Building home studio in Sweden

First post here.. Well, not anymore since I posted this in the constuction forum earlier, but realized today that this must be the forum to post it in.. So it´s my fourth post so far.. But more or less a copy of what I wrote in my first post. I´ll start of by saying what a great site this is, loads of info and awesome tips about building studios! I´ve hesitated a while posting here, as I´m a bit afraid I´ll exclude important parts of my future build, but here we go. I´ll be extremely greatful if anyone would help me a bit on the way with this! So let me start somewhere.. I´ve recently finished studying fine arts (9 years and what have I become..?) in Stockholm, Sweden. Now I´m working on the commuter trains in the same city to get money for rent, food etc. I just signed a contract on a great place 10 minutes south of the center with a lot of green areas and an amazing wiew over the big lake here. I´ll use the place mainly as a studio, but I´ll also live there to decrease my expenses. The guy who had the place before me has built walls, the whole kitchen and a lot of other stuff. It all has a bit strange angles, which shows on the pics here below, due to all the concrete foundations of the place (it´s on the bottom floor of a 30´s house with rental appartments on top of it, but it doesn´t have the feel of a basement, as it has it´s own entrance on groundlevel and normal sized windows). I´ve had various smaller home made studios for some years, but now I really want to make it good from the start. I´ve taken a loan from the bank to buy the place and to have a bit for buying materials for construction. My budget starts around 3000 USD (as the currency conversion is right now, Nov 29 2007) and after that I´ll build more as the time and money comes.. The place (ONLY the studio room, not the bedroom/studio as seen on the pics) has floating wooden floors allready, so I don´t even have to consider the floating floor-point as it´s allready done.. Ceiling height is as it says on the pics; 267 cm. My goal with this studio is that I can be free to record whatever I want without compromising with the sound as I´ve done too much in the past. It´ll be mostly a non-commercial studio where I´ll record my own different projects with a lot of different people, but I will do some smaller (and eventually bigger I hope) commercial stuff that we will merchandise both here in Sweden, but also abroad. Some movie editing and art projects (sound performances and installations mostly) will take place in this studio aswell. I´m recording a lot of different types of music and I have a modest arsenal of instruments and gear. Mostly I´m into reggae, acoustic music, jazz, flamenco and experimental stuff, but I´ve also done a lot of hip-hop, stoner rock, doom metal, electronic music and folk music inspired by... the whole world.. My instruments are: Upright (half broken but cool sounding) bass, Very nice 50´s Gretsch drumkit with Johan´s custum cymbals, Hofner half acoustic bass (general, the biggest model), Hofner 60´s el. guitar, Moog "the rouge", Buescher clarinet, Old accordeon, crappy acoustic guitar, nice old violin, Faemi (russian analog synth from the 70´s), an electric organ that the guy who owns the place now will leave there for me, banjo, mandolin, a big DIY synth/sequencer (not really ready yet, but sounds awesome), really crappy trumpet, zither, a really old russian analog synth (one of the first ever made) my friend will give me as a move-in gift, loads of percussion and toy instruments and some stuff that just sounds weird... My gear: Acer Aspire 1700 notebook (need to by a stationary soon..) RME fireface API Lunchbox with 2 Vintage design m581 pre´s, 1 API 512c and 2 APsI 562 vintage EQ´s 2 Summit tla-50 compressors InO audio piP monitors (check them out if you don´t know them, underground speaker-genious here in Sthlm who makes them, the same speakers but in different shape has been kind of hyped recently; GURU) Danielsson stereo tube amplifier Mics: 3 x Sennheiser 421 2 x Sennheiser 441 Peluso 2247 Akg 414b-uls 2 x Reslo rbt/h ribbon mics ..plus a bunch of crappy and cool-crappy mics like a Rode, an American dynamic and an old refurbished crystal mic.. I have a few DIY projects asell that are not finished yet; 2 x 1176 comps 4 x Greenpre 2 x Calrec EQ a Fender Champ clone etc.. Maybe this is not very interesting regarding my studio build, but I still feel it´s relevant to explain a bit about myself so you could get an image on who and where I am musically.. My thoughts on how I will build it all (only first thoughts, that´s why I´m posting here now so you could point out things that will not work, better solutions etc): I hope the pics will explain most of it, the first pic is only so you can see how the whole place is constructed more or less, the second pic is a close-up on the space where I´d like to build the studio, and the third one is the first scetch on how I possibly would like it. (edit 1: I´ve made a second scetch now which I think is better, but I´m posting the two so you can see my chain of thoughts, on the second one I´ve taken away the wall that divides the "bedroom" with the studio, also it has no measures and is a bit less accurate, it´s just so you get the idea) Where it says CF there´s concrete, otherwise it´s wooden walls all over (except for the outer walls naturally). My idea is to lower the ceiling to eliminate noises going up to the neighbours. Upstairs from the studio there´s a small appartment where a young musician lives, other than that there´s a bike storage room, but regardless of the good neighbours, I want it to be as quiet as it can to the outside.. It also would be nice, as on the sctech, to make the bedroom smaller and have a storage room for instruments etc, plus an external computer room beside it (my notebook´s fan makes a lot of noise). (edit 2: this applies more to the first scetch, I like the idea of having 2 iso-booths for voice, loud speaker cabinets etc instead of a storage room for instruments. I still need to isolate the sound of the computer though..) Edit 3: I realized that it´s very important for me with the visual communication between engineer - musician and musician- musician, that´s why I´ve put so many windows and doors (also with windows) on the second scetch. Would that work or would it totally mess up the sound with so much glass? The vibe (with communication as the most important ingedient) is crucial to get a good recording imo.. Hmm, allthough this post became quite long, I´m sure I´ve forgotten something. Please tell me if I have and I´ll fill in the blanks immediately. My main questions are: Does any of the scetches look allright, and by allright I mean the general idea? Anyone got a better solution on how to use the space in the best way possible? I´d like to go for wood and rockwool as the main building materials, should I consider other stuff? Are there any measurments on angles, length of the room etc that I have to consider to make it optimal? Regarding the live room; I have some portable absorbers I made of wooden frames filled with rockwool that I´m thinking about putting up in there after I´ve constructed the "room within the room".. I didn´t even mention that (room within room) now that I think about it, but I guess that´s kind of obvious... or? The absorbers I allready have is 3 frames 100 x 100 x 15 cm, 2 frames 150 x 150 x 15 cm, 3 triangular frames for corners 45 degrees 150 x 50 and 2 rounded, half circle basstrap 250 x 50 cm. All measurements are approximate as I don´t have them here right now.. Any suggestions on how to build the live room without killing the sound? Sure I´ve forgotten a lot as I said before, but I´ll leave it at that for now. Thank you in advance! Simon. http://www.mrpony.com http://www.myspace.com/masterpony

