John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi,

I`ve been reading the forum from quite a while and researching about designing a recording studio within the forum and from several books from Rod Gervais, Phillip Newell and Alton Everest.

I`m from Lima, Peru and I decided to build a recording studio from scratch, please note that here all the constructions are made of concrete and bricks, and no basements everything is built over a concrete slab.

I`ve a control room of 5.00m x 5.80m x 3.60m and a recording room of 6.60m x 8.60 x 3.60m

I plan to record rock and pop bands and some jazz

Also I have two extra rooms for future expansion a small airlock between the control room and the recording room and a lounge, the area of the property is 12m x 25m, and I want to keep the back and the front garden where they are.

I want to know if someone have any suggestions so I can improve the design.

I have posted the sketchup design note that I still need to draw the door and the window between the control room and the recording room and some other details.

Cheers!!!

Hola vecino, y bienvenido! Yo estoy en Santiago, Chile. Conozco Lima bastante bien: Voy por lo menos un par de veces al año. Tengo clientes y amigos alla.

Regarding your layout, the first question: Are those walls already built? If not, then I'd suggest that you move the door into your control room, since having it in the corner is a bad idea.

If the walls are already built, then is it possible to seal that door and build a door in the middle of the wall? I do understand how buildings are constructed in Peru, as I go there regularly, so I know that it would not be easy to change the position of a door, (like it is with stud frame construction). But it would be better of you could get the door out of the corner of the CR.

If you can't move then door, then you'll have to live with it.

I also don't think you need that airlock built the way you show it. I think it will act as a third leaf, once you get the inside walls built in your control room and live room. I think it would be better to have the airlocks as part of the MSM walls, with one door in the outer leaf and one door in the inner leaf.

Those would be my initial suggestions.

Saludos!



- Stuart -

Hola vecino del sur, gracias por los comentarios.

I`m going to build the studio from scratch so I have no walls or any structure yet.

Regarding the airlock I think it stops the sound a little bit if someone suddenly opens the door of the recording room while the drummer is playing. If I build a door in each leaf both doors would be open if someone want to enter the recording room and the sound would come out stronger if I have no airlock. Correct me if I`m wrong.

I`ve updated the picture and the sketchup file, I`m not sure about the airlock and where to place the door in the control room and the recording room.

Here I have three new designs for the studio, which one is the one you like the most and why?

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Cheeeeers!!!

No one likes square rooms and these have a lot of square rooms.

Back to the drawing board

Another thing to consider is sound needs room to grow, so to speak. The less room you give it, the less it grows. It's like a root bound plant in that everything is crammed into one area and interacts with each other with a negative impact.


Thanks and good luck,

Brien

Those are empty spaces with concrete walls, no acoustic or isolation treatment so far, the design won`t stay with square rooms.

torquemada wrote:Those are empty spaces with concrete walls, no acoustic or isolation treatment so far, the design won`t stay with square rooms.

For those lucky persons, building a studio from scratch and are using the double frame wall assembly, I have the following steps you should consider taking as first steps to the "design a studio" process:

• Divide your area into rectangular shapes according to Room Ratios, those will be your rooms.
  Determine means of accessing those rooms, like doorways and communicating through, like windows.
  If you need to have corridors or air locks between rooms, now it's the right time to do it.
  Shape the inner walls as you see fit, you can leave them rectangular, you can splay them a bit in places, whatever.
  Splay the outer walls according to the inner walls or leave them rectangular, suits me.
  Divide the double frame walls into layers, frames drywall, insulation, air gap, the full house.
  Draw the HVAC lines and terminate your silencers to appropriate spots.
  *Determine the acoustic treatment you are going to give to those rooms, basstraps, slot resonators, superchunck bass traps, clouds, diffusers, anything and the placement of maximum people in your studio, employees, musicians, clients, groupies, families, pets, whatever. Add something similar to your design, you can visualise the rooms better like this.
  Draw lines for your electricity and audio cables, remember to cross them, never in parallel.
  Terminate your electricity lines to sockets, lights etc. and your audio lines to sockets, equipment and people.
  And many more...
  
  *optional step

I walk these steps and I think I'm going in the right direction... or I'm going nuts these days, it's the moon, I tell ya!

John

I record self help recordings using a Meditative Healing Technique I created a number of years ago. I am in Lima Peru teaching my technique for about 5 months and wish to create some new recordings.

If you know anyone with a proper recording studio, please have them PM me.

Kindest regards,

Grant Connolly