Studio In Malaysia : Design and Renovations

Greetings everyone, Firstly, I would like to thank anyone in advance who would be kind enough to provide their input to this question. I have been reading through this forum for several months now, learning a wealth of information, even bought Rod Gervais' book. I am currently running a studio in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is located on the 1st floor of a 3-storey commercial building, in a relatively quiet neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city. It is roughly 60 x 20 feet. With 11.5 foot high ceilings. It is a corner unit. The studio sits between a day clinic on the ground floor and an office is on the top floor. Next door is a massage parlor and a language school. I bought over this facility which was also a studio under the previous owner. The whole area consists of a relatively large studio, control room, lounge, pantry and a large unused portion at the front which currently serves as a store room. All the internal partition walls are all metal framed partition walls. I have attached a plan drawings of the studio to show : 1) Existing layout 2) Existing layout with furniture, drums, etc. 3) With concrete beams I must apologize for the crudeness of the drawings, they were done by some first-year architecture students (with additions done by me using Paint) and there are some small errors when it comes to dimensions. Some of the labelling is in the local language which u may disregard. I hope that these won't greatly affect the outcome. The diagrams are arrayed left-right = back-front. Measurements are in metric. OBJECTIVE My objective in posting this question is to arrive at a layout which consists of control room, live room, and 2 isolation booths (one for vocals, one for gtr/bass amps). My current design works alright for most purposes. My relatively large control room and live room (in Malaysia at least) is a strong drawing point for my clients. However, there are a few problems; namely i) Clients enter/exit the facility directly into the live room. ii)Musicians having to go a long way to get from control room to live room. LOUDNESS I record vocals and full bands and therefore it gets quite loud. Due to the lack of isolation, I only record drums during the nights after 6pm, when all the offices are closed. My neighbours are aware that we are running a studio and have never had any complaints. My main concern is room-to-room isolation. The current partition walls don't offer much isolation. When recording vocals I'm forced to monitor at low levels as the mic in the live room picks up the sound of the monitors. When recording drums and guitars, I have to turn up the monitors loud so as to hear more of the sound from the monitors. Of secondary but still important concern aret sounds coming in, such as heavy vehicles, footsteps outside entrance, thunder, HVAC noise, etc. Although I would love to achieve degree of isolation whereby I can record drums during the day (and not bother neighbouring businesses), it would be a luxury I can forgo, as that would put things beyond my realistic budget. CONSTRUCTION DETAILS I do not have the exact details as the previous owner had lost all the information, but from observation and some rough measurements I have the following info: Structure : Reinforced Concrete Ceiling : Concrete with beams protruding 1.5 feet downwards ***My ceilings are approx 11.5 feet high. The concrete beams (see diagram) are rather unsightly*** Walls : External - Cement Sand Brickwalls; Internal - Metal Framed Partition/Gypsum Baards Windows : Aluminium Frame Casement Windows (along corridor area and storefront ONLY; there are errors in drawing) The window between the control room and live room is approx 3ftx6ft single glass panel. Not much isolation there :( Doors : Main Entrance - Solid Timber Door Corridor and Lounge - Wood Panel with Glass Panels Others - Wood Panel Doors Wall/Ceiling Finishes : Plaster & Paint Floor Finishes : Live Room : Laminated Wood Floor Others : Carpet BUDGET I would like to keep things under $5000 but if necessary will consider financing for a higher budget. SUMMARY OF QUESTIONS i) What layout would be best to allow a control room, live room and 1 or 2 isolation booths (one for vocals, one for amplifiers etc.), maintaining good line-of-sight, WITHOUT sacrificing the large workspaces that I enjoy? ii) How to achieve maximum room-to-room isolation within my current layout; and with the proposed layout? iii)Can I lower the ceiling (false ceiling/suspended ceiling) and use it for HVAC/wiring/routing. Would it be worth the cost? Once again, thanks for anyone who could help put in some ideas. If there are any further info that you guys need just let me know, perhaps photos? Cheers.

Here's a layout you could consider - I wasn't sure whether you intended to use the store room or not. This layout creates double walls between the studios and the rest of the building for isolation. cheers john

