John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

hi all,

here is the first working draft of a recordign studio i am about to begin constructing. i'm really keen to hear if you have any comments! the grey outer shell is the existing building [an old 6-car garage, ceiling hight approx 6 metres]. the rest [green walls etc] are proposed.

i posted a comment earlier about not being able to get smartdraw top render the angles i needed - i have been able to get the angles down to about 3 degrees for the control room walls [total splaying of 6 degrees], which i'm happy with for now.

please let me know what you think! i am to begin construction this week!

many thanks,

james

oops, the ruler from the smartdraw file didn't reproduce.. i should have though of that.. overall interior dimensions of the buiding are 6.5 metres by 14 metres [approx 21.5 feet x 46 feet].

i'll post a much more detailed description of the space and teh project tomorrow, when i get a little more spare time.

gracias!

Just an observation:

You say this is a rough first draft, then you say you're ready to go to construction this week.

The BEST investment you can make is planning. Usually, it only costs you time, and, in the long run, will save you money.

For instance:
1.) You show only one side wall of the CR splayed. Is that your intent?
2.) What's the door at the rear of ISO 2 for? Doors that open into walls are very good planning.
3.) I see little to no treatment for any of the rooms, particularly the live room and the CR.

This is a great forum, and many of your questions can be answered, but I think you need to come up with a really good, detailed set of plans before you consider going to construction.
Plan out your electrical now too. Make sure its going to fit in with your floor plan.

Hey Mike, Just to point out, by him angling the control room against that other wall he is in effect splaying both walls.

Other than that I am reading from the same playbook you are.

Bryan Giles

giles117 wrote:Hey Mike, Just to point out, by him angling the control room against that other wall he is in effect splaying both walls.

Other than that I am reading from the same playbook you are.

Bryan Giles

Yep. I see now. Its just not real apparent at first glance.

hey guys,

thanks for checking it out. i didn't state that the roller doors at the left end of the building are in fact the entrance to teh studio, so the door that appears to go into a wall in fact opens behind a rollerdoor [yes, its an ambiguous representation of a rollerdoor, but hey its a free program!].

the control room wall is angled by 6 degrees, and teh front and rear walls by 3 degrees, with everything inside angled at degrees as well. so, the splaying is symmetrical. do you think that this is a sufficient angle for the CR?

i'm really just fishing for feedback on the layout of the walls at present, but i'll sketch otu my ideas for acoustic treatments as well.. expect a much more detailed plan v. soon.

as a 'skeletaon' of teh l;ayout, though - what do you think??

curiously,

james

Remember symettry. Both walls need to be angled 6 degrees.

Bryan Giles

james wrote:hey guys,

thanks for checking it out. i didn't state that the roller doors at the left end of the building are in fact the entrance to teh studio, so the door that appears to go into a wall in fact opens behind a rollerdoor james

Ah, I see now. Clever.

6 degrees seems to be the agreed upon minimum for splayed walls.
Have you checked out the SAE site for some floor plan samples?

giles117 wrote:Remember symettry. Both walls need to be angled 6 degrees.

Bryan Giles

hey bryan,

yes, i understand this - the CR is symmetrical. it just didn't makes sense to create dead space by building an interior wall of 6 degrees against an existing wall, when i could achieve the same thing by building a 12 degree wall and angling the front and rear walls by 6 degrees [or 6 degrees instead of 3 & 3 in this case].

do you think 3 degrees is enough to splay the walls by, or should i go for 6 degrees each? i ask because the studio run by one of my favourite recordists [john mcentire - www.somastudios.com] has a CR with walls only splayed about 3 degrees total, and if its good enough for him then it suits me fine!! BUT, if there's a good reason to go further i am all ears.

i'm working on another design with a 12 degree slant [will post in an hour or two], so i'm keen to hear your thoughts on the +s and -s of each design.

a l prochaine,

james

hi,

here's a second draft.. i've included dimensions [in metres, apologies to any imperialists whom this annoys].. haven't put any detail of wall treatments as yet, as i'm really just shooting for feedback on the dimensions of teh rooms and teh functionality of the layout. i have increased the splaying angle of teh control room walls to total 12 degrees, they are at 6 degrees each. please let me know if you have any suggestions!

thanks,

james

ps at a glance it occurs to me perhaps teh liev room short be a bit shorter, it is almost 2:1 - do you agree? gracias!

whoops - one of the dimensions was wrong in the live room.. i'm going to re-post the amended drawing as a new topic.

james