New Project

Hello everyone, I am very pleased to have found and joined this newsgroup. I just took out a 10 year lease on a fairly large commercial space in Brooklyn, NY in which I intend to build a studio. The part of the space which I've designated for the studio (live room, control room, and one or two floating iso booths in the live room) is 25' by 35' with 16' ceilings. The walls are concrete filled cinder block and there is a roughly 2.5' x 4' skylight which I'd like to incorporate into the live room if at all possible. No questions yet - I have a lot or reading to do with all the info here, but while I'm doing that, if anyone recalls any old threads that relate to space similar dimensions as my own, I would be most grateful for a pointer. Thanks, and I look forward to learning a lot. Oh, and I will be using the studio primarily for my own projects which generally are for small acoustic-electric ensemble - one or two violins, cello, clarinet, Rhodes, electric guitar. I would like, however, to have a versatile enough space so that I can use the space commercially occasionally to defray some of my costs. Best, Steve

So based on some preliminary reading on the site, and through purchasing and reading some of Rod Gervais' book, I've come to think that a live room with the following dimensions might work well within my space - 13.5' x 18.9' x 21.9'. (My total space is roughly 25' x 40' and I can increase the length a bit if, necessary....it's actually a 25x100 space that I am sharing with a friend who will be using his part as a painting studio.) These dimensions follow L.W. Sepmeyer's first choice ratio as listed in Gervais's book. However, how should I account for non-parallel surfaces? If I pitched the ceiling so that it ran 13' up to 14', ran the width pitch at 19'-17.5', and the length at 20.5' to 22' would I *theortically* be in good shape? Or should I do precise equations to use Gervais' recommended 6% pitch while maintaining the exact cubic footage of my original Sepmeyer figures? For the sake of simpler construction, could I compensate for two parallel surfaces with a modest amount of treatment? Thanks a million - I'm looking forward to settling on general room dimensions as I learn more about isolation construction. And please note that these figures are for internal space, allowing for roughly 12" wall structures spaced 12" from the concrete-filled cinderblock walls of the existing building.

So I am moving ahead with construction. For a variety of reasons that I won't bother you all with here, I must begin construction sooner than I would like (it involves my studio doubling as a home and avoiding too many months of rent overlap). I am building the live room first. I have settled on interior dimensions of 16x18.5 with a sloping ceiling of 11-13'. I have allowed 12" for a mass-air-mass wall. Beyond this, there will be 6" to 3' of air before concrete-filled cinderblock walls, so I am fairly confident that I will have adequate isolation from the outside-outside world. That said, I am builing my studio within a 25' x 100' space and the rest of the space will be used by my roommate who is a painter. We are tolerant of each other, but I do need enough islolation so as not to have to worry that I am driving him crazy when I'm banging on the drums for hours at a time. We are beginning by building the floor. Again, this floor will be built either 16x18.5 or 16.5x19 depending on whether we build the interios wall on the floor or just outside of the floor on the existing concrete. I have read Gervias' chapter on floors as well as the chapter about studio construction in Huber's Modern Recording Techniques. I've read through as many of the 59 pages of the "floor thread" here as I could, and have come to the conclusion that this is an area of studio construction on which there is little concensus. So I am appealing to all of you for a little guidence before beginning the floors. My first issue is that my floor is extremely uneven. There is a plugged drain in the southern third of what will be my live room, and the floor slopes from all directions to this drain. I am not concerned about building a floating floor for isolation purposes, but would prefer to have some form of wood flooring (I actually like the look of decent grade 1/2 inch ply as flooring). Also, I want those who use the studio not to have to be on bare concrete, and for obvious reasons, I want to have a level floor. Can anyone tell me what the proper way to level my floor would be? Once we're level, must I use "pucks" to float the floor if isolation and moisture are not major issues? Could I just lay neoprene and then ply? Might a 2x4 frame filled with sand and then covered with neoprene and ply simplify my leveling issues? Once the floors are built, I plan to build double walls with 5/8 drywall+Green Glue+5/8 drywall on 4" metal studs with R-19 batt opposing 4' offset metal studs + 1/2 inch ply + 1/2" drywall. The outer wall will be built on joists on the outer concrete floor, while the inner wall will be build on joists connected to the inner wood floor. Any opinions on this? I am concerned that by building the interior layer of my wall directly on the floating floor that I am setting myself up for the "drumhead" floors with the 200-400Hz bump that Gervais describes in his book. I am so grateful to anyone who can take the time to offer some input. Thanks, Steve www.softlandingstudios.com Brooklyn, NY

If you build your walls out of parallel by 1 foot in 10, it will take care of flutter echo - by NOT having to do this with absorbent, you'll have more options on just how absorbent (dry, reverb-wise) you want your room. For modal calculations, use the AVERAGE distance between walls - this will get you in the ballpark, there's no software I know of that will do these calculations except for parallel walls. The ceiling should be twice as splayed, since the floor can't be. You may want to check into self-leveling concrete to fix your floor, then laying a wood floor with appropriate vapor barrier - the drumhead effect is partly from using too light a panels over joists, but mostly from under-damping - Rod has used sand-fill with success, but if you lay panels directly over concrete there shouldn't be an acoustic problem. Rod and John have both done more of this than I have, you may want to PM them and ask if they can weigh in on this... Steve

Thanks for the reply, Steve. So splaying the ceiling from 11'-13' would put it 2' out of parallel over an 18.5' span. This slightly exceeds your 1 foot in 10 recomendation, right? Is is still not enough? As for the walls, can I leave my exterior wall assemblies with some parallels and just do the inner assemblies splayed? As for the floors, I can't use self-leveling concrete. I'm not comfortable doing a pour in this space (even if it's framed) since I don't own the space. I will PM John and Rod about the sand. Assuming I come up with a high-mass floor solution, do you have an opinion on my question as to which would be preferable: A) Outer leaf-stud assmbly on the existing concrete and inner stud-leaf assembly on the floated floor. or B) Both assemblies on outer, existing concrete floor with no wall assembly on the floating floor. Thanks again!

Oh, and just a suggestion. If each catagory - "Studio Design," "Studio Constructions," etc.had sub-groups for floors, walls, ceilings, HVAC, etc. it'd be a lot easier to search the database. I'll bet that the extra effort of having to answer discreet topical posts from the same poster would be well offset by the gains of not having to repeat the same information on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. If, for instance, the RSDF were structured like wikipedia, I'd search for "floors", and all the user info compiled here over the years would be consolidated to one long entry that would likely address every question I could ever have on the subject. Just trying to save you some time, knightfly, you are providing a tremendous service here! Thanks, Steve