John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi, John:

If you could choose between the following room dimensions for a live room (used to record rock bands, acoustic instruments, choirs, etc.) which would you choose (these are currently unfinished barn rooms). Room 2 could be treated & shaped slightly w/stud walls, but room 1 would need to be treated w/non-permanent stuff.

1) 18 x 30 x 12 (12 ft. is apex, one roof longer than other, 8ft high outside walls)
2) 20 x 23 x 22 (22 ft. is apex in middle, much steeper pitch, 7ft high outside walls)

I know what my answer would be logistically, but acoustically, I have no idea if one is a "slam dunk" or not....

Thanks!!

Sorry, I meant 16 ft. apex for room 1.

I'd personally go with the bigger room because of the higher ceiling and bigger volume, of course how you treat it is more important IMO.

cheers
JOhn

John,

I had a builder/engineer look at the barn, and he tells me that I will be forced to use room #2 (18 x 30 x 12) because if I tear down the hayloft in the other room (how I would achieve 22ft cielings) I would have structural issues that would be too expensive to shore up.

This room is big and should be fine. A couple of questions:

1) There will be a double wall between the control room/studio, and I plan on putting insulation, sound block and pine paneling on the walls/ceiling of the live room. The floors would have be carpeted....,is this okay acoustically (would it still be live enough)?

2) How to attach the soundblock (comes in rolls, right?) to the studwalls?

3) This room also contains a heavy board and baton garage door, which I need to leave somewhat intact (i.e. cannot build a wall in front of it or take it down). It would still need to function....is there any way I can soundproof this? (not the end of the world if I can't.....we're on 5 acres..)

Thanks again, jeff

I'm a little confused jeff. Are you planning to build a control room AND a studio in this space or will the control room be separate? also do you want the live room to be totally live or acoustically variable.

cheers
john

John,

Sorry for the confusion. Actually, the control room is separate, and stands as in my other post. However, it is still ajacent. The live studio area is now NORTH of the control room versus EAST. Will send a new layout shortly.

I would prefer the live room to be acoustically variable to achieve the most flexibility.

Hope this helps. Jeff

sorry guys....i'll just jump in quickly...
Is it bad if you end up with something like 6m L X 5.4m W X 3.7m H for a live room....
are L and W too "close"?

thanks

Hello Sen

I've a very graphical room modes calculator on my site.
In the help page there are lots of on line references, explenations etc.
Basically you should have an as even as possible spread of your modes.

The smaller the room the more dominant the modal behavior.
The more live a room becomes, the more explicit those modal problems become.
Also the more live a room becomes, the lower the Schroeder frequency.
A lot is explained or refered to in the help page of the file.

Only: It only works on Windows. If you use it on MAC your Excel crashes.

Best regards
Eric

Eric_Desart wrote:Hello Sen

Also the more live a room becomes, the lower the Schroeder frequency.
Best regards
Eric

Sorry Sen,

Typo: must be
Also the more live a room becomes, the Higher the Schroeder frequency.

Eric

Ethan has made a simple mode program which he has made available to everyone here

www.ethanwiner.com/MODECALC.EXE

it runs in dos (works on My XP )

cheers
john

John:

Pls see my response to your questions regarding location of control room and the desired ambient qualities of the room (above).

To summarize my earlier questions, I was wondering:

1) There will be a double wall between the control room/studio, and I plan on putting insulation, sound block and pine paneling on the walls/ceiling of the live room. The floors would have be carpeted....,is this okay acoustically (would it still be live enough)?

2) How to attach the soundblock (comes in rolls, right?) to the studwalls?

3) This room also contains a heavy board and baton garage door, which I need to leave somewhat intact (i.e. cannot build a wall in front of it or take it down). It would still need to function....is there any way I can soundproof this? (not the end of the world if I can't.....we're on 5 acres..)

Thks again!

Jeff

Jeff - I'm sorry - you've lost me - I'm not sure what layout you are talking about - what control room where??
please draw something so we can keep up with you

cheers
john

Thank you guys...

Eric_Desart wrote: I've a very graphical room modes calculator on my site.
In the help page there are lots of on line references, explenations etc.

Sorry Eric,
would you be able to post the link to the site pleae?
thanks so much

BTW, I have heard and read a lot about your work Eric,and I was amazed....especially after seeing the GALAXY STUDIOS web page...wow

thanks for participating in the discussion

Hello Sen,

Thanks for the compliment.

I thougth you could access my site via the button with the house at the bottom of the messages.

But to be complete:
http://www.acoustics-noise.com/RoomMode ... ator.shtml

I mostly try to extend the Help Pages in my files, with math, explenations and references to good documents on the net.
So for those wanting to know more, there a lot of stuff they can look into.
Bit more meant as educational files than just calculation files (more than 50 % of the File is this Help Page.

With kind regards
Eric