TREE STUDIO - Starting...

Hello everyone! My name is Ram and I come from Vipava, Slovenia. I’ve just finished SAE and got employed there as a supervisor :D. And when I came home my father told me some magical words for every 22-year-old audio enthusiast: “Son, I would like you to build a studio in old part of the house. I have some money, can get more, but don’t have nor the knowledge, nor the will to do it.” :shock: :D 8) So my eyes are shining since then and I am lurking this forum for a few months now, gathering information on everything I think I need to know. My goal is to build a quite large CR, LR big enough for drums or so, Vocal Booth and a Concert Room, which would be also used as a big LR. I also planed to put in smallish office, “lounge”(place with a couch and TV), and of course the Machine Room. I would like to record everything in this studio. Provided that it will have Concert Room, I am dreaming of bigger groups, such as choirs or small orchestras (pardon my English, but I don’t know better words to describe this) Buget is roughly around 40000$. We're planing to do a lot of things from wood, since my father is a forester and owner of forests. Thous everything that can be made from wood will be. :) We are going to slowly start now and I have and will have a lot of questions. I am not quite sure whether this topic should be posted to Studio Design or Studio Construction but I'm putting it here as I am beginning with layouts. PS: All the measurements are in meters since I’m from a metric country. But I can do also the imperial versions if needed. I made my own personal Excel inch-feet-meter calculator. :) No questions since I'm sending new posts right away :wink: [/i]

Ok. I’ve encountered first problem… :?: My SketchUp files of the whole studio are too big. One 550KB, one 660KB and I don’t know how to resize them. Does anybody knows any way to solve this problem? I’ve been working quite a lot to create 3D images for better representation. Thank you!

Ok... I've solved the problem. :) Apparently it was saving all the styles I was checking out, but didn't use. So let's go on... :roll: Here are two SketchUp files. One with basic measurements and one with textures, so the materials can be viewed. I can upload the file with all the measurements there could be, but I think it would be just too confusing, beside it’s easy to measure any distances with Tape Measure Tool.

Well here is my plan. The idea I came to with help of this forum and some colleagues. I would really like your opinion on this. Did I do some capital mistakes? Is there anything that could be improved? Made different? Thank you all!

Looks good, though the angles in the control room don't look quite right. Ideally, you want the control room as symmetrical as possible, especially from the mix position forward. I'd reduce the angle of the left wall a bit so it is the same angle as the wall leading to the machine room. Apart from that, sight-lines are a bit of a problem, you won't be able to see all the performers. This may not be the end of the world, but I just thought I'd mention it.

Thank you for your fast reply jwl! You are right about the angles. I need to do more precise planning of CR. I will try to do a SketchUp file on that layout. And with 3D image also the visibility problem will be more transparent. But anyway I was thinking to put a camera and a screen for the CR and Concert Room communication. So better start working on SketchUp... :D

Ok... I just thought to send pictures of both rooms for better imagining. :shock: For more few more pics you can check out my topic on construction

Ram, Very cool space. Love the ceiling you have to work with. Is that the entire space? Peace Tom

along with jwl's comments on symmetry - you could put the CR facing the concert room and add a booth or two to the side, and lounge and office on the other side. this reduces the number of hallways a bit as well as increases the view into each space.

TomVan wrote:

Ram, Very cool space. Love the ceiling you have to work with. Is that the entire space? Peace Tom

Thanks TomVan. The photos (PIC 7&8) are photos of both rooms I am to turn to a studio. But we are discussing to put the place below the CR and LR to a use too. But for now only a toilet and maybe small kitchen. But if we'll go that far, my idea is to maybe build some apartments later for bands.

Hello gullfo! Thank you for the plans! I like that you did different placement of rooms as I did. Because in all this time of planing on my own I might now be really fixated on just one idea. But I still have some "fixations" which I would like to keep. 1. The upper wall in the right room should be visible as it is made of rocks and they will serve as a diffuser and it looks awesome to me. :D 2. I would like to keep as many windows as possible (all... :) ) since I consider natural light to be an important part of acoustics (kidding... but it has a great effect on my working mood) 3. I wouldn't like to change (destroy) a lot the 60cm (2') wall between two big rooms now. Maybe the I could enlarge the window... And I've corrected the symmetry. Check out in my SketchUp! :arrow:

the opening between the CR and concert room would be as big a window as you need. i wouldn't recommend changing the structure too much. on the CR, the back part of the wall could be left open to keep some stone and windows, and certainly in the booths and live rooms. the center booth would have the skylight as well to keep things interesting.

Thanks for the reply! Well gullfo the thing I see now is that in your plan the only way to get to CR is through the recording rooms. I didn't see it before but now that I do it is a big minus. I was thinking more in the direction of enlarging the small window to the upper side (if looking at the picture) and maybe then there could be at least some visibility between CR and Concert Room in my layout.

its a quick sketch... :-) yes, but you could add a hallway on the center wall or outside wall (not shown) to facilitate access to each room separately.