John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I’m currently remodeling an old two car garage that was later turned into an art studio. It’s located in Albuquerque NM (USA). I’ve been reading the Home Recording Studio by Rod Gervais along with this forum. I feel I have exhausted my search options and am now in need of some help.

The studio I’m building is about 1575sq ft.The owner initially wanted to use it for personal projects and rehearsals but now hopes to rent out to producers, musicians and film/sound editors. This has now upped the necessary quality to do so. The first remodel years ago included a second concrete slab along with two bedrooms, a kitchen, restroom/shower and large open spaces. Many walls since have been removed and new ones have gone up.

It is crucial for the musicians to play as loud as needed* My apologies for not having the exact decibels. The property has neighbors on the east and south. However the tracking room is fairly tucked away in the furthest corner of the structure.
The structure was built with 2x6 wood studs, yet the north tip (tracking room) with 2x10 wood studs. South of the hallway is complete (kitchen,restroom, film room, office and atrium). The tracking room is 17.5 ft x14 ft with a small 6inch protrusion on the northeast corner. The ceiling slopes downward from 14ft in the tracking room to 8ft in the kitchen and restroom, causing the tracking rooms ceiling to slope from 14ft to 11ft. The control room is 14ft x 13ft with an 8ft ceiling. The rest of the ceilings are also 8ft. Luckily the two rooms are on separate concrete slabs. However the second was poured previously and are rather close to on another.

The control room and tracking room will both be double stud 2x4 lumber walls with 1/2” drywall, green glue and 5/8 drywall over that plus treatment. The entrances to the control room and tracking room will each have 2 glass sliders (6.5ft x 6.75ft) composed of 3/8” and 1/2” low E glass from Soundproof Studios (1 for each wall making 4 total). The window between the two will also be from Soundproof Studios composed of 3/8” and 1/2” low E glass at 2.25ft x 7ft (2 total).

We plan to use downlighting in the entrance, hall, control room and tracking room. About 20 LEDs total. And heat/cool with 5 ductless mini splits but realize one head won’t be able to cover the entrance, hall, kitchen and bath.

The control room is already double studded with 2x4s but the tracking room is not. None of the rooms north of the hallway (tracking, control or foyer) are Sheetrocked yet. ...

Which brings me to budget and closer to my questions. We’re looking at about $30,000 to finish up with and it’s probably going to tip past that. We still need the glass doors and window, HVAC, about 80 2x4s, new wire, rock wool, Sheetrock, green glue, lighting and of course labor. Luckily the music equipment is ready to transfer over once completed.

Now the questions. This structure is already on a sub panel of 100amps from a home on a 200amp panel. Both are currently utilizing 220v. Balancing everything in the 100amp panel is already looking grim but I’m now wondering if it’s even possible to achieve this level power consumption on a 100amp sub panel... especially with the kitchen containing a washer/dryer combo, 28gal water heater, refrigerator and the other rooms power. My electrician says it is but if so, what’s the probability of electrical noise from the home that feeds the power? It’s looking like an entirety separate service panel is needed. And if so, there goes a large chunk of the budget.

So in a nutshell, I’m concerned with electrical noise and the need for new service/separate panel.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

It's difficult to balance residential power demands. Most of the loads are intermittent in nature. Now that lighting systems are high-tech the only almost continuous loads are the HVAC system and the water heater.

The structure was built with 2x6 wood studs

Then

The control room and tracking room will both be double stud 2x4 lumber walls

That construction will result in a three leaf system which = bad.

Learn and draw this up in SketchUp Make please. It's going to be a gruelling learning curve and due to the complexity of the building, it could be a lengthy process. Drawing it up on paper like you're doing isn't going to result in any sort of accurate building diagram. The HVAC system for this will be the most complex part and needs to be designed (not only in HVAC specifications, but in pure dimensions) with care. You never mentioned what the roof is like. You only mentioned that the ceiling is limited to 8ft in most areas. The reason I ask is because HVAC for a building this size is massive (hence why most commercial buildings are really tall but only have 8-9ft ceilings.... everything above the ceiling is mechanical. In your hand drawing, you haven't left any room for HVAC which means, in your current design, it all has to be in the ceiling. Do a search on the forum for "silencer" and you'll probably pull up a few pictures of how large the HVAC duct silencers have to be. To maintain the level of isolation that a 2 leaf wall system provides, you need to have an equal or greater insertion loss provided by the silencers. That means 2 per leaf on both the supply and return of your ventilation system. That means 4 per room (on rooms where you need isolation - the rooms with 2 leaf design). Again, the only way to figure out the space needed and how to situate everything will be by drawing it up in a 3d modelling program like SketchUp.

Greg