John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

Hey, Guys

First off, thanks for this wonderful resource. I have learnt a lot about construction methods and isolation techniques from other people's projects. I also bought the book by Rod Gervais.

Currently I am looking at designing and building a studio for recording, mixing, composition, general production, possible band practice as well.

I already have a site, which is just outside the village of Plumpton, Sussex in the UK, but I am not sure how to go about using the space in the most efficient way.

I will try and get some photos of the unit, but at the moment it is being cleared, so there is lots of stuff on the floor.

There is a Sketchup with the layout and measurements for the unit are in my dropbox, here.

The unit is constructed of 6” concrete walls with what will be a tin roof (it is being replaced at the moment) and a concrete floor. The front and left walls, as you go in, are stud. The left stud wall separates the unit with a smaller unit next door. This is an office. I will need a good amount of isolation so as to not annoy the occupier. There are 3 doors at the front of the unit, which is indicated on the Sketchup. There is also a space I need to leave for the power meter, which is in the back left corner.

So, my goals are:

1. A control room that I will spend most of my time in.
2. A live room that is big enough to record full bands, possible isolation between instruments.
3. Some kind of isolation booth for amps, which could be doubled as a vocal booth if necessary.
4. An area for clients to hang out if they don't want to be in the control room. This would also have a good amount of isolation from the actual studio.
5. Storage cupboard would be nice.

The Sketchup also contains a proposed design. Any advice on this would be useful. I'm thinking of just using the side with the higher supports, and then keeping the other side, with the lower ceiling, as the isolation cupboard/storage area, and also the hang out area (near the kitchen). Not much detail yet, I'm still learning Sketchup, but will develop it as I go along.

In terms of isolation, noise coming in from the outside isn't too much of a problem. There is a workshop next door, but there is a 3 meter or so gap between my unit and the next one. When he is using power tools, the level gets to around 55dB. I can barely hear it when the door is closed. In terms of my isolation, probably looking in the region of 115 dB of the live room noise if full band playing. I mix around 85 dB. The ambient noise outside is between 50 and 60.

With drums playing inside the unit, I got a reading of around 100 dB. Outside the right hand wall, this dropped to 80. The windows need sealing better that side. The opposite wall to the entrance gave me a reading of 75, but again, that wall needs some work on it. There are holes that need filling, and the top portion is 2 layers of plasterboard. The office wall gave me a reading of 80.


Here are my first few questions.

1. As 2 of the walls are concrete and the other 2 are stud partitions, is there a way to work with this? The concrete would be my first leaf, but as shown in the Sketchup, the control room and live room are going to run along side the stud partition on the left (where the office is). Is there a way that I can use this, maybe by bulking up the wall on my side? The current partition is 1 layer either side of 12.5mm.
2. Because of the position of the upright supports for the roof, I have decided to work inside them, but is there a way to work round them, or is where I have placed the control room good enough to maintain a good size and ratio?
3. In regards to the ceiling. The support beams above are 3.099m high. I'm not going to use them as any support for the ceiling due to being unsure at how strong they are. So, for the ceiling, I was thinking of running joists underneath these and building from there. Any advice on this would be helpful.
4. I am considering an inside out design. Would there be any benefits or drawbacks to this in this space? Also, are there any considerations before going about this approach?

I'd like to be able to do this for £10,000 if possible.

Thanks in advance

Jaime

Hi Jaime, and Welcome to the forum!

First, it's nice to see someone who has done their homework with a sound level meter, and knows where they are and where they want to go! Refreshing!

That's not a problem. Isolation is a combination of mass, decoupling, damping, and air spaces, so if some sides have more mass then they can live with less air space, for example. On those sides that have less mass, you need larger air gaps. etc.

The concept is to build "rooms-within-the-room", with two-leaf walls all around each room. For walls between rooms, each room contributes one leaf. For walls to the outside world, the room provdes one leaf and the building shell provides the other. Not sure if that makes sense, or if I just confused the living daylights out of you!

Yes, there is a way of dealing with that. We call it "beefing up". The basic concept is that you take the drywall off your side of that wall, so you have access to the "office" side, but in between the studs. Then you cut strips of 16mm drywall to fit exactly in between those studs, with just a small gap around the edge (a couple of mm). You seal those gaps with acoustic caulk, and hold the drywall in place with cleats, nailed sideways into the studs: If you are going to need a lot of isolation (it sounds like you will!), then make that 2 layers of 16mm drywall. If there are any electrical boxes in the way (switches, plugs, etc.) then beef those up with acoustic "putty pads". Something like plasticine that you mold into shape, completely sealing the box and adding mass to it. So that then becomes your outer leaf. Put insulation in what is left of the stud bays. Now build your inner-leaf walls next to that, as far away as you need to get the level of isolation that you want for the frequencies you want.

