Brand new studio from scratch

[nightmusic]

Hello,

I have just bought a house with a construction, that had been made in the garden,by the original owner, primarly for building a recording studio.
That place never ended up a studio,but it is still as it was, made with reinforced concrete.
I thought about building my new studio in that place, of course, and tried to imagine a way to organize space inside that building.(u can have a look at the file attached, where u can see concrete walls showed by large black lines).

The first challenge will be to put the electricity system inside,and then ask the electrician to organize all this,the way it should be in a real recording studio.I really don't want to put some outlets there and there, i would prefer to get a "state of the art" lightning system, while an electric system adapted to such an audio equipment place, as air conditioners,or electric isolation, in respect of electronic audio equipments.

I know this can look like a big project, but as the building has nothing inside, but only concrete, i think that is the right occasion to make thing as it should be, right?

So before anything, before attempting any construction, i need to decide which room will get wich kind of equipment.Or will purpose for each room, right? I tried to put some ideas on the pic that i put online,maybe u can tell me ur feeling about that?
I know that everything depends on the space available for each rooms, and maybe some of u will think about others possibilities.I must admit that i am not an expert in acoustic rules, so maybe some of u would help in that way?

 

[mtx records]

Hello,

I have just bought a house with a construction, that had been made in the garden,by the original owner, primarly for building a recording studio.
That place never ended up a studio,but it is still as it was, made with reinforced concrete.
I thought about building my new studio in that place, of course, and tried to imagine a way to organize space inside that building.(u can have a look at the file attached, where u can see concrete walls showed by large black lines).

The first challenge will be to put the electricity system inside,and then ask the electrician to organize all this,the way it should be in a real recording studio.I really don't want to put some outlets there and there, i would prefer to get a "state of the art" lightning system, while an electric system adapted to such an audio equipment place, as air conditioners,or electric isolation, in respect of electronic audio equipments.

I know this can look like a big project, but as the building has nothing inside, but only concrete, i think that is the right occasion to make thing as it should be, right?

So before anything, before attempting any construction, i need to decide which room will get wich kind of equipment.Or will purpose for each room, right? I tried to put some ideas on the pic that i put online,maybe u can tell me ur feeling about that?
I know that everything depends on the space available for each rooms, and maybe some of u will think about others possibilities.I must admit that i am not an expert in acoustic rules, so maybe some of u would help in that way?

no picture, although i do wanna see this, sounds cool ;]

 

[nightmusic]

Sorry, i put it that time attached to my previous message.It should work now...

 

[mtx records]

looks like that would be an awsome studio if you set it up that way, only wish i had that much space,

 

[OhSh1rt]

You're going to want to shape your control room diffrently, I cant think of the site with all the information about it, but im sure withing 30 mins someone will post it, they always do.



-jeffrey

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Looks like a very ambitious project. One of your first considerations is the PERMIT process. This would require submitting your plan to the Building Inspection Department. You might have to comply with codes that will alter your plan. Although, they usually ask you to show how you will comply once they redline your plan. This is why I would suggest visiting their office for information gathering. There may be restrictions,limits and or codes that you are not aware of. And they may have a general requirement sheet for gaining a permit for residential remodeling. One area that absolutely requires permits, is electrical. Is this building on a sub panel? I'm sure part of your plan submittal will have to illustrate your electrical plan as well. This may require a licensed consultant to approve and or design the electrical plan before submitting the general plan. But this may depend on other factors.

As far as your DESIGN plan...like I said, looks ambitious One thing to consider though, is everywhere you plan on using mics, concrete, because of its mass, reflects sound energy back into the room, which translates into the need for LOTS of broadband and low frequency absorption. As well as in the control room. Think SUPERCHUNK corner traps of Owens Corning 703 Rigid fiberglass. Do a search on this forum and you'll see quite a few details. Looks like this, although this is laying on the floor for testing, use them in vertical corners as well at wall/ceiling intersections as well.

But there are tons of other considerations when designing a studio of this size. Read this and it may give you a good overview of them.
http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

And more specifically acoustical
http://www.realtraps.com/art_studio.htm

and for direct questions
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=f8f186822f24bb012e5d73978154c7ca

 

[DAS19]

I would suggest puttin ghte control room in the drum room becuase you wouldnt be able to see into the live room ore any of the iso boxs you should make sure your countrol room has some view of the other rooms.

just my 2cents.

 

[treymonfauntre]

and the basic rule of acoustics is no parallell walls....

 

[MessianicDreams]

purely on the layout of the room, i would go for something more like this, so that you can see into all the tracking rooms. it's kinda weird trying to communicate and track with someone when you can't see them, so like this you could have views into everyone of your tracking rooms.


of course, the door placement etc isn't right in this picture but it's just to give you an idea of how you could do it...

 

[peritus]

I'm rather confused about which walls are concrete and already exist... Maybe you could just post a layout of the current structure.... So we could twiddle with it..

Edit: photos would be cool too..

 

[nightmusic]

---Messianic Dreams and Peritus,

Actually, the big black lines on the pic represent the concrete walls.they're reinforced, so i think that moving them will be rather difficult.

So i have to do with it, but the thing is that it is nude walls, just concrete, i even have to put the electricity/air conditionner system before anything...!
Thus i still have the choice about where i will put the control room, where are the iso booths,etc...given dimensions ratios needed for each use, of course.

---"I would suggest puttin ghte control room in the drum room becuase you wouldnt be able to see into the live room ore any of the iso boxs you should make sure your countrol room has some view of the other rooms."
-----

DAS19, it may be a good idea indeed, but i am just afraid that the 11'X9,8'
dimensions won't be enough for a control room... Maybe some expert in the forum will give their impressions about these dimensions?

In the idea of getting all view around at the iso booths from the control room, i also imagined putting an extra iso booth (for recording guitar, for ex.), in place of the lounge place, that would make the "original" control room a center of three iso booth.

The thing is that i primarly thought about using the long biggest room for getting better acoustic results, where i should record acoustic instrument, and even drums? I hope that some of u have tried that kind of configuration, big live room, natural reverb recorded inside, etc...to confirm the utility of that kind of room.
I really have to make up my mind about that big room purpose, because other suggestion came that would be to divide that live room in two different rooms, one for the control room, the other for post-production room.And then, choose the "original" control room for acoustic recordings instead, because it has 13' height instead of 10' (other rooms).


---"And the basic rule of acoustics is no parallell walls..."

Treymonfauntre,u're right when u say that i will have to change the angle of each room, that is the second thing i have to manage, decide which angle, etc...But before that, i have to decide definitively which purpose for each room.
Suggestions are getting more and more precise, and i am about to post some pics of the place, for everyone to see exactly the place as it is.


---Thank u RICK FITZPATRICK for all the link that u suggested, i have read them all for the whole yesterday, and learned a lot.I am sure that u will help by ur suggestions about acoustic treatment.
But as far as i have said, the first step is still for me to decide the best purpose for each room, and then think seriously about acoustic treatment.