New Control room design - NEED PROFESSIONNAL ADVICE

[Sacredgroove]

Hi all,

This is my first post here.

I'm actually moving a recording studio in the basement of a new house (38'X30') (actually in construction at the moment i'm writing this post).

The recording studio section will have the following room dimensions (rough - can be changed a bit):

a) Control room: 15' (wide) X 13' (deep) X 8' (ceiling).

b) Live room: 15' (wide) X 14.5' (deep) X 8 (ceiling).

Construction specs:

- Concrete basement floor (will install harwood floor with an acoustical polyethylene padding and plastic under for humidity/condensation).

a) Double wall construction between control room and the studio and to accomodate the control room window (which is 6' X 3.5' ):

- 2"X4" wood studs @ 16" facing each other (1 inch of seperation between them) all insulated with Roxul' Safe'n'sound.
- A sonopan 3/4" panel glued on the studs with acoustical sealant.
- Furring channel screwed on Sonopan and finally (2) gypsum sheet of 5/8" attached to that channel and glued below celing and on the bottom for the floor.

b) Wall construction (next to the house's concrete structure):

- 1 inch of loose before the walla contruction( no contact with the house's concerete structure)
- a single wall construction with 2"X4" wood stud with same steps as above.

c) Walls for the control / studio rooms:

- 2"X4" wood studs insulated with Roxul' Safe'n'sound.
- A sonopan 3/4" panels glued on the studs with acoustical sealant.
- Furring channel screwed on Sonopan and finally (2) gypsum sheet of 5/8" attached to that channel.

d) Ceiling

- 3"- 4" of loose (air) then Roxul Safe'n'Sound insulation between the floor joists.
- A sonopan 3/4" panel glued on the studs with acoustical sealant.
- Furring channel screwed on Sonopan and finally (2) gypsum sheet of 5/8" attached to that channel.


*** You can see the whole sketch project on the picture attached at the bottom (preliminary sketch with no acoustic treatments or splayed/angled walls yet).


I need expert advice for the following questions:

- Are the dimensions of the control room ok for mixing / pre-mastering (need a good extended low frequency range) but th room is only 12'.5" deep ..?

- What should i do with the parallel walls in each rooms?...i was thinking of splaying a slight angle (~20 degree) on each side of the control room window to put main my main studio monitors inside them (soffit-mounted).
and splaying the back walls (corners) a bit in both rooms.

- Does angling the ceiling above monitors/mixing position would make a big improvement in order to reduce reflexions or just padding it with absorbant panels could fo the trick?

- Any inputs HIGHLY appreciated!

I'm looking forward to have comments,

Thanks
-Dan

[dymaxian]

Greetings! I don't mean to sound snarky with this, but if you're looking for professional help, your best bet is to find a proffessional. If this post is a solicitation for a pro acoustics engineer, so be it- there's not many who frequent this board, but there are some. The rest of us are just trying to get our studios to sound good, but we can give you bits of advice along the way.

As far as your layout goes, it'd work out well that way. Only a couple things occur to me;

First is your walls in the studio and control room. Yes, you should either splay the walls or build wall treatment with angled faces to help kill off flutter echoes. With rooms that size, there's no need to make the whole room absorptive- you could use a little live-ness in there.

Especially in the studio- that room treated right will sound really good. If you put in some good bass trapping, get rid of parallel surfaces, and maybe put in a bunch of diffusion you'll have a nice tracking room.

With an 8' ceiling in each of these rooms, you may be best served by hanging clouds. There's plenty of advice around here on those, so I won't re-type it.

And BTW unless your scale is off, that bathroom is going to be pretty uncomfortable. Try to pull the wall with the door down away from the face of the toilet, and give your clients some knee-space.

Hope this helps.

Kase
www.minemusic.net

[Sacredgroove]

Hello Kase,

Well thanks a lot for this message - Btw, the bathroom is TOO small :)there's been a rescaling that i didn't saw at the last minute..the door wall is indeed much more away from the toilet / sink in reality!

As far as angling the wall go, i'll post another pic of with details on acoustics used on the walls/ceiling and also angled walls.

If anyone else have comments - feel free to post,

Regards,
Dan

[Sacredgroove]

Hello Kase,

Well thanks a lot for this message - Btw, the bathroom is TOO small :)there's been a rescaling that i didn't saw at the last minute..the door wall is indeed much more away from the toilet / sink in reality!

As far as angling the wall go, i'll post another pic of with details on acoustics used on the walls/ceiling and also angled walls.

If anyone else have comments - feel free to post,

Regards,
Dan