Feedback for draft layout - 2nd floor studio & control room
Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 7:11 am
Greetings all,
I have a gambrel roof barn with a 2nd floor area that was once a wood shop that I'd like to convert to a studio space. Ideally I'd like a control room with as few acoustic compromises as practicable and live room that sounds good and is large enough for a 4-5 piece band to jam in (not necessarily record in). The dimensions can be seen in the images along with my first draft of a control room/live room division (based on the bob gold's room mode calc & ceiling heights).
*Right out of the gate, the side (long) walls are framed but unfinished and there is a triangular space behind them that I haven't been able to measure yet that is likely acoustically useful* I can't remove the framing as it is structural, and I'd estimate the space behind to be perhaps 28" deep at the base (widest) point, tapering on the gambrel angles until it joins the ceiling roughly 78" up (trig would yield roof-side of nearly 83" and cross-sectional area of 1092"^2)
Other salient info:
Purpose: primarily a mix and production studio, based out of the control room - DI keys, guitars, etc, comfortable for 3 people, workable for 4 friendly people; secondary purpose is a practice/jam space; tertiary purpose is tracking drums.
Loudness: spikes to 130 dB+ when the amps crank & drums crash (typically < 85 dB for production though - I measured & was expecting more). That said, isolation is really not an issue beyond isolating control room from live room; I'm in a relatively remote location with distant neighbors and the kraft-faced R19 fiberglass in there already has been adequate. I don't anticipate recording anything quiet, but one never knows.
Structure: timber frame on concrete slab, 16" OC studs, 1/2" drywall; floor is 2" full-dimension pine; a large steel I-beam supports the floor; I haven't looked above the ceiling to see if removing the drywall might be possible to gain more volume - I'm certainly willing to do so if there's empirical benefit
There is a loading door on the "front" end (think classic hay loft door) that isn't particularly useful/practical; I'm willing to effectively permanently block the door, but would prefer a solution that made it accesible after, say, 30 minutes of fiddling about.
Budget: $2k for materials (exclusive of HVAC); more if work can be done in stages.
Should any auralex-type acoustic foam be useful, I already have a bunch in various colors & cuts (+/- 150 ft^2)
I'll be doing all the labor myself & with competent friends (don't worry, this is my 2nd build out!)
Actual Questions:
1) is the proposed floor plan reasonable? (Is there an orientation that makes more sense or is a more efficient use of space?) I've played around with the room mode calc & orientations and can't do better myself.
2) the control room engineer position is very close to the center of the room; it's there because Dynaudio recommend a 50cm distance between LYD48s (which I rather like) and walls for keeping "wall" switch off; I'm hesitant to soffit mount b/c they are rear-ported; 2a) is this moot/changed if I get an 18S sub and hi-pass the LYD48s? (thinking about it) I'm certainly not averse to soffit mounting if rear-ports are a non-issue, it's just beyond my ken.
3) how do the long chamfers impact the room acoustically? Are they a blessing or a curse? Can I change anything about layout to use them to my advantage?
4) I assumed (a dangerous word) the hay loft cargo door thing would impact stereo imaging in my draft layout and am willing to wall it over... it has inner double doors and a single outer door, both made of 1/2" tongue and groove pine, with unsealed air gap of roughly 3" between the doors.
5) what on earth should I do with/about that unusually-shaped space above the stairs? XD
Thanks for any and all help,
Kris
I have a gambrel roof barn with a 2nd floor area that was once a wood shop that I'd like to convert to a studio space. Ideally I'd like a control room with as few acoustic compromises as practicable and live room that sounds good and is large enough for a 4-5 piece band to jam in (not necessarily record in). The dimensions can be seen in the images along with my first draft of a control room/live room division (based on the bob gold's room mode calc & ceiling heights).
*Right out of the gate, the side (long) walls are framed but unfinished and there is a triangular space behind them that I haven't been able to measure yet that is likely acoustically useful* I can't remove the framing as it is structural, and I'd estimate the space behind to be perhaps 28" deep at the base (widest) point, tapering on the gambrel angles until it joins the ceiling roughly 78" up (trig would yield roof-side of nearly 83" and cross-sectional area of 1092"^2)
Other salient info:
Purpose: primarily a mix and production studio, based out of the control room - DI keys, guitars, etc, comfortable for 3 people, workable for 4 friendly people; secondary purpose is a practice/jam space; tertiary purpose is tracking drums.
Loudness: spikes to 130 dB+ when the amps crank & drums crash (typically < 85 dB for production though - I measured & was expecting more). That said, isolation is really not an issue beyond isolating control room from live room; I'm in a relatively remote location with distant neighbors and the kraft-faced R19 fiberglass in there already has been adequate. I don't anticipate recording anything quiet, but one never knows.
Structure: timber frame on concrete slab, 16" OC studs, 1/2" drywall; floor is 2" full-dimension pine; a large steel I-beam supports the floor; I haven't looked above the ceiling to see if removing the drywall might be possible to gain more volume - I'm certainly willing to do so if there's empirical benefit
There is a loading door on the "front" end (think classic hay loft door) that isn't particularly useful/practical; I'm willing to effectively permanently block the door, but would prefer a solution that made it accesible after, say, 30 minutes of fiddling about.
Budget: $2k for materials (exclusive of HVAC); more if work can be done in stages.
Should any auralex-type acoustic foam be useful, I already have a bunch in various colors & cuts (+/- 150 ft^2)
I'll be doing all the labor myself & with competent friends (don't worry, this is my 2nd build out!)
Actual Questions:
1) is the proposed floor plan reasonable? (Is there an orientation that makes more sense or is a more efficient use of space?) I've played around with the room mode calc & orientations and can't do better myself.
2) the control room engineer position is very close to the center of the room; it's there because Dynaudio recommend a 50cm distance between LYD48s (which I rather like) and walls for keeping "wall" switch off; I'm hesitant to soffit mount b/c they are rear-ported; 2a) is this moot/changed if I get an 18S sub and hi-pass the LYD48s? (thinking about it) I'm certainly not averse to soffit mounting if rear-ports are a non-issue, it's just beyond my ken.
3) how do the long chamfers impact the room acoustically? Are they a blessing or a curse? Can I change anything about layout to use them to my advantage?
4) I assumed (a dangerous word) the hay loft cargo door thing would impact stereo imaging in my draft layout and am willing to wall it over... it has inner double doors and a single outer door, both made of 1/2" tongue and groove pine, with unsealed air gap of roughly 3" between the doors.
5) what on earth should I do with/about that unusually-shaped space above the stairs? XD
Thanks for any and all help,
Kris
. Concerning the resonance / low frequencies, I’m hopelessly ignorant. Is there a resource for reasonably, meaningfully calculating modes of this irregular ceiling (short of like CATT-A, or similar)? I have searched diligently enough that I'm not embarrassed to ask, but all I've found are scholarly articles way over my head, different degrees of "it's complicated" or "use xyz engineering software." Perhaps I answered my own question 
