Apologies in advance...

ANOTHER BASEMENT STUDIO! :roll: Hi all. Ive been reading this forum for a couple of months and finally decided to pick your brains on my new studio project. I currently run a small home/project studio, aimed particularly at rock/ alt. bands. Recently i have felt the studio is not up to scratch for some of the (reasonably well known) artists coming to me. After almost a year of searching for a new premeses, i found this particular basement owned by the local council for creative purposes. The work is due to start end of this year/ beginning of next. Although i have to obviously have all my plans checked with the propety dept. of the local council, I have exercised most of the control of the design of the studio. There is a shop above me and the floor / ceiling is of a wooden variety, so sound isulation is a must for the ceilings. The Outer wallls on the plan are actually stud walls covering a stone wall, so I dont think I'd disturb anyone either side of me after the new structures are put up inside. The Ceiling is LOW already standing at about 245cm, so i plan to treat the new ceilings with absorvant material. Objectives of the studio: HIGHLY INSULATED ( :evil: WORKING WITH ROCK MUSICAINS :evil: ) A functioning drum/ live room A comfortable control room to fit the usual DAW setup and band A dead booth for vocals and guitar cabs. some kind of small relaxing area. Below are plans for the basement as it stands, and the plans i have come up with. Any info/ feedback would be great. Should i sacrifice space for a relaxing area? I have read the notes on how to post, so i hope i havent made any faux-pas, appologies if i have done. Thanks in advance Oz

Hey all. Forgot to mention that all measurements are in meters. The red dotted line is where there is currently a partition wall for a small front store, and the line behind it is where the basement actually ends. Im not sure if its a good idea to have a chill out space or not. The basement is fairly small for my requirements anyway. Any opinions here? Heres a design without a chill-out area. Thanks Oz

How about this? cheers john

Freakin' genius... :twisted:

Thats the one! :D :D Would it be possible to get the picture with dimensions of each of the rooms? Thankyou for your help and quick response. Oz

better still here's the drawing - you can download the trial version of smartdraw (www.smartdraw.com) and get the measurements yourself. :) cheers john

Yeah that would be easier! Can I annoy you with one more question about your plan? :oops: Should there be another wall between the corridor/ staircase and the control room, so you dont see the air gap between the C room and the booth, etc? Like this?? (new wall in red) Sorry tho be a pain. Many thanks, OZ

Great question about whether or not that extra wall is necessary. I predict that it is not, because you don't care about isolation in the hallway/bathroom area... But you probably do care along the stairwell, so maybe some of that red line would be beneficial. We'll see what John has to say about that. Anyway, I don't think the "control room and isolation booth doors banging into each other" situation will pass code. :roll: Here are some alternative ideas:

1. Move the iso booth doors to the right and shrink the booth by changing the angle of its bottom wall to allow a swinging outer door to clear the cabinet.
2. Move the iso booth doors to the right and rotate the cabinet so that it is flush against the right wall.
3. Use dual sliding glass doors like the drum booth has.

Personally, I think option #2 would be best. Using sliding glass doors is probably a waste of money, unless there's value in the booth occupant being able to see the cabinet... :lol: ...And leaving the cabinet where it is may cause collisions between door and coffee-fetching humans. In any event, I would change the orientation of the control room outer door swing so that the hinges are in the corner. --Keith :mrgreen:

OZ - what happens here is you make the wall of the booth almost touch the control room wall and fill the 1/2" space with a flexible caulk so it looks complete but isn't. Similarly with the control wall meeting the stair. cheers john

Great answers, thankyou very much guys. With every answer another question comes up :oops: :roll: John, do i use this technique with the ceiling aswell (to cover the air gap between the new ceiling and the old?) See first diagram Sharward ,. Did you mean like this? (see second diagram) Really do apriciate your time and knowledge. OZ

Or what about a combination of both answers? :D Grey line = original walls black line = stud walls (not touching ceiling) green line = stud walls red line = cover layer of pasterboard, e.t.c as john suggested. Oz

Ozzy wrote:

Sharward ,. Did you mean like this? (see second diagram)

Exactly! 8) Although I would suggest reversing the swing of the outer door on the iso booth, for ease of travel. Oh, and while you're at it, you should reverse the swing of the door leading to the stairs. See the problem with the restroom door? In fact, that whole restroom situation may have to be redone. For simplicity's sake, you'd probably want to leave all the fixtures exactly where they are, but consider changing the walls... Maybe chopping off the upper left corner at a 45 degree angle and sticking a door in it...? --Keith :mrgreen:

