John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello !

We will soon be starting construction for our new recording / live streaming studio, and any insights would be greatly appreciated !

Buget for sound/acoustics is yet to be defined, but we'd like to keep it under 5-10k if possible.

A few key elements:

We are building the studio for recording and streaming (this is our full time job).
There will be 1-2 grand pianos in the room and a couple uprights.

- We are creating a new floor in a home for the live room
- It is a residential area - nearest neighboors are about 20m away
- The "big" 30cm walls and window layout can't changed
- The upper left corner is a set of 2 large fixed bay windows (2.15m hight). I was thinking of covering them completely with acoustic pannels for recording.
- The red square to the left of the toilets is a chimney duct.

The ceilings are angled at a 15% slope, the bottom wall height is 2.5m, up to 4.3m at the highest ceiling point (see "facade.png"). The facade view is from the left side of the building

The "bureau" room has been split in 2 here, but we could make it just one room if it is interesting acousticly.
We would like to make the mixing room 5.1 capable if possible.

The red area in the upper right corner of the room is currently a staircase but will be removed.
We would like to use the studio for recording other artists, possibly from the "classical" genre.


I have made a couple absorbtion pannels already and don't mind handy work.

We are thinking of making the floor with on a concrete covering.
We are thinking of using pipes in the concrete to run cables from the bureau to the live room.

In such a setup, how would you position the mixing desk/speakers, and how much acoustic treatment should I expect to require for both room (and where?) ?

I am a bit confused with people recommending up to 100% treatment in small rooms while other are talking about 15-30%. How much of each should be diffusion vs absorbtion ?


I tried to be as thourough as possible, if you've made it this far, thank you for your time !
Seb.

welcome! assuming you have the isolation designed to meet your needs as well as the regulations and neighbors - on the acoustics - generally speaking variable acoustic treatments like reversible panels are a good choice to change up the parts of the room for different instruments and overall sound. in the bureau room, presumably this is your "mix", "pod cast", "control room" spot - then you'll want to a) ensure the listening position sits in a symmetrical space and b) is pretty well damped (and this is where you see different % perspectives). generally you would want that room to have a high level of absorption to get the overall RT down to 250ms or less, and stil provide some reflective/scattering/diffusing surfaces to ensure the room is comfortable as a purely anechoic space tends to be fatiguing after a short period of time (for most people).

since you're likely to be using video monitors and talk-back audio to communicate with the live room, i would face the long-width short-height wall (presuming you build the red wall which creates an air lock to the bathroom and live room). this leaves the doors and windows still operable.

Hi Gulfo,

Since symetry is important, I think we will build the red wall but move it in continuity with the bathroom and use the space in between the live room and mixing/tracking room for a vocal booth.

Would you say that it is realistic a room of that size would sound "good/flat" with appropriate treatment (and is it big enough to accommodate a 5.1 setup?)?

How much coverage do you think I should aim for at first (absorbtion/diffusion) in the live vs mixing rooms ?
A rought number would help me plan for how many pannels to build !

Also, any thoughts regarding dealing with the large bay windows ?
I was thinking of building quadratic wood diffusers, any thoughts regarding 2d vs 3d ?

Also, afaik diffusion pannels are "tuned", knowing the room isn't a perfect parallelepiped, is there a way to figure out what tuning I will need before the room has been built/I can do mesurements ?

Yes, we will be using monitors/talkback to communicate.

I hope I'm not asking too many questions !
Thank you for your time !

based on the rough diagram it should support a 5.1 arrangement. on the large bay windows - you want the window closest to you to have a mass similar to the wall to ensure consistency in isolation (windows can be weak spots). or some shutters to achieve same effect without the view . live room - start with less - 25% imho - add angles and diffusive/scattering (polycylindrical panels, slats, etc). vocal booth - 90-100% - you generally want this "dry". control room - depends - getting to 250ms RT across most frequencies - but 80%+ would not be unusual.

Thanks for the insights !

Regarding diffusion in the control room, I was guessing the pannels should be directly behind me and on the sides.I was thinking of building 1d or 2d quadratic diffusers there, would you have an idea what frequencies I should target (and how to choose betweend 1d and 2d ?) or is that something I should mesure later ?

the diffusers could be either however you would want them at least 3m from your listening position to avoid some potential phase effects. and generally speaker, you would only really need some smaller ones (e.g. 600mm x 600mm) to reinforce room boundaries so self-noise levels are supported without being intrusive.

Hey Glenn,

I made this rough sketch with pannels coverage and desk placement, what do you think about it ?

Because of the doors, it will probably be complicated to place bass traps in every corner of the mixing room, is that an issue ?

After looking at my rooms and the 3m requirement, I'm not too sure where I could put diffusion.

Bottom pic shows wall pannels, top pic is clouds.

Seb.

live room looks ok, in the CR - that space behind the couch - i'd make the absorber there as deep as that space. it's like you'll need more overall but start there.