Studio Design Chris

[c_fly]

Hi there all,

first of all... i´ve been browsing the forum quite a while and have to say i`m realy amazed about the informations and impulses i got here. Thank you all for taking the time of helping others, that`s really great! I am now in the process of building my studio in franconia, germany at present so i want to bring me in by sharing my studiodesign and progress here and hopefully exchange some experiences with you guys

Besides some pictures & my skp design i will try to explain what i`m working on:

What i`m planning? Finally there will be a control room, a booth, two live rooms & a big room which i will use as event room, kitchen & also for recording classical music. The big room, i will call it "STUDIO 1" ist the one i will start with.

The building i will use is across the house we are living and next to our garden and offers fortunately a lot of space i can use. Noise emission/imission isn`t that critical but since i also want to record classical music i will do my best to keep it as low as possible.

Since it is overall a large space i would like to expand i need a lot of building materials, such as rock wool, fibreboard, wood... In order to save expenses i will try to do as much as possible by myself but with help of professionals if necessary. Specialized things such es building in the air conditioning will be done by experts, that's already planned in the budget. Fortunately i have some old beams, studs, other wood and access to good tools which i will use for the construction phase.

What currently exists (big room - studio 1):

The outer shell is made of different bricks, so here is a overview with indication of the mass and the thickness of the different walls:

Wall 01 (external): sand-lime-brick (>300kg/m2), two shells (17,5cm/24cm), 3 cm insulation between, 12cm rock wool (E.I.F.S.) on the outer shell. This wall is very heavy and offers a good noise & thermal insulation.

Wall 02 (external): hollow brick (331kg/m2), one shell (42,5cm)

Wall 03 (external): Old bricks, one shell (38,5cm)

Wall 04 (internal): Old bricks, one shell (38,5cm)

Floor structure: concrete, vapor barrier, 100mm insulation, 70mm floating cement screed with underfloor heating. Finally there will be a ceramic tile flooring on the top.

The ceiling is made of bricks and it`s vaulted. I wil try to keep as much as possible from the original vaulted ceiling visible but because of the concave shape i`m thinking about angled clouds underneath. I think these shapes acts like acoustic lenses therefore i'm thinking about the clouds in the areas where musicians will perform. Am i correct with this assesment and what do you recommend?

The ceiling height is about 2,96m at the lowest spot and 3,06m at the highest spot of the vault.

The room dimensions are 10,85m x 9,15m. In the corner beteween wall 03 and wall 04 we have already built drywalls of 15mm gyspum fiber board for the toilets and the machine room which includes network patch panels, external power supplies & heating control. Hooked up to that i will built a free standing kitchen with a bar behind.

As i said i will use "STUDIO 1" as recording room for classical music that`s why i think diffusing elements and panel absorbers will be a good idea in general. I have searched the forum quite a while but so far i could not find as much about the construction of the panel absorber John describes here. Maybe i've been searching for the wrong words, can someone help me out with links, pictures or even the right words i have to search?

For a better noise insulation and a effective possibilty for acoustic treatment i will go on with an inside/out shell with a distance of 100mm before wall 02. This wall will be very heavy therefore i will divide it into at least 3 parts. Because it stands directly on the subfloor i'm going to lie it down on Sylomer. You can see the cross section of the insideout wall in picture "Studio-1-Wall-02-InsideOut.jpg". There will be 6cm insultion, 2 x 15mm plasterboard, 6x8 studs & clothing. In the areas around the windows and the doors i'm thinking about covering the wall with slats. What do you think? It`s not in the Studiodesign picture till yet, the other option is to cover it simply with cloth.

OK, so far. I'm going to add some details soon. Until then i would love to hear what you think about the design

Cheers,
***Chris

[Soundman2020]

Not sure how I missed your post, but I guess replying now is better than not replying at all!

What i`m planning? Finally there will be a control room, a booth, two live rooms & a big room which i will use as event room, kitchen & also for recording classical music.

Nice! This is obviously a commercial facility, right? Either that, or the best hobby studio ever!

Noise emission/imission isn`t that critical but since i also want to record classical music i will do my best to keep it as low as possible.

That's all about noise going out, but what about noise coming in? Numerous outside sounds can wreck your recording session...

Wall 01 (external): sand-lime-brick (>300kg/m2), two shells (17,5cm/24cm), 3 cm insulation between, 12cm rock wool (E.I.F.S.) on the outer shell. This wall is very heavy and offers a good noise & thermal insulation.

When you add the final inner-leaf rooms, that will becomes a 3-leaf system. However, given the very large amount of mass and the thick air gap, I very much doubt that this will be an issue. I wouldn't worry about it.

