About to build, need your input PLEASE!

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SeratoneStudio

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I just discovered this awesome website... guess i was out of the loop!
For over a year I've been running a basement recording studio I built (not properly at all) and made a living off it. Now after getting into some serious debt to build, I've moved into a commercial space with tons of potential. The room has 10.5 ft ceilings (about 3.5 M) and is approximately 25 ft X 45 ft (pardon my non-metric measurements). I'm a little rushed since the longer it takes me to build, the deeper in debt I get... but I know I shouldn't rush things!

At the moment it's wide open with 4 load-bearing wood beams running down the middle of the longer length of the room. One of them is in the middle of the room division wall, so I plan to put 2 x 3ft windows on either side of it to see into the tracking room (not ideal but it's what I'm working with.)

Here's a basic sketchup drawing of the space... The walls aren't drawn with any thickness, sorry about that.

The small room off to the left is the vocal booth and the other off to the right is the entrance. I realize the tracking room shouldn't have any parallel walls with the same lengths and that the control room should be symmetrical.

Does anyone see anything wrong with this? Should I go for it? One main concern of mine is the concrete floors, I'm not sure what to do about it - what is the ideal flooring for a studio? I'd like to save money but definitely not sacrifice the mixing and miking results. Can I get away with leaving the tracking room as carpeted concrete and install floating floors in the control room?

I'd appreciate any responses and advice!
 

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So 50 people have viewed my post but ZERO have replied or offered advice.
I had higher hopes.
if anyone can offer some insight, I'd appreciate it.
 
Well, my thoughts are wood floors would be best. All the way thru. Put some rugs here and there to break it up and one under the drums.
Maybe a cloud over the drums and one over the mixing console.
Bass traps in all the corners (obviously)

One thing I wonder tho is that if you divide it in the middle where the load support is, wouldn't that make it really close to 2 square rooms?
Square equal bad.
Rectangle equal good.

??
 
SeratoneStudio said:
So 50 people have viewed my post but ZERO have replied or offered advice.
I had higher hopes.
if anyone can offer some insight, I'd appreciate it.
Click to expand...

I think that may be because there's been a glut of studio build questions of late. It's nothing personal, I think that when certain same questions come up within a concentrated timeframe, those that tend to have some viable expertise in the area need a break, quite frankly, or they may find themselves getting irritable or short because if you're saying the same sort of things over and over to different people, well, you need to go away and cool your head before you burn out or explode. And those like me that have none of that experience or anything safe to add wouldn't dare to profer advice or instructions. It's better to get no advice from an expert than bad advice from a turkey that means well.
It probably doesn't help, but be patient. Your time will come.
 
Dogbreath said:
Well, my thoughts are wood floors would be best. All the way thru. Put some rugs here and there to break it up and one under the drums.
Maybe a cloud over the drums and one over the mixing console.
Bass traps in all the corners (obviously)

One thing I wonder tho is that if you divide it in the middle where the load support is, wouldn't that make it really close to 2 square rooms?
Square equal bad.
Rectangle equal good.

??
Click to expand...

And some rectangles are better than others. I have seen articles in Recording magazine in the past that addressed the topic of the best dimensions for rectangular rooms to minimize resonance problems.
 
I need to know the exact dimensions you're planning for each room. You're going to have issues if you build a square control room, so don't do it...even if you have to go 15'x25' on the CR and 25'x30 on the LR. That'll be much better than wrestling with a low frequency problem.

Ceiling height?

Treatment plan?

Frank
 
The approximate dimensions of the 2 rooms as I have them laid out in the plan are:
Control: 18' x 22' (without angled walls)
Live: 27' x 20' (without angled walls)
The ceiling height will wind up being 10 feet in the live room but I think I'll leave the original wood beam ceiling in the control room, making it higher at around 10'8" - good idea?
I'll be splaying the side walls of the control room slightly - should the angle go outwards or inwards?

Here's a more up to date and accurate drawing of what I want it to look like...
 

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You don't HAVE to do wood floors. What about a stained concrete?
 
SeratoneStudio said:
The approximate dimensions of the 2 rooms as I have them laid out in the plan are:
Control: 18' x 22' (without angled walls)
Live: 27' x 20' (without angled walls)
The ceiling height will wind up being 10 feet in the live room but I think I'll leave the original wood beam ceiling in the control room, making it higher at around 10'8" - good idea?

Yep. Those are good dimensions...10'8" would be great.

I'll be splaying the side walls of the control room slightly - should the angle go outwards or inwards?
Click to expand...

Okay, here's where you need to stop and think a bit. Just splaying the walls is not a fix for anything in and of itself. If you're going to splay them then you need to choose specific angles based on the size of the room and the mix position. That's usually determined by ray tracing. The point is to create a room shape that focuses high frequency reflections away from your head. If you're not careful you'll create a shape that makes the high frequency situation even worse.

You need to pick up a copy of Philip Newell's "Recording Studio Design"...seriously. You don't want to just go jumping into this thing making a bunch of mistakes.

Frank
 
Thanks Weasel9992, I'll head out this afternoon to buy that book, I don't want to skip any details!
I'm advancing in the floor work today and should have all of that done by the end of the week, so before I put up any walls and do ceiling work I'll be sure to read up on it.
Have a good weekend..
 
Cool. I'm really not trying to be hard on you...just don't want you to do something you'll regret later.

Frank
 
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