Music Lesson studio seeking to expand and add recording

[86er]

Hello Studio Design Forum-ers,

Thanks for hearing me out. I'm in the process of designing an extension of my music lesson teaching business. My current business is in out 8th year and is about ready to take up some more space. I've personally taught 20,000 private half-hour lessons since graduating from music school and now have 5 teachers working for me and 100 students per week.

There are many factors I'm considering in the proposed build-out of the leasable space next door to my current one.
1. I plan on doing a large portion of the planning and work myself with the help of friends, the landlord, and hired help where needed. I want to keep the cost down where it makes sense, to achieve good acoustics, isolation, and general usability whilst cutting down on extras that don't reinforce those goals.

2. The recording studio part of the build needs to work properly, but I am undecided if it will be marketed as a recording studio to the public or only be used by students and teachers with the live room doubling as a student rehearsal space and classroom.

3. I need to design isolation for sure for the West wall as it shares a wall with a charity poker lounge (arcade games, bar, karaoke, poker). The West wall is shared and is built of drywall. It extends to the roof.

Relevant details to picture below:
-North is up. The South and East walls are all exterior.
-Room names in yellow are within the 48x26 space I am designing and considering leasing.
-Room names in white are part of my existing business and not being redesigned.
-The current ceiling inside the leasable space is a 9.5 foot drop ceiling with florescent lights and HVAC.
-The floor is concrete.
-The interior wall separating my current space and the new space is a made of cinder blocks covered in drywall on both sides.

Questions:
Do the dimensions and basic layout make sense from a functional perspective?
Can a drop ceiling work in such a setup?
Would wood flooring be the best choice for a live room and control room or are there other good choices?
$10,000 for construction costs?

Please let me know what I am missing and ask me anything.

Thanks for your time, -kyle

[Soundman2020]

HI Kyle, and Welcome!

I plan on doing a large portion of the planning and work myself ...

For the planning part, in order to get up to speed so you can start the actual design of your studio, you'll need two books: "Master Handbook of Acoustics" by F. Alton Everest (that's sort of the Bible for acoustics), and "Home Recording Studio: Build it Like the Pros", by Rod Gervais. The first one will give you the general introduction to acoustics that you'll need in order to design the isolation system, and the layout and treatment for your studio. Acoustics is a much bigger subject than most people think (even most people in the music industry), because sound does not behave the way we assume it does, or think it ought to. The second book will give you the basics on actual construction techniques, some design techniques, as well as on the "forgotten" aspects of studio design that many first-time studio builders don't even think of, until it is too late, such as the HVAC system and electrical system.

Between them, those two books will get you a good start on what you need to know to firstly design the place, and then to actually build it.

but I am undecided if it will be marketed as a recording studio to the public or only be used by students and teachers with the live room doubling as a student rehearsal space and classroom.

The design and construction for those two scenarios would probably not be that different. I'd suggest designing it so that it can be used either way, then start out with just the existing business and see how it goes. If it isn't producing enough, or if it is not fully utilized 24/7, then also open it to the public.

3. I need to design isolation for sure for the West wall as it shares a wall with a charity poker lounge...

Unfortunately, isolation does not work like that. You cannot isolate just one side of a room, since sound will ignore that wall and flank around it. I often use the analogy of an aquarium. Imagine a guy who wants to build an aquarium in his living room, but figures that he only wants to see the fish from one side, so he'll only put glass in that side of the frame and staple cardboard on the other sides...

I think you get the picture. Isolating just one side of a studio is the same. If you need to isolate at all, then you need to isolate the entire room, on all sides, and to the same level.

-The current ceiling inside the leasable space is a 9.5 foot drop ceiling with florescent lights and HVAC.

Great! That means you have a lot more room up there until you get to the actual ceiling! The drop ceiling is irrelevant, and will have to come out anyway: zero isolation value, and zero acoustic treatment value. It would be good to know how much extra space you have up there.

-The floor is concrete.

Great! Slab on grade? In other words, is that floor poured directly on the ground, or is there another room below it?

Do the dimensions and basic layout make sense from a functional perspective?

Sort of, yes, but not fantastic. The angled wall between the lobby and the live room, for example, makes both uncomfortable. I would rework that, and only angle part of that wall, if any. I'm not sure of your reasoning for angling that, but if it is an attempt to improve the live room acoustics by "avoiding parallel walls", then I have some news for you: that's a myth. It is not necessary. It only helps with one specific issue: flutter echo. And flutter echo is much easier to fix with simple treatment that takes up a lot less space than an angled wall, and is far easier to build as well. Way to many people still propagate the myth, and it seems to have a life of its own these days, appearing in the most unexpected places, but in reality, it is just that: a myth.

