advice on building studio

[imaverysoundman]

hey slutz....

anyone care to offer some advice (or refer me to some threads) on the best possible layout or things to look out for,for my new studio....
so far i have an open plan of 10.5m x 9.2m, 5m high.....
i want a really nice (acoustics/treated) control/mix room and a live room with enough space for live performance recording sessions, but also nice for tracking.....(baffles???)
small pc room (which will double as a video edit suite) and a vocal booth...
the music recorded will be all genres...

so far i was thinking about iso booths for guitars (good idea???)in a big(ish) live room with vocal booth coming off one side of the control room and the edit suite off the opposite side.....
all gear is rack mounted but i would like it to accommodate a decent desk at some stage....
any pointers welcome...
will try to do a little cad drawing in the meantime.....
cant wait to get started, its taken me ages to find somewhere decent
cheers,
tris147

[roscoenyc]

Go here

Recording Studio Design :: Index


and buy this book

Recording Studio Design :: Index


and download this free CAD program

Google SketchUp - Home

[imaverysoundman]

dude....you rock!!!!!!

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by imaverysoundman

i want a really nice (acoustics/treated) control/mix room and a live room with enough space for live performance recording sessions, but also nice for tracking.....(baffles???)

Here's some more info for ya:

Acoustic Treatment and Design for Recording Studios and Listening Rooms
RealTraps - Maximum Studio

--Ethan

[roscoenyc]

^^^how in the world could I have forgotten Ethan's links too!!

[imaverysoundman]

thanks ethan....
i actually came across your info last night and had a good read through..just what i was looking for, have printed it off and will be discussing it with my builder tomorrow....
thanks a mill....
any other tips from you other slutz?????

[imaverysoundman]

ok....so ive got loads of info to read here(gonna take me a while to get through it all!!) but would like to hear how you guys think i should divide my room...control room size vs live room size....
thanks.....
been reading your other threads here ethan, cool info....
so much to read so little time

tris147

[avare]

There is great advice in this thread. I'll add my summary.

Good studio building is 90% design and 10% construction.

Well designed:
Andre

[imaverysoundman]

aint it
do a search on ethan or diy...ive been reading posts for the last 3 hours..he seems to be THE MAN
So ethan...any last advice on the best dimensions for my control vs live room sizes...empty area so far....dimensions 10.5 x 9.2 x 5m high....
so far its a corner of a very big warehouse so 2 walls thick blocks and the other 2 will be some kind of paneling....(my builder gets a good deal on the T.H.X gypsum cinema sound proofing kits...if you know what that is..its pretty new to me)...i could probably get a bit more area from the 10.5 wall if absolutly necessary....
i promise ill stop buggin you then

rock on you crazy slutzfuuck

[Anderson]

There were lots of good links given already...

You can also look at Studio Tips - great place about studio acoustics with loads of very knowledgeable guys!

Lots to read there, lots has been said about a lot in there.

Acoustics :: Index

Best of luck with your project.

[DSD_Mastering]

After a 2 year build, all I can say is keep throwing money at it and eventually you'll end up with something you love. ( or was that the stripper I saw last week?)

Regards,
Bruce

[imaverysoundman]

thanks guys
dont wanna sound unapreciative but id realy love a few opinions on the best way to divide it.......ive printed off all the aforementioned info..but alas im absolutely up the walls with everything at the mo and it would really help me to get a few opinions from you guys before i try to apply all this new info.....

hope it dosnt sound like im being a lazy b@@@@@d coz im really puttin alot of effort into this..but its so much easier to start when you've had a few educated opinions..you know the way it is

so how would you divide it?????.....

cheers,
tris147

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by imaverysoundman

do a search on ethan or diy...ive been reading posts for the last 3 hours..he seems to be THE MAN

Uh oh.

So ethan...any last advice on the best dimensions for my control vs live room sizes...empty area so far....dimensions 10.5 x 9.2 x 5m high.

Is your intent to have one room as large as possible in that shell, while keeping "good" dimensions? Or do you plan to divide it up into two rooms? From your earlier post it sounds like you want two rooms, which is possible. But before I can suggest how to divide it, I'd need to know what you plan to record. Entire bands with drums? Just the occasional vocal? And so forth. Even more important, what sort of money do you plan to spend? My advice for someone with $1,000 is very different than for $10,000!

--Ethan

[imaverysoundman]

hey ethan...
ahh take the compliment, you know your stuff
and thanx to everyone else too

basically, as i have some extremely talented hard working mates who have offered to do the build for free, ive got about 6,000 euro to spend on materials and i need to make it workable (within the next 3 weeks if possible) on that budget, with a view to making any additional upgrades as i get more cash in...
my mate also gets a 15% discount with most of the main hardware dealers here, so hopefully its enough cash to get me started.

the genres of music will be pretty broad, full bands,jazz to punk,solo artists, v/o etc and i like the idea of having a room big enough for live performance recording...if only for preproduction, but priority should go to control room if required...

i also need a vocal booth for v/o work, and a video edit room that the computers can stay in, just big enough for 1 person...
my gear so far consists of outboard only no desk yet!!

monitors are ns10's and mackie hr824's and using a 42inch flat screen (just in case that makes a difference..)

room size 10.5m x 9.2m x 5m high, i could rent a bit extra on the 10.5m wall if advisable..(so far its a corner of an empty warehouse, no windows, 4feet concrete floor an a concrete slab roof, slightly angled)

so whadya reckon

[Ethan Winer]

I favor one large room, but I understand that's not for everyone. With a shell as large as yours there's room for one very large control room plus two or more large booths. You could also split it into two decent sized rooms plus one or two small booths. Without sitting down with you one on one in person, it's difficult to tell you exactly what to do. My first suggestion is to read and understand fully the text that accompanies my ModeCalc program:

RealTraps - ModeCalc

This will tell you how good or bad a proposed rectangular room will be. You can enter dimensions all day long until you're satisfied. A few other points:

A booth that is very small will sound terrible no matter how good the ratio is, unless you treat it heavily to be completely dead. And by "dead" I mean down to well below 100 Hz. So you can make a 4 by 6 foot room workable, but only with 100 percent surface coverage including bass trapping in all corners.

A room that's very large has fewer bass problems than a smaller room, so then the dimensions are less important. My one-room studio (34 by 18 feet, 12 feet high at the peak) is a little smaller than your shell, and it's fabulous even though the ratio is not ideal.

Movable gobos can give some of the benefits of separate rooms, but without having to commit to permanent walls.

--Ethan