Studio in Spain

Hello to everyone and congratulations for your support and for help people that love music to make their dreams real! First of all, sorry but my english is not as good as I´d like, so if anythig i try to explain is not clear, tell me and i´ll try to explain it better... I´m writting from Alicante, a town in the south east of Spain. One frind of mine has an "industrial building", a big empty building where they work with printting machines (is that the right expression?), big machines to print on paper. There is another big room close to this very large space, where i´m plannig to build my studio. All the mesuares are in the skp file that i send. The good things are that it will cost me almost anything to rent it (we actually play there with our group) and that it is on a place with almost anyone around (it´s an industrial complex, near the cementery...). By the moment i´m not planing to make a "legal studio", in the sense of work only in it, make a company, pay the taxes, and so. I´ve had another studio five years ago that i had to close, and since then i´m planing to build another one, to record the bands i play, the bands i like and to enjoy doing what i like. I work as a music teacher in a school, so i will record when no one is working there, weekends and so, when is a very silent place and we can´t disturb anyone. The bad things abuout the place, as you can see in the skp file, is that the ceiling is only 2,46 meters from the floor, but as i´ve seen in another posts it isn´t a very big problem. Besides, there are four colums, and i´m having troubles to figure out how to distribute the space. My desire is to have a control room, a recording room, and if it´s posible one or two rooms for drums and voices, that could be used to record a group playing live... Any idea about this will be apreciate! Almost all is made of concrete and big bricks, and under that room there is a basement about 2 meters height. My only big isolation problem is the noise that would come from the printing machines when they are in work, but as i said it would be not many times, so i thought to build a wall using the columns, build the studio inside and leave the outside space for a living room and for store things. So right now i´m thinking about possibilities, how to place the diferent rooms and calculating how much money will i need to waste in isolation and acoustic treatment, wich are the best chances... This page, and others i´m visiting, is being a lot of useful, just because there is nothig similar in spanish. Thanks again, and hope that i was able to make myself clear! Please ask me anything you want, any idea will be helpful to me. I´ll try to post some pictures of the place too. Bye! :) SORRY! but i can´t upload th skp file (2,7mb). I don´t know if i can do this , but here is a link to download it: http://senduit.com/8497d1 If i can do this in other way, please let me know it!!!

Aloha and welcome to the forum, Here's a 2D for starters. :wink: Aloha 8)

Ok, there are a few 2d Jpegs from the skp file... Thanks for posting!

You have such a huge space, make your control room bigger then that ! Also check the design of other projects and you may try get some ideas from them my two cents ! :-)

i'd change the size of the control room simply to keep it from being square. you should define the CR ratio to get closest to one of the "golden ratios" that fit your space. with the ceiling space you should be able to build in some isolation but much of it will likely be flanking through the floors and ceilings anways, so I agree you'll be working in-between printing operation hours.... here's a very quick thought. can the entries be closed on the short set of stairs and the stairs leading down? in my sketch - I'd turn the CR to be straight facing into the live space (no time right now...).

i'd change the size of the control room simply to keep it from being square. you should define the CR ratio to get closest to one of the "golden ratios" that fit your space.

I'm always in favor of a large control room, so if he can make it bigger I would suggest to do so.

Hello again to everyone! It´s been a long time since my last post, time for reading A LOT, for learn more and more about acoustics and isolation, learn from the finished studios i´ve found here, change my job and my city, ... So i´ve been bussy, but NOW it´s the time to really BEGUIN!! So, there´s what i´m planning right now, almost a year later: The space is the same, i´ve only change somethings and begun to use sketchup to figure out how it would look like... Now i´m thinking in a big studio area where i can record live bands too, one live end to record drums with walls of stone, and use self-made gobos to separate diferent spaces and instruments. I´m planing using courtains to vary the acoustic and delimitate "recording zones", gobos and absorbers on some walls, and so on. As soon as i get it with sketchup i will post it. I´m trying to get all ready to beguin with the building part by the end of june, so please, comment what do you thing about anything i´m posting here. Here goes some 2d and the original sketchup file. I´m trying to keep it the cheaper i can (about 20-30000 euros i guess...). And some questions: 1. What do you think about the bass traps design to break the parallels walls? 2. Would it be better if the walls betwin control room and the studio were made of bricks? I mean, this sandwich design is giving me about 55 db of isolation (am I Wrong?) but would it be a big improvement to build brick walls in betwin the sandwivches? Thanks a lot, and remember i´m still working on it, so something are not "perfect".

OK, here´s the link to the skp file, so you can wacht better the design i´m thingking of, and give your opinion. Still working on it... Thanks http://www.el-laboratori.com/JOSETE/estudioplan6.skp :D

OK, some pictures of the place. I´m working a lot in it because it was full of unuseful things, and it all has to be cleaned! Do you think i´m doing it right?? :) 6009-This is the opossite side to the control room. in that corner, where you can see a stair and a door that has to be closed, i´m planing to make a "Repairing room", for repair guitars and amps, make guitar pedals, storage things... 6011-Pipes and a stair going down... 6008-This is the side where the control room is going to be. It´s full of fabric materials that i´m planing to use in some way in the studio (those big rolls). Here you can see the stairs that has to be covered/closed (with some kind of door...) and the pipes coming from upstairs, from a toilet. Still thinking in how manage it.

So, any comment about this new re-design? COme on! i´m working hard on it, any sugestion will be apreciated!! Thanks :D

i would put the CR in the middle top section so you have a direct view into the main room and use video for isolation booths if still needed.

As the pix show, there's no inner/separation walls up already so there's a change you can go crazy on your design. Your current is a bit, dunno, too straight forward. Could be a house design instead of a studio design. I know there's some supporting beams and pillars that might seem to get in the way, but clever design will help you overcome that problem ;) Listen to whatever Gulffo suggests, he's got some good designs done already (atleast on paper/sketch)

First of all, thanks Gullfo and Ro for posting, and sorry for answer so late but i´ve been in trouble with my internet at home. I want to use video instead of glass windows to help isolating, and to have the posibility of editing video too, and it will cost me almost the same. Im trying to get the bigger space posible in the studio, because I want to be able to record bands in live (with gobos insulation) and play there also with my band two or three days a week. That´s the reason I´ve placed the control room in that corner, so i can have a big recording area with only one pillar... And the stairs cannot be closed, i have to put a door to still have acces to the basement. Is such a bad idea? Is the control room not big enough or its size isn´t ok? Besides, what do you think about the bass absorber walls as an idea to break simetry and have bass absorption? I´m putting another pic, you can see the courtains to chage the reflections in the drum area, and i will put some dual absorber-reflection gobos on the walls to adjust the sound. Thanks again for posting, and please tell me any sugestion!

i think overall you have a good design here.