John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Greetings,

I am still a bit confused or concerned about the sound coming from the outside through air vents in the soffit through to the area between the leaves on the wall. Am I making more out of this than should be? Hopefully my picture shows the area in questiion via the RED arrow.

It just seems to me that the ambient outside sound would travel through the exterior soffit vents (which allows for air flow into the attic space) and would only have the inner leave as its barrier.

Best Regards,

Your concern is valid. My first thought is to make lined ducts on the outside for venting. Similarly on the peak.

I hope the drawing is not accurate. The inner ceiling has to be completely separate from the outer roof trusses.

When you do the drywalling, stagger the joints and use acoustic caulk. In case you hadn't considered what to do there.

Andre

Well actually Andre the drawing IS accurate, but only from the drawing's standpoint. I have not done any actual construction on the ceiling as of yet. Keep in mind this is a garage with bare exposed trusses and rafters.

Its starting to sound as if I need to take down the inner wall studs that I have installed so far and start again . . sigh . . better now than later. One of my concerns is that the span of the ceiling is 24' across, so if I am to put an isolated inner ceiling I must support that from the inner walls, which seems to mean that I would have to partition the room.

You see my original approach was not to have any separation from my tracking and mixing areas, in other words an open control room / studio. I tend to enjoy breaking molds. I know it sounds crazy, but Peter Gabriel is currently using such a setup at Real World Studios. Of course I cannot in anyway have the capital he most likely spent on door hinges, but its fun to head in such a direction. What do you think John Slayers?? To quote:

"While we were designing this, there was this talk about building the biggest control room in the world. I don't know whether it is, but when we were designing this it was very rare to have a control room where the musicians were actually to play. Usually, a control room is a little box that the engineers sit in, but Peter realised that the control room was a creative space and that was where musicians ought to be. So we broke new ground in creating a listening environment as well as a recording environment." http://realworldstudios.com/

One of my concerns is that the span of the ceiling is 24' across, so if I am to put an isolated inner ceiling I must support that from the inner walls, which seems to mean that I would have to partition the room.

Good studios are 90% design and 10% construction. Tight now it is cheap to talk and develop the design. The span can covered with trusses, steel beams etc. We can develop that idea.

I like the open concept.

Whatever you decide to do good luck!

Andre

If 24' is your SHORTEST distance to span, you'd need at least 2x10's on 12" centers for standard framing, in order to support a 10 PSF dead load - 2x12's would be better, still on 12" centers.

IF you have the ceiling height, going with Trusjoists would cost a bit more but give you more options on spacing.

Another option, if you have the ceiling height, would be to put a support beam halfway across the room with a couple of lolly columns; not ideal, but wouldn't close off the space and would alleviate your span problems... Steve

You mentioned support 10PSF dead load. If I had 2 or even 3 layers of drywall on that span would not that dead load be around 5PSF based on 1.6875PSF for 1/2" gypsum. . .

Possibly - but I usually figure on 5/8 drywall, and never plan support for operation at or near maximum rating - so for anything other than a single layer of drywall on a ceiling I automatically calculate for at least 10 pound dead load. Druther be safe than squashed... Steve

edenorchestra wrote:You mentioned support 10PSF dead load. If I had 2 or even 3 layers of drywall on that span would not that dead load be around 5PSF based on 1.6875PSF for 1/2" gypsum. . .

Dead load includes the weight of the supporting member. Does your area building code permit 5 lb/'^2 design ceilings with occasional access to the top? You will have an attic like space there.

Andre

First of all Steve . . sorry to hear about your dog . . that must have been a hard thing to do . . dogs become such pals and I can only imagine your sorrow . . .

I am working on some AutoCad drawings of my building for you fine gentlemen to look at . . I approached this forum with some knowledge and now know that I am an idiot . . therefore I will start with the basics and see what you all think. I didn't want to burden anyone with my entire project but am now realizing that much help can be willingly found here . . this is a great forum.

As for building codes . . ha . . I live in the country and no one will probably even notice . . on the other hand I am an engineer (electrical) and do understand the need for detail, safety, and integrity in design. So on that note I will work this evening on my drawing and export it out to a jpg (keeping it under 750 pixels wide for good forum convention) for you all to see.

Thanks for your ongoing support and interest . . .

I am working on some AutoCad drawings of my building for you fine gentlemen to look at . .

If you make DXF format copies odf your drawings and email them to me, I can work with those directly to make any suggestions for changes.

As for building codes . . ha . . I live in the country and no one will probably even notice .

If anything catastrophic like a fire happens to your building, your insurance may not cover it. A major consideration.

Looking forward to your work;
Andre

I can handle DXF's also; you might be able to zip them, the site can handle zip files. We can also handle PDF's, so if you have one of the utilities that installs as a printer and allows you to "print" to a PDF file, that would allow others to look at better detail (for drawings that don't translate well to lo-res)

http://www.canadiancontent.net/tech/reviews/AcroPDF/

That's just one, I use DataBecker's PDF Producer - same thing, only not free

Just a thought, it would likely let more members "ogle" without all the emailing... Steve