John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello there!

This is ofc yet another studio building post, i read a lot of the previous posts but every project has it's own so i take the courage of posting my questions and i hope i get some answers from you Pro guys!

So me and a friend have a project studio, not very professional looking but the gear in it is good , so we decided to expand the live room and the CR and try to make them as professional as we can!

The ultimate target is to have a space where we can record really nice drums, that's why we bothered to expand the place and more importantly make a higher roof(3.10m at the highest point).
Making a new roof gave us the chance to make it nonparallel to the ground which is concrete by the way..

So ill try to explain the whole constructions (Images and plans are following)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LIVE ROOM
-
FLOOR : there's a space left from the previous live room which is wooden floor(around 14-15 m2), all the other is cement.

WALLS : Cinder blocks filled with construction sand.

CEILING : The biggest part of the ceiling is a waved metal sheet (with a complex pattern but a continuous one) the metal sheet does not resonate as it is the actual concrete holder!It's fully dampened in terms of resonance.The ceiling is nonparallel to the floor with a highest point at 3.10m and a lowest at 2.80 (above concrete floor).The other part of the ceiling (smaller one) is going to be nonparallel too but steeper and smaller without a waved inside pattern (above wooden floor).

CR-Live room wall will be Cinder block filled with sand too.

----------------

CR

CR is just a 2.40 ceiling with 5m x 4.70 other dimensions, we hope we can get it to look like your designs! but the main reason im here is for the live room , so let me jump to the questions!

------------------------

Q1, is the ceiling acting as a giant diffusor? Could we keep it like this and just have some fabric to cover it just for the looks?

Q2, we played some music in the space and of course we have some harsh hi frequencies but the snare and kick are nicely magnified by the space,Should we keep the concrete floor? Keep in mind that we will have a nice space of wooden floor too just for versatility.

Info: We are not in much need of soundproofing, there will be some work done to have to air gaps etc but i don't think there's going to be a room 2 room design just cause there are not people arround that we can bother...


Q3, what i had in mind is to be able to create a nice balanced room , with a nice sound to compliment the drums when needed (room mics etc) so we want some RT but we just want to make it have a nice sonic content.

Q4, Should we put wood in all the walls(wood reflection)? Could we leave parts of wall and parts of wood? Should we do more with the ceiling (other than just improving the way it looks)

The sense of the room when u walk in and talk is big, i mean it makes you feel small , the voice just disappears after you talk.Drums sound big , cymbals don't sound really good yet, and i had to dial down some bass off of my TwinReverb cause it sounded muddy. but i think it's in a really good shape if you think it's a concrete untreated room.

So we work hard but the budget is kinda low , but we do a lot of good work on our own!

We want to make the studio a nice cozy natural experience, cause after all its located far away from the city, it has natural lighting and we want to compliment that!

**** BUDGET is around 2K!
----------------

Some things about the images ill upload:

1.At the studio photos you'll have to imagine the wall splitting the room and the CR a meter closer from where it's now.If you see photo(1) it will be a bit after the start of the A/C unit.

2.The low ceiling above the wooden floor will go higher and get a non parallel geometry.

About the plans:

1.Dimensions are in metric units. on the right down side i've put the plan with an array so if someone wants to place something he can use it as a chessboard(pretty simple)

Corners are also enumerated . Upper right sketch is a try to make a 3D plan kinda failed but at least tried!

There will be some explanations in the plans too .

Thank you in advance for your valuable time!!!

Hi. Please read the forum rules for posting (click here). You seem to be missing a couple of things!

Q1, is the ceiling acting as a giant diffusor? Could we keep it like this and just have some fabric to cover it just for the looks?

It might act a bit like a diffuser, but since all the wells are the same depth and width, it will be tuned to one frequency. Plus, the ceiling will need absorption in any case.

Should we keep the concrete floor?

Concrete is about the best floor you can get. If you don't like the way it looks, then just put down laminate flooring on top of it, but do not put down any type of flooring that raises the surface and leaves an air gap below. That would be bad.

- Stuart -

Stuart thanks so much for taking the time to answer!!!

I fixed my Location (Hello from Greece) and The budget is around 2K. *ill edit this on the initial thread so it's visible to everyone!

So we should some panels? or more diffusion?

Any ideas about the other questions?

Thanks again and sorry for missing info!

Ok since the project has been going on ill post some changes, ill get back with photos maybe this weekend.

We matched the other half of the roof and expanded the control room for about a meter .

Now after some easy jobs the place will be done (construction-wise) and we'll be ready to jump in.

We have decided to wood frame the whole place and use wood on top of it for a nice reflection and bass traps in the corners of course.

If you see the designs i gave down right we will make an iso booth, from what i've read this should be a 2-leaf design right?


Now what about the frame and the insulation , if i put absorption (Rockwool etc) behind the wood(which is actually really thin, it's like 0.7cm) will the materials work? Or should i cut holes and make places with exposed rockwool?
(im not talking about bass traps, those will be exposed!)


The ceiling will be done with a wooden frame , insulation at the most part and just fabric for covering.

thanks for your time!

If you see the designs i gave down right we will make an iso booth, from what i've read this should be a 2-leaf design right?

I don't see the final design with the 2-leaf system. Please post that, so we can check it for you.

Now what about the frame and the insulation , if i put absorption (Rockwool etc) behind the wood(which is actually really thin, it's like 0.7cm) will the materials work?

I'm not sure I understand: 7mm is way too thin to use for an MSM isolation wall. The minimum you should ever use for that is 15mm.

or should i cut holes and make places with exposed rockwool?

Why do you want to cut holes in your isolation wall???? It won't isolate at all like that...

The ceiling will be done with a wooden frame , insulation at the most part and just fabric for covering.

That is not a ceiling! It is just a frame with insulation. It would not isolate at all, not even one little bit. A ceiling would need thick drywall, plywood, MDF, OSB or something similar.

- Stuart -