John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Thanks for a brilliant forum - I've been lurking and learning for months after being referred here from the Dididesign User Forum, and I've realised that I've got some serious problems with the space I'm trying to work with.

It's a loft above a double garage that is underneath a 50deg pitched tile roof. The attached drawing shows my earlier ideas on what I was going to do with the existing small 6m x 3.2m space. The two end walls are load bearing double brick construction, and the long walls (including the slope for the roof) are single layers of what we call rhino board (think its gypsum?) nailed to the hidden roof trusses.

The booth shown would be new. At the moment I'm recording myself, a small jazz band and sundry friends, and I'm also doing a fair amount of audio post work for corporate video that needs voice recording ... right now all this happens in the one 6x3.2m room (complete with computer hum, dogs barking outside and the odd passing plane).

My main problems, as I've understood it are the following:

1. The existing ceiling is only 2m high, though there's about another 1,5m above it to the apex of the roof (which runs in the same direction as the room). I've overcome the horrible standing wave issue so far by very close monitoring (about 1,5m from my Mackie HR824's), but the clients get to hear pretty messy stuff at the back of the room. Obviously need to do something with the ceiling then ...

2. The floor is actually just a series of pine strips over joists than run the width of the garage below, with more ceiling board nailed into them from below ... so I have a fantastically responsive drum under my feet! (and under the feet of the table on which my monitors stand).

3. The room gets real hot in summer, so there's an 18000btu split aircon up against the load bearing wall - right where I think the booth needs to be ... it'll be expensive to move/replace or duplicate for the control room.

I'd like to isolate the bottom third of the room (walls, door/s, ceiling and later when I have the money, the floor) to make a small voice cum drum booth that is live enough for acoustic guitar, sax and vocals, but dry enough for commercial voice overs. Then I'd like to have a reasonable listening environment for mixing and previewing for clients.

Any help would be most welcome.

BTW it amazes me that you guys take so much trouble to respond here ... it really is appreciated!

Cheers.

I Yebo - welcome to the site.

You have quite a room there - firstly it would be an advantage if you could open up the ceiling area above your existing ceiling and use the space for trapping plus getting rid of the parallel floor/ceiling.

You need some deadening in your control room to start with - especially the wall behind the couch as a starter.

Have you considered turning your setup around so it faces the booth?

cheers
John

Thanks for the response John.

I felt that having the mix position facing the booth would make the room feel quite a bit smaller - there would need to be space to get around the mix position into the booth (maybe even with a kit of drums), and the main door to the facility would be right behind me, so ... no couch for clients. Actually, as I mentioned the booth will be new, and at the moment I do have the mix position orientated the way you suggest - facing the air-con wall (where the booth will go), and I have two large lounge chairs in the rear corners either side of the main door in front of packed floor-to-ceiling bookcases. I think of these as my bass traps

Another consideration is that the sloping roof actually goes all the way down to the floor level behind both long side walls. This means there's a fairly large triangular cavity behind these side walls that could be opened up or treated, but only around the existing roof trusses onto which the existing walls are nailed. Imagine a tent-shaped room with a 50deg pitch either side with some ugly uprights behind where the existing walls are? Would be this any better than what I've got? I had thought of building the 'couch' wall this way to assist with the 'parallel' problem.

What 'trapping' would you suggest for the ceiling and how do I best introduce deadening in the control space?

Also can you offer any advice for treatment inside the booth please? Ideally this would be live enough for acoustic instruments, but dead enough for voice overs - I had thought of reversable panels for the walls.

Can you point me to any designs for the trapping, deadening and booth panelling?

Thanks again for your interest and patience with this inexperienced newbie.

Took a look again at your idea of facing the glass door (see pic below) and it seems if I make some custom corner seats, or give the clients wheel about office chairs it could be done - seems to be enough room for speakers and engineer to breathe (just). Is this what you had in mind?

A few more questions ...

* What do I make the walls from? (chipboard, double layer dry-wall or just a frame filled with mineral wool and covered in cloth?)
* Is mineral wool OK where I've put it? Other materials?
* Do you have construction ideas for the rear bass traps please?
* Isn't there a front reflection issue with the glass door?

All this of course ignores the ceiling for now ... please see my earlier questions on this (post above). There are some horrible geometry issues because of the slope of the roof ... but it seems it would be worth trying to get the best design I can before starting to build.

Thanks again for your assistance.

Cheers.

so from what you are saying this is the building design??

cheers
john

Exactly. The side walls are a little higher (go about 80% of the full 2m height). Existing internal floor is 3,2m wide, existing ceiling is 2,1m (I think) and the pitch is 50deg. Problem is the roof trusses are pretty much the shape of the 'walls and ceiling' your drawing shows, so taking out the existing side walls and ceiling would leave these trusses exposed.

so taking out the existing side walls and ceiling would leave these trusses exposed.

yes but it increases the volume of the room considerably and gives you areas for traps. So if you keep the alignment you have now (facing east) and openned up the cavites and used them for traps you'd be fine. All you'd need do is line under the trusses (filled with insulation), put some hangers in and finish in a cloth front. The rear couch could probabaly be set back into the cavity making the room bigger.

cheers
john

Thanks.