Project Studio, Take 2 (sans office)

I started a separate thread HERE, and gullfo gave me some great ideas. Thank you very much! However, I'm wondering what I could do in terms of a real (little) control room space, if I left out the office furniture. I've got an 8'10" x 10'7" space to work with. What can I do in it? Furniture is all negotiable, but I've got to fit in my 42"x16" Motif synth and have a 14-space rack and a table that will hold 2 flat-panels, a computer keyboard, and a control surface (Tascam FW-1884). Any takers? I'm lovin' this site. Great reading and wonderful ideas. Thanks!

you should post a detailed sketch showing all the dimensions included plumbing, etc.. plus wall types flooring etc... maybe a picture. I'll try to post some ideas later...

Good idea! Here it is. Notes: * Gray walls are 8" concrete block with stucco finish. * The blue wall doesn't actually exist, yet, and is just to show the boundry and approximately the door should be. * Floor-to-ceiling is 88". * Flooring will be DRIcore (engineered wood squares, raised slightly for airflow underneath); low-pile carpet squares on top. * Ceiling is poorly done stucco on wood lath (will probably use drop ceiling). * Beam (dash and solid lines) is 8" wide; finished height under beam is 81". * Window is 2' x 3' and 63" off the floor; it looks into a crawl-space. It can largely be ignored in the plan. I'm looking for a workable, symetrical space with appropriately angled walls. Thanks!

Hello. I'm no expert, but I believe Gullfo's initial design will still work best as all you did with this new layout is limit the overall width of your control room... I am working with very similar dimensions (also in a basement) so I'm monitoring your post also in hopes to carry over ideas here into my design... Regards,

And his design is definitely still in the running. I'm just wondering what I can do if I separate the studio from the office. It would at least give the opportunity for more symmetry, which can't be a bad thing. The office would get set up outside the studio, so constraining the studio to within the 8'10" x 10'7" rectangle saves space on the outside, too.

Unless your office work is more important than the overall sound/acoustics of your control room, I don't think the size of the control room is what you want to be limiting with such little space available to begin with, ya know? Just my 2 centz though..

GapeOne wrote:

Unless your office work is more important than the overall sound/acoustics of your control room, I don't think the size of the control room is what you want to be limiting with such little space available to begin with, ya know?

Yeah, I'd have to argue that my office work is more important. I work from home as a consultant, so the office is where the money comes in. The struggle for me with this project is that I'm trying to get an office, a project studio, and a family room/home theater done in one space -- and while it's big enough, over all, anything I add to one steals from another. Compromises suck. If anyone would like to take a stab at this project, I'd really appreciate it. Another problem is that I'm leaning toward these beautiful, but rather large workstations -- http://www.argosyconsole.com (either the Dual 15 or the Aura 260).

I broke my own rule and colored outside the lines, but I'm getting more serious about this. Below is a new drawing, complete with iso. booth. Does it make sense? Will it work? How/where would I use treatments? It will abut the family room, but I'm not planning double walls -- probably two layers of drywall, inside and out, with SheetBlok sandwiched in the inner walls. Other than that, they're my kids and I can tell them to shut up when I need to. Any input and advice would be much appreciated. If you were inclined to do it up in SketchUp, I'd love you forever. Thanks all!

You could make the vocal booth a bit bigger (you could almost double its volume) by sliding the rear door that you have directly behind the listening position down (in the drawing) to the angled wall. That would open up room for a bigger booth. Also, what are you going to do for acoustically treating that room? A room that small needs lots of absorption to get the low end under control. Especially, I would think, along the rear wall, since most of the sound will be reflected back there. Other than that, I like the drawing. Nice design for a very small space.

Aloha, Something like this, perhaps? :wink: Aloha 8)

jwl wrote:

You could make the vocal booth a bit bigger (you could almost double its volume) by sliding the rear door that you have directly behind the listening position down (in the drawing) to the angled wall. That would open up room for a bigger booth. Also, what are you going to do for acoustically treating that room? A room that small needs lots of absorption to get the low end under control. Especially, I would think, along the rear wall, since most of the sound will be reflected back there. Other than that, I like the drawing. Nice design for a very small space.

