Need help with my new studio layout!!

[mobilemozart]

Hi everybody,
I'm currently looking for a property for my new studio. I have found a solid building that was a printing house before. Walls and floor are very thick and heavy, and being completely empty at the moment with "naked" dry wall, there are crazy reflexions which seems a bit scary. At the same time, that's probably because of the parallel walls and having no treatment at all at the moment.

Before I rent it, I need to figure out if the rooms work for what I want to do.

There are two possible control rooms. I will put a large format console in it and a few sofas etc.; main equipment is a SSL 4000 48-Channel Console and B&W 802D Speakers.

Here are my questions:

1. Which room should I use as control room - A or B?

2. I don't want to do the "room in a room"-thing (to expensive), but have no problem putting in one or two extra walls. But I need to keep it simple for cost reasons. Can you help me place my console and speakers and where to add walls?

3. I have budget for plenty of bass traps/acoustic panels and was thinking of covering about 40% of the wall surfaces with acoustic panels or bass traps. In addition, use carpet for the floor. Maybe some panels at the reflection points of the ceiling. Can I get a decent sounding room that way?

Keep in mind that I don't want to spend more than about 5.000 - 8.000 Euros (6K - 10K US Dollars) on carpet, traps, panels and extra walls.

Looking forward to your suggestions and I promise to post more pictures in case I go for this building!!

[mobilemozart]

Hi!
I made a first drawing including some extra walls to avoid parallel walls in the main mixing recording room.
Just for your information. The big room is about 9,50 x 12 meter (not feet).

Height is 3,36 m.

Am I going in the right direction here? Other ideas?

Thanks,
Marc

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by mobilemozart

Am I going in the right direction here?

Sure, but that's a very large "main" room so it will require a lot of treatment to control properly. I usually recommend one room for small studios, but you have enough space to have a decent size control room and a decent size live room. Is this studio for your own use, or to hire out? If you intend to build this as a commercial studio for hire, I'd have separate rooms for mixing and recording.

--Ethan

[mobilemozart]

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

Sure, but that's a very large "main" room so it will require a lot of treatment to control properly. I usually recommend one room for small studios, but you have enough space to have a decent size control room and a decent size live room. Is this studio for your own use, or to hire out? If you intend to build this as a commercial studio for hire, I'd have separate rooms for mixing and recording.

--Ethan

Hi Ethan,
thanks for this. This studio is not to hire out. Me and my production team will be using it, and there will be about 3 or 4 more writing rooms in the same building. So we have enough space in the building to build additional live rooms or vocal rooms.
I will mainly use it for mixing, but also for writing. I like to have some space in there because we have a lot of label people, artists and producers around.

You said it will require "a lot of treatment". How much is "a lot of treatment"? Can you give me an estimate? After putting bass traps in all the corners, what's the percentage of the wall that need to be covered with acoustic panels/bass traps/etc.
No matter how many bass traps I will need, it will always be cheaper than a complete "room in room" situation with mixing and live room perfectly isolated from each other.

Thanks again,
Marc

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by mobilemozart

How much is "a lot of treatment"? Can you give me an estimate? After putting bass traps in all the corners, what's the percentage of the wall that need to be covered with acoustic panels/bass traps/etc.

I believe the "standard" is somewhere around 20 to 40 percent surface coverage. It depends on how live a sound you want. Also, in a large room like this the corner surface is a small proportion of the total surface, so some of the treatment flat on the walls and ceiling will need to be thick enough to get down to bass frequencies.

--Ethan

[mobilemozart]

Here is another layout for the main mixing room. Better/worse than the first one?

Thanks,
Marc

[andrebrito]

In such a large room since the higher modal density comes down you don't need as much bass trap as smaller rooms. But you do need to control the rest (reverberation time and early reflections) which takes a lot of material.

But without making a model of that room one CANNOT guess.

Cheapest way to do this would be using DYI stuff. You can use foam as well, should be more expensive, send me an email for further information.

Avoid carpet unless you really have to use it.

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by andrebrito

send me an email for further information.

Say what? This is a public forum for the purpose of sharing information publicly.

@MM: That looks fine. Which layout you choose depends mostly on how you plan to use the space. Almost any shapes can work. Only you can decide how large a recording space you need.

--Ethan

[andrebrito]

You have got to be kidding ! Now I CANNOT tell someone to contact me in order to help him ?

I share with tis forum what I feel I want to share (and I have shared a lot so far). And if I think I should tell someone to contact me directly so I can talk with him privately so be it. This is my right.

[mobilemozart]

Any more comments on the room layouts? I know that I can make everything work with loads of bass traps, foam or whatever. However I'm looking for the ideal shape of room to begin with. I want the largest possible room within the limitations of the building.

Or is the shape less important on a room that large?

Meanwhile, I measured the height of the room which is h = 3,36 meter. There is a ceiling but I don't know the material. It's not drywall or concrete. But it's a flat ceiling underneath a standard shaped roof (not flat).

[andrebrito]

You must do your design having in account symetry. That is the rule #1

Rule #2 - this is a larger control room, modal density is higher at low frequencies when compared to a small room (which is good), meaning you don't need to do as much bass trap as a small room. But you need to do bass trap at lower frequencies.