New Studio design in Sunland Park NM (outside El Paso TX)
Posted: Thu May 05, 2016 6:26 am
After years of lurking on this board, reading the books (Gervais, Everest, and Newell) and working on building a business that justifies the expense, I'm finally going to make the leap and build out a studio. My business is probably 50% tracking, 45% mixing, 5% mastering on average, so priorities are a (relatively) large live room, comfortable and accurate control room, and comfortable hospitality rooms (lounge(s), kitchenette, etc). I have been operating out of a rental house, but that arrangement is coming to an end this month, mostly because the business has outgrown the space. Timeline for completion is the completely unhelpful "as soon as possible," since I have a waiting list of bands/artists patiently awaiting the opening of the new location. I do have a contractor (we had previously attempted to rent a different space, but the landlord rented it out from under us without informing us... literally walked in and found someone else had already started building out THEIR business, even though we had been given keys!)
I have a lease on a space in Sunland Park, NM, which is about 1 mile over the state line into New Mexico from El Paso, TX (where I live... I can actually see the space from my house!) and about 1.5 miles from Mexico. It's a somewhat isolated warehouse strip center. Outer walls are cinderblock, dividing walls between the spaces are 1 hour firewalls (1 layer 5/8" drywall both sides, 2x4s I believe 16" oc, though I haven't confirmed that yet, insulation in the cavity). Ceiling clearance to the rafters is 16', the actual ceiling slopes from 21' at the front of the building to 19' at the back. Composition/built up roof, if I remember correctly. It's somewhat beefier than standard as the previous roof was removed by a windstorm a year or two ago! Floor/foundation is concrete slab on grade. There is already a front office area and a restroom, as well as a set of stairs that lead up to a loft like space on top of the office. There is a rollup overhead door to the rear of where the CR will probably go, so that will have to be boxed in. On one side is a warehouse where a mechanic stores cars, the other is a very low traffic office. We will be tracking full bands (mostly rock, though we get some jazz, folk, country, etc from time to time), so I'm hoping for 50-60 dB of TL. Planning on room within a room with two layers 5/8" drywall on each side. Stud walls will be wood, 2x4, 16" oc, with 1" gap between the stud walls (giving a resonant frequency in the 20s, as per the MAM spreadsheet that gets passed around here). Three phase electric already installed in the space. There is an existing evaporative cooler, which will be used to cool the non-recording spaces. Mini splits will be installed in the live and control rooms and fresh air will come via a fan tied into the evap system (with silencer boxes on each run to help maintain the isolation).
Budget is approx $15,000, with the knowledge that we may have to push that up closer to $20,000. I am of the mindset that I'd rather spend a little more upfront than have to deal with problems down the line, but, at the same time, I can't afford to put $150,000 into a build, nor would that be financially reasonable for the size of the recording market here. I (and my business partners and some willing volunteers) will do some of the work to keep costs down, but I also have a contractor to handle the big tasks that either require experts or would take us weeks to months to do ourselves. That budget is for the build out itself. Equipment is already taken care of, and I am planning on the treatment to be a separate expenditure. If we can get all of it for the amount, that's great, but since I anticipate the treatment side being an ongoing process, I am not including it in the construction budget for now.
As I said before, I have researched studio acoustics and construction obsessively for at least a decade, meaning I'm pretty sure I know just enough to really screw it up! "Just enough knowledge to know I don't know anything" to quote a song... I'm hoping to build the control room as a rectangle with dimensions matching Sepmeyer's second ratio, and the live room as an assymetrical block, and then to treat both of them as necessary, using Room EQ Wizard readings. I also want 2 (maaaybe 3) iso booths. This is where one of the first questions come up! I haven't worked at a studio with actual booths in quite awhile... My house space had a spare bedroom and laundry room, and the big studio I work at (used to be full time, now "as needed") doesn't have regular iso booths in 2 of the 3 tracking rooms. One has a side and back room that are like small tracking rooms, the other has a house next door that has been gutted and is used as both iso booths and a live echo chamber. That being the case, I honestly don't know how much importance I should put on sight lines from the CR to the ISOs. I typically use the ISOs for amps, not people, but there may be occasions where I need to tuck a vocalist away for live tracking, so I know I need to keep good sight lines for everyone in the live room and booths, but I rarely put vocalists into the booth for vocal tracking, so I don't know how much priority I should put on sight lines to the CR. With that in mind, there are two places I see Iso booths working in my draft layout: Either to the right of the live room, in the alcove above the hallway and kitchenette, or against the back wall. I want the place to be freelance friendly, as I already have a handful of competent engineers asking to rent time, but at the same time, there's not a ton of competition for freelance-friendly studios here, unless the band can pony up the day rate at the big studio I mentioned earlier, and it's not cheap (and doesn't have iso booths in 2 of 3 studios, anyways!). Which location for the iso booths makes the most sense? Is there an arrangement I'm missing? Am I overthinking this?
