John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

Hello.
This is my first post in this incredible forum.
I am so excited to see the help i may gain from this valuable resource of knowledge and experience.

I have recently secured a warehouse space in Long Beach, California with a footprint of approx. 720 sq. ft. I am seeking to build a versatile space capable of meeting both my own personal needs as a song-writer/recording artist. and also as small professional recording studio where i can produce and record others for hire.

Here's some information about the space:
1. As of right now, the floor, ceiling and three of the four walls are SOLID concrete (over 24" thick). The concrete walls have been painted with a single coat of white paint.
2. The ceilings are 11' high at their lowest point and approx. 12' high at their highest. The ceiling is constructed with a unique design of long troughs or arches receding into the ceiling. Its a bit difficult to describe but you can see them in the photos attached here. This will undoubtably play a role in the acoustics of the space.
3. The landlord is responsible for building the 2 wall panels that have doors/doorways in them. These will be steel stud frames with a single sheet of 5/8" drywall on each side of the frame. The doors are solid metal (material unknown) weighing well over 150 lbs each.
4. The large door on the back wall is on a track and is made of the same solid metal material as the doors mentioned above. This door will not be used but remain in the position as shown in my drawing.
5. There is some lighting (single energy-efficient bulbs with a pull-string to turn on and off) on the ceiling housed in surface conduit.
6. The landlord will be wiring 3 - 15 Amp breakers into the space (source location unknown as of right now).


Here are my goals/needs:
1. Have a comfortable, acoustically tuned control room
2. Have a quiet room/vocal room
3. Have a live room which captures the acoustic advantages of the high ceilings. I also want this room large enough to comfortably track a 4-5 piece band in this space.
4. Have a lounge/kitchen area (no sink, bathroom or plumbing though - there is a common area bathroom which is available for use outside this unit).
5. Maximize the sonic separation between all these rooms
6. Maximize the sonic separation from the rest of the warehouse in which this space is located. Because the ceiling and three of walls are 2ft think solid concrete my main concern is ensuring the fourth wall (bearing the two doors) is constructed to minimize any sonic bleed-though into the hallway area. **Please note: the fourth wall is not yet built (as seen in the pictures); and the door locations are still up for discussion.
7. Have enough storage space to hold guitar cases, drum cases and other gear. I want the live room and control room to be clutter-free.
8. I will be recording both acoustic and rock arrangements (electric guitars, bass, drums, acoustic guitar, cello, etc). I expect the live room to get loud - and it needs to be designed accordingly.

I am working with a budget of $5,000-$15,000. Obviously, the more cost-effective the better.


Here is a link to an editable version of the studio:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=bc659ab8c579f697733076dc72b5fed1

I have posted some pictures as well:











I welcome all your thoughts. Other than the hours i have spent reading this website and others, i haven't a clue what i am doing.

Thanks for your help. Feel free to contact me with questions.

-peter

Hi Peter, and welcome to the forum!

Woohoo! That's a good start., for sure! Lucky you.

That's also good news. The "ribbed" shape is a bit strange, and will have some effect acoustically, but since it will be in your MSM cavity, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

which two? That isn't clear from your diagram. Is that the "forth wall" you talk about later in the post? If so, then building it as described ("steel stud frames with a single sheet of 5/8" drywall on each side of the frame") is a bad idea. That would imply a three-leaf system for your isolation shell with two of those being coupled, and very much lower mass that the rest of the studio. It would be far better to put both layers of drywall on the SAME side of those studs, and even to add a third layer on top of those, if you want good isolation. Since the other five sides of the room are already so effective due to the high mass, I would even add GreenGlue in between those layers of drywall, for maximum isolation. And even though you say the landlord is responsible for doing this, since it is so critical to the success of the project you should insist that you be the one to actually build the wall, or at least to have the right to oversee how it is built. Even a small error here, such as not sealing the sole plates or top plates correctly, or perforating the drywall for electrical or HVAC, or some such, could have huge consequences for isolation.

... but will have to be blocked off, locked into position, and sealed very carefully, if you hope to have good isolation.

probably best to have the distribution panel in the lounge area, then run the circuits from there to the individual rooms and to the HVAC system, wherever that happens to be located.

That's probably on the low side for what you are planning. Just the HVAC system is going to eat a large chunk of that.

OK, looking at your basic plan: I would suggest using the "vocal booth" area for storage and putting the vocal booth inside the live room area, for better sight lines between the rooms. As it is now, the vocalist will not be able to see much (if any) of the musicians in the live room, so tight performance could suffer.

Also, your control room is asymmetrical and seems to be set up backwards! You have the sofa at the narrow end, and the console at the wide end, which in turn is not symmetrical. You should turn the room around 180°, place the speakers and console where you have the sofa, get the front of the room symmetrical, move the sofa to the back of the room, and add suitable treatment. Symmetry is critical to mix translation, so that is important. If you can't get the whole room symmetrical, then at least the front half should be, (but you would have that already, if the layout is rotated).

