The space underneath the control room consists of a kitchen, bathroom, lounge, as well as a large machine room.
The floor from the control room down to these area's consists of:
- wooden floor, placed on 1/8" Pergo high impact foam.
- 3/4" high density particle board, glued and screwed on a frame, seperated from the frame by strips of vinyl.
- a 2 x 3 timber frame resting on neoprene strips.
- all cavities filled with cellulose insulation.
- 1/2" soundboard with a layer of 1/8" high density mineral loaded vinyl over it.
- 2 layers of AST30 asphalt paper.
- 3/4" ply floorboards
- a 2 x 6 redwood frame, cavities filled with glasswool
- 5/8" fire rated drywall.
Might seem overkill, but its a timber framed building, so we had to eliminate resonance.
The wall from the control room to the tracking room consists of:
- 2 2 x 4 frames, independant from each other. these frames are connected to the buildings' outer shell by means of Samson steel ties, which do not transmit vibration.
- 10" of cellulose insulation.
- 1 layer of AST30 felt
- 1/2" soundboard on each side.
tracking room side;
- 1 layer of 1/4" sound deadening drywall
- 1 layer of 5/8" drywall.
- sprayed acoustic paint.
control room side;
- 1 layer of 3/4" plywood
- 1 layer Armstrong white composite sealer (a rubber water and temperature barrier coating).
- 1 layer 1" tongue-and-groove pine.
The window has a very wide, angled spacing between the 2 layers of thick laminated glass. The frame itself is a glued / screwed construction of a 1 3/4" thick timber ply, which is as resonance free as you can get it. It bridges the 2 timber frames suspended by mineral loaded vinyl and neoprene all around.
There are a number of reasons why I designed the layout like this:
First, like you stated, maximum use of space. With an internal ceiling hight of well over 26 feet, we could go up without infringing on control room ceiling hight. The rooms 'below' have a ceiling hight of 8 feet, which is over normal room size, and the control room's highest point is 11 feet to a diffusion panel, which has another good 1 1/2 feet above it to the roof.
Second, I wanted to take advantage of the 22 degree folds in the sides of the building, facilitating a room with a minimum of even surfaces, as well as a room where a sub could be placed front center instead of in a corner position.
Third, I wanted the control room to be side-on facing the tracking room, facilitating a monitor wall without the monitor placement and reflection constraints of a window, as well as facilitating a clear view down into the entire tracking room and booth from behind the console.
The only week spots in the insulation thusfar are the three ducts running from the control room gear racks to the machine room below (one for AC, one for analogue lines, one for digital lines). These are yet to be filled with insulation.
Currently you can run an 80dB signal in the control room and you are not able to hear anything in the tracking room.
Hope that helps, its a lot but the place is not really a home studio