Hi John, Couldn't possibly thank you for the quick and brilliant reply!!! I was thinking of a similar layout but had doubts of its workability. Now that it has come from the mind of a well-respected, highly experienced professional like John it's reassuring that I was on the right track. As a matter of fact John, you've seem to have thought several steps ahead of me. The walls in your design fit perfectly under the ceiling beams, allowing me to "hide" them so to speak. Maybe, I will build some soffits to further conceal. The little room at the lower-left is perfect for storage and machine-room. Somewhere I can stow my noisy PC and external drives. I was also talking to several guys in our local film industry. The standard of our soundtracks are still way behind (we still mix to stereo). Does the room allow me to configure it for 5.1 mixing? Is it too small? I'm still worried about flanking noise coming through the floor and ceiling when I'm recording drums and bass amps. I know that it is impractical to float the floors, but there are 2 other studios I know of in similar lots (we are within 2 roads of each other) who have similarly floated certain segments of the floor safely and with good results. After studying John's design it has rekindled an idea I had been toying with. I had thought of setting up a smaller, control/writing/MIDI room in the store room with an adjacent vocal booth for dubbing/VO work. I will build a wall along the first concrete beam (indicated by the black lines) that's nearest to the store front (right-hand side of image). its to act as an additional sound barrier. Would this work? To summarize: 1) Can I setup my control room for 5.1 mixing and monitoring? Is the size adequate? Approx 20 x 16.5 x 10.5 feet 2) Would flanking noise be a problem? Can I float just the live room area and achieve adequate isolation?

yes - BUT - you've created the entry problem with the second studio where you must go through the live room to get to it. Can you have access the second studio via the main hallway with a door to the left of the couch? and yes - the control room is suitable for 5:1 cheers john

John Sayers wrote:

yes - BUT - you've created the entry problem with the second studio where you must go through the live room to get to it.

Indeed, I have :oops:

Can you have access the second studio via the main hallway with a door to the left of the couch?

I'm afraid that's not possible. The area outside the main entrance is a stairwell. I suppose, I'll have to consider very carefully whether or not I can compromise on this matter. Due to the volume of business which the studio is generating (I'm fully booked till June!!!), I would like to able to run two separate vocal sessions for two separate clients simultaneously. Currently, if someone needs to enter/exit the facility, we have to stop recording, let the person(s) in/out and then continue. Although, not a very professional thing to do, it has been quite a happy arrangement and none of my clients have ever complained about it. Perhaps, we in my country are more simple-minded about certain things. And now, to my next option; knock down the wall separating the live room and store thus; extending the live room into the store and; build one or two more isolation booths. Given a free hand, what sort of layout would be best, with good isolation and good line-of-sight? To summarize : 1) How would you design a layout that involves extending the live room into the empty store area, along with 1 or 2 iso booths in the corners? 2) Sorry for repeating myself, but would flanking noise, (especially through the floor) be something to worry about? Thanks again John for taking the time to answer my posts. I really appreciate the amount of thought and effort put in.

John Sayers wrote:

yes - BUT - you've created the entry problem with the second studio where you must go through the live room to get to it.

Indeed, I have :oops:

Can you have access the second studio via the main hallway with a door to the left of the couch?

I'm afraid that's not possible. The area outside the main entrance is a stairwell. I suppose, I'll have to consider very carefully whether or not I can compromise on this matter. Due to the volume of business which the studio is generating (I'm fully booked till June!!!), I would like to able to run two separate vocal sessions for two separate clients simultaneously. Currently, if someone needs to enter/exit the facility, we have to stop recording, let the person(s) in/out and then continue. Although, not a very professional thing to do, it has been quite a happy arrangement and none of my clients have ever complained about it. Perhaps, we in my country are more simple-minded about certain things. And now, to my next option; knock down the wall separating the live room and store thus; extending the live room into the store and; build one or two more isolation booths. Given a free hand, what sort of layout would be best, with good isolation and good line-of-sight? To summarize : 1) How would you design a layout that involves extending the live room into the empty store area, along with 1 or 2 iso booths in the corners? 2) Sorry for repeating myself, but would flanking noise, (especially through the floor) be something to worry about? Thanks again John for taking the time to answer my posts. I really appreciate the amount of thought and effort put in.

Hello all, 22 months later. After a lot of planning, digesting Rod Gervais' book, business deliberation and scrounging for funds, I'm proud to announce that I've undertaken the first phase of my studio extensions. It's rouhgly halfway through now. I'll post up pics and link it the Studio Construction thread. Cheers.

Looking forward for them pix :)

Thanks a lot John Sayers for sharing such a great layout. Really helped us in Design & Renovation... Thanks again

hi, any updates on the studio? i am in kuala lumpur tonight and tomorrow night... would love to come by and see the progress! email me if you are available. [removed] beau

which studio are you looking for or do you offering us ? do you need a studio for shooting or do you offer studio for rent ? [SPAM SIGNATURE DELETED BY MODERATOR]

Hey, I'm just checking to see if you have updates on the studio. Your floor plans look similar to a remodeling project I'm planning in LA, so I'm curious how yours turned out. Did you run into any unexpected problems? I'd love to hear about any adjustments you had to make. [SPAM LINK REMOVED BY MODERATOR]