Finally, you re not showing any isolation for the rooms, but you said that you need high levels of isolation, so I'd suggest that you fix that: build each room as a self-supporting structure, not mechanically connected to any other room nor to the rest of the building. Just do it using the normal methods for fully decoupled 2-leaf MSM construction.

One other thing: you mentioned that this is going to be a commercial studio, not just hobby, so you need to consider other things that aren't normally part of home studios, such as wheelchair accessibility, emergency exits, signage, fire regulations, etc. You might want to check with a local architect, inspector or builder, so he can you fill you in on what your legal requirements and liabilities might be. You are located smack in the middle of "law-suit happy" California, so this is probably a really important point for you to consider!

It looks like you have a great space there, and this can be turned into an excellent studio!


- Stuart -

_________________
I want this studio to amaze people. "That'll do" doesn't amaze people.

Stuart,

thank you so much for your thoughtful reply. You made a lot of excellent points. I will re-read thru it a couple times before i respond with more questions.

-peter

Ok, some questions:



Forgive me for ignorance, but are you implying that within the entire existing walls/ceiling i will be building separate walls and ceiling in order to create the MSM cavity? Will i use any of the existing walls/ceiling simply as they are (without another layer inside it)?



To clarify (I didn't communicate this very well), here's what the space looks like right now:

I am not entirely sure how the landlord will construct it. Based on the other units he has been framing out - He has been using metal studs and drywall.
If i was to walk him thru building it, how should i have him construct it and with what materials?




To address the HVAC system: I was hoping to use a split Air conditioner (with an evaporator in the live room and one in the control room). Because my space is located in the center of the building (no walls connected to the exterior of the building) the landlord said I could place the condenser unit in the adjacent "Storage and Walking Space" unit. On its own, the building (especially my unit) stays pretty cool. I am worried about air flow however. Is it a concern that i am unable to draw air directly from outside the building? How would you suggest i approach the HVAC/air flow issue? It's virtually impossible to breach the 2'-think concrete walls, so the inlet/return for a circulation vent would both need to be on the new 4th wall to be built. Would love your help with this.



Finally, if you disregard my initial floor plan / layout, how would you go about laying out the studio given my list of priorities?

Side note: i placed the vocal booth on the other side of the control room for a couple reasons: 1. If i was recording alone, which i anticipate to occur a lot, i wanted to be able to track vocals/a guitar amp, relatively easily without having having to travel far from the mix desk. 2. I wanted to be able to track vocals or other things while the live room was simultaneously being used for a rehearsal, etc. 3. I didn't anticipate recording vocals during a live session instead just tracking the instruments of band in the live room and later overdubbing the vocal tracks. This is why i wasn't as concerned about the line of sight between the live room and the vocal booth. I focused more of the sight line between the control room and the live room, or between the vocal room and the control room. Perhaps this needs correction. Thoughts?


thanks
-peter

What do you think of this floor plan / design for the space?

That's the normal way of doing it, yes. Each of your rooms is built as a wood frame with drywall on only one side of it, so you have a cavity all around each room.

The general idea is that the wall must be massive, single-leaf, and well sealed. The general plan would be to build a stud framework in the gaps between the pillars, and put two or maybe three layers of drywall on only the OUTSIDE of those studs (the side facing away from your room). That entire construction must be carefully sealed all around the edges using backer rod and acoustic caulk. He should first seal the framework itself to the existing floor, ceiling, walls and pillars, then seal each layer of drywall as it goes into place. The seal is critical: There can be no air gaps at all, not even a tiny crack. If air can get through, then so can sound.

That will work fine. You might consider getting three units, or a single "multi-split" unit, so that you can control the cooling in each area separately.

I would imagine that the main passage right outside where your new wall will be must have its own ventilation system, so you can probably take fresh air from there and return stale air to there. That has to be done through proper silencer boxes, of course.

That should be OK; but check with the landlord to make sure that that area is ventilated to the outside somehow, with a good flow of fresh air.

There are lots of possibilities! But I would try to divide the area into two, with all your "service" area on the left, where the loading door is, and all your studio area on the right. That would greatly simplify the task of sealing up that loading door. So I would build a wall across from the very edge of that loading door to the "landlord wall" at the front, and keep the lounge and closet in that area, with the studio itself in the rest of the space. That wall could be angled, of course, to maximize the use of space.

There's still many ways of laying out the rooms like that, but since the loading door is such a big issue, I'd try to get it our of the picture.


- Stuart -

_________________
I want this studio to amaze people. "That'll do" doesn't amaze people.