Narrow/Wide Control Room - can it work?

Hi, Firstly I just want to say what a great site this is. We have just purchased a small farm with an existing separate building that I am using for an office/rehearsal space (old dairy bales previously converted to living space). I have attached the existing layout. I want to convert the rooms marked control room and band room into a recording studio but as you can see the control room is very narrow and wide (1.8m x 5.4m). I have attached a diagram showing possible layouts and a cross section showing the peaked ceiling. Is this room too narrow/wide to successfully convert into a effective control room? There is the option of removing the wall between the control room and band room and rebuilding walls to make a new control room but this means a lot of work and reduces the size of the band room. As another option the wall between the control room and the kitchen can easily be removed to make an L shaped room - would this be any good as a control room? The walls between the office and other rooms cannot be totally removed for structural reasons but I could possibly remove a large section of either or both. Would this help? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. regards, Peter.

Peter, that narrow a room would be pretty crap for a CR; are you planning on still using the office and kitchen as those functions? And what structure is keeping you from removing the office walls? From your second drawing I'd guess that the top and bottom walls in your floor plan are the only load-bearing walls, or am I missing something? Also, it'd help if you told us more about what you intend to do; number of muso's in there at one time, cutting full band tracks live or one at a time, etc - don't worry about long posts, without details you'll never get your needs communicated, and vice versa... Steve

Steve, Thanks for the reply. I want to be able to record a band playing live as well as individual musicians. My band (5 sometimes 6 people) also uses the band room for a rehearsal space. The walls between the office and the CR and the office and the kitchen are load bearing (a complicated roof line - the peaked roof I show in the second drawing of the original post really only covers the CR and the band room). Other than that the load bearing walls form the exterior walls of the building. I could remove most of those office walls as long as I keep the corner as I would need the put a large post there and support the openings with good size beams - this would be a big job though and not a preferred option. All the walls of the building are made of 450mm high 100 mm thick concrete sub walls with timber frame resting on those. To remove a wall is a major job and requires cutting and grinding 100mm concrete to remove the sub wall part. Could be done though. I really don't need to keep the office and kitchen as they are - I went with the layout shown in my original diagrams because it is the easiest. After looking at other designs on this site I have come up with some alternatives: Layout 1 - allows me to keep the office and kitchen but reduces the size of the band room and requires removal of the wall between the CR and the band room and construction of a new wall, Layout 2- uses the office as a CR but keeps the existing walls and Layout 3- uses the office as CR but requires removal of the CR/band room wall. Layout 1 has some advantages in terms of sound proofing the CR from the outside world as there is only one wall shared. I can keep the kitchen and office. The band room is still a good size and maybe in the future the office could become another recording room if required. I am leaning towards Layout 2 for a couple of reasons - it's easier than removing a wall and I could use the space originally intended as CR between the band room and the office/CR as a vocal booth or for recording acoustic instruments as it will be quietest room in the studio. It will also isolate the CR from the band room. I can also still see most of the band room from the CR. Layout 3 would probably be the best layout I guess but I don't think I need a band room quite that big and maybe it's not as flexible in the future as Layout 1. Does the CR shown in Layout 1 have a better shape/size than the others? Is it still too small? How much bigger should it be? Should I sacrifice more space in the band room to get a bigger CR and use Layout 1? In people's experiences what is the smallest CR they found to produce decent results when mixing? thanks, Peter.

Layout 1 gives a better shaped CR, but encroaches on live room space probably more than you want; 2 or 3 would need the CR rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise or you'll have assymetrical ceiling problems (unless you put in a false ceiling with traps, etc, which would need more info on support options) Just my $.02... Steve

Hi Steve, Thanks again for your input. After considering my budget and time constraints I have decided to do it in stages. Stage 1 will use the narrow room as a control room, though I realise that this won't do a great job, and keep the office and kitchen. When I can afford the time and money Stage 2 will involve removing the wall between the kitchen and the office and using the new larger room as the control room. The old control room will become the vocal booth and I will either go for Layout 4 (simplest to execute) or Layout 5 shown below. The larger CR of the final layout should do a reasonable job once acoustically treated. Would this CR room work if rotated 90 degress? Or is it better to face the short wall of the rectangle as shown in the diagrams? Do you think there are any advantages of Layout 5 over Layout 4? thanks, Peter.