Basement Studio in Korea ... I'm in deep trouble with noise.

Many thanks to the staffs here.. - Information 1. We're in Seoul, Korea and making a recording/mixing studio for mainly rock bands. 2. We've got an empty and clean basement of a new building. 3. I'm attaching 2 files describing my design plan (2 ideas), and also some photos of building and the basement. still I haven't done anything yet. 4. Total budget is 30,000 UDS max. 5. Basically, I'd like to get a good idea of yours to divide the space. Please refer to the drawing No.1 and No.2 1. The ceiling is 3.2meter high.(Joist is 2.85meter high) 2. The walls are made of concrete, and we have one more layer of concrete walls inside of the outer walls. (there is empty space of around 30cm between two walls.) 3. We'll use the corridor besides terrace as the waiting room. 4. Dining room is for staffs only. Control Room A 1. is mainly for recording the bands (sometimes for mixing) 2. We'd like to have it at least 5meter long and 4meter wide 3. We'd like to have a big enough window to see all the members recording (vocal, guitar, drums and others.) 4. Drum booth is not separated (We'll use the transparent partitions) 5. We will hardly record all the members at the same time. Equipment for Control Room A 1. Mixing console - D&R Avalon 32ch. (1.2m x 2.4m) 2. Monitor speakers - Genelec 1031A, custom made (Dynaudio unit) speakers & power amp. 3. Protools Mix Plus (we'll upgrade it to HD2), Crane Song STC-8, HEDD, Focusrite ISA428 4. Sonor Drums, Bogner Ecstasy guitar amp, Kuraweil SP88X,... Control Room B 1. is mainly for mixing and vocal recording 2. We'd like to have it at least 4meter long and 3meter wide Equipment for Control Room B 1. Protools HD2, Command8(Protools Controller), Genelec 1030A monitor speakers & MicPre Amp. - Questions 1. How can we block the noise from the 1st Floor? 1) The half of 1st floor(North) is parking lot and the other half(South) is office (Since the buidling is new, it's still empty..) 2) I guess we'll have some noise when cars are coming in and out. 3) I guess, Low frequency noise is car engine sound. 4) We've got concrete ceiling. 2. Efficient dividing of the space. 1) You can check the size from the drawing. 2) I've put a lot of thinking on the shape of control room A, I guess it has to be big (5m x 4m) and rectangular. But the shapes I have now in the drawings are still not right. 3. Any suggestion would be welcomed.

Sketchup files are here!!

Parking Lot

Terrace in Basement Studio

Big Door is Entrance. Small Door is door of SumpPump.

akt98, In relation to question 1 - Rod's book covers this in detail - i.e. what to do to ceiling to cut noise from 1st floor. http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1598630342 ... pe_snp_342 He is sending me a commission check this week - just kidding Rod! :wink: Seriously - I believe this book will have some info that will help your situation. The forums should help with the rest and a call to John Sayers service will help immensely. Anyhow - grab the book first, sort out what needs clarifying AFTER you have read it and collate your questions for John. Worked for me. Take Care 8)

Aloha atk98, Forume 'e osingutsl Hwangyoung ham ni da! Congrats on your studio build. Nice first post, nice space! :wink: Sideshow's recommendation of Rod's book is a good one. Reviewing your skp file and hope to post some ideas soon. Looking forward to your build, Aloha 8)

here's one idea for the floor plan. on the roof noise, you're going to need to have an inner ceiling isolated from the floor above - at least on the CR and live rooms. you could probably have someone drive their car around the parking lot while you make sound level measurements.

Dear Sideshow, Thank you for your recommedations and remarks. We solved the noise problem from parking lot. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your reply. We'll be looking forward to your answer. Thanks..

Your design is awesome. I'm sure your idea will help us a lot. Thank you. I have one more question for you. I'm planning to build a inner room inside of my studio. (you know...it's inner layer of the room for preventing the drainout of sound.) Usually they lay the wooden frame first, and then put boards. But it will cost a lot (more than 10,000 USD) So I was thinking about steel frame instead of wood. However, I've never seen the steel frame for studio before. Is there any special reason that they don't use steel for the frame? If it's okay with steel, it will save me a lot of money so that I can spend that money on other things. Thank you.

steel framing for the walls works. if you're going to support your isolated ceilings with these walls, you will need to go to a heavy gauge steel. You'll need to consult with a structural engineer to assess this correctly. in addition, the ceiling joints will need to support the load of the drywall and you'll want the proper structure defined there as well. Most people do not like ceilings caving in on them... :shock: Since you appear to already have a number of concrete walls, you can use the inside-out wall technique spaced from the concrete wall and then appy the interior walls - slats for treatment (which is what Sideshow had mentioned). In that case, instead of the treatment sections (shown in yellow), you'd build out your walls to add the angles.