Will this design work for me?

Well, I've thrown the idea around at the other BBS's and noone has called me an idiot yet for my design. So...I'll take my chances here. I've got the drawing and I labeled some areas where I have questions about. 1. My control room is small but I've seen smaller. The finished dimensions are 6'9" wide at the front and 7' wide at the back. The length of the control room is 10'. Q- See any problems with these dimensions sonically? 2. The ISO booth is 3'5" wide at the front, and 2'6" at the rear and 7' long. The ceiling will be 8'. Q- It'll be primarily for vocals and possibly small percussion instuments like shakers, tamborines etc....nothing very loud. Are the dimension okay and do you have any suggestions for the treatment of this room? 3. The airlock is joined to the Iso booth and to the dividing wall. I plan on using it for entry into the live room. The live room will not have any windows at all so I can keep the sound in better. It's 2'6" on the Iso booth side ans 44" on the wall side. Q- Is this a good idea in general? I want to concentrate on isolating the live room as much as possible... this is why I did a small door with a airlock. 4. The live room wall will sit on the floating floorI plan on putting 5/8" and 1/2" sheetrock on RC on the inside of the live room, same on the control room side of the dividing wall and hanging bass trapps in between the two walls. Q- Am I killing two birds with one stone here? Meaning, I'm isolating with the double leaf system and providing a bass trap for the control room!? 5. As the Control room front is a bit narrow, I was wondering about building my rack into the left wall of the control room. I was thinking about a built in rack for the rack gear, left above the mixer, a mantle type shelf to place my keyboard, and a 10" deep soffit to house my flat panel computer screen directly above this shelf. Q- Would this be a bad thing sonically? The other side is a glass door. 6. The ceiling for the entire place is 10' in the center, down to 8'3" at the ends. My plan was to caulk and insulate the rafters, then lay 1/2" rock to close it up. Then I was going to build another ceiling and frame for the live room that mirrored the "A" frame layout underneath theat one. Then I would double rock that one. Q- Am I way off here? The live room will be completely free standing from any other part of the studio if I was to do this. Here's the pic I spoke of. Sorry for the fonts being hard to read. The damn art program I was using didn't let me format the font. Anyway, let me know what you think please. Just to let you know, I've already built the ISO booth and airlock but nothing else is done. Thanks, ARCG

I should also mention that the total dimension for the studio shell is 13'6" by 20". Thanks, JOhn

HEY!!!! :x :x :x You stole "rushfan's" studio. :wink: I'm gonna tell him..... 8)

Pleeeeeease don't tell! :wink: I heard he has a real mean streak! :twisted: :lol:

where have I seen that picture before?? ;) It seems a strange layout to me with the control room backing onto the live room etc. You've made the live room a rectangle with parallel walls which you should try and avoid. cheers john

Thanks for the reply John. There wre many reasons for the eay I layed my design out. I really wanted an ISO booth and live room... just in case I ever do record a band, I can have a drummer and bass player record at the same time with this set up as long as the bass player goes direct. It was the best way I could figure it out. For the live room, I was going to slant both the left and right walls going smaller towards the rear. Does my airgap design seem like a good idea to you?

Does my airgap system seem like a good idea to you?

not sure what you mean - it's just a standard decoupled double wall construction with insulation in the cavity. I'd look at something like this cheers john

My logic was the only part of the floating room that was compromised in terms of isolation (the live room entry door) would be "helped" by having an airspace. Am I way off? I should mention the reason I'm so strict on the isolation is that my nearest naeigbor is literally 12' away from my garage! :oops: :shock: :cry: Thanks for the diagram. I noticed you kept part of the design presumably because I already started it.... but I have no problem breaking it down if I have to. JOhn

Now that I look at your drawing a little closer, I see where it might actually be much better for me to do it your way. The neighbor I spoke of is literally 12' - 45degrees from the right speaker. Thanks John, John

If you can start from scratch I'd do something like this. cheers john

John, that design is amazing! That really suits my needs wonderfully! I checked out the dimensions using your design and that creates much more space. Thanks for the help! If I went that way, the only real sacrafice I would make would be mixing while looking out at the hills from the large picture window. That's a small price to pay for more space! The only part of the design I would want to modify on your design is the 2 sliders from the control room to the live room. I'm pretty sure it's not in the budget right now. I might consider just a window. John

If you plan to change to sliders later, I'd suggest keeping the splay angles John drew, framing the opening for standard sized sliders, then building frame inserts for those openings and building your walls over that. Then, when you change your mind/get more money, you can cut back to the existing framed openings, install your sliders, and go. The "temporary" frames could be set up with a small, 3'x4' window on each side for now... Steve

Steve.... excellent idea. I'll frame for the sliders. I'm debating right now if I should even have a window. I'll have to really think this through. John

You'll want either a window or two cameras, two monitors - no visual communication SUCKS... Steve

Steve's right John - you'll need some window communication - even a couple of secondhand standard sliding doors would work until you can lash out for more expensive ones. cheers john

I actually found some windows that might work at Home Depot. They're dual pane and about 24x36. There are 6 of them and they're in the clearance section. I can probably get them for close to dirt! Not ideal but it will give me some visual communication. At the very least, I'll be able to see the cops when they come in the door to answer a noise complaint. :shock: :lol: My next question is about the rear of the control room (at the sofa). I'm planning to build a bench with a cushion on like a window bench. I'm thinking that it might be a good idea to build a slot resonator above the bench. picture this from John's drawing...... If you look at the speaker soffits, you see a space between the two. If you picture a bench between them and a slot resonator above that, that is what I'm picturing. just and FYI....I'm not going to do the soffts at this time. Any thoughts about the bench and resonator deal? Thanks, John

With regards to slot resonators on the rear wall, you need to read this whole thread. :wink: http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=954

Michael, it appears that we have similar floor plans for our control rooms.... except that your room is larger. I had the exact same idea that you had as well as the same idea John had about the bass traps in the corners. Looks like I won't be able to do either now! :oops: I understand about the resonators not being good for the back wall. my side walls don't allow for such treatment either because of one side having a window to the live room (which noone has still yalked me out of :lol:) and the other side has kind of a soffit for my computer screen and keyboard. The rear angled wall on the left side will have the entry door and the rear angled wall on the right side will be my only storage for the entire studio via a 24" closet door. Also, if you look at John's drawing , to the right of the couch in the corner, that is where my electrical panel is. So that works out very well in terms of the new layout. Maybe I can build the bench at the rear as I planned but fill it with some 703!? I can make the bench a little higher than most to accommodate more bass trapping. All the very hard parts are done. Now I can move on to the details like these. The hardest part for me was that I had to build the walls in the driveway and carry them myself into the garage and negotiate my way around table saws and such. Then the real pain was when I had to remove the garage door myself, build a jig to hold it up and then cut it to fit snugly into the opening. I then had to put it in place build a jig to hold it there and then seal it up. It sucks not knowing anyone out here. :( Oh well.... it'll be done soon and I'll be able to relaxand enjoy the new place!

John, I know your pain - I bought a copy of this book at Home Depot, has some pretty useful tricks you may or may not have discovered - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books There's an older version available used, search Books for Working Alone, it'll come up... Steve

Holy Crap knightfly! I thought I was the only one on the planet that had that book! My dad found it at a garage sale and brought it to me with a bunch of other dusty books. I thumbed through it but didn't look at it in detail. Thank you for the heads up! John