Studio project - design disagreement

[andrebrito]

Second is better but way far from anything professional.. if this is for rehearsals I understand you want lots of rooms and don't worry much about sound quality

My advise would be to create more asymmetrical spaces

[Arqen]

A wider gap will give better sound insulation, most noticeably at low frequencies.

Also, I prefer the layout you made (2nd drawing). It feels like the rooms are quicker to access. The one thing I prefer in your partner's layout, is the larger room for tracking. But the control room in his drawing looks too small for a critical listening environment without extensive treatment (which will make the room even smaller). You'll need loads of absorption for critical listening in a tiny control room like that (I would treat it to be a "Non-Environment" control room). If the control room is larger, you have the option of treating it a different way, using less absorption, to create a "Live End, Dead End" room.

Have you calculated the size of these rooms based on any acoustical requirements?

Cheers,

Tim

[jwl]

I'm of the school that rectangular rooms aren't the end of the world, and in fact there is a lot of benefit to them (ie, they are more predictable, easier/cheaper to build, and they maximize room volume). These are small rooms, and to make them have non-parallel walls will almost certainly reduce their square footage.

If you build the way you describe (2 leaf, etc), and treat the rooms well they will sound very good.

For your treatment strategies, see RealTraps - Acoustic Basics

[Neoeclectic]

Thanks for the good responses. I'm going to reply to everyone in this post.

Originally Posted by andrebrito

Second is better but way far from anything professional.. if this is for rehearsals I understand you want lots of rooms and don't worry much about sound quality

My advise would be to create more asymmetrical spaces

Do you have any suggestions. I'm a complete novice at this.

Originally Posted by arquen

Have you calculated the size of these rooms based on any acoustical requirements?

Not really. The sizes were essentially based on what we can cram into a 2000 sqft building. The room dimensions in the first drawing were based on Sepmeyer ratios that I found in a book I purchased called "Home Recording Studio: Build It Like the Pros".

The expectation is that we would have to isolate up to 110dB of sound for a standard band consisting of drums, guitar, and bass. I found that dB level from various sources; it's nothing we've actually measured ourselves.

It seems like everyone thus far is preferring the second drawing to the first. So my followup question is would it be possible to treat the rooms enough, being that they're so close together, to help dampen the low tones. I have a concern about low tones transferring over to the next door neighbor and between other rooms.

[Arqen]

Originally Posted by Neoeclectic

Thanks for the good responses. I'm going to reply to everyone in this post.



Do you have any suggestions. I'm a complete novice at this.



Not really. The sizes were essentially based on what we can cram into a 2000 sqft building. The room dimensions in the first drawing were based on Sepmeyer ratios that I found in a book I purchased called "Home Recording Studio: Build It Like the Pros".

The expectation is that we would have to isolate up to 110dB of sound for a standard band consisting of drums, guitar, and bass. I found that dB level from various sources; it's nothing we've actually measured ourselves.

It seems like everyone thus far is preferring the second drawing to the first. So my followup question is would it be possible to treat the rooms enough, being that they're so close together, to help dampen the low tones. I have a concern about low tones transferring over to the next door neighbor and between other rooms.

Good questions! Several useful diagrams for both absorbing low frequencies and preventing low frequency transfer are given in Part II of my paper here:

Recording studio design and acoustic treatment report
(diagrams in "Part II", Chapters 4 and 6)

Chapter 4 focusses on a wall design for insulation and noise reduction. If you want to also build bass traps right into the wall, chapter 6 includes diagrams for a really cool acoustic control wall with build in bass absorption.

There are also more wall diagrams in Appendix D, showing many different walls that offer STC 60 (great at preventing sound transfer).

Finally, send me a message if you want extra help finding the optimal room sizes, or deciding exactly how to treat the rooms.

Enjoy!

[Neoeclectic]

Hey, Arqen, thanks for the link!

It's going to take me a while to read it because I don't quite understand the concept. Once I'm finished I'm sure I'll be armed with questions!

[Arqen]

Originally Posted by Neoeclectic

Hey, Arqen, thanks for the link!

It's going to take me a while to read it because I don't quite understand the concept. Once I'm finished I'm sure I'll be armed with questions!

Cool. I hope it's not too wordy. If you need more details on the various wall types I mentioned, check out chapters 3-7 of this book: http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book...5/firstchapter