Constructing my first studio near a very noisy street

[gullfo]

the CR back wall can be moved forward to align with the opening. you'd want to leave enough space to also add a second "exterior" wall along the workshop side to create the MAM arrangement.

i confess to not spending a lot of time on your existing wall dimensions. my presumption is you will be blocking up the brick/concrete gaps - either with brick and concrete or heavy-duty frame assemblies. this model is just an example - the details are still required to be worked out but i wanted you to get a 3D sense of it since the ultimate isolation is limited to the structure transfers (LF rumble can be filtered, harmonics may be a problem). so "burying" the columns etc will be important.

i think if you have the separate rooms you can have drums, amps, in-CR musicians, and booth vocals etc all at once. although i do like a large open space with gobos as my preferred recording space. however, if your goal is mixing, best to have a proper CR and you can also rent out the live room and booth for folks to rehearse etc and still have mix space to yourself.

[The Tenant]

I was thinking of the one room studio. In such a large space I recommend treating just a Mixing Zone. A sort of absorbent blocking 'cave"

Will do! Thanks!

i think if you have the separate rooms you can have drums, amps, in-CR musicians, and booth vocals etc all at once. although i do like a large open space with gobos as my preferred recording space. however, if your goal is mixing, best to have a proper CR and you can also rent out the live room and booth for folks to rehearse etc and still have mix space to yourself.

These are exactly my thoughts. My heart wants a large open space for me to experiment with mic positions etc (plus, just by imaging it, it gives me a better vibe), but logic says to keep them all separated for the reasons you're referring to (renting the live room mostly). Ah, decisions...

I have a thought regarding the dilemma above:
Go for the one-room concept and design it in such a way so that, if I want to split it in the future, I can easily build the extra wall. For example, I have to take care of the position of the window to the booth, so that at the new CR, that window will be centered to the "new" front wall.

[gullfo]

another thought as well - replace windows with 70" (or even larger) flat screen monitors. some proper AV switching and cameras and you'll have the effect of large windows plus options - multiple views on-screen, computer views (e.g. you're in your booth doing vox and need access to your computer...) (or someone renting the booth for post production hooks up their computer to the screen after you wheel in the desk and audio monitors )

depending on budget, this may be lower cost and more useful. no complex drapes needing to be operated, vacuumed, etc.

i'd add glass block "windows" around to allow daylight, or real windows if the views are compelling.

[The Tenant]

another thought as well - replace windows with 70" (or even larger) flat screen monitors. some proper AV switching and cameras and you'll have the effect of large windows plus options - multiple views on-screen, computer views (e.g. you're in your booth doing vox and need access to your computer...) (or someone renting the booth for post production hooks up their computer to the screen after you wheel in the desk and audio monitors )

Nice thought!

i'd add glass block "windows" around to allow daylight, or real windows if the views are compelling.

It would be nice but, unless I'm mistaken, glass block STC is very low.

In other news, I considered all data available, talked with musicians, bands, studio owners living here etc and finally decided to go for one-room studio.

[Thomasd92]

Hi,

Really nice space you have to work with. The double brick walls with the XPS in between will not prevent you from building a decoupled inner leaf, and in fact is a great starting point.

Of course you have many large openings in the building as it currently stands, but once they are bricked up rachat de credit travaux (or, have suitable windows/doors) and all sealed air tight you'll have a very dense outer leaf which will be excellent for isolation.

Personally I see little point in taking many measurements at the moment, though it won't hurt anything, but until the outer leaf is air tight we're not going to be able to know what construction is needed for your inner leaf.

To simplify things:

Air tight, heavy, dense brick outer leaf + insulated air gap + 2-3 layers of drywall on timber frames = near silence.

The mechanical vibration and noise from the rest of the building does pose a potential problem, but I highly suspect once your inner leaf Is built there will only be minimal disturbance.

Regarding your question about windows facing the busy street - no, it's not a problem at all. We would just need to do some calculations so that the window assembly equals the same as the wall assembly. This can be achieved with 2x dense, laminated glass and a large cavity between them. In other words, a window does not mean less isolation.

It all relies on proper design & execution.

Paul

So whatever you use for insulation is approved or there are insulation that doesn't require it.