Sketchup Designs of New Studio

[beasone]

I'm planning to build a small commercial studio here in Central Asia, and I've rendered my ideas for the control room using Sketchup. I'd love to receive any feedback you may have regarding the space and its acoustic design. The dimensions are 4.5 m (14' 9") x 6.5 m (21' 4").

Thanks!

[beasone]

Anyone?

[Jens Eklund]

It looks as if you need to read up on acoustic treatment and what it is supposed to do (depending on design concept). Just tossing up panels at random is not an effective approach and will result in far from perfect results (unless you’re extremely lucky but not likely, based on the illustrations above …).

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/7425932-post6.html

[Glenn Kuras]

Facing the short wall with uneven symmetry (left and right of you) is not ideal. You are much better off to set up to face the picture and treat from there. You can use the following as a guide for set up.
GIK Acoustics: Room Setup
BTW you are on the right track straddling corners but you will need much more in the corners to get the room under control.

[DanDan]

Brilliant Sketchuping. Clearly you appreciate skill and craft. Hire a Pro.
There are quite a few of us here, but I am going to recommend my friend John, who is familiar with your part of the world.
JH Brandt - Recording Studio Design & Acoustics Home

DD

[beasone]

Thank you very much! I wish it was as simple as guesswork, but you're right I have a lot more reading up to do. I'll also look into the hiring a professional route.

[SörenHjalmarsson]

Originally Posted by DanDan

Brilliant Sketchuping. Clearly you appreciate skill and craft. Hire a Pro.
There are quite a few of us here, but I am going to recommend my friend John, who is familiar with your part of the world.
JH Brandt - Recording Studio Design & Acoustics Home

DD

+1

[DanDan]

Many designers work remotely. This requires someone on site watching the construction details very carefully.
Buy these.
Rod Gervais book, Build it like the Pros.
Philip Newell's book, Recording Studio Design.

DD

[beasone]

I want to thank all of you again for your replies. I have been doing a lot of reading this week, and I know I've barely scratched the surface so far, but I've drawn up some new sketches that I would like to run by you. Thanks.

[alexdingley]

Beasone,

Sorry for the tangent here, but you've done something I want to do...

I'm looking at your renderings here, and I'm curious: did you have to design and build that whole desk and each element in sketchup? or did you find elements like "studio desk" in some sort of 3D library?

This year, I'm planning on designing a new custom studio desk... and want to test out designs in 3D first, so I'm looking at SketchUp, but I'm not sure how much work it will be. Will I have to design and create each plank and board... or can I simply specify that I want to use 3/4" plywood and then tell it the dimensions?

-Alex

[Jeff16years]

Originally Posted by beasone

I want to thank all of you again for your replies. I have been doing a lot of reading this week, and I know I've barely scratched the surface so far, but I've drawn up some new sketches that I would like to run by you. Thanks.

this looks much better to me. 1 thing I would say, go easy on the diffusion. The room is still small enough that you will probably benefit more from bass trapping than all that diffusion. If any, I would leave the diffusion on the back wall, I think any more than that might cause more problems than it solves.

[Jeff16years]

Originally Posted by Jeff16years

this looks much better to me. 1 thing I would say, go easy on the diffusion. The room is still small enough that you will probably benefit more from bass trapping than all that diffusion. If any, I would leave the diffusion on the back wall, I think any more than that might cause more problems than it solves.

you may also want to get your chair (or your listening position) a little further away from the center of the room. it looks like you have some room to move the desk a little closer to the wall.

[pitchfork]

I'm curious: did you have to design and build that whole desk and each element in sketchup? or did you find elements like "studio desk" in some sort of 3D library?

Hi Alex. I'm not speaking for Beasone here, but for myself, and the answer is...it depends on how much detail you need to reasonably be sure that the finished product reflects your design goals. However, a designers viewpoint can be different than a DETAILER's viewpoint. The difference is a designer does NOT have to build what he envisions. He trust that he has provided enough information to the fabricator to ensure his vision will be reflected in reality. UNFORTUNATELY...depending on the complexity, he must also allow the fabricator to make judgement calls which ultimately may define a different reality in the end. That's why most fabrication houses must DETAIL the DESIGNERS vision for approval by the designer, as usually designer doesn't have a ****ing clue how to build what it is he is designing. in the case of Sketchup..it's very easy with this program to model practically anything that the mind can perceive. Building it is an animal of a different color though.

In your case, since you are the designer AND fabricator, that means that you can make fabrication decisions on the fly, as long as you know in your head how those decisions ultimately affect the end result. And if they adversely affect your design permanently, it is only you that you must answer to, vs a fabricator who must answer to a client.

So, to really answer your question, you are the only one who can decide the depth of detailing you need in a model, in order to build it the way you see it. In my case, I AM a professional detailer, and journeyman fabricator, and I use Sketchup extensively to detail every project I build. And to tell you the truth, I detail my models as if they are reality. This not only ensures I don't have to go through the "20/20 hindsight" syndrome that most amateur fabricators encounter, and my projects come out EXACTLY as envisioned. The problem most amateur fabricators encounter, is they don't understand that EVERY detail counts, from the depth of a machined rabit to the thickness of laminated plastic.