Non-studio space: The office will be cleaned up, repainted, etc, and become the primary lounge. Paint, curtains, couches, mood lighting... The bathroom will remain a bathroom. Again, cleaned up, redecorated. The spot where you can see the shop sink is where we will put in a kitchenette. Sink, some cabinets, and a fridge. Microwave, coffee maker, etc. The "loft" space upstairs will be closed in and turned into a bunk room/private lounge. There's already a water heater and appropriate water and drain lines up there, so we should be able to put in a shower for out of towners who need a place to stay (no more bands crashing at my house, yay!). All of this is of course somewhat secondary to the recording spaces, and I anticipate doing the majority of this work (besides the plumbing) myself with my business partner and willing volunteers.
As I mentioned before, the partition walls to the other spaces are standard 1 hour firewalls, with 5/8" drywall on both sides. The owner/landlord has given me permission to remove the drywall on my side, but expressed concern that the adjoining office might have electrical and/or plumbing in those walls (the electric in my space is run on the surface of the wall with conduit). Am I right to assume that it's worth the logistic hassle to remove the drywall in order to avoid the three leaf effect, or can I/should I just compensate by beefing up my walls?
Doors/windows: I want a window from the CR to the LR. I've worked both with and without and I heavily prefer with. I plan on building it (and sizing the glass) as per Rod's book. I don't remember offhand what size that makes the glass, but I have it written somewhere in my piles of notes. Actual size of the window will depend on the prices I can get locally and where the rest of the budget falls. Big as we can afford, without getting ridiculous about it. Windows for the Iso booths would be nice, too, but depend on final layout and budget. Like I said, I don't usually put people in the booths, just amps. As for doors, I am still working on combing through all the threads about doors, and need to consult the accessibility requirements for NM, as far as spacing between doors, or the amount of force required to open them, should I go with single superdoors.
I feel like I am forgetting about a hundred other questions, which I'm sure I'll remember later, so I'm sure this post will be edited soon.
I have a lease on a space in Sunland Park, NM, which is about 1 mile over the state line into New Mexico from El Paso, TX (where I live... I can actually see the space from my house!) and about 1.5 miles from Mexico. It's a somewhat isolated warehouse strip center. Outer walls are cinderblock, dividing walls between the spaces are 1 hour firewalls (1 layer 5/8" drywall both sides, 2x4s I believe 16" oc, though I haven't confirmed that yet, insulation in the cavity). Ceiling clearance to the rafters is 16', the actual ceiling slopes from 21' at the front of the building to 19' at the back. Composition/built up roof, if I remember correctly. It's somewhat beefier than standard as the previous roof was removed by a windstorm a year or two ago! Floor/foundation is concrete slab on grade. There is already a front office area and a restroom, as well as a set of stairs that lead up to a loft like space on top of the office. There is a rollup overhead door to the rear of where the CR will probably go, so that will have to be boxed in. On one side is a warehouse where a mechanic stores cars, the other is a very low traffic office. We will be tracking full bands (mostly rock, though we get some jazz, folk, country, etc from time to time), so I'm hoping for 50-60 dB of TL. Planning on room within a room with two layers 5/8" drywall on each side. Stud walls will be wood, 2x4, 16" oc, with 1" gap between the stud walls (giving a resonant frequency in the 20s, as per the MAM spreadsheet that gets passed around here). Three phase electric already installed in the space. There is an existing evaporative cooler, which will be used to cool the non-recording spaces. Mini splits will be installed in the live and control rooms and fresh air will come via a fan tied into the evap system (with silencer boxes on each run to help maintain the isolation).
Budget is approx $15,000, with the knowledge that we may have to push that up closer to $20,000. I am of the mindset that I'd rather spend a little more upfront than have to deal with problems down the line, but, at the same time, I can't afford to put $150,000 into a build, nor would that be financially reasonable for the size of the recording market here. I (and my business partners and some willing volunteers) will do some of the work to keep costs down, but I also have a contractor to handle the big tasks that either require experts or would take us weeks to months to do ourselves. That budget is for the build out itself. Equipment is already taken care of, and I am planning on the treatment to be a separate expenditure. If we can get all of it for the amount, that's great, but since I anticipate the treatment side being an ongoing process, I am not including it in the construction budget for now.
