help take a look at my layout

Just got the layout for my house addition. I'm no design expert, so I am not sure what to look out for. I am hoping that you guys can give me some help tweaking this design out. Thanks

I guess my major concerns are this: Live Room: Should I try to add another non parallel wall, so that none of the walls are parallel? Control Room: The geometry of the room is symmetrical... Not dimensions aren't truly a square. Dimensions are rectangular but with the width being only 2 feet longer than the length. This seems to be a problem to me. The console will be on the east wall, so the speakers will fire down the longer dimensions. However, I don't know if that room could be shaped a little differently to make the room more suitable.

Aloha and welcome to the forum, Congrats on your studio build! You've got a great space to work with. Here are a few areas to consider - room ratios, wall angles, symmetry, and treatments. Room Ratios In Rod Gervais’ book “Build it Like the Pros,” http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5670 he points out both L.W.Sepmeyer’s & M.M. Louden’s formulas most widely used in professional studios worldwide. He also notes that the orders listed are (top to bottom) the first to third best ratios in both cases. L.W. Sepmeyer Height Width Length 1.00 1.14 1.39 1.00 1.28 1.54 1.00 1.60 2.33 M.M. Louden Height Width Length 1.00 1.40 1.90 11’ x 15’4” x 20’9” 1.00 1.30 1.90 1.00 1.50 2.10 Eric Desart on Louden’s Ratios http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... ght=#64490 1.00, 1.35, 1.85 11’ x 14’8” x 20’3” These ratios provide a good starting point to work from. Wall Angles

The first thing you must do is eradicate all the parallel walls in a studio design. I believe that a wall must be at least 12 degrees off parallel to stop parallel wall standing wave interference. That's either one wall at 12 degrees or two walls at 6 degrees each. If you can afford to make the angle bigger, do so. Also you can create angled walls within a rectangular room by adding acoustic treatment. (I'll demonstrate that in the pages on wall treatment). (Note: having non parallel walls doesn't entirely stop standing waves - they still form within a room but along different lines of repetition). The main reason for having angled walls in a control room is because of reflection control of the high frequencies for true imaging from your speakers. This effect also happens between the floor and the ceiling so to stop the effect you must angle one! well it's not going to be the floor is it. I must state here that putting angles into the ceiling is expensive so I would recommend that for the home studio you use the acoustic treatment to break up the ceiling. http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

Symmetry Left/right room symmetry (at least within a foot or two of ear height) is important for good stereo imaging. The floor plan shows a potential for a non-symmetrical setup in regard to the vocal booth location/door and the sofa/area. Treatments

For an instrument to sound good you must hear a balance of its high and low frequencies. If your room is too dead in the high frequencies the instrument sounds lifeless and tubby, whereas if it's too live in the high frequencies the instrument sounds distant and has no presence. To balance a room you must have a true balance of the high frequencies and the low frequencies with the right amount of deadness to liveness. http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

Once you've established a starting point with a set of room ratios, what sort of treatments are you planning for your rooms to address any modal and frequency issues would be present in those ratios? Absorbers, bass trapping, slat resonators, clouds are among the more common treatments. Here are a few links to check out what others have done that may give you a few ideas. Be sure to check out the "Stickies" in each forum for more great info. http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5670 http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5842 http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2125 http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html Hope this helps, Aloha 8)

great, thanks for the help. I will get reading/thinking about all that. I know the architect has figured the louden ratio into the equation. I am not sure which he is using though.

oh and the couch and chair is positioned in the wrong place in the sketch. The console is going to be on the wall opposite of the vocal booth door. Which would be the right exterior wall in the sketch. And that door into the live room will be moved to the rear of the room, directly across from the outside entry doors.

So with the live room. I should either make the spayed wall 12 degrees or spay the other wall by 6 degrees... Then maybe use some sort of slat resonator on the other wall. I am still unclear as what to do with the control room. I will do some more reading

Aloha, Here's a quick view based on M.M. Louden's 1.00 1.40 1.90 ratio with a 9' ceiling. (9’ x 12’6” x 17’1”) Note: Viewing windows to be added Aloha 8)

cool kendale thanks for the graphic. Does dong that make me lose a lot of square footage on the room?

Aloha,

Does dong that make me lose a lot of square footage on the room?

You would be shortening the width of your proposed room by about 2'4", but be gaining a little bit more on your modal response. Here's an idea for the live room treatments. Aloha 8)

thanks very much kendale. This has got me thinking about another situation... Do you think it would be possible to build my racks into the wall to the right of the console? If so, that would save me a significant amount of space in the control room. I would need somewhere in the neighborhood of 80-100 rack units built into that wall. Is that at all a possibility?

Aloha,

Do you think it would be possible to build my racks into the wall to the right of the console? If so, that would save me a significant amount of space in the control room. I would need somewhere in the neighborhood of 80-100 rack units built into that wall. Is that at all a possibility?

Wow, that's a lot of gear! :D And yes, that could be implemented into your design. :wink: A few points of note: The side walls left & right of the console are slat resonators which in part, serve to direct high freqs. to the rear of the control room to be absorbed, as well as providing mid & low-mid broadband absorption, which really helps to clean up the soundstage at the mix position. While I have seen control rooms which have their racks built into the front & side walls, and it certainly can be done in yours, there is a point at which the effectiveness of the reflection/absorption properties may be compromised, especially with that much gear on one wall. Perhaps an option would be to split the built-in racks left, right, under the console, sidecars, and perhaps behind the mix position (producer's desk) if more is needed? - It may be advantageous to keep the top row of racks below ear level - say about 36 inches in height, in order to allow the slat wall design to function properly. - Due to the 6 degree angle of the left/right slat walls and space between the inner and outer walls, there may be a limit as to how much equipment can be built in. However, if the control room were to be pulled away from the north wall about a foot, and the control room south walls were extended over into the live room area, you could then conceivably design the walls to accommodate most of your gear, which could then be augmented by racks under the console or sidecars. - Due to the amount of equipment in the enclosed space, an adequate cooling system may be required. Let me sketch out a few ideas for you to consider and I'll get back to you. Aloha 8)

with the slat absorbers... I saw that thread and sketchup file that shows how to build them. I am not a handyman though. Are there any companies that can build that kind of thing to my specifications? I was planning on using realtraps for my basstraps... I guess I will call ethan and see if they can do custom builds. If not, is that the kind of thing that I can give the layout to my gc and have his guys build that sort of thing?

Aloha,

with the slat absorbers... I saw that thread and sketch up file that shows how to build them. I am not a handyman though. Are there any companies that can build that kind of thing to my specifications? I was planning on using real traps for my bass traps... I guess I will call Ethan and see if they can do custom builds. If not, is that the kind of thing that I can give the layout to my gc and have his guys build that sort of thing?

Although there are several studios built by GC's, I think it would be safe to say that most of the posts on RSD are by/for DIY'ers, and as such, most GC's should be able to do a build out for you with a set of working plans. I had thought about this last night and if I may suggest contacting John Sayers at http://www.johnlsayers.com/Pages/Promo.htm as he does everything from conception to a complete set of working plans to build out and completion. In the meantime, here are a couple of views of the built-in racks. Aloha 8)

wow kendale that's pretty intense. thanks for the sick ass sketches