New Studio Design in a Commercial Rowhouse in Baltimore

Hello, Attached you will find my latest studio floor plan as it is right now. I started a studio in Washington DC and asked for your help here and everyone here was wonderful in helping us with the design. We've since moved to Baltimore and are starting another studio. This time with a budget and plans to actually take down and build new walls, if possible and if the budget allows. Right now any of the internal horizontal walls can come down, however to keep costs at a minimum we'd like to try and keep the walls by simply making them all non-parallel. The kitchen is up in the air and will probably double as more of an office. We'd also like to have a lounge as well in the front of the building. In addition to recording all sorts of music (avant, indie, R&B, hip hop) we'll be recording a percentage for broadcast (radio). I'd love to know what people think we can do with the space? The idea was to use the front room as the studio and the middle room as the control room, but now we are thinking the other way around as there is a lot of street noise at the front of the building and we'd like to keep the windows intact to it's historic quality. Also, we have 10' ceilings. And it's a 3 story row house office. The space above us is not occupied and will probably never be. There are tenants on each side of the building. We estimate the building was built in 1898. And the walls appear to be 12"-18" thick between buildings of solid brick and stone. And our mixing board is 7' x 3'3". And our budget is around $15-20,000 for parts and labor. I look forward to any insight people have and hope everyone had a good New Year! Mat Baltimore, MD PS. If you need or want pdf or adobe illustrator files, just ask.

Aloha Mat, Perhaps something like this for starters, with acoustic treatments to live room to follow? Aloha 8)

Aloha, With treatments... :D Aloha 8)

very nice!

Hello, Thanks for the ideas. We took those ideas and put them in to another sketch. See the attached PDF. The main challenge thus far is placing the console in a location that lends itself to decent playback and visuals and traffic noise from the front bay windows. The board is 7 feet long and since our space is long and skinny it yields itself to few options. We have a few concerns: 1. There is a adjoining building just north of the Studio (room) with an occupied office. We will be building a double wall over the existing 8+ inches of solid brick (and a layer of existing drywall placed right on the brick) - Are there any other considerations to keep noise in? 2. There is a train a block away south that is below grade - There is still a building between us. It's actually not bassy at all, surprisingly. We are definitely floating the floor in the studio. Will this help? Would floating the control room floor help more? 3. Right now there are radiators in all the rooms. We'd like to install HVAC to get rid of the radiators space and acoustical transmission through the piping. We can run all the duct work in the basement with little to no problems. Can you foresee any problems with vents coming through floating floors. 4. Our cabling from the console to the mic panel will be under the floating flooring to the left of the Window and under where the outboard gear will be. Should we have the flooring easily accessible (ie removable) or is that not really necessary? Any ideas on where to put the mic panels in the studio and in what configurations would be helpful. We're thinking 24 channels of ProTools and we have a 32 channel (modular to 48) console. 5. Does anyone have any experience with glass blocks? Do they seal out sound well? For the window in the studio facing east we're considering a layer of glass blocks there with a space and a layer of plate glass. 6. Does anyone have any positive experience with glass sliding doors? Thanks!

Aloha Mat, Sorry, but I had to flip your plan. It was a bit wide, eh? You may find that your control room is a bit too shallow and that:

because you don't want rear reflections to interfere it is better to start with a longer front to back dimension than the side to side dimension. i.e. 6m x 5m. - John Sayers SAE website http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

Aloha 8)

kendale wrote:

Aloha Mat, Sorry, but I had to flip your plan. It was a bit wide, eh? You may find that your control room is a bit too shallow and that:

because you don't want rear reflections to interfere it is better to start with a longer front to back dimension than the side to side dimension. i.e. 6m x 5m. - John Sayers SAE website http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

Aloha 8)

Yeah, we thought that too, but can't think of any other configurations that would work any better with the length of our console. Can you? I've also attached a smaller version.

Aloha Mat, Had to resize your pic again. This will eliminate us having to scroll back and forth in order to read your post (and it's part of the forum guidelines.) Thanks! :wink:

Yeah, we thought that too, but can't think of any other configurations that would work any better with the length of our console. Can you?

Could the space you have laid out for your offices be moved to the area after the entry/lounge and either the live room or control room put there? Aloha 8)

kendale wrote:

Aloha Mat, Had to resize your pic again. This will eliminate us having to scroll back and forth in order to read your post (and it's part of the forum guidelines.) Thanks! :wink:

Yeah, we thought that too, but can't think of any other configurations that would work any better with the length of our console. Can you?

