I have been a reader since I treated my project studio in Turkey, this is my first post about a build. I'm really appreciative that such a resource exists I hope that my 'contribution' is a worthy one!
Overview
My partner and I just bought some land in St. Pölten, Austria, and are having a house built. The existing property will be knocked down except for two walls separating the property from neighbouring properties. There is some space set aside for building a studio. I’m at the still at the planning phase, and I’m posting to get feedback, sanity checks and to document my progress. Questions are summarised at the end of the post.
Intended Use
I want a critical listening environment for mixing/production and recording (in that order of importance). I've been a hobbyist since the early 2000s, now that we're building a house, I want a better room to work with. IF it’s possible, a live-room/control-room setup would be great, but if the space is too small for that while STILL sounding good, then I’d go for a single room and settle for recording in the same room.
I expect to record overdubs and low-key sessions eg. acoustic guitar, vocals, guitar amps, bass amps etc. in the studio. I would record drum-kits, louder sources, bigger sessions etc. remotely.
Timing & Budget
The house - which is the priority - will take approximately a year to complete (hopefully ready by summer 2019). Depending on how it goes, I expect to have around 15 000 Euros to spend on the studio, including any new equipment.
I will mostly construct the studio myself/with friends. I expect that we’ll start once the house is complete. If it’ll save costs, I might be able to get the house construction workers to build parts of the studio too.
Positioning and Dimensions
Figure 1 is perhaps confusing, but it shows where the studio will be located in relation to our neighbours and the planned house. The image shows the house wall (green lines) in relation to the existing boundary walls. The two rooms immediately behind the studio walls are the bathroom and a bedroom. This is all on the ground floor.
There is an existing fire-wall (dark blue) between us and the neighbour on the North-East side, there is also a 5m fire-wall (also dark blue) between us and the neighbour on the North-West side (5m away from the planned outer wall of our house). So 3 walls already exist or will be built, and there is already a concrete foundation at this location. That means to create an enclosed studio, I just need a front wall and a roof.
The depth is variable, though the maximum possible depth (due to planning permission) is 6metres. Edit: the existing walls (blue) are 3m high, these are also the maximum allowed height.
Figure 2 shows the side profile. The ceiling will be sloped. The North-Westerly wall is 3m high, the house side is variable (X). If I go with 4m high, then the average height will be 3.5m.
I bought Rod Gervais’ book. Figure 3 is the table of ratios from the chapter on room modes. I have also included a table of the ratios, with dimensions of the space in question. The ‘X’ dimension is the ‘H’ column.
The green row shows what I think is the best of these ratios:
Length: 5m
Width: 4.10m
Height: 3.6m
The distance from the house to the North-Westerly wall is not yet final (it's a very close ball-park figure), so we need wiggle room on these dimensions. The green row provides the most wiggle room (eg. if the house is further than 5m from the North-Western wall, then it’s easy to increase the 4.10m dimension also) and that's why I think it’s the best ratio.
The third line is also a possibility, but requires an average height of 2.55m, meaning the height on the house side needs to be 2.10m. That’s rubbish. Ruled out.
[Question 1] Are the chosen dimensions OK?
Challenges - The Bathroom
There is a bathroom located on the inner corner of the house (Figure 1), this will need a ventilator or extractor fan. This means that there will probably be some kind of a shaft or chute going into the studio space and up through the roof(?).
I’m worried about fan noise transmitting into the space. This will be mitigated by the fact that everyone in the house will be aware when recording sessions are taking place (eg. they can use the upstairs facility). But if there’s a neat (and non-expensive) alternative to consider, I’d love to be informed!
[Question 2] Should I look into silencing options for this extractor fan? Is it possible to route it away instead?
Challenges - HVAC/mini-split?
I have no experience on this side at all, and that makes me nervous. I’m a native English speaker, living in a German-speaking country and, while my German is good enough for many things, technical language can leave me blank-faced. I’m worried that I won’t be able to communicate my need for silence well enough (we’ve all had *those* conversations with people selling ‘silent’ equipment that is no-where near quiet enough for critical listening environments).
I expect a third party installation company would be quite expensive. I’m considering something like a mini-spit system. According to the mini-split.com site, this room would require a heat pump with a capacity of approximately 7-8000 btu. What kind of unit might i need for my space?
[Question 3] Is a mini-split system like this one one good enough for conditioning the air of the studio?
Loudness and transmission notes.
I haven’t ordered it yet, but I’m probably going to order the miniDSP Umik 1 for both room measurement and to measure my average working volume.
Before that though, I can tell you that I work at lower volumes than everyone I know: I have very sensitive ears that fatigue quickly and I’ve adapted by mixing low: I currently live in a block of flats and am able to mix late into the night without complaints.
I don’t expect the noise I produce to be an issue to neighbours. However, I still don’t know what kind of noises to expect from neighbours; I won’t know until I move in next year!
Having said all this, there is already a wall on each side concerning neighbours. If necessary, I can go with 2x or 3x plasterboard on the interior side.
[Question 4] Should I fix the height of the ceiling at something like 2.5 - 3 metres? Or should I follow the slant of the roof (for greater internal volume)?
Layouts and alternatives
Figure 4 shows an example layout for the studio. I expect this 1-Room variant would work well for the intended use.
Before settling on this, I’d like feedback on getting two rooms (control-room/live-room) in the space: is it a waste of time and money for a studio this size?
[Question 5] Figures 5A and 5B show a couple of ideas I’ve had, what are your thoughts and opinions on these, or other possibilities for getting a control room/live room arrangement?
Monitors
I’ve been using Yamaha MSP5 since around 2002, they aren’t perfect, but I know them very well. I augmented them with a sub woofer recently and that extended their usefulness some more.
If I can stretch the budget, I’d love to get new flush/soffit mounted monitors. I think the budget on those would have to be 2 000 Euros (pair) in order to get a noticeable improvement on the MSP5s. I know the low budget end of the market quite well, but I have very little experience of monitors in that price bracket. Some advice on this would be good (eg. help with matching monitors with the physical volume of the room).
PS. If I can’t stretch the budget for better monitors, then I can always save up and purchase them later on.
[Question 6] What advice would you give on monitors for a room this size?
This is already a long post - and I feel there’s a lot I’ve left out - but there’s enough to make a start. I’ll be on hand to answer questions and to consider any responses that I might get. Thanks in advance for reading.
Summary of Questions
- 1 Dimensions - Are the chosen dimensions OK?
2 Extractor fan - Should I look into silencing options for this extractor fan? Is it possible to route it away instead?
3 HVAC - Is a mini-split system like this one one good enough for conditioning the air of the studio?
4 Dimensions - Should I fix the height of the ceiling at something like 2.5 - 3 metres? Or should I follow the slant of the roof (for greater internal volume)?
5 Room Layout - Figures 5A and 5B show a couple of ideas I’ve had, what are your thoughts and opinions on these, or other possibilities for getting a control room/live room arrangement?
6 Monitors - What advice would you give on monitors for a room this size?
