Flanking Paths in a Sheep Barn

Good afternoon- Let me begin by thanking senior members of this forum for the staggering amount of information and help that they have conveyed over the years, and to congratulate Rod Gervais on his wonderful book. Overview I'm in the planning stages of a renovation to my project studio. Goals for this project include:

The preservation of the aesthetics of the existing building (view, vibe, etc) Improvement of isolation between the performance space and control room Improvement of control room accuracy and space utilization

I own the home and studio, am a good weekend carpenter, and am interested in spending the time and money to create a better solution. Loation My studio is located in a 150-year old timber-framed sheep barn in my back yard, approximately 75 feet from my home. The property is located in the center of the small village of Essex, Connecticut, approximately 7 miles up the Connecticut river. My closest neighbor is a rental home approximately 100' from my studio. The studio is 50 feet from a 1 acre pond, and enjoys a spectacular view of the pond and river beyond. That view is inspirational to me and to artists using the space - I wish to preserve it. Current Use I use the studio to write and record, and 90% of my work involves the line-level recording of synths. My upstairs loft is a writing room with a number of synths, and the ground-level is a more traditional arrangement, with a control room, and space where I have recorded drums, vocals, double bass, and guitars, all with limited success. I'm 42, and mix at reasonable levels - the loudest item I've recorded has been a big drum kit playing progressive metal. I do not have SPL measurements of that event, or the volume in the control room, but can relate that there was not sufficient isolation to make intelligent real-time decisions about mic placement. Existing Space I've built a scale model of the building in ScetchUp, and snapshots are attached below. The exterior walls consist of 3/4" planks of mixed species wood covered by 2" rigid polystyrene foam, covered by 3/4" cedar on the exterior. All windows are Andersen residential casement units with thin dual glazing. The entire structure sits atop walk-out basement that is constructed of concrete block and has a concrete floor. The joists for the first floor are rough-hewn 2"x6" (actual) on 12" centers, covered by 1" (actual) planking, with 3/4" plywood and Pergo laminate flooring. The structure is heated and cooled via a forced air system driven by a ground source heat pump. All of the supplies are on flexible duct, and the returns are rectangular rigid duct. The 6.6Mb SketchUp file my be found at: http://studio.redshift-consulting.com/redshift_studio.skp There is a solid wood door with large panes of double glazed glass that separates the two rooms. Each of the equipment racks has access doors constructed of multiple layers of 3/4 plywood. The Challenge I'm considering options to better isolate the recording room from the control room. Building a room-within-a room for the tracking space, while the best solution, seems impractical because of the number of windows involved, the loss of space, and the flanking paths created by the floor system. A more practical solution may be to construct a double wall system only where the rooms meet Initial Questions Given the nature of the structure, would the isolation I achieved with a double-wall system be lost through flanking paths from other parts of the building? While increasing mass of the floor system would lessen some flanking noise, would there be any appreciable gains in re-framing the joist system so that the two rooms did not share a common beam? Does the control room inspire any designs that incorporate the existing exterior windows? The MCI console will be replaced with something smaller. Thanks so much. -Randel

Additional Photo

Additional Photo

Recording Space

Control Room

Loft Photo

Floor System

one thought - besides "really nice place!" - is that for drums, you could put in a floating platform (something like 1/2" sylomer or 2" 703 inslation under a few layers of 1" MDF - topped with plywood for attaching drum hardware) which would reduce the mechanical transfer through the floor. building good quality double walls should let you achieve a decent level of isolation before flanking then becomes the overriding concern. for loud amps, investigate isolation cabinets as well. gobos might also be a workable solution. these ideas may give you more flexibility in how much you close up your space since you're containing the significantly loud sources to a single room or an isolated cabinet.