Studio: Rooms, Sound, and Size, How Important ?

[SoZo]

I am just about to build my studio

******//sozoamplification.com/Corner%2520Plan.gif

I will be modifying the tracking room sizes down a little bit from this plan as this plan is 30'x20'. I was planing to remove the studio B and make A&B one big room. Use the VOX booth for a guitar ISO room.



I can remove all the rooms and make one big studio with a Control room too. The total size I have is 22'x21'.


What do you think my minimum room size for the control room, and studio should be?

[SoZo]

Bump!


TonyCrazyMan... you are always talking about rooms...



What size room is too small Guys....?

[joeq]

Originally Posted by SoZo

I will be modifying the tracking room sizes down a little bit from this plan as this plan is 30'x20'.?

so your acutal room is 8 feet shorter? That's more than 'a little bit'. To me, that plan already looks like it was designed for a boat. It's a cool design- in an architect's exercise kind of way, but ...

there were some good threads here just recently on one-room studios

here and here

That's what I would do unless I had TONS of extra space. YMMV- I suppose if you are just doing keyboards, drum machines and vocals, you don't need much more than a booth.

For me, it's not so much a matter of what is the minimum size of the CR, but the desire to make my tracking room as big as possible.

[Ethan Winer]

SoZo,

> I can remove all the rooms and make one big studio with a Control room too. The total size I have is 22'x21' <

Without dimensions it's difficult to comment. But if the outer size is 22 by 21 I'd divide it up into one large control room and one or two small booths. Here's an article I wrote for EQ magazine last year showing the design of an all-in-one room that will fit very nicely inside your space, while leaving a section along one side for the booth(s):

www.realtraps.com/art_studio.htm

--Ethan

[SoZo]

I need at least a tracking room and a mixing room out of that interior 22x 21 space.


How would you divide it? BBC whos that? 1500 Cubic Feet for what the mixing room? I only have 8 foot ceilings. What about the acoustics in the tracking room? Wouldnt that be more important?

[DannyDay]

Sozo,

the people that I deal with regularly have nothing but the best to say about your stuff!! A true Gearslut!

It all depends... I'm no expert, but I believe it'd be hard for the experts to answer this question without knowing the purpose and the type of work to be done in the room. Will you be building a business? Trying to attract clients? Label work? Big bands? Smaller bands?

What type of music? This'll have a huge impact on what you'll need to do. Eight foot ceilings are tough, man. Diffusion! In my world (mostly classical), the BBC specs work much better. This is why I won't (can't) build a room.

Also, I hate spending my own money. For smaller rock/country budgets, I prefer tracking the big stuff in other people's places and quickly moving to a smaller (and cheaper) space. All I own is an MBox which I use to edit and pre-mix stuff. I labor over the mixes with the Mbox, then go to a big place to play the stuff out to tape.

With this in mind, and if it were me... I'd build a large control room with small iso's (or iso). The bigger the control room the better for me. For me, (?) I like Ethan's idea.

Perhaps this would work for you. Perhaps not. An exciting time for sure. My one cent.

DD.

[SoZo]

"Sozo,

the people that I deal with regularly have nothing but the best to say about your stuff!! A true Gearslut!"


Thank You Dan! I keep trying!

"I suppose if you are just doing keyboards, drum machines and vocals, you don't need much more than a booth."

I am tracking real drums and both electric and acoustic guitars.



Thanks for the advise all...

I dont know what to do. I really don't want 1 room.

I will record only for myself and small personal projects but mostly rock based.

[fishman]

BBC = British Broadcasting Corporation. If I was only half as smart as this lot I'd be set....

[Ruphus]

Ethan,

Thanks a lot for making such drawings and explanations!
Man, I´d love to build such a room. It seems to sound good just from how it looks already.

Only that I could be missing windows. Guess though, that in most situations building wise there would be only little choice for symmetrical windows alongside, not to think of ideally positioned away from the speakers early reflection area.

Suppose it could be a problem in general for acustical design, like having either no windows or alternatively building from ground up and meaning much higher investments.