i like version 2. here's a variation on that theme

Thanks a million Gullfo! That looks awesome. I really need to learn some 3D-prog.. I think your idea fills in a lot of blanks.. Or rather completes some flaws on my scetch. But I love the idea of having a big live room, as the best thing I know is to sit together in the same space and play with your fellow musicians, nothing beats that interaction. In the same time your scetch is more all-round, where I can record single musicians (myself mostly) and whole groups (not too big though, as the live room is kind of small). I can´t have both things I guess, can I?

A great space and congratulations on doing design before construction. Good studio building is 90% design and 10% construction. What is your budget? Looking at your space and ideas presented so far, an idea that ran through my head is to have wall sections that fold, to make the drum space when needed for isolation. When not needed, the sections can be folded back and your live space will be much larger. This would be expensive because precision would be needed in the moveable sections to achieve isolation. An amp closet would let you have isolation while letting the musician still play with the sound they know. Keep the questions coming! Andre

AVare wrote:

A great space and congratulations on doing design before construction. Good studio building is 90% design and 10% construction. What is your budget?

Thanks! I´m more than pleased, the surrounding areas are great too (as I think I mentioned..), all 50´s suburb with lots of green areas and a beautiful lake.. I really like making the design first, so I minimize the risk of rebuilding the whole thing afterwards.. Your help is unexplainably valuable! My budget starts around USD 3000 as I mentioned in the first post. Then I´ll put as much money I get during the following months, years, whatever it takes..

AVare wrote:

Looking at your space and ideas presented so far, an idea that ran through my head is to have wall sections that fold, to make the drum space when needed for isolation. When not needed, the sections can be folded back and your live space will be much larger. This would be expensive because precision would be needed in the moveable sections to achieve isolation. An amp closet would let you have isolation while letting the musician still play with the sound they know. Keep the questions coming! Andre

Andre, that is a great idea, I have been thinking about such a solution aswell, but I´ve got no idea on how to construct such a thing. I was thinking about sliding glass (plexi) doors, but that would be an acoustical nightmare I guess. Could you say/guess an approximate price on such a construction? It sounds like a super idea! I was also thinking about making the drum space without any "front wall" (your sliding door), thus making it possible to mic up the kit in funnier ways with far away room mics etc, but then it´d be hard when isolated drums is needed.. So your idea would be optimal. Thanks again for the great ideas!

More than a month since my last post, been busy making new scetches and moving to the new place, last load of stuff goes there in the end of this month, then the construction can finally start! I´m extremely excited about it! Well, please tell me if you see any flaws or anything that could be made in a better way on this "final" scetch I made.. I´ve decided to build a kind of "foldable" (what´s it called? collapsable, contractile?) studio, ha ha! Sounds weird, but I think it could be really cool and ultimate for my purposes. The scetch is not accurate in the measurements in any way. When I have taken away the wall that needs to be taken away, I´ll measure more exact. For now it´s more so you guys can see my ideas. The plan is: To make a solid control room, and the rest with folding walls/doors. In that way I can have the choice of separating the different sources (voice, drums, loud amps etc), or open it up to get one, bigger live room for more dynamic playing/interacting between the musicians when recording softer, acoustic music for example. I hope the pic speaks for itself, but just to be sure; the vocal/iso booth will be foldable, except for one of the walls to the right (the one that is connected to the control room). The 2 walls that connect to that wall will be folded upon it.. The second non-foldable wall is the one to the amp room. About visability; I´m not sure about the sliding plexi glass door to the control room, I´m thinking about putting a normal door there instead, with a plexi glass window. The back doors of the vocal booth and the door/wall between the drum and the live room will also have plexi glass for visability. Hmm, about that, would you recommend plexi or normal glass and why? I´d love to hear some takes on this scetch! I feel I´m really close to a final design solution now, but I´d just like to hear what you have to say about this first.. Thanks!

I´ve been thinking so much about this lately that I forgot that it was Andre´s initial idea, ha ha! Sorry man, didn´t mean to make it sound like it was my genious idea! Thanks!

Does anyone think this idea with the foldable walls could work? I´m moving in one week, then the construction starts! Just thought about the ventilation the other day, had totally forgotten about it! Damn, this will decrease my current budget a tad bit.. Thanks!