Window Sizes and positions

Started by len-morgan on 6 October 2005. 1 reply.

Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 4475.

I'm almost ready to start my own build thread here (no really, I am). I've got an ergonomics question though about the height and size of the windows between rooms. What was going to be my vocal booth has now turned into a drum booth (the wall was a lot bigger in wood than on paper!) which is adjacent to the main studio room (double walls of course). What I need to know is if this is going to be used for a combination vocal/drum room, how high should the window bottom be from the floor and how high does it need to be. Since I might have a drummer sitting or a person standing, I'm assuming that it's going to have to be pretty tall but since I'm doing my framing design now, I need to know how high the BOTTOM of the rough opening needs to be. I don't want the drummer to have to crane his neck (either up or down) to see into the studio and I don't want the vocalist to have to bend over to see out. Maybe I can't ideally cover both uses with one (reasonable) size window. I guess I've got the same question (how high from the floor to the bottom of the window) for the control room to studio window. Any guidance would be appreciated. len
A Drummer's chin, unless he's sitting on the floor, shouldn't be lower than at least 3 feet off the floor; same with the console surface, maybe an inch or three lower. A standing vocalist's eyes shouldn't be taller than about 6 feet MAXIMUM - also, distance away from the window would make some difference. Generally, if you put the bottom of the window at 3 feet and the top at 6, you should be fine; for one thing, the engineer would normally be seated at the console so a standing vocalist would be looking DOWNWARD toward the engineer. A 3' tall window with the sill @ 3' above the floor should do fine for both cases... Steve