But again, this all has to do with the complexity of the project. Here is an example. It is very easy to design and build projects where you are using very few materials with standardized nominal dimensions, common hardware/finishes and the design is flexible enough to allow for mistakes that will not adversely affect the use of the product. However, when you start designing very complex assemblies, with many different materials, hardware, finishes etc..then it becomes imperitive to DETAIL the project with impunity. Here is an example.

I'm still fabricating parts of an ongoing modification to my computer enclosure which resides on a metal framework under my console. This project required me to understand the relationships of the computer components, to better understand what it is I could modify, in order to render the computers completely silent. In order to do this, I actually had to redesign the defacto computer cooling scheme, as standard computer cases do NOT make the best TRANSMISSION LOSS starting points. This means I actually had to research the defacto computer component "STANDARDS", in order to accurately model them in 3D, in order to see what it was I could manipulate to even DESIGN the solution. And believe me, this was no easy task. Just identifying and finding the "standards" was a lesson in Corporate secrecy and working in .00001 tolerances..****. Thank god Sketchup works to 14 decimal points. Which is another subject all together.

Now, I've posted a few of these before, but just to illustrate the depth I had to go to just to find a solution..here is a few .jpg examples





















Alex, bottom line is you are the only one who can decide the depth of your detailing. For me, Sketchup allows me to work in close tolerances and there is no limitations to what I need to model. The learning curve is another animal, but the more you use Sketchup, the more you learn.

did you find elements like "studio desk" in some sort of 3D library?

Oh absolutely. The Sketchup Warehouse...damn..I use it daily. Why reinvent the wheel when there are MILLIONS of items already modeled and stored for downloading directly into YOUR model. Everything from screws/nuts to complete cities. However, word of warning. There are literally thousands of people who have uploaded models without a CLUE to what the term "scale" means. And you won't know till you insert their models into your own. Here is one I downloaded.l not bad either.




Well, enough ramble. Good luck with Sketchup.
fitZ

[DanDan]

Brilliant Sketchuping.
You guys should have an exhibition.
At least send a few to the Sketchup people as an example of what can be done.
Quite amazed.

DD

[beasone]

Originally Posted by Jeff16years

this looks much better to me. 1 thing I would say, go easy on the diffusion. The room is still small enough that you will probably benefit more from bass trapping than all that diffusion. If any, I would leave the diffusion on the back wall, I think any more than that might cause more problems than it solves.

Well, that sounds just fine to me since that'd certainly be easier to build. Although, would my ceiling benefit from 2D QRD skyline diffuser(s) or only absorption?

Originally Posted by Jeff16years

you may also want to get your chair (or your listening position) a little further away from the center of the room. it looks like you have some room to move the desk a little closer to the wall.

I chose this listening position based on the golden ratio. Am I missing something here?

Originally Posted by alexdingley

Beasone,

Sorry for the tangent here, but you've done something I want to do...

I'm looking at your renderings here, and I'm curious: did you have to design and build that whole desk and each element in sketchup? or did you find elements like "studio desk" in some sort of 3D library?

This year, I'm planning on designing a new custom studio desk... and want to test out designs in 3D first, so I'm looking at SketchUp, but I'm not sure how much work it will be. Will I have to design and create each plank and board... or can I simply specify that I want to use 3/4" plywood and then tell it the dimensions?

-Alex

I designed the desk myself because I am having it built in the next few days. The other elements such as the lamp, DMP3, monitors, MacBook, chair, couch, etc. I all downloaded from the online database. If you are looking for how to operate SketchUp, I recommend the video series that Google has produce. After following along with the 4 or 5 videos I knew enough to make these designs. Good luck!

[DanDan]

I chose this listening position based on the golden ratio. Am I missing something here?

Totally. These rules of thumb would only work with a theoretically 'perfect' room.

The best way to optimise Listen and Speaker positions is to test using software.
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/studi...er-v2-1-a.html

For a quick overview use the RTA function in REW, particularly with Ethan's Sweep Tone.
REW Periodic Pink Noise plus RTA = Sweet Spot Detector?
Run the tone on a look, walk about checking listening positions with a mic. Look at the RTA for dangersous and promising locations.
Then try the speakers, try moving towards the front wall. Sometimes almost touching it is the best spot. Another rule of thumb gone...!

DD

[Wes Lachot]

Beasone,

I agree with what DanDan and others have said. One thing I did want to ask is why you have decided to elevate the sofa area. Is it just because you have seen this done in other studios?

We believe that elevating the sofa in this manner is actually detrimental to the high frequency response in the rear of the room. It usually means that the tweeters are focusing most of their energy toward the clients' knees, shins, and feet.

On a related note, needless step-ups and step-downs can be dangerous.

Best of luck.

-Wes

[beasone]

Wes,

I originally wanted to include a raised platform since it was something I had seen before in a number of studios. Since the speakers should be at ear level, I agree that it just doesn't make sense to raise the listening position.

By the way, I've taken a look at your work. Very impressive.