New studio & a crazy idea

garlo · **Posted:** Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:00 am

Hello & happy new year for everybody.
Thanks so much John Sayers, Knightfly & everybody participating on this forum.

My english is very bad so forgive my mistakes and my strange vocabulary, but i’m glued on your site 2/3 hours a day since 2 weeks. When I m not sure of my english words I will add a(?).

Im a composer and already running a small studio downtown bordeaux. http://www.cipaudio.com/eng_studio.htm
I work mainly on sound design & music for cartoons, movies, tv & radio ads & some music mix & mastering. Very few live recordings. Our vocal booth is the main recording room. Our live room about 25m2 is never used except for my band rehersals and maybe 30 days in 10years !! Our control room is about 40m2.

One year ago, I transformed an old industrial building in the suburb into a home & 2 appartments. (SE->WN).
We live there since 5 months.

Project

I would like to design and begin my new studio near my home that year.
First I need to demolish the east part of the building so cars can go from the street to the new parking on the North (magonty1jpg / S->N+ / S>N /N>S+ / N>S),make new roofings, make a small house for a friend on the northern part of the building.

Space
After that I will begin the studio (magontystudio2jpg).
The space is 9m38x7m38 inside. (studioE>W /studioW>E).

The height in the center (line East to West )is 4m22, and 3m30 on the North & South walls.
Floor is concrete (same as the floor of the east part building I will demolish where cars will run from street to park, that can be a big problem).
Walls are bricks(?)(roofS>N).

We need some windows on the South.
A door on the North for people coming from the parking( I will keep the west door for private use).
A big door on the Eastside for loading unloading musicians gear.

There will be a joint(?)neighbour on the north (second problem).
Other neighbours are me, 2 on the 2nd floor of my house, and other houses are 50 meters away on the Eastern part.

Use

Since more than 20 years :
Sound design for commercials , multimedia ...
Music composition, mix & mastering ...
So usually many people in the control room (too much), of course we need a big control room.

We need a small office & lounge area, a vocal booth ( 1 or 2 speakers & a tv screen).

A small room with the computers & amplifiers & adat will be great ( sound lock ?).
A live room will be great.
Here 2 ideas ( that s not design, just roughly thinkings about space ) ( 5 & 6).

Crazy Idea

Will be the sound & music market tomorrow the same for you and me ?
3rd problem !!

For me the market is changing...
less job in media,
less recording companies, less money, less mastering...
some new askings about recordings for amateurs classical bands & vocal ensembles.

So here the crazy idea :
Can we imagine a space where 2 walls can move from a big control room configuration to a big live area configuration ?

Arghhhh !!
Crazy I know !
But maybe we can discuss on a more conceptual point of view before saying no because of technical restrictions.

Building a studio IS crazy in my country in this market.
I am in sound & music for more than 20 years, and frustrated when I m asked for a job thant can’t fit to my place.
A typical communication job is 6/7 people in the control room and sometimes I would like to record a small band in the live room ?

I would like my new place a kind of sound & music laboratory where we can work on a lot of different problems instead of a typical recording studio.
10 years ago Iworked on a crazy idea of recording 50 guitares played by the wind on the highest sand dune in europe. A lot of people said me that it was impossible , but the result was incredible, thats called Vent de Guitares ( guitar’s wind) and the record exists and video too ...
So I prefer to think about crazy idea now than after the walls will be made.

so, I don’t know for now how to move the walls ?
Maybe the livespace must be “less” live than usual?
???

Gear

I will moove the existing gear so
Protools digo02, Adat , Mackie d8b,Weiss equalizer, Tc electronic finalizer & reverb, Lexicon reverb, NS10 & Adat monitor II, Neumann Akg Audio technica microphones. Vintage keys Moog, Sp2 ...

And maybe add a Weiss compressor and a small 5+1 system.

Budget

I will try with 20.000US$ for (East part demolition, new roofs, friend house).
and 20.000US$ for the studio itself.

More

My message is very long, excuse me.

I will understand if my crazy idea looks like out of topic here and if you don t answer me.

If someone come in bordeaux it will be a pleasure to meet.

I wish you the best sound & music.
garlo

gullfo · **Posted:** Mon Jan 08, 2007 10:03 am

maybe something like this... needs some additional thoughts... i'm thinking angle out the wall on the south to add iso booth space and adjust treatment options on the south wall... the lightweight steel roofing will be an isolation challenge... you probably need some architecture guidance on structural changes to accomodate.

garlo · **Posted:** Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:31 am

Oups Sorry
don t even know how to avoid the zip stuff !

gullfo · **Posted:** Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:48 pm

this may be more workable as it includes a small lounge, an office/listening room/iso booth. an iso booth and live room. it would be great to take full advantage of the sloping roof but i think you're going have to seal that off. even so you have a couple of feet overhead to put in additional treatments (like hangers, clouds, etc...) to preserve some floor space. could probably slide the CR over to the west 1-2m to enlarge the live room a bit... more thoughts needed...

garlo · **Posted:** Wed Jan 10, 2007 4:13 am

Bravo Glenn, you are a real sketchup studio design master !

For sure it s a fantastic beginning,

“ the lightweight steel roofing will be an isolation challenge”
“it would be great to take full advantage of the sloping roof “

Yes I need to think about a second indoor roof, maybe the same slop
with wood & insulation before beginning the ceiling.

I think that both designs have a too small control room.

The idea now is to buy a mongolian yurt that will be the office & lounge area between the parking & the studio....

great we just need toilets and the whole space could become livearea, a bigger control room, iso booth & a small room for computers & hum !

I m thinking also about a control room not touchin the north wall where there will be a neighbour
maybe the vocal booth between the northern wall & the control room.
what do you think ?

thanks very much Glenn for your time patience & ideas.
If you like bordeaux wine ... let me know!

garlo · **Posted:** Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:06 pm

still fightin with the sketchup ...
what do you think of that ?
(

not the design ! the area of course)

Bass Rocks · **Posted:** Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:03 am

Just one, half-educated comment on your sketchup design... For the control room, you really want it to be as symmetrical as possible (for a live room, you want asymmetry).

- Andy

garlo · **Posted:** Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:23 am

don t know
just thinkin of areas in that space
i m not yet in the details for now

gullfo · **Posted:** Sat Jan 13, 2007 5:22 am

i think this works probably the best. i reduced the CR size a bit and the office/iso-booths are smaller, live room larger.

garlo · **Posted:** Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:00 am

thanks again Glenn
As I said before I will buy a yurt that will become the lounge area outdoor at 40m of the studio.
So I just think now about a control room, a vocal booth and a live area.
I will try a large control room.
Still fightin with sketchup, as soon as possible I will send some ideas.
thanks.

garlo · **Posted:** Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:57 am

sorry dont know how to attach images, you ll have to download again !

[/img]

garlo · **Posted:** Sun Jan 14, 2007 8:55 pm

another try
magonty's18.jpg[/img]

gullfo · **Posted:** Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:59 am

sorry I misinterpreted. ... maybe this is closer - a vox booth, a drum booth and live room. if you're eliminating the bathroom, just expand the drum booth into that area and replace the door with a glass one.

garlo · **Posted:** Tue Jan 16, 2007 3:25 am

That s great Glenn.

Few questions : do you think

we can have a window between CR & vocal booth ?

it will be easier if I remove the door on the west side of the building ?

we can enlarge the CR ( maybe delete the corridor between the Toilets & CR, or delete the Drums room, or reorientation of your CR from East/ West to SouthEast/NorthWest or less Live room ) ?

Thanks very much .

garlo · **Posted:** Tue Jan 16, 2007 4:38 am

i try again ...

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