Tracking/Mixing engineer wants to build an additional "mastering room"

[octatonic]

Hi all,

as some of you might have read in other forums I have just finished building my mix room.
It is all going swimmingly- thanks to help from various people here and on John Sayers site.
This was always going to be a temporary room (for the next year at the most) to get some work done before buying a place in the country.

We are already looking at buying a few acres in NJ or PA- the places we have been looking at seem to be 3+ acres with separate barns (usually more than one) which has given me a bit of an idea.

The plan was to build a decent size tracking and 2 control rooms (and rent one to other engineers-) but given the amount of space we will have I have been thinking of building a "mastering room" as well.
I put it in quotes because I'm not a mastering engineer- but would be interested in costing out a room that would structurally be up to the job and then seeing how I go with mastering various projects (usually when the bands budget wouldn't allow it to be sent outside, which is often).

I'm figuring that as I'll be doing 3 rooms already, perhaps the fourth won't be as expensive to do (compared to building a structure at a later date). True?
I'm not looking at speccing out the gear yet- this is more of a long range plan and something I can afford to take a loss on if it doesn't work out- or even hire the room out to someone else if I have to.

I guess the questions are - am I going to have to spend several orders of magnitude more to get a room specced for mastering, rather than simply mixing?

Are there any ideal dimensions for a mastering room- or cubic feet measurement?
Are your rooms structurally that different from mix rooms?
Same materials/dimensions/construction methods and such.

I've imagined I'd be hiring an acoustics engineer to design the room but using contractors to build the structure (or modifying a barn) and then doing the internal frame/walls myself.

This is a preliminary investigation- but any feedback would be welcome.

Many thanks,

Jim.

[DSD_Mastering]

I'm building a Mastering room and a Post room now. In the event that I need to do overdubs or VO, I can use the Mastering room for tracking. The rooms are front to front. The front glass in the Mastering room is 3/4"laminated and annealed at a 15 degree bend in the middle. I am building a diffuser/resonator to cover the window when not using.
You will want the room as symmetrical as possible with lots of bass trapping. About 1/3rd of my cubic space is bass trapping!
There are movable panels/curtains to alter the room response as needed.
Both rooms can share equipment via fiber optics.
Typically you will want a rectangular room with at least 300 sq. ft.
You will want no parallel surfaces and with equal amounts of absorption/reflection.


You can see my build HERE.

Regards,
Bruce

Regards,
Bruce

[octatonic]

Thanks for the response...

Looks great- how high are your ceilings?

[DSD_Mastering]

Originally Posted by octatonic

Thanks for the response...

Looks great- how high are your ceilings?

The house was being built and I had them raise the ceilings to 13 feet. I then lost clearance when I raised the floor and dropped the ceiling down a foot for the hangers and such. It's about 11.5' now.

Regards,
Bruce

[octatonic]

Okie doke- gotcha.

I like your diffusor panels.
Are they going to be covered in fabric?

Jim

[imgoinmad]

Wow Bruce, that's looking good. I'm considering an addition to the house or a separate building behind the house. Would love to see more pics as your work continues to completion

[DSD_Mastering]

Here are the diffusor panels today. They get stuffed with rock wool and the front opening gets covered with 703/fabric. The panels and bass traps are natural maple as well as the floor when it goes in. The drywall gets covered in 703/fabric by the company Snap-tex.

Regards,
Bruce

[Gravity8058]

Great thread!