If you for instance had one or two windows on one of the length sides ( hopefully as much at optimal spots as possible ) would you then equal on the opposite with mirros e.g. to come close to symmetrical sounding conditions? ( - And if hanging curtains before windows eventually hanging some before the mirrors too? )


Ruphus

[stevep]

Ruphus
If you for instance had one or two windows on one of the length sides ( hopefully as much at optimal spots as possible ) would you then equal on the opposite with mirros e.g. to come close to symmetrical sounding conditions? ( - And if hanging curtains before windows eventually hanging some before the mirrors too? )

Ruphus ...... This is a joke Right ? ....





Nothing worse than taking up all your space and dividing it up into a bunch of small unusable spaces.

I would recommend something along the lines of what Ethan Winer said,, having a useable control room is very important to me and a small booth would be fine.
You wont get a room sound but that’s what the lexicons are for.

You might be able to use the sound lock (in between control and studio) as a vocal booth, and use Gobos for the amps and put the bass player in the control room.

SoZo What size room is too small Guys....?

only you can decide this as its your room...... but for me if i had that space ...
Control room 242 Sq ft. Including vocal booth......Studio 220 Sqft... one room.

22'x21'x8' ?..... I think the plan you posted from SAE is one that John Sayers designed for a much larger building.

Its to bad you cant get more room...... ..... is this your only option ?

Do you need to add sound proofing ?


I think its great to see studios being built please post some photos so we can all see it from the beginning.

steve

[Ruphus]

Originally Posted by stevep

Ruphus ...... This is a joke Right ? ....

Not a joke, more like wondering what Ethan would recommend in such a case. I mean after all the effort you would like to maintain symmetrie and before engaging a specialist to calculate reflective counterparts of other materials one could simply install "fake windows" with mirrors and curtains, which wouldn´t cost too much and give interesting optics in the same time. ( Mirros being interesting for visually enlarging small rooms anyway.)

Could be a stupid idea, but that´s why I asked, to see how the answer might be looking like.

What would your practical answer be?

Thanks,

Ruphus

[SoZo]

Originally Posted by stevep

Ruphus ...... This is a joke Right ? ....





Nothing worse than taking up all your space and dividing it up into a bunch of small unusable spaces.

I would recommend something along the lines of what Ethan Winer said,, having a useable control room is very important to me and a small booth would be fine.
You wont get a room sound but that’s what the lexicons are for.

You might be able to use the sound lock (in between control and studio) as a vocal booth, and use Gobos for the amps and put the bass player in the control room.

only you can decide this as its your room...... but for me if i had that space ...
Control room 242 Sq ft. Including vocal booth......Studio 220 Sqft... one room.

22'x21'x8' ?..... I think the plan you posted from SAE is one that John Sayers designed for a much larger building.

Its to bad you cant get more room...... ..... is this your only option ?

Do you need to add sound proofing ?


I think its great to see studios being built please post some photos so we can all see it from the beginning.

steve

"Nothing worse than taking up all your space and dividing it up into a bunch of small unusable spaces."

I understand...


I would recommend something along the lines of what Ethan Winer said,, having a useable control room is very important to me and a small booth would be fine.
You wont get a room sound but that’s what the lexicons are for.

Yes but I dont want to be in the same room as the drums or guitars... I would rather have a control room and a studio.



22'x21'x8' ?..... I think the plan you posted from SAE is one that John Sayers designed for a much larger building.

It is...

Its to bad you cant get more room...... ..... is this your only option ?




but heres the deal. I have a total of 27 x 21.6 x 8.5 exactly. I was going to build a hall to seperate the hot water heater/ aircondition handler from the studio.

Do you need to add sound proofing ?

It is my garage and I am not worried about sound leaking except the front garage door which I can build a wall up to the cieling which is drywall and insulated already. The walls are concrete and brick. The house wall is insulated but I can add something to help dampen it.


I think its great to see studios being built please post some photos so we can all see it from the beginning.

will do!

[Ethan Winer]

Ruphus,

> there would be only little choice for symmetrical windows alongside, not to think of ideally positioned away from the speakers early reflection area. <

Symmetry is important, but what happens in the rear of the room is less important than what happens from your ears forward. So you could put windows back there.

> If you for instance had one or two windows on one of the length sides <

As long as they're not where first reflection treatment needs to go, that will be fine too.

--Ethan

[Ruphus]

Thanks, Ethan!

Ruphus