NEW STUDIO DESIGN CHALLENGE!

Okay, guys. After doing tons of reading, analyzing many different plans, and playing with several designs over the last few months, I'm finally ready to get some input from the masters and see if you can help me work on my design. Sorry, I don't have Sketchup drawings. They don't have the free version for Mac owners, yet. I'm designing a studio for my church. It is a renovation of the old choir room and is currently finished out with standard 1/2" sheetrock on the walls and a dropped ceiling with 2 x 4' acoustic tiles. The buliding is a steelframed construction and the studio floor will be floated on existing concrete slab. The ceiling is high and sloped to one corner which I would like to take advantage of, but I don't presently know what's above - or how much space is above - the existing dropped ceiling, I just know we'll have to treat it. The biggest challenge I have is the given criteria. We have a good amount of space (35' 10.25" x 23' 6.5") which is completely accessible on 2 full walls, but have a number of goals which make our design choices a bit limited. Here's the limitations: 1) 2 Control rooms. One larger main control room and a smaller overdub/edit/mix/MIDI suite with iso booth. 2) Both control rooms must be accessible to the hallway or lounge without disturbing the other control room or recording space. 3) Needs 1 main tracking room and 2 iso booths probably sharing with the small control room but not necessary. 4) Ideally the smaller control room will have visibility to the main tracking room. (Not necessary, but desired.) 5) No direct accessibilty to outside. (Accessibe only through hallway.) 6) Ideally, main tracking room utilizes high ceilings in space by existing door. (Not necessary, but desired.) 7) Ideally, we would have a small machine room for both CRs. (Not necessary, but desired.) That's all I can think of at the moment. If I think of any other challenges I'll post them. Let me know if you have any questions. Fire away! I'm excited to see what you come up with. --------------------------------------- I'm posting multiple images of the existing space and a couple of my ideas.

Sideviews of room showing high ceilings.

Idea 1: This was my first idea and the one most people like. Pros: 1) It fulfills all the criteria I listed in my first post, but has some downsides. Cons: 1) Neither of the Isos are big enough to accommidate a drum kit or piano. 2) Small control room is odd shape and maybe too small, but I don't really know what's feasible. 3) Main control room is quite large (16' x 17'), could be slightly smaller, but we want a good sized space. Is this a good sized space?

The small space in the bottom right is the machine room.

Plan "B" - I like this one, but it has some drawbacks. Pros: 1) Good sized isos. 2) Decent sized and shaped second control room. 3) Good visibility to most rooms. Cons: 1) Main control room seems small (14' x 13.5'). 2) No visibility to Iso 2 from CR1. 3) Wasted space adding hall. 4) No machine room. 5) No visibility to studio from CR2. (Not essential) Might be more effective use of space if the design was flipped horizontally to eliminate air lock, but then I lose my high ceiling in the studio. How beneficial is that? Is the high ceiling better for the control room?

I cant wait to see the results. Keep us posted on the progress. As far as the design, i am sure John or the other guys will chime in. Good Luck Jason

here's one way ;) cheers john

WOW! John. That's great! Definitely fresh ideas and very different than what I was coming up with. A few questions/thoughts: 1) What is the green area? Is that just an entry? I notice it's not iso'd. If so, that's where my high ceiling is that I was hoping to use as my main tracking room. Can you think of another way to work that in? Is it really of benefit for tracking? 2) Also, concerning the hallway passing behind the main control room, could you extend the control room to that back wall for space, or is it beneficial to have that passage to the other iso? 3) Entry doesn't have to be through the existing door. Doors can be placed anywhere along the left or bottom walls into the hallway or lounge. With that in mind, how could the space be utilized using the outside hallway to maximize the given space? Hope that gets some other ideas going. I've been working on this for months and just getting your input on this is a fresh injection of creativity. Thank you!

I'm not sure how your roof works - your elevations don't make any sense. cheers john

I'm not sure how your roof works - your elevations don't make any sense.

Sorry. If you look at the first drawing (top-down) it has the directions - the top being the north wall. The first elevation is from the west wall - the wall with the lounge - facing east (looking left to right on the top-down drawing). The second elevation is from the north wall outside the building looking south (looking top to bottom in the top-dwon view.) The ceiling slopes up toward the south wall from the north and up from the east wall toward the west with a break that runs from the northeast corner up to the point it levels out in the south facing elevation. All that to say, the corner where the existing door is, is the point with the high ceilings. I'll post another picture to show the break in the ceiling.

Hope this helps give better clarity to the slope and break of the ceiling. Thanks, John.

Anyone else? I'm meeting with an architect today (previously scheduled by someone else on our team) to have initial conversations of what's involved, so the more ideas I have to communicate with him regarding designs and construction, the better. I don't know his experience with designing studios (probably none), but he should be a good help finding out what our city will require to get a building permit and getting up to code. I certainly don't need to have a finished plan today, but the more ideas the better. Thanks, guys. This is a huge help! I feel like I'm building one custom home for 3 families and I'm the most experienced at this stuff. It's a lot of fun and quite challenging at the same time.

It's a lot of fun and quite challenging at the same time.