Thanks, jwl. There are rooms (office and family room) outside the studio door that prevent me from moving that door, but the whole thing is still in flux. I'm building all three (studio, office, and family room) at once, and I'm still considering options. The studio may even grow in size, and a larger vocal booth would be great. Kendale, Aloha and thanks -- it looks great! Could I get the .skp? Question for Sketchup artists -- are you working with the freebie or the "pro" version. I've poked around with the free one, and the lack of numerical control and being able to edit things after placing seems really limited. Maybe I'm missing something...? Thanks all, Andy

Aloha Andy, This was done with the free version of SU. As it's one of my first, there are still alot of things to be fine tuned. I haven't quite come up with a workable drawing of your workstation, so I borrowed one of John's. Depending on where/what the window faces out to, you may want to revisit that part of the sketch as well. Finally, as soon as I figure out how to attach the file (too big) I will post it for you. Hope this helps, Aloha 8)

Bass Rocks wrote:

Yeah, I'd have to argue that my office work is more important. I work from home as a consultant, so the office is where the money comes in. The struggle for me with this project is that I'm trying to get an office, a project studio, and a family room/home theater done in one space -- and while it's big enough, over all, anything I add to one steals from another. Compromises suck. If anyone would like to take a stab at this project, I'd really appreciate it. Another problem is that I'm leaning toward these beautiful, but rather large workstations -- http://www.argosyconsole.com (either the Dual 15 or the Aura 260).

Totally understandable and yes compromises do suck! lol. Nonetheless, the project looks like it's coming long nicely and we've seemed to get others involved which is the best part of these types of forums. A mind is a great thing, but multiple minds working together - now that's just too sweet a thing! 8) Ps. I love it how it's already Friday on this forum (I'm in Chicago so I'm on Central Time). Always makes me feel like I have an extra day lol CHEERS!

Aloha, Let's see if this works :wink: Yep! Thanks, John! Aloha 8)

As we say around these parts, "wicked awesome!" Thanks Kendale! Aloha (he said while doing that thing with his thumb and pinky)

may I suggest a different entry point. cheers john BTW Ken - download this file and erase all the model - purge it - then save the file as a file in your sketchup Templates folder. Then goto window/preferences/template and browse to find the file. All your new drawings will then have that setup.

Aloha, Thank you, John for the template and lesson in design and application! The changes you've made compared to the original drawing speaks volumes. Very cool... Aloha 8)

John Sayers wrote:

may I suggest a different entry point.

Thanks John. Cool idea -- I'm concerned, tho, that it might compromise the iso booth too much. I figured I'd spend the most effort making the booth quiet. To me, that's more important than the control room because most of the work I'll do in there will be computer-based or guitar/bass DI. I only really need the control room "quiet enough" for mixing and mastering (I know -- no such thing). You'll note, of course, that I'm foregoing double walls and other essentials. Since most of my work will be constrained within wires, I don't think it would be worth the time, cost, and effort. However, when the kids grow up, the family room will be all mine, and then... If anyone's wondering what happened to the office, it's now eating up my workshop, on the left in the pic below. Thanks all, Andy

Aloha Andy,

I only really need the control room "quiet enough" for mixing and mastering (I know -- no such thing).

Heh, heh, heh...how does your family and the neighbors feel about that? Do they enjoy the music as much as we do? :shock: Food for thought :wink: Aloha 8)

kendale wrote:

Heh, heh, heh...how does your family and the neighbors feel about that? Do they enjoy the music as much as we do? :shock:

Heh... My house is constant chaos already. Loud music will only enhance that. And I'm far enough from the neighbors (particularly in this corner of the house) that I won't disturb them. The real challenge I'll face is keeping out the sound of my dogs and birds. They're upstairs, so the focus will mostly be on the ceiling. I've got Rod Gervais' book, and I'm learning what to do. Strange thing -- I received the book on the same day I discovered this forum. Funny to find him active here. Aloha. BTW, my wife said we should visit you. Don't know why she'd say that... - Andy

Aloha Andy,

BTW, my wife said we should visit you. Don't know why she'd say that...

Rockport, MA CURRENT CONDITIONS 36°F (2°C) Partly Cloudy Rel. Humidity: 52% Wind: SW at 14 mph (23 km/h) Sunrise: 7:09 AM Sunset: 4:11 PM Barometric Pressure: 26.1"Hg (F) Waikoloa, HI CURRENT CONDITIONS 80°F (27°C) Sunny Rel. Humidity: 47% Wind: WNW at 8 mph (13 km/h) Sunrise: 6:53 AM Sunset: 5:49 PM Barometric Pressure: 26.1"Hg (F) Hmm, smart woman, your wife :wink: Aloha 8)

Man... not only is it warm and sunny there, you have almost 2 hours more daylight than we do. Winter is so depressing.