Acoustics & Windows & Doors Oh My!

I've attached my plans of my new studio space (thanks a bunch to Kendale), but I am looking for the best way for me to see into my live room. I know I can go with the laminated glass with the air gap and a soundproof door, but I have also seen people go with sliding glass doors to kill 2 birds with one stone. Is there any way of doing this without it costing a fortune? What have you guys used in building your studios? Thank you so much for all of your advice. It has been a great help! Eva

Do you know how many isolation you need? You are not going to get the same isolation with sliding glass doors than with a fixed window and a good door but you have to think what you need in dBs. The sliding doors seem to be pretty usable.

I have been thinking a lot about this, and I am not sure I need to spend the extra money to make this 2 rooms. I do have a set of drums, but I usually record only one track at a time and currently I am using EZ Drummer as my drum program. If I wear headphones and my musicians/singers wear headphones, is it necessary to go through that expense and work? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks, Eva

You are going to spend some money, so you have to think everything very carefully. I'm not so experienced as others here in designing studios but I would build something where you can record a battery, despite the money increase. A battery is 100dB loud, if you own or can borrow a decibel meter you can imagine an aproximation. As John states you can get an STC of 33 with a normal sliding glass doors (doing them airtight). A pair will have at least 36 (33+33) and if you build them non-paralel with diferent sizes, width, density, etc, you can get... nobody knows, maybe ~40-42. The STC is "true" for 500Hz and above, but the sliding glass door is worse in the low end than a STC 33 door or window for example. If you are recorded a battery sometime in a bad studio (I did) you know it's possible. It's not the perfect situation but it's possible. I'm designing now a professional studio and it will have sliding glass doors in the battery room entrance :) By the way, if you don't own a decibel meter you can use some software (wavelab has a meter inside) to get used to dB changes (8-10dB aprox double loud) and think about how many isolation you can allow.