them square in my first design try. - Ceiling height is 3 meter. floor is made of some kind of industrial carpet,dont know the name but will add photos later.Walls and Ceiling is made of concrete. - Control room is mostly used for multi channel 5.1 and in future maybe 7.1 recordings - Following rooms need to be there : Two practise rooms for bands.Each with around 20 to 25 squaremeter A Control Room with around 25 squaremeter A Vocal Booth with around 5 squaremeter An Office with around 10 to 15 squaremeter A Recording room with about 16 to 20 squaremeter - The beams are not removable - floating floor is over the budget sadly - The Two practise rooms and the office need to be with daylight so near the windows - the "not usable space/room" is a stairway which will not be used so I have made walls around. Here is a pic of the empty place. And this is my first attempt This is my control room design.Mixing desk is 2 meter * 1 meter in size. There are also 3 bay racks left and right,each 0,6 meter * 1,5 meter.At the back theres a 3 seat couch and a little desk. I also want to make so kind of studio building diary here,so people can add there comments and thoughts while we build. will this be in the construction forum at the right place ? Sorry for bad english but I am german :-) Till later... Heiko

Hi Heiko - your windows really determine it all don't they - this is away of working the main studio yet still allowing for the office to be freely accessible. the second version makes the control room directly accessible - which is a good way to go ;) and the third shows how 5:1 would fit. woops - they are posted back to front. cheers john

Hello John, thanks for doing some designs for me :-) I really appreciate it :-) My thoughts on them : - As the owner wants to build it all as easy as possible I think angled walls are not necessary in the practice rooms. But maybe in some time I will rent them too for additional recording rooms.Have to talk about it with the owner.But I think the way I put the practice rooms is fixed. - The office belongs to the studio and doesnt need to be accessable externally and I can still add an extra wall at a later time (saving the space).I also thought about not putting real walls around it. What about using some kind of wood walls with holes in it (similar to a book case)? That way the light from the window will also get into the recording room and the office doesnt need to be silent. I am there alone,so there will be no recording when I am in the office. - I also thought about the vocal booth. I am asking myself if its okay if I put some gobos around the vocalist in the recording room.That way I would be much more variable and gaining some extra space but I am concerned that maybe the sound will far not be as dead as in a booth.Dont have any experiences.There will be recorded vocals and speech ( for radio and cinema commercials) - I really liked the idea of the corner control room.So I made a new design with it. Do you see any problems with acoustics the way i made it ? In the front where you placed the window will be already a plasma tv display.So I think I will go with the video camera options (bidirectional in both ways) I now made some pics of the place and added it too. The newer design I made : This is the "false" ceiling.There is an 0,2 meter air gap to the real concrete ceiling above : A view thru the place. Can you see the stairs on the left ? There will be a wall made around it : And the other direction : The doors and the lift : Maybe will get a problem.This wall will be the back of the control room.As you can see there are some heaters. Is it possible to leave them free and let the absorbers start right above them ? I need the heaters in winter time : The office window also with a heater underneath : So thats all for this time.Much text but hopefully you people can help me :-) Greetings from Germany, Heiko

Hey you people out there :-) Or what do you think of this way ? Smaller recording area but better size of control room for my gear. And a directly accesable control room ;-) Greetz, Heiko

seems like those windows dominate your thinking - why not have the natural light in the control room and have visual into the studio. cheers john

hi John, I only placed the control room not on the window because of the following : I have read so often here,that windows in control rooms are not good for acoustics in the room. So if we can find a way to make good acoustics in the room (at least as good as without the window) and still are able to use the heater under the window for the control room, then it will be better than my design. thats the only thing I worry about. Do I need to build a second wall on the window side ? Do you have an idea how to build around the heater under the window and still be able to use it ? Sorry for varying the placement so often but want to test every possibility before deciding for the final one :-) Nice greetings, Heiko

Heiko - this brings up the question of how you intend to aircon these rooms. If the control room/studio are soundproof it's is also airtight and therefore will require fresh air to be circulated. So how do you intend to do that?? cheers john

Hello John, hhmmm.... it would be no problem if noise would go outside of the control room. More problems are the practice rooms. There will be playing full bands (drums, guitars, vocs, mainly heavy metal music). It is over the budget to build a floated floor and a second ceiling for the rooms. So I think with that little soundproofing I will always hear the bands in the control room when they play. We had to do a timeplan so that bands are not playing when I am in the studio. Thats not perfect way but at least no extra costs for soundproofing is needed. My question is : What I have seen is that the normal way to build rooms is to build the walls on the floated floor,not on the ground. Would it have nearly the same effect if I build the floated floor inside of the walls ? That way we could build the floated floor later,when more money is available. We intended to aircon the rooms the normal way by opening windows and doors.Or trying to use the already installed second ceiling for aircon between the rooms. Or what about using my last design and doing some glasdoors or windows to the office side ? Maybe would be easier to build.I know you like to have visuals to the Live room but its not important in this project cause the live room is only used very rarely. Much more important is good acoustics in the control room.But I am thinking about how to get the center speaker, the plasma tv and the window in the front wall. Wish you all a nice weekend.... Greetz, Heiko