As I said before, I have researched studio acoustics and construction obsessively for at least a decade, meaning I'm pretty sure I know just enough to really screw it up! "Just enough knowledge to know I don't know anything" to quote a song... I'm hoping to build the control room as a rectangle with dimensions matching Sepmeyer's second ratio, and the live room as an assymetrical block, and then to treat both of them as necessary, using Room EQ Wizard readings. I also want 2 (maaaybe 3) iso booths. This is where one of the first questions come up! I haven't worked at a studio with actual booths in quite awhile... My house space had a spare bedroom and laundry room, and the big studio I work at (used to be full time, now "as needed") doesn't have regular iso booths in 2 of the 3 tracking rooms. One has a side and back room that are like small tracking rooms, the other has a house next door that has been gutted and is used as both iso booths and a live echo chamber. That being the case, I honestly don't know how much importance I should put on sight lines from the CR to the ISOs. I typically use the ISOs for amps, not people, but there may be occasions where I need to tuck a vocalist away for live tracking, so I know I need to keep good sight lines for everyone in the live room and booths, but I rarely put vocalists into the booth for vocal tracking, so I don't know how much priority I should put on sight lines to the CR. With that in mind, there are two places I see Iso booths working in my draft layout: Either to the right of the live room, in the alcove above the hallway and kitchenette, or against the back wall. I want the place to be freelance friendly, as I already have a handful of competent engineers asking to rent time, but at the same time, there's not a ton of competition for freelance-friendly studios here, unless the band can pony up the day rate at the big studio I mentioned earlier, and it's not cheap (and doesn't have iso booths in 2 of 3 studios, anyways!). Which location for the iso booths makes the most sense? Is there an arrangement I'm missing? Am I overthinking this?
Non-studio space: The office will be cleaned up, repainted, etc, and become the primary lounge. Paint, curtains, couches, mood lighting... The bathroom will remain a bathroom. Again, cleaned up, redecorated. The spot where you can see the shop sink is where we will put in a kitchenette. Sink, some cabinets, and a fridge. Microwave, coffee maker, etc. The "loft" space upstairs will be closed in and turned into a bunk room/private lounge. There's already a water heater and appropriate water and drain lines up there, so we should be able to put in a shower for out of towners who need a place to stay (no more bands crashing at my house, yay!). All of this is of course somewhat secondary to the recording spaces, and I anticipate doing the majority of this work (besides the plumbing) myself with my business partner and willing volunteers.
As I mentioned before, the partition walls to the other spaces are standard 1 hour firewalls, with 5/8" drywall on both sides. The owner/landlord has given me permission to remove the drywall on my side, but expressed concern that the adjoining office might have electrical and/or plumbing in those walls (the electric in my space is run on the surface of the wall with conduit). Am I right to assume that it's worth the logistic hassle to remove the drywall in order to avoid the three leaf effect, or can I/should I just compensate by beefing up my walls?
Doors/windows: I want a window from the CR to the LR. I've worked both with and without and I heavily prefer with. I plan on building it (and sizing the glass) as per Rod's book. I don't remember offhand what size that makes the glass, but I have it written somewhere in my piles of notes. Actual size of the window will depend on the prices I can get locally and where the rest of the budget falls. Big as we can afford, without getting ridiculous about it. Windows for the Iso booths would be nice, too, but depend on final layout and budget. Like I said, I don't usually put people in the booths, just amps. As for doors, I am still working on combing through all the threads about doors, and need to consult the accessibility requirements for NM, as far as spacing between doors, or the amount of force required to open them, should I go with single superdoors.
I feel like I am forgetting about a hundred other questions, which I'm sure I'll remember later, so I'm sure this post will be edited soon.
Wow! That's a bit steep! I'll bet you had a few words to say to the landlord about that! Must have been quite frustrating, and a big shock, to say the least.
Couldn't be better.
We want to do it right, since that's been a big part of our success in this market so far. There are a lot of studios with a "that's good enough" or kludged together sort of approach and attitude, and we try to be professional and thorough and go the full distance to make things great, instead of good enough. So, we are pulling together a little more cash, figuring out ways to reduce the overall cost, etc... We want to do it the right way!