John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello JS forum



I am currently building a house on a rural property in Western Victoria and am considering building a recording studio in the next 5 years or so. I will erect a large shed immediately and am planning to house the studio within this shedding complex. I am seeking advice on the design of the shed to accommodate a recording facility within the space. I am not yet sure if I will go ahead with the plan or not – time for the project being the main factor - but I want to ensure that if I do decide to go ahead that there will not be unnecessary constraints imposed by poor shed design.



Studio purpose:

The studio will primarily be a charitable venture. I work with indigenous and other marginalized communities and the plan is to provide a space for people who would not otherwise have access to high quality facilities to get their art / voice out to the world. As it will not be a strictly commercial facility, it will likely be frequently sitting idle. I do not ever expect to get any of the money I put into it back. I am a little concerned that I may build a large facility that does not get used much, but also if things go well over time I do not want to regret not building it to the scale required to get artists great results.


About myself

I have never built a recording studio before, or a house for that matter. I did once build an outdoor toilet, but I needed significant help. I have read Rod Gervais’ “Home recording studio: Build it like the pros” cover to cover, but I am not sure I understood half of it on the first pass. My plan is to have the studio designed by a professional, and constructed by a local builder. There will be minimal DIY other than diffuser panels and the like (I’m sort-of handy with small woodworking projects). I am a music hobbyist and multi-instrumentalist, and have no ambitions to be successful in music, other than to help other people realize their artistic vision. I do of course have a mobile home recording setup, and have of course always been dissatisfied with the results you can get from a non-purpose built room.



Studio plan:

I do not have an exact design yet of course, and there are many details to sort out first. I have roughly planned around the “big facility” design in the studio plans section of this website. This will give me a large room, a medium room, a vocal booth and a control room, which should be large enough to accommodate anything and everything I would like to do in the future. I can downsize this design if I decide it is excessive for my requirements. The budget is not yet determined, but I feel I am generally aware of the high costs associated with construction and am unlikely to be totally blindsided. The space is a rural / remote property, with the nearest sealed road (no trucks) a few kms away, and the nearest neighbour (drives a tractor) probably 400m away. The kangaroos and emus are pretty quiet, but the crows and cockatoos are another matter.



The plan for the shed

Please see the attached diagrams. Please note that the top floor plan is rotated 90 degrees to fit into the shed as viewed in the second drawing. The shed will consist of three separate rooms.

- There will be two 7x14m rooms which will serve other purposes.

- The recording area will be 12x14m, and will be flanked by the other two other rooms (on the 14m side, making a total size of 26x14m).

- There are two roof peaks which run parallel to the short (14m) side, and they are located at the wall which divides the smaller rooms from the recording room – at 7m from each end.

- The nadir of the roof is in the middle of the recording area, giving two 6x14m areas with a rising roof pitch.



The idea is to have the control room facing the tracking room at the nadir of the roof, so that the roof rises away from the monitors. As you can see from the diagram, there will be a large room, a medium room, a vocal booth (small room), and a control room. There will also be some accommodation which can double as a “chill out” area.



There are many variables which can be tweaked. The eves as set in the diagram are 3m, with an external / ascending roof pitch of 22 degrees, giving a peak height of 5.8m. If the internal / descending roof pitch was also 22 degrees (I would likely choose less than this of course), the nadir would be at 3.38m. Both roof pitches can be independently set to just about any value, and the height of the eves is of course variable also. The length and width of the space is also variable. Of course I will be building "a room within a shed", so the actual dimension of the studio space will be significantly smaller than the internal shed dimensions.



Questions:

1) What floor area dimensions would you choose (currently 12m x 14m)?

1a) Related question – regarding the tentative floor plan – Too big? Too small (yikes)? Needs a different
complement of rooms? Layout (I’m less fussed about this as it can be changed later within the constraints of the
shed spacing)?

2) What internal / descending roof pitch would you choose?

2a) Related question: what minimum and maximum roof height would you choose? This is the more important
question as it can/will inform the roof pitch.

3) If I build the shed on a concrete slab, can I cut the slab to isolate the walls from the floor (as per Rod Gervais’ recommendations) later at the time of studio construction, or does this need to be done at the time the shed is built (less likely I would think).

4) Does anyone who has built a studio have a rough idea what the materials and labour would roughly cost for putting this together – including: HVAC, electrical including all cable runs; Excluding: all recording / studio specific gear (console, monitors etc), post construction mode analysis and acoustic treatment (very important I know, but can be done later or potentially by myself)?



I hope I have complied with all of the forum rules (except for providing sound pressure levels which are probably not yet relevant to this discussion). Thank you very much to anyone who puts the time into a reply.

Hello & howdo' dhunchak?
I read your post with interest and applaud your ambition - music is a great thing for bringing people together!

I do not ever expect to get any of the money I put into it back . . . The budget is not yet determined

Whenever budgets for studio builds are discussed, I'm reminded of an old joke, Q: "How do you make a small fortune out of a recording studio?" A:" Start with a large one." Seriously tho', your budget will determine a great deal of your options in building a project like this. My own build is a modest affair compared to your rough plan and I don't know if build costs translate directly between the U.K. and Australia but conventional wisdom has it that a studio will cost around £1000 per square metre. You will need to base your design (at least partially) on the desired amount of isolation needed and in order to do that you will need a sound level meter. How loud is the loudest sound you want to record and how noisy is the environment around the studio - ie how loud are the crows, cockatoos & tractor you need to keep out? When you have that information, you can calculate how much mass to build into the structure to achieve the isolation.

. . . regarding the tentative floor plan – Too big? Too small (yikes)? Needs a different
complement of rooms?

Your diagram indicates what looks like a flexible studio. Large enough to both sound good and record a wide range of music. Apols for answering a question with another question but what do you want the space to be able to do?

what minimum and maximum roof height would you choose?

I remember reading somewhere that a ceiling height of 2.5 metres is the minimum required for a decent sounding live room. The roof height is something else as you will need to allow for the gap between you inner and outer leaf (assuming you are building a MSM design) as well as HVAC ducting. Be sure to look up your local building regs as they may well limit how high you can build.

If I build the shed on a concrete slab, can I cut the slab to isolate the walls from the floor . . . or does this need to be done at the time the shed is built

I think the efficient way to do this would be to lay separate slabs for the studio or studio rooms when laying the slab for the main structure. This is only usually done when high levels of isolation are needed. Without knowing how much isolation you need, it's difficult to know - you may find that one slab for the whole building is adequate.

Does anyone . . . have a rough idea what the materials and labour would roughly cost

Cue the old joke! The figure I mentioned earlier on (£1000 per square metre) is in line with my calculations and the assumption that I would do most of the (lower skilled) work myself. I hope a more experienced member will have some thoughts on this but again, it depends on the size of the studio and the amount of isolation you need from it. I look forward to hearing more about the project and your thoughts on it - good luck & best wishes, John.