John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I am interested in learning the basics and then hopefully teaching myself how to properly design, sound proof, and control frequencies within various rooms, including studios or anywhere that may need work on the sound. Does anyone have any suggestions, besides this website, of books I might start with. I would like to keep this as a side business venture I could eventually get into. Thank you.

I'd start with the "Bible" of acoustics: the "Master Handbook of Acoustics", by F. Alton Everest. And I'd add "Home Recording Studio: Build it Like the Pros", by Rod Gervais.

Those two will help to get you started on your quest. The learning curve is pretty steep, though. I can promise you that, first hand. I'm still on it, years later, and realizing that the further you move up that curve, the steeper it seems to get!


- Stuart -

You can't not include John Sayers work in this list:
http://www.sae.edu/reference_material/index.html

+1 to Stuart's list. If you are serious on learning acoustics in general terms, meaning beyond recording studio environments, I would add to the list:

Egan, Architectural Acoustics
Long, Architectural Acoustics
Kuttruff, Room Acoustics
Cox and D'Antonio, Acoustic Absorbers and Diffusers: Theory Design and Application
Department of Defense, UFC 3-450-01 Noise and Vibration Control


If geting into room acoustics beyond partitions, meaning HVAC design, both ASHRAE design and application manuals.

Soundman2020 wrote:Those two will help to get you started on your quest. The learning curve is pretty steep, though. I can promise you that, first hand. I'm still on it, years later, and realizing that the further you move up that curve, the steeper it seems to get!

Great point. The more I learn about acoustics, the more I know how little I know.

Andre

and...

J. Cooper "Building A Recording Studio"
P. Newell "Recording Studio Design, Second Edition"
Davis, Patronis "Sound System Engineering, Third Edition" (for some math )
F.A. Everest "Sound Studio Construction on a Budget" (for a variety of studio types and budgets explained)

once you have about 2.2 tons (metric or imperial) of these types of books read, and re-read 3 or 4 times, you should be good to start asking questions

Forgot one: The Wyle report (WR 73-5R). That one helped me a lot, to get my head around the basics of isolation. The good news about this one is that its free!

http://www.box.net/shared/jcaoavdc8g

I like "free"...


- Stuart -

Sharp is is last word, and you do not have to wonder if your mathematics knowledge is lacking to understand it fully. There will be no doubt.

Keeping on the simpler applied end of acoustic isolation RR 168 as good a coverage of flanking residential wood frame construction as possible. I would even say there is nothing around it that comes close.

+1 on I forgot to mention that the DOD UFC manual is on the internet for free.

Also fantastic, written by Augsburger and revised by Eargle, is the JBL Professional Sound System Design Manual. Again, the right price.

Andre

If a person really wants to get informed on isolation...it has nothing to do with mass or acoustical treatments and the one book that will magnify this is "Noise control for engineers" by Harold W. Lord.

By and large books are out-dated in this field as it pertains to structures since most of the advancements still..still come from outside of this cottage industry OR are available on-line with no subscription or cost. It is a simple process and has a simple fundamental with simple implementation.

That whole "acoustics is not intuitive" is a pile of crap since you would need to know something one way or the other, be a pipe fitter, a brick layer,,,doesn't matter, you get educated in your field...that's the end, the rest is star players attempting to stand on someones head to seem higher in stature..

The largest issue, and we are all up against that as we speak, is the lack of education...period...in the field of construction.

Ignorance is one thing but not knowing the trade is another and it is completely another to even suspend reality to assume that a guitar player from the mid-west with no background what-so-ever in the building trades can some how pull off even the simplest of recording studios by shear will and nothing more.

You can feed the brain but the hands may or may not follow. I applaud everyone's effort around here with the dissemination of information, but to dismiss rudimentary and suggest that a few simple books can entertain the uneducated brain far enough into this task to somehow lift the reader into believing "I can do this" should be best viewed with caution.

+1 Brien

the point of do-it-yourself is to rise to the challenge of learning by doing, even with all the possible and attendant flaws, to invest one's self in the sweat equity and to do (and re-do) to reach the level acceptable to one's goals.

someone with little or no skill could do it, it just might take years because the actual skills still need to be developed and if you have a proper lack of self confidence when your knowledge is thin, you will go slow and ask for help, to be shown, etc. i think it's when you have learned enough to think you actually know enough that you lose that caution and end up poorly.

then again, having a principle set of pragmatic knowledge, seeking guidance when needed, and hiring a professional builder with the ability to listen and accept some approaches that differ from those that may normally be used, it's reasonable to expect excellent results.

I agree with Brien - construction is the major obstacle. I had a guy approach me to learn studio design and very quickly I realised he didn't even know what a joist was. It took time to develop the skills to be able to draw up a full set of plans that any contractor internationally could follow without mistakes and misinterpretation.

The other IMO is knowing what you are treating a room for and why. That requires skill in listening and knowing about sound and it's characteristics. I developed most of my control room design and studio acoustics sitting for 30 years at a console recording bands.

I grew up on The Sound Reinforcement Handbook (Yamaha)
Aimed at live sound and not many pretty pictures.