John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I am very grateful to John for his free Small Studio design and am beginning to plan a build based on this design.

I would like to know how HVAC would be best handled in this space. I wanted to use the Daikin Ururu Sarara split air con system but do I need two - one for each room - or can I get away with one in the live room with exhaust in the control room?

Is there a problem in placing the internal air con in the control room i.e. air flow affecting listening as well as the noise of the fan?

Regards
Jim

In general, it is not a good idea to have one room exhausting its stale air into another room, which is what you would have if you only used one unit. It would not save you much either, as you'd still need to build two duct systems with silencer boxes and fans: One system would be to feed the air from one room to the other, and the second system would be to bring the doubly-stale air back again.

I've always wondered about those Ururu units, and where the stale air goes. As far as I understand it, they include a small duct to bring fresh air into the room, but do they also include another duct to remove stale air FROM the room? If not, then where does the stale air go? A studio is, by definition, a hermetically sealed, with two absolutely air-tight seals all around, on all sides. So having a pipe to bring air into the room is pointless unless you also have another equal sized pipe to take air out of the room....

- Stuart -

Any thoughts on increasing the size by adding percents?

You can scale up and down, but do be aware that even though the ratio will remain the same, you are still moving all the modes to a different set of frequencies, which might or might not be in a good musical relationship. Of course, if you scale everything by exactly 200%, then that's not a problem, as you just moved it all down by one entire octave... (But you do have 16 foot ceilings then!)

- Stuart -

Thanks a lot Soundman!

I only have 11.5 feet ...but talking about height...I cant seem to find the height measurement in SketchUp. I might be a bad SketchUp practitioner, but I have looked everywhere to try and find out the height of this studio

Also, where would you put a/c ?

I cant seem to find the height measurement in SketchUp.

Use the tape measure tool...

Also, where would you put a/c ?

John doesn't show how he did it in that case, but I would put a small mini-split on the rear wall in each room, then duct the fresh air and stale air out through suitable locations in the existing structure, using silencer boxes. That would have to be designed according to how much isolation you need.

- Stuart -

In this design it seems that when the sliding doors are open it would effectively be a single leaf system. If I need most isolation to be to the outside of the studio would I be better off sealing across the two rooms either where the sliding doors end - or at the end where the outer leaf goes? I realize this would create a 3 leaf area when the sliding doors are closed but I don't think I will be able to afford really thick glass sliding doors.

Regards
Jim

In this design it seems that when the sliding doors are open it would effectively be a single leaf system.

With any room design, if you open one of the doors on a two-leaf wall, then you only have a one-leaf wall. sliding glass doors are no different than any other doors in that respect.

If I need most isolation to be to the outside of the studio

Isolation is a two-way street: it's really hard to isolate a room in only one direction, such that it blocks sound going out but not coming in! So your isolation is always pretty much the same in either direction.

I don't think I will be able to afford really thick glass sliding doors.

Those things are pretty expensive, for sure! To save money, you can replace those with ordinary hinged swinging doors. You can put smaller panes of glass in those, at strategic locations so you still have some sight lines between rooms.


- Stuart -

Thanks so much for all your input here Stuart.

For ventilation I noticed there is a product from Acoustica called Aeropac

see http://www.acoustica.com.au/aeropac.html

Do you think this is a viable option rather than building my own ventilation silencer boxes?

Regards
Jim

I just received info that the Aeropac ventilation system costs around $700 (Australian dollars)

Regards
Jim

Here is my picture thread for the Smallstudio.skp I have increased the size by 25% on one of the rooms. I have also amended a bit due to to door/ hall problems and speakerstand issues.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 780951e8b9

Quick question. Is it necessary to seal the back of the flush mount and side wall units? I have a lot of room behind these structures for fluffy insulation and was wondering if leaving them open would simply leave them broadband?

Hi there legends,
[first post]
I have a carport which is a little bigger than this Small Studio design by John. I am trying to get the shape right basically but main difference I have between the original design and requirements is the ceiling which is A frame and my lack of walls. I have done a mock-up in Sketchup where the existing structure (double brick) is in pink and panel additions in purple and drywall in powder blue. {I'm new to the software so have tried to just indicate the ideas so you can imagine walls and ceiling pls as I don't know how to build all in without making it look hell confusing and messy}[Also I could not attach over 500kb sketchup file so had to export into 2D jpgs to upload]

The ceiling is high a-frame, the "control room" will also be the live room and I was thinking of leaving ceiling as is structurally. I would build ceiling onto drum room though(!?)
Apart from the ceiling, the other big question is the angle of the end wall in the drum room, I'd rather have the window out (onto beautiful garden) than the angled wall so wonder if I need to change the angle of another wall ?


I appreciate things are best done properly but I will have to fudge it using what resources I have at my disposal.
I am in lockdown so this will be my project, I have limited funds due to a swathe of cancelled gigs and need to get the bones of the project done in the next couple of weeks as I can't make enough noise in current house situ to record/produce, I will just have to gather/DIY-build the internal materials and treatment from 2nd hand items as I can.
I am using insulated sandwich panels 50mm thick (2.56h x0.9w) with 80gcm rockwool between thin plastic and metal layer as my instant walls and drum room ceiling quick build option.
I only have nearfield monitors and large PA at the moment so not sure if control room soffit styles is really necessary so have removed but maybe should have kept angled wall sections?. I do want the room to be large enough to get to bass guitar notes accurately, 41Hz will do!
I won't be able to compete with other studios but this will be my own label production work space.

So once again, ---- main concerns are ceiling and drum room wall and that overall design can be imperfectly stretched a little without too much negative effects ---- Have i gone too far away from original for this design to be useable?
Workable space is 6.65m x 4.4m m ceiling is 4.3 m at high point. [Maybe I should go long ways instead of across for control/live room and have smaller wacky drum room idk ]

Any suggestions appreciated

cheers!
Ahva Dub

welcome!

could you post some photos of the existing structure? maybe flesh out the SU model with the current walls and windows etc. doors, etc. and post that here as well.

it's also helpful to understand the requirements for isolation and working habits. for example, drums make a lot of sound. do you have neighbors who will find that problematic at 3am? do you need multiple rooms? you'll definitely need a utility closet for your HVAC equipment if you're sealing the place up (isolation). what are you using this for? personal? rock bands? need isolation booths? amp closet? rough budget (helps to ensure the design can be built within your expected budget).

cheers!

Ok i've moved my lil thread over here: https://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/view ... 35#p157135