Studio Layout Help Please!

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Jrasia
takin' a dinner break
Posts: 195
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 9:44 am

Studio Layout Help Please!

Post by Jrasia » Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:06 pm

Recently, I was offered a low price on leasing commercial space in a major downtown city. The owner(who've I've know for a number of years) will be opening a record store on the main floor, while I'm free to use the basement for recording purposes and even as a band rehearsal space. This is also fine with the landlord btw.
I've operated a small home studio for awhile now in my house, but having a proper space where I no longer have to worry about noise complaints, limited recording time, and not to mention expossing myself to new clients by being downtown seems like a hard offer to pass up.

Anyways, to sum up, I need some help in laying out the new space. I took a number of photos and measurements of the basement and I have drawn a rough sketch of the room and have even color coded the photos. The way the basement is currently setup is not bad seeing how there are even a couple of small areas that I could use as isolation rooms(including the bathroom), and the main floor area is relatively large enough to record ambient live drums that I love so much.

My priorites however are having a good live room and a proper control room to mix in. The control room doesn't have to be anything fancy though. I would like to have just my equipment, my monitors, and perhaps a couch to chill on. I'm free to move any walls I want, with the exception of the bathroom since it is tied to the plumming in the building and can't be easliy moved.
I would like to create some non parallel walls to remove any chance of flutter echo, and I'm even thinking of angling the ceiling slightly since it looks like it needs to be replaced and insulated(Roxul Safe'n'Sound).
I will most likely build bass traps(StudioTips) in all corners and even along the ceiling corners.

A couple of great tools that I have is that being part Italian my dads side of the family are house builders(So stereotypical, but so true) and are willing to help. My girlfriends dad also works at a Homedepot so he gets a 15% or so discount. This is not to say that I can go too crazy on construction materials. My estatmate is about $5000 - $6000.

Floating the main floor may be a possiblity, but I'm starting to worry about losing ceiling clearance.

My only real concern about the basement is all the electrical systems on the eastern wall. They are kinda in the way and I'm a little worried about what kind of interfernce they my draw into my recordings. There is one unit that buzzes quite loudly so I'm thinking of building a box around it so long as its not a safety issue. Has anyone had any experience building around something like this?

I know this seems like a lot, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Theres seems to be soo many new little studios popping up all the time, and normally I would never jump into something like this, but it seems like an offer I can't refuse. I hope someone take the time to at least look at my layout

Thanks in advance.

Pics, are below

Jay

http://www.transientaudio.com/Floorplan.gif
http://www.transientaudio.com/Main.jpg
http://www.transientaudio.com/2rooms.jpg
http://www.transientaudio.com/open.jpg
http://www.transientaudio.com/NorthsideElectrical.jpg
http://www.transientaudio.com/SouthsideElectrical.jpg

goldstar
takin' a dinner break
Posts: 172
Joined: Thu May 08, 2003 7:33 am
Location: Denver

Post by goldstar » Tue Feb 07, 2006 5:05 pm

Jay

Looks like a cool space to work with; the things I'd suggest with a budget as tight as you have are these:

-try to make the space work without angled walls and ceiling to maximize space. You should be able to tame flutter echo problems with acoustic treatments like fabric-wrapped 703. Ethan Winer also has DIY bass trap plans on his website: www.ethanwiner.com

-move the wall separating the electrical for the building closer to those elec. panels to make a small (maybe 30"), narrow closet you can isolate w/ multiple drywall layers. Leave access to that as building code requires. This will give a few more feet in the live room.

-figure out if you need isolation from noise above; this will depend on traffic upstairs and when you'll be planning to work in there. If you do need the iso. that could eat up your budget fast.

-lay out the space to use as few doors as possible, since it takes a fair amount of work (=$) to have them seal and isolate well.

If you haven't seen it, John Sayers has a good forum on studio construction also:

www.johnlsayers.com

Good luck, and feel free to email me if you'd like to.

Frank
goldstar at ecentral dot com

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