Could the space you have laid out for your offices be moved to the area after the entry/lounge and either the live room or control room put there? Aloha 8)

Sorry about that... I have a problem with resizing and being able to view everything. Thanks for fixing it. We've thought about that, but the studio is smack dab in the middle of the city and we don't want to change the front of the building as it's historic and we'd like to keep it authentic... I guess there's more flexibility with the rear, but it's a weird space with that divot in the existing bathroom. I guess this layout seems to work the best with all the options we came up with... Originally we thought to switch the Studio and the Control room spaces, but we felt like the musicians would feel constrained with the narrow room. Do you think it would be better the other way around? Thanks, again.

Hey Piginzen, Can I ask where in Baltimore your studio will be located?? I am currently building mine right outside Harrisburg, Pa, but I keep my boat down in Baltimore. I am there alot during the summer. ;) Just making a connection. :wink: AJ

Charles Village... Please to meet ya!

Aloha Mat,

Originally we thought to switch the Studio and the Control room spaces, but we felt like the musicians would feel constrained with the narrow room. Do you think it would be better the other way around?

Perhaps something like this? Aloha 8)

A good idea. Thanks! I think at this time, we need to leave the now kitchen (to be converted to an office) and the bath where it is. Sadly, we need to cut those costs. I am not sure if people saw our concerns/questions, so I will repost them. Hello, Thanks for the ideas. We took those ideas and put them in to another sketch. See the attached PDF. The main challenge thus far is placing the console in a location that lends itself to decent playback and visuals and traffic noise from the front bay windows. The board is 7 feet long and since our space is long and skinny it yields itself to few options. We have a few concerns: 1. There is a adjoining building just north of the Studio (room) with an occupied office. We will be building a double wall over the existing 8+ inches of solid brick (and a layer of existing drywall placed right on the brick) - Are there any other considerations to keep noise in? 2. There is a train a block away south that is below grade - There is still a building between us. It's actually not bassy at all, surprisingly. We are definitely floating the floor in the studio. Will this help? Would floating the control room floor help more? 3. Right now there are radiators in all the rooms. We'd like to install HVAC to get rid of the radiators space and acoustical transmission through the piping. We can run all the duct work in the basement with little to no problems. Can you foresee any problems with vents coming through floating floors. 4. Our cabling from the console to the mic panel will be under the floating flooring to the left of the Window and under where the outboard gear will be. Should we have the flooring easily accessible (ie removable) or is that not really necessary? Any ideas on where to put the mic panels in the studio and in what configurations would be helpful. We're thinking 24 channels of ProTools and we have a 32 channel (modular to 4Cool console. 5. Does anyone have any experience with glass blocks? Do they seal out sound well? For the window in the studio facing east we're considering a layer of glass blocks there with a space and a layer of plate glass. 6. Does anyone have any positive experience with glass sliding doors? Thanks!

I looked at your design wrong... I didnt realize your drawing was the opposite of what we did. Or rather, the reverse. We're going to consider this... Thanks so much... And sorry it seemed like I was ignoring what you were saying. I had to see them side by side to see what you meant. Again, thanks and we'll write soon... In the meantime, does anyone have any comments on our numbered concerns? Thanks!

Here is my suggestion. All units are to scale including the kit. cheers john

Wow... Thanks! That's something we hadn't thought of. Just to clarify. Black= wall Orange/brown = wall treatments (foam) ?? Thanks again! Cheers!

Aloha, Thanks, John!

Black= wall

Correct. :D

Orange/brown = wall treatments (foam)

Wall treatments, yes - but usually stud framed - cloth covered - OC 703/Mineral wool type insulation. Aloha 8)

What Ken said :) Import the jpg into sketchup and use the tape measure to measure a wall of known length. In the input box in the lower right corner you will see a measurement, type in the actual measurement and hit enter - it will ask you if you want to rescale the whole model and you say yes. Now the floorplan will be to scale. cheers john

Excellent. I will have to download this program and try it out. We're using Illustrator on our iMac right now... One final question... In regards to the angeled walls in the control room. Should we be building our staggered stud sound reinforcement walls at an angel as well or do we build them parallel and frame out the acoustic treatment at the angel in front of it. Thanks! This has been incredibly helpful and we completely appreciate your efforts.

build them parallel and frame out the acoustic treatment at the angel in front of it.

yes - use the angle for slots. cheers john

Excellenté! Thanks!

Just thought of one more question.... Is there any reason that the angled slot resonators or bass traps cant be hinged so that the space behind them can be accessed for cable storage, etc...

Aloha, Blue Bear Studios (a John Sayers design) put his power rack behind a hinged slat door.:wink: http://www.johnlsayers.com/Studio/Mainp ... uebear.htm (Update 6 - about halfway down the page) Aloha 8)

Cool! I'll check it out. Thanks!