what you think about the mix space?

i'll try and be brief yet clear, but don't hold your breath. :shock: background: i've been looking at spaces, 'cause the time has come to have more than a home studio. situation: i'm investigating a potential opportunity to make a studio space in the basement of an old 500 seat theater (circa 1923). the stage/space above can be used to track in when available, which of course is fairly cool in that it's a real stage and pretty big funky space, but ultimately it may not be as good sounding as the brick walled area below, if current conditions are any indication. but i'd put in tie lines regardless. basic goal...for this space would be to keep it as open as possible. it is far too live to simply have one 2000 sq. ft. open space (ala Daniel Lanois for those who have the latest E.M. mag) and i've done the all-in-one room enough already. so i need a control room and machine closet, and it makes sense to have a more dead ISO room as well. important point is that, realistically this has a good chance of being a short term experiment (as in, say, 2 years or so) and would be a roll of the dice. however, it can also be a relatively inexpensive bet in terms of both initial (IOW keep it simple) and monthly costs, and when combined with it's potential to have a very cool vibe and very flexible and interesting sonics, it has a realistic and intriguing upside. i love old buildings, and these spaces don't become available every day. specifics: everything in red is brick. what i'm thinking is in blue. all those grid-like points throughout the 44'x50' area are 8"x8" structural posts. current ceiling is 10'-4" to the bottom of the open beams (which are 2"x16"). the live spaces will remain brick/open beam. quick note: i expected that "drum room" to have a bad flutter echo, but the verb is surprisingly diffuse, maybe 'cause of the underside of the stairway and that cube that is an old fire or coal cleanout with a big metal door. i'd [i]really[/b] like to track drums in there. my focus is the control room space. initially i wanted to force myself to stick with something like plan 1 to avoid some ugly thing jutting into the live space. but the beams are obviously a problem, and making them part of walls doesn't seem such a hot idea either. control room in Plan 1 is basically 12'x20'. the only mix position in plan 1 is facing the away from the windows, which blows. plan 2 takes up more room than i'd hoped, but at least had more of a chance to make the control room sound decent and be more ergonomic. but, since the control room is somewhat close to being square (roughly 17'x20') , i'm assuming it'd be a good idea to splay walls X and Z and shorten Y in some fashion, but on paper everything looks wrong, and i'm just guessing anyway. all measurements are rough simply because a) i want to pick a design first, and b) i have room to be somewhat flexible. oh, i'd try to keep the ceilings high as possible, preferrably around 9'6". i wouldn't angle the ceiling unless i knew what i was doing. i toyed with having everything based in the upper right hand corner as well, joining the existing bathroom, but i didn't like what that left for a live space shape (either a skinny rectangle or skinny L-shaped) and i also like the the 'Lobby'-into-hallway feng shui more. i like the irreglarly shaped live area more too in that it lends itself better to creating smaller virtual spaces for individual performers using easy to build rolling barriers. any thoughts are much appreciated. ...scott

Your second one has a better chance of symmetry in the CR, but all those posts SUCK; any way of adding a couple of beams and eliminating them in the CR? Steve

good point, just a couple pieces of engineered lumber should be able to help a lot.