Can a drop ceiling work in such a setup?

No.

Would wood flooring be the best choice for a live room and control room or are there other good choices?

You said that the current floor is concrete, so you already have the best possible floor for a studio. If the concrete is in good condition, then your floor is already finished! If it's not in good condition, or if you don't like the look of concrete, then you could put down laminate flooring (thick) over a suitable underlay. But that's a lot of extra money, and you are on a very, very tight budget, so if I were in your shoes, I'd forget about flooring and just stick with the concrete.

$10,000 for construction costs?

Unrealistic. That's a "48x26 space", meaning 1,250 ft2, roughly, which implies that you plan to spend $8 per square foot. You would not even be able to put down the flooring for that amount, let alone build your isolation walls, and even less treat it! My customers on the USA tell me that they spend in the region of US$ 50 to US$ 150 per square foot to build their studios. That's real-world results from people who have actually done what you plan to do. Realistically, if you want to isolate your studio to a decent level, and treat it to a decent level, then add a zero to your estimate. Around 100k would be a good budget for that sized space. You MIGHT be able to get away with 60k to 80k, but it would be cutting it very fine.

Please let me know what I am missing and ask me anything.

Well, seeing you asked!.....

The normal method for approaching studio design is to start out be defining the most basic number, which is NOT your budget. It is "How much isolation do I need, in Decibels?". Answer that question accurately, and all the rest falls into line, including the budget.

So the very first thing you should do, is to get a proper hand-held sound level meter (a real one: not a toy app on your iPhone), and do some tests. Measure how loud a typical session is right now, measure how quiet it has to be to meet legal requirements and your own needs, and subtract: the difference is how much isolation you need. Compare that to how much you are getting right now with that space (once again, by measuring), and you know how much extra isolation you will need, in addition to what is there already.

With that number in hand, it's simple to look at all possible isolation methods and choose one that provides the level you need. Then you can price the cost of the building materials you'd need for that, and the labor, and you'd be able to arrive at the budget you'll need to do it.

That's the usual procedure for arriving at the budget and the basic design technique and materials.

But in the meantime, here's a few comments on other aspects of your layout:

- Isolation can best be achieved by using the "fully decoupled two-leaf MSM isolation system", which turns out to give you the best isolation at the lowest cost. This is also sometimes called "room-in-a-room" construction. Basically, it means you have an outer "shell" around your studio space that consists of a tingle "leaf" has lots of mass on the walls and ceiling, and is sealed air-tight, then you build each of the rooms within that shell, each as its own single "leaf" (usually stud framing with drywall on only ONE side), also with lots of mass on the walls and ceiling and sealed air-tight. And that's it. It is simple, and very effective.

- Your control room is turned sideways! Small control rooms should always be oriented along the longest axis of the room, such that you get the maximum possible distance between the rear wall and the head of the engineer at the mix position, in order that you can avoid the serious issues associated with the Haas effect. If the room is large, then there can be enough space to do it in the orientation you show, but your room is much too small for that. In fact, it's not even as big as the minimum recommended size for critical listening rooms (according to ITU BS.1116-3 and other similar specs), which is 20 m2 (215 ft2). I would suggest rotating the orientation of that room 90° to the right, so that it faces towards the iso booth, but then move the CR door so that it is rougly on the middle of the side wall, not in the front corner, which you will need for speaker soffits, and / or treatment. In a studio, doors should never be in corners! Corners are the best possible locations in a room for treatment, and putting a door there robs you of that advantage.

- Doors. All of yours are show as single doors, but in reality each one will actually be two doors, back to back.

There's lots of other stuff that could be improved, but hopefully this will get you on the right track.

- Stuart -

[86er]

Thank you for taking the time to share your in-depth knowledge. I need to read the books, get a sound meter and begin the process of redesigning and planning. Everything you've said is something I will consider and research further.

I will be back with more questions. Thanks again, -kyle

[86er]

A few answers:
The floor is concrete on grade.
Above the 9.5 foot drop ceiling is about 6 feet until the roofing. IIRC

A few questions:
Do I need a SPL meter with Fast/Slow function or just a basic model?
Are the control room orientation, size, and windows fixed?
Where can I get more in depth information on building a 2 leaf wall system?
Do your answers about 'concrete floor is best' and 'no drop ceiling is best' apply to the control room as well as the live room?
When you say back-to-back doors do you mean one that opens out and one that opens in?
Can you spray paint the mechanicals in the ceiling similar to a restaurant and call it a day?

Thanks again, -kyle