John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello all,

I am considering opening a rehersal space business. I am looking for input. Here is the basic thought.

Overall space 12,000-24,000 sqft. Probably a metal shell warehouse building that I can build rooms within. I am concerned about the building making noises as it expands and contracts because I am in Houston TX and its pretty hot here.

Rooms ranging from around 180sqft - spaces for instructors to rent monthly.
500-700sqft band rehersal rooms.

A control room and live room for my use, personal and commercial.

I want high security, cameras (accessible to renters), key codes, excellent lighting, plenty of parking, easy load in/out, plenty of power. Good room isolation, double door, double wall construction.
Highspeed internet access.

I am also thinking wiring all of the spaces for Dante back to the studio as this is relatively inexpensive. This would give everyone easy access to the studio essentially.

Questions,

What am I missing?

As a musician or producer, what would you want in a facility like this? What would make it really attractive to you?

What is the best (most cost effective with sound transfer in mind) way to handle HVAC? Ductless?

Has anyone done this that would like to share any insights with me? I would greatly appreciate it.

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Steve

Sound Isolation between Rehearsal Rooms and the Studio, Office Rooms, is quite difficult engineering due to the high levels. Then the HVAC..... Expensive. Underground probably has some advantages.....

i designed a large rehearsal studio project in NYC (~36 rooms + office) a while back. each room designed as a wholly separate room with large (12"+ gaps between framing) and isolation sway bracing. large hvac overhead with in-duct fans to push air into sections in use. some rooms have adjoining windows and cabling so they could be paired up as "control room" and "live room" so about 8 "studios". inter-room cabling includes network ready cabling as well as coax, and xlr panels.
then a number of smaller rooms for teaching and band use. each room had really good ratios and consistent acoustic treatment.
having people separated across the space generally solves the isolation concerns. full security, rest rooms, parking etc. on-prem security/manager person (mostly enforcing no smoking, drugs, or drinking).

since it was NYC and underground, we had to use metal framing and as a commercial property all the ADA, fire/safety, mold re-tardation, etc. in order to get code approvals.

the "modular" approach allowed the owner to build out in sections so as business picked up as the # of rooms could be readily expanded.

Thanks Glenn, that's helpful.