new home construction soon, need advice on "studio room

Hello everone my name is Sam, and boy Im I glad i found this forum, I want to say that i have been reading up for the past month and what great members we have here, they help as much as they can with expert and great advice...Guys, I have been working on a plan to build my dream home for the past 2 years now, at the start of planing i did have in mind having a mini studio room, as I am not a pro at studio work, but a very good musician. Im at a stage now that im waiting for the final city approval for the plans so i can start constuction, so im looking at maybe 3 or 4 months maybe more before i start construction. sorry for the drawing, to be honest with you its the first time i did this kind of thing but i hope it enough to get an idea of whats going on. -the new home will be near mountain area (southern california) where outside noise is not a major issue -after reading and reading i came to find out that i could have had a better room to start with but i can not do anything now the plans are almost ready from the city.so i have to work around with what I have *this rooms floor will be deep concrete *for this room I want to focus 70% of the resurces to acustics and 30% soundproofing, im working on $10k budget for this room (more than what a regular bedroom might cost building) for both acustics and proofing (if i can have good reuslts in spending less than $10k that will be a big plus). (other than the 2 drywalls near te garage side, my archatect has not planed anything else regarding proofing) *the room (first floor) is 19'-4" long and 15'-11" wide and is 10'-3" high (a bedroom is also being constructed on top of this studio room) *the room has the garage next to it on the east side and the living room (electric fireplace) on the west side while on the north side (a double door) it faces a long hallway that faces a guest bedroom, and on the southside side (window) it faces the street (about 50 ft away) ***im up for any kind of idea that works acustically mostly, and i know you guys have many great ideas Im not sure if this room would be big enough to have a control room and a vocal/mini instrument room, do you guys think its better to keep it a one open "control" room rather than having a small control room and a mini vocal/instrument room ( i dont ind either idea, the best acustic idea is the best for me). The type of things I record are mostly vocals and instruments (guitar,violn,hand drum,tablah,voice), i will never need to record drums or anything that might need more than 2-3 people (strings)recording in the vocal/instrument room or booth in the same time, so please keep that in mind ***usually the type of music i play and mix is smi loud (meaning at this time in my regular bedroom here in the house, loud enough for my wife that is 2 rooms down to know im in the music room but not loud enough for her to bother me (lol), if this can be somehow upgraded in the "proofing" it would be a big plus ***I can not change the placement of the window or the doors (as plans are in the city), but i can have one big door, 2 smaller doors, maybe a smaller window, whatever works best with out changing placement of the window and doors (they are suppose to be centered in the room and across from one another,sorry if you cant tell by the drawing) again thank you for all or any type of help, and i hope i did not miss any major information and again thanks guys! ***sorry but i also need to add that the air conditioning can be placed anyware that best fit the control room and or vocal/intrument booth (room)

with this room would I have an advantage having the "mixing room" on one side or the other (the garage or the living room side), the same question for the vocal booth/instrument recording room, thank you for any advice.

Aloha and welcome to the forum, Sam :D Congrats on your studio build! Perhaps something like this for starters? (placement of doors, windows, acoustic treatments to be added next :wink:) Aloha 8)

kendale, first thank you for welcoming me to this great forum its an honer, and thank you for talking the time and drwing this great plan...I think this will work, but i have to find out a way on how to invlove the window into this plan, the door i can try to move the location, but the window, you think its ok to have the window just in the back of that left speaker in the mix?...overall i think that gives me a big enough vocal/instrument room for at least 2 if not 3, kendale acustically speaking can you guide me to a read to find out how the recording room should be treated compared to the mixing room, im assuming a little different treatment, with that in mind do you think the botom left corner that is in the "recording" side that is sticking into the room should be more round if i can make it or this will work? thanks again for any other input

Aloha Sam,

overall i think that gives me a big enough vocal/instrument room for at least 2 if not 3

Having worked in some really small control rooms, I tend to agree with John's comments on control room design:

SAE website - http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html So what size should a control room be? These days people are building bigger and bigger control rooms because so much happens in the control room now. Often the bass player and keyboard player actually sit in the control room. I often have the vocalist singing in the control room while the bed tracks go down, so a good size control room is a good idea. So many people think that you need a big studio and end up putting a poky little room at the end and call it a control room. I suggest that a control room ideally should be at least 6m x 5m with a minimum ceiling height of 2.4m. This size room means a good sized working area with space for the musos, friends and hangers on. Also 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.

acustically speaking can you guide me to a read to find out how the recording room should be treated compared to the mixing room, im assuming a little different treatment

While I noodle with your layout, again, from the SAE site -

The studio, on the other hand, requires a different set of considerations. The first to consider is do you want just one room or more? The trend nowadays is for more than one studio so the you can get isolation between players and different acoustics for each room. The acoustics you want for a live drum sound is totally different than you want for a vocal for example. I recommend at least 2 rooms. You can put drums in one, guitars in the other, keys , vocals and bass (DI) in the control room or maybe the band in one and the vocalist in the other. Getting separation between guitars and drums is usually OK in a good sized room but keeping them out of the vocal track is hard if they are all in the same room.

do you think the botom left corner that is in the "recording" side that is sticking into the room should be more round if i can make it or this will work?

Perhaps you could use it as an amp iso room? I hope to post another couple of ideas in a bit. Aloha 8)

Aloha Sam, Here are a few ideas on acoustic treatments for the "live room." Aloha 8)

kendale, wow this is alot more detail than I expected, your a great help, thank you! I think everything looks great i just need to fibd the right place to put the window, and I think for my setup I rather not have the amp room...If you dont mind can you please explain what each of the different colors on the added acustic treatment means, thank you again this is turning out much better than i ever thought it can be,thanks!

Aloha Sam, Glad to hear it's working out. :wink:

i just need to fibd the right place to put the window

Will your building/planning dept. allow you to relocate a little to the right (like maybe, centered on middle panel of control room wall)?

I think for my setup I rather not have the amp room

Cool. It's just a wee bit small for a vocal booth, though. Perhaps you could use it as a storage closet for mic stands, cables, etc.

If you dont mind can you please explain what each of the different colors on the added acustic treatment means

- yellow/green = insulation (2"-3" Owens Corning 703 @ 2.5 pcf, Roxul 2"-3" AFB Mineral Wool @ 2.5 pcf, John Mansville, or equivalent) - suspended yellow green panels = "cloud" absorbers - usually faced with acoustically transparent cloth - tan colored panels = absorber panels acoustically transparent cloth covered insulation panels (Guilford of Maine) - striped brown panels = wood faced broadband absorbers/corner traps (http://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm) - doors should be either solid core or beefed up with mdf panels Let me know if I missed anything. Aloha 8)

kendale thanks again! one last thing did you intend for the "cloud" absorbers to be installed where the first one is little higher than the second one (like different layers), maybe im just seeing the drawing wrong, thanks again for all your help!!!

Aloha Sam,

did you intend for the "cloud" absorbers to be installed where the first one is little higher than the second one (like different layers)

Yes, the reasons being 1) being angled slightly from the horizontal plane will help to break up the reflections from the floor and 2) it's a lot easier to install 2 manageable units rather than one huge one. (The cloud that I built for my place is about 6' x 8' and weighs in around 60-75 lbs. :shock:) But perhaps we could get a second opinion from John, Steve or Glenn. :wink: Aloha 8)

thanks again for being such a great help!