Ouch! Yup, that sure will need beefing up with 2 layers of 16mm. And you can throw away the drywall you take off from your side: 12.5mm isn't much use, acoustically.

You have the right basic idea: put the supports inside the air gaps between the walls. But you might be able to get a better layout by rotating your control room 90° to the left, or trying a few other locations. One thing that comes to mind is access: right now, your access to the LR is THROUGH the CR. That means that all instruments, equipment and people that need to get in or out of the LR will have to walk through the CR to do that. Even if the want to go to the bathroom, make some coffee, or answer a phone call: you will have people wandering through the back of your CR all the time like that, and many of them will be carrying heavy, awkward shaped things through five doors... I think I'd switch the LR and CR, so that loading in and loading out stuff to the LR can take place directly, without anyone needing to disturb you in the CR.

Any chance you can change that? Tin is not exactly known for its wonderful acoustic properties in a studio roof! You need something massive, rigid and well damped up there: Tin isn't any of those.

Your new inner-leaf ceiling for each room should rest ONLY on the new inner-leaf walls of that room. In other words, for the ceiling of the control room you'll run joists across the top of the control room, just long enough to properly rest on the top plates of the new inner-leaf walls, and you'll then put two layers (or more) of 16mm drywall on that. Each room is a completely separate, independent structure, that rests on the concrete slab floor. The frames don't touch each other, and they don't touch the existing building structure. Not even a single nail can bridge the gaps between rooms. And that applies to the ceilings just as much as to the walls.

Drawbacks are that you have to plan carefully, in terms of your construction sequence, since you might not be able to get where you need to go! For inside-out construction you'll also need to rent wall jacks: you will have to build some of the walls lying flat on the floor, complete with all the drywall in place, then lift the fully complete wall into place. They are HEAVY, hence the need for wall jacks. 2 layers of 16mm drywall weighs about 24 kg per square meter, plus framing, nails, insulation, caulk etc. So a wall 4m long by 3 m high can easily weight over 300 kg. You have to be careful lifting and maneuvering such large, heavy objects around. You can do it, with help, but its not easy, and is a bit dangerous: having 300 kg of drywall and timber fall on your head would not be a good way to start the day...

So that's one issue. Another is "How do I hang the insulation in the wall cavity between two inside out walls?". Good question! (There is an answer, but I'll let you do some research on that...).

96 square meters, 10,000 pounds, = 104 pounds per square meter. Should be OK, if you work carefully. But does that include everything? Is your HVAC system part of that number, or additional? Is the electrical system part of that, or additional? What about permits, inspection, drawings, structural engineers, etc. They can all add up.

Overall, it looks like an interesting project, and you have a decent sized space to start with, with open-plan, so this looks like it should work out well.


- Stuart -

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

Thanks for the reply, Stuart. Very helpful information. A couple points though.

The tin roof is the choice of the unit owner. The entire unit section is being replaced, so not much I can do about that. Is there a way to possibly put my own fake roof inside the unit? Or perhaps another method that would work? There might also be a possibility of talking to them when they build about a solution. I should have really said it is going to be replaced with but, I didn't realise they hadn't started yet.

The £10,000 is just for construction. I have £20,000 total budget for everything.

In terms of the layout, I can see what you are saying. Before I posted, I was thinking of adding a second entrance to the live room that would connect the live room to the hangout area. I'll have a play around with the rooms. The reason I arranged it like that was because I was thinking, if I was tracking drums, and someone wanted to leave, they would have to go through the live room to get out. This would interrupt the recording. The advantage to having the live room in the front, for a band practising, makes sense of course, but adding an extra entrance might help. I would like to have the window on the side though as I use a 30” computer monitor, and I don't think I would see much past that...

Jaime

Yes, there are ways of dealing with that, but they probably involve a third leaf, which is best avoided if possible. Depending on how things are built up there (photos would be great!), there are a couple of ways of doing that.

On the access issue: Maybe you could re-arrange things to have a small "sound lock" in between the rooms somehow? Just an idea.

- Stuart -

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

Thanks again for the reply, Stuart. I will have a think about a sound lock.

OK, so today I went down the unit to take some pictures, and speak to the builders. It is not only the roof that will be tin, but also, they are putting a layer of tin on the side concrete wall. Is this going to cause a problem with isolation, like a 3rd leaf? If so, is there something that can be done during the building? They are willing to work with me on a solution at my cost of course. I could of course just ask them not to put it on, speak to the owner about it. I am going to ask them initially to build up the side wall to the top, as it stops at a point at the moment, and above that, there is plasterboard.

Jaime