Floor structure: concrete, vapor barrier, 100mm insulation, 70mm floating cement screed with underfloor heating. Finally there will be a ceramic tile flooring on the top

Excellent. That will also give you really good isolation.

The ceiling is made of bricks and it`s vaulted.

Once again, excellent!

I wil try to keep as much as possible from the original vaulted ceiling visible but because of the concave shape i`m thinking about angled clouds underneath. I think these shapes acts like acoustic lenses therefore i'm thinking about the clouds in the areas where musicians will perform. Am i correct with this assesment and what do you recommend?

The normal method for building studios is to isolate the rooms from each other, using the 2-leaf MSM system. If you do that, then the brick ceiling will not be part of any room: it will remain as the outer shell for all of the rooms, and you will be building several "inner rooms" below it. So it does not matter if it is curved or not, since it won't be part of the rooms. If you do not want do this "room within a room" construction, then you will be limited to single-leaf "mass law" isolation, which is not good, and you will also have the issue with the curved ceiling, which clouds will fox only partially. They will fix issues for the mids and highs, but not for the low-mids and lows.

The ceiling height is about 2,96m at the lowest spot and 3,06m at the highest spot of the vault.

You could do a vaulted inner-leaf ceiling to roughly follow that, to make the best use of the space. Or you could use that for your HVAC ducts and silencer boxes, to save space inside the rooms. Or a combination of both.

However, what I'm seeing in the photos is that the ceiling is not done as one single large curved surface, but rather as a series of several smaller surfaces. I would suggest just using those for HVAC, as there's no easy way to make the inner-leaf ceiling follow that contour.

and the machine room which includes network patch panels, external power supplies & heating control.

What are the dimensions of the machine room? It doesn't look big enough to be able to get standard size racks in there comfortably and still have good access to both sides...

Also, that entire area is not isolated from the main room! so all the noise from the machine room, and from the bathrooms, will be heard in the studio... You should really seal that off correctly, with a proper 2-leaf MSM wall.

It's probably too late now, but I normally suggest NOT having the bathrooms opening directly on to any of the actual studio rooms, due to the problems that creates with humidity, odors, and noise. It is much better to leave the bathroom, kitchen and all other "service" areas outside of the actual isolation shell. You could still do that, but it would take up a lot of space.

Hooked up to that i will built a free standing kitchen with a bar behind.

That should also be outside the acoustic isolation shell, not inside it. If the kitchen is inside the isolation shell, then nobody can use it while you are recording, due to the noise. There's also the issue of the sudden drastic heat and humidity changes that the kitchen creates, which should never be in the same room as instruments and equipment that are sensitive to such things.

I would really suggest that you re-think that end of the room, a figure out a way to close off the bathrooms and kitchen from the actual live room space.

As i said i will use "STUDIO 1" as recording room for classical music that`s why i think diffusing elements and panel absorbers will be a good idea in general.

That all depends on how the room sounds right now, and what type of uses you want to do in there. You mentioned classical music, and that normally needs a more open, airy sound, but some instruments sound better with a lot of reverb in the room, while others sound better with a deader space. So you might want to consider making one part of the room much more live and reflective, another part more dull and diffusive, and a third part very absorptive. That way you can position each instrument in the acoustic area that makes it sound best. You could also consider making variable acoustic panels, that you can use to change the acoustic response of the entire room, or of parts of the room.

I have searched the forum quite a while but so far i could not find as much about the construction of the panel absorber John describes here. Maybe i've been searching for the wrong words, can someone help me out with links, pictures or even the right words i have to search?

If you looks through some of the build threads ( http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... 923#p40923 ) you will find plenty of details about how many people have built their treatment devices.

For a better noise insulation and a effective possibilty for acoustic treatment i will go on with an inside/out shell with a distance of 100mm before wall 02.

But that is only ONE wall of the room! for an complete "room-in-a-room" construction (fully decoupled 2-leaf MSM) you need to build all four inner-leaf walls of the inner room, and the inner leaf ceiling on top of them, such that the inner-leaf does not touch any part of the outer leaf. Building just one wall won't help much. You need to build the entire room.

Because it stands directly on the subfloor i'm going to lie it down on Sylomer.

You don't need to do that: ti would be a waste of time and money. Your floor is concrete slab-on-grade, so all you need to do is to seal your walls well to that floor, then put the ceiling on top of the wall, and ensure that the entire inner-leaf wall is well sealed, with consistent mass all around.

OK, so far. I'm going to add some details soon. Until then i would love to hear what you think about the design

I hope the above gets you on the right track, Chris, and I look forward to seeing your updates!


- Stuart -