Hey All. Keith, I agree with your advice on the door to the stairs. Have slung it the other way in the new plans. Dont know if i should think about re-constructing the w.c. Now I have put the door the other way, It doesnt seem to be a problem. Plus if I cut off the corner, i would loose my beloved sink/ kettle cabinet :lol: Any advice on how to cover the false/ original ceiling cavity would be a god send. :o The more i understand the construction details, the better i can explain it to landlords and builders :? :? I love this forum. Thanks for all the help so far! oZ

Ozzy wrote:

Dont know if i should think about re-constructing the w.c. Now I have put the door the other way, It doesnt seem to be a problem. Plus if I cut off the corner, i would loose my beloved sink/ kettle cabinet :lol:

Not if you go with moving the iso booth door and move the cabinet over to the other wall -- remember? 8) --Keith :mrgreen:

Bad news guys.... The plans were rejected today :( This was due to there not being direct access from the stairway door/ lobby kitchen area from the live/drum room. Apparently if there was a fire in the control room, the people in the drum room would have, and i quote "no chance of escape". :wink: So now after throwing your work and help back in your face, I am begging for some help on this one. The corridor/lobby that comes from the stairs has to be a minumum 800mm wide and every room has to have direct access to it. Looks like im gonna have to loose my beloved kitchen space and unit, and maybe the iso booth :( John can your genius help me out of this quandry? Have 2 ROUGH ideas below, but the pink areas are wasted space. Thanks guys, OZ P.S- On the up side, plan permitting, they are going to fund the build :lol:

I can't think of anything offhand that would be much better than the compromises you've already thought of... :roll: ...but, then again, my name isn't John and we all know I'm not as :idea: brilliant :idea: as he is -- perhaps he'll find a nearby phone booth, do a quick change of clothes, and then whip something up that will knock your socks off! :twisted: Meanwhile, perhaps you can do some more research into the code restriction that you've come up against. It would be good to learn what model codes your municipality is using, the section number, and the precise language. Sometimes there's the "quick answer" that says you can't do something, but then there's the "long answer" that says how you might be able to get around it. I don't hold a lot of hope for being able to wiggle out of it, but it's a worthwhile exercise, even if only just to learn the details of why it's not allowed. I'm sure it's egress in case of fire... Here's an example of "short answer" vs. "long answer." In my city, the "short answer" codes say habitable rooms require windows. However, the "long answer" codes say that as long as the room doesn't contain a closet and isn't used for sleeping, mechanical ventilation that does a full air exchange at least once every thirty minutes can be used instead. In any event, be very glad that you're going about this build legitimately... Imagine the horror if building it all, and even having use of it, only to find out later that it all has to be torn down to comply with an order from a government official! :shock: You're doing the right thing... And you will get through this episode of frustration. I speak from experience! 8) --Keith :mrgreen:

Hi Keith, Thanks for the reasuring words. I have actually been on the phone with the fire safety officer, and have been given the short answer, "there needs to be an unobstructed route from all rooms to the one exit of the basement" (or along those lines). Funny thing is the basements staircase is wood, so if there was a major fire... well, lets not think about that right now :? Got a few more ideas for layouts, hopefully at some point Superma... I mean John will have a look :wink: Will let you all know of any progress. Thanks for the help, especially Keith the mere mortal! oZ

Just wondering... :roll: Why do you have the sliding doors between the drum room and the booth? I would think there would be a lot more leakage between the rooms than having windows instead. Like bluebear studio. Besides you already have access from both rooms to the corridor. Just a thought... -Tomi-

Great point!

How about this approach? cheers john

Hi there. Yeah, that plan looks sweet John. Is it not an issue that the control room is not symetrical tho? Is the CR too small in my plan? I have trouble scaling things in Smart draw :oops: I tried to make it as close to 11x13' as possible. How effective would those rooms be in terms of acoustics? In your opinions, would it be better to have one whole live area? Thanks for all the input. Its apriciated. oZ

It's symetrical where it counts - i.e. from front to the listening position. I'd go with the two rooms, maybe make the booth smaller. cheers john

John your a legend, or as they'd say in my neck of the woods, "A Diamond Geeza :P " Im gonna leave you alone now :P All I can say is thanks ever so much to everyone that has helped so far. Will keep y'all updated. oZ

Hi All. Back again. Keep looking at the plans, and really feel this design would suit my needs(see below). I felt that the plan john came up with used too much room for the CR, and in turn left the LR too small. Does anyone have an opinion on this? Is the control room too small? Am I mad to not use the plans of an actual studio designer? Just wish the original John plan passed code :cry: oZ

You can use electronic devices to add life to a dry recording. You can not use electronic devices to correct for problems you can not hear due to small control room size. John is the expert. Instead of writing you think it is too small, write WHY you are concerned about that size. Andre