Good luck and keep the questions coming. The sooner you learn so much about acoustics that you KNOW how little you really know, the quicker you will be able to effectively guide (and quite possibly yourself) the design of your facility. ps. Personally I know enough that I know gigabytes of knowledge about acoustics that I know nothing about. :) Andre

Had a great meeting with the architect today. Catch this: He's gonna do the work for free as a donation to our church! Not only that but he's a gigging musician himself! This is great! Now he doesn't have extensive knowledge of designing for a studio, but that's okay because he can get what we need from the city for permits based on our design and then we actually will do the build ourselves making sure it's done right. The other great news is I have between 2 more feet above my current dropped ceiling to go up on the north and east walls and about 5 more feet to go up along the south wall. That really opens some possibilities with 11 to 18 foot ceilings! Keep the ideas coming. This is really getting exciting and we are wanting to move ahead ASAP. I really need to nail down a design. Thanks, guys.

The other great news is I have between 2 more feet above my current dropped ceiling to go up on the north and east walls and about 5 more feet to go up along the south wall. That really opens some possibilities with 11 to 18 foot ceilings! Keep the ideas coming. This is really getting exciting and we are wanting to move ahead ASAP. I really need to nail down a design. Thanks, guys.

We here love acoustics, and studio design. We do this on our own (read free) time. If you want things quickly, then hire a professsional designer. Girm up the available space for starters right now. Keep the questions coming! Andre

We do this on our own (read free) time. If you want things quickly, then hire a professsional designer.

No expectations or pressure intended. I just think this is fun! I'm a big team player and I love to get ideas from others and bounce my ideas off people to get feedback. I'm just hoping for some more response to stir up my creative pot and increase my knowledge bank.

Here's a preliminary design similar to my early sketches. I'm still a little concerned the smaller control room is too small and a bit awkward with the doors. Any suggestions? I'm not sure of the absorption-to-diffusion-to-bass trap ratio. I plan to setup bass hangars in most of the corner traps of the control rooms and inside-out slot resonators down the angled sides. Thoughts? Seems like these rooms would be quite live. Should I use some more absorption? Where? And what about the studio? What sort of diffusion/absorption should be applied in there?

Just being curious, but what are 2 control rooms needed for? I am sure you have a good use for both of them, but i have never seen this before. What is the purpose? Thanks Jason

jsandlin0803 wrote:

Just being curious, but what are 2 control rooms needed for?

Honestly, if I could lose the small one, I would. It has presented the greatest challenge in designing this space. But to answer your question, our church facilitates about 4 different itinerate ministries involved in recording and audio production, not to mention media productions forr the church. We call them resource ministries. They are not paid by the church, but based out of our church, connected relationally to the church, and work with the church to accomplish its goals. We have multiple recording projects going on simultaneously and the goal with the new design is for 2 projects to be working with out interrupting each other. Obviously, the main tracking room is shared space, but that can be booked accordingly. What you don't see here is the 2500 person auditorium on the opposite side of the south hallway that has a 3 way split routed to Control Room A for live recording. We have the biggest live venue in our area and look forward to putting it to good use. The studio and iso 2 will be accessible to either control room for studio projects and overdubs. Control Room B is primarily for smaller projects.

My latest fav design for our space. At first I was reluctant to have a tracking room with such long parallel walls, but with proper diffusion I think this design could work. I like the large iso 2. The other guys don't like iso 1 being dedicated for CR A, nor as it being an entrance (I don't really either), but I've yet to figure out another way. Any other ideas? I've also learned I have the freedom to use up the space currently the Hallway on the west (left) and part of the lounge, so this is opening some new possibilities.

And now for something completely different... After discussions with the powers that be, I was given permission to blow out the hallway to the west (left) and the added space opened up some new possibilities. This is my latest fav design. Comments? Anyone? I'd love some critiques and feedback on these designs.

Aloha, Is your layout to scale by any chance? :D Aloha 8)

kendale wrote:

Is your layout to scale by any chance? :D

I drew it at 1/4" = 1ft., but had to resize it to fit the screen. All dimensions were figured out to scale. The original drawings have the actual dimensions of the room - roughly 36'x24' - but now we have decided to knock out the west wall and add another 4.5.'

Getting closer. So, I shrunk the isos to gain more studio space and moved CR B to make room for a machine room and access to the storage room, so I didn't have to create breaks in my acoustic treatment. Any comments? I'd really like some feedback from you experienced guys. Is this the best studio design you've ever seen? Someone, say something... anything. Peace.

well you can teach an old dog new tricks. :D They are good designs. We are now talking of a bigger area as the left hallway has now been incorporated, the high ceiling has become a booth? Old dog - you have to do some math. Bruce Blue Bear for his studio estimated in 2002 that it cost him approx $60- 80/sqft. It was built totally by contractors and aircon was an extension of an existing system. Remember, if it's sound proof, it's airtight - you'll die in there if fresh air is not supplied. Your last plan was around 960 sqft = $57,600 - $76,800. Studio construction is expensive because you can't automate it. Every wall is different and at a different angle. Hundreds of sqft of drywall and insulation are used and aircon ducting systems, power, audio wiring etc. have to be built into the design and cost. You are also trying to share recording rooms between two control rooms. The iso costs to achieve that add up and up. Time to get real mate :) I don't want to discourage you but hey, God has put me here to say it. ;) Extra cheers John