[therealbigd]

Originally Posted by steveyraff

I must again highlight though, this probably doesn't have a high enough budget to end up ideally designed and if anything I am just wanting a practical, liveable space that I can hopefully still afford to put a little specific design thought into.

The thing is, you have a space with so much potential. Doing 'just enough to do some recording' would be a shame, as the space has all it needs to turn out a great studio!

Laminated floors in the live room would be really nice. I am not sure if anyone read my idea about installing an exterior window in the live room - its probably a terrible idea. But I am guessing having laminated floors, high ceilings etc is going to make sound treatment within the space even more difficult. Wouldn't that all leave it much more echoey in its natural untreated state?

Remember, lively doesn't necessarily mean echoey.

As it is, it might well echo less. But it might also sound horrible!

Particularly when doing acoustic instruments (like drums), the sound of the room will contribute to the recording AS MUCH as the sound of the instruments themselves.

Again, I'd like that book even for the chapter on doors. With having the door from the live room directly beside the desk in the control room, its going to be something I have to get right or the whole space won't work.

Does it really have to be that way though? Nothing says your desk has to be against the live room wall. In fact, looking at the space you have, if the live room is going to be the bigger of the spaces, I expect you will not want that. You should try and orientate it so the sound travels down the longer axis of the room.

Thus, my recommendation would be that the desk goes side-on to the control room wall, and the door to the live room goes at the back of the room. This way, it's out of the way of all your cabling, and reduces the chance of live room sound getting into what you're hearing at the desk.

I know it would be nice and 'traditional' to have a desk with the back of it facing the live room and a window allowing you to see straight over it and to the band. But the reality it, a window to the side of you doesn't make that much difference in terms of how you can communicate with the band, but if it makes the room sound better...!