1st post - New space - moving studio - feedback

Hey - just found this forum yesterday and it's right on time! My wife and i sold and bought a new home after 18 yrs in the old one. The basement of the old house was larger and i recorded bands there, as well as my own. Until this forum, i've had none to very little experience in studio design. On the new space, i've had in my mind how things will lay out but gave no thought to wall angles, traps, mix position etc until i found this forum :? So, heres a pic of the new house and a pdf of what i believe is going on in the basement. Please note a few things: The space can not solely be used as a recording facility. it needs to act as a social space with a bar, a live 'jam room' and also serve to capture some decent recordings. It's probably a total contradiction, i know, but that's how the old space was and it became very popular with local (and not so local) talent. Also, the lower right room (see floor plan) is a 5' high crawl space that has a small entry way chiseled through - i plan to section it off into 3 spaces and wire and mic guitar cabs...etc The ceiling measures 7.5ft to the bottom of the floor joist. the walls are poured concrete. the house is secluded in the woods - no street noise. The furnace is loud and needs to be isolated pretty well. So please, post your comments on how i can achieve this flexible space. Thanks and a great, great forum you guys have here - thank you so much!

Hi again - maybe it was my tone? :) Let me just say, i've read every post on this forum and it has change my approach to my new space (severaL times in the past 4 weeks)- which is basically a 15'x30'x7.5' concrete basement with a walk out. i've attached pdf and ask (beg) for any advice. i'm just (now) trying to get two nice rooms out of the space - control room / live room. Because of the low ceiling (7') i used the 1:00, 1.6, 2.33 ratio (84" x 134.4"x195.72" Thanks in advance for any wisdom tb

Hi - the control room is modeled after the 1:1.28:1.54 Ratio and positioned so that i could expand it later to 1:1.60:2.33 just by moving the back wall back 7 feet. This way, my glass and wiring through the front wall does not need to change. This design shows the CR at 7ft tall x 11 ft wide and 9 ft deep. by pushing the wall back (after i add an addition to the space) - the CR would become 16ft deep. So, the (temporary) concept of the bi-folding rear doors is so that the space could feel 'open' when not mixing, yet when i do mix, i can close the doors to create bass traps and also - the room becomes the proper size. Would any care to offer comments on how this would not work? Thank you tb

tb - I liked your first design the best. Here's an option to consider. cheers john

Hey - Thanks John for looking and taking the time... so...just flat, reflective doors? or should i try to get creative and match the other 6 degree wall (slot resonator wall)?

no - that would make the doors too heavy IMO. The main point is to balance the side reflections to direct the sound behind you. cheers john

gotcha, thanks

so i don't wanna sound like i know what i'm doing - cuz i don't. i did a search on Slot Slat wall resonator and found this: http://www.saecollege.de/reference_mate ... encies.htm is this the kinda thing i'm looking for when he write:

The timber slats can be either finished or rough sawn. If the gaps vary say 5mm, 10mm, 15mm,20mm and the wall is angled as shown below, a broad band low mid absorber is created that still keeps the the high frequencies alive. Remember the cavity behind must be sealed to an airtight container, like the bottle.

thanks again

yes but don't use that excel file, it's the wrong one even though I've sent an updated one to them use the one here http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1363 cheers john

But John, i'm not trying to target a certain frequency, am I? I thought i was going (with the Slot Resonator) for broadband (Mid Hi) diffusion...? Also - when calculating room sizes with slanted walls - am i using an average? or the widest point? is it that critical? thanks as always tb

tb - slots work in the low mids area (150hz - 500hz) which is the area where the absorption of 703 type insulation starts to roll off. They also reflect high frequencies which 703 absorbs. In other words you can balance the absorption by using a combination of both. yes you use the average to find the frequency but in a wall as long as yours it would be wise to divide it up by adding divisions behind the slots so you could in fact target tow or three different frequency ranges. see attached pic cheers john

uh oh - more confusion... :oops: the view of your drawing: am i looking down from the top (vertical slots) or is that the profile (horizontal slots and angle from floor to ceiling). Thanks though - everything else is clear as a bell - and extremely helpful. tb

I've seen some very elaborate soffet designs here but because i'm so short on space, is it wise to build racks into the monitor soffets (see pic). assuming i still use some of the insulating pactices described here, it seems like a feasible means of running wires from my live room and punching them down to the back of my patch bays. Tell why this is a bad idea? thanks tb