It's TIIME! Planning a studio, any thoughts about my planning?

[tona9101]

thought nr 2 - the floor! it's now some kind of hard stuff, now like a carpet or anything. Should i make a "floating floor" with some soft material first and then the floor itself? Found a nice Walnut wood floor for 12 USD per squaremeter (translades from swedish krona) i've heard that whole carpet sux?

[garageband]

Should i make a "floating floor" with some soft material first and then the floor itself? Found a nice Walnut wood floor for 12 USD per squaremeter (translades from swedish krona) i've heard that whole carpet sux?

Wall-to-wall carpet is all wrong.
I wouldn't characterize what you want as a "floating floor", that's something a little different. It's actually a huge expense and difficulty to float the floor that won't be returning the improvement in results to justify the trouble. You will want to use a sub-floor. Plywood or strand board attached to the cement that the wood flooring is attached to. There are half a gazillion pages in the internet box to go over the nuts and bolts. For you money, you can't beat that. Don't forget to do the control room this way as well as the live room.

And, as I mentioned before with the floor: ceiling?

[tona9101]

Originally Posted by garageband

Wall-to-wall carpet is all wrong.
I wouldn't characterize what you want as a "floating floor", that's something a little different. It's actually a huge expense and difficulty to float the floor that won't be returning the improvement in results to justify the trouble. You will want to use a sub-floor. Plywood or strand board attached to the cement that the wood flooring is attached to. There are half a gazillion pages in the internet box to go over the nuts and bolts. For you money, you can't beat that. Don't forget to do the control room this way as well as the live room.

And, as I mentioned before with the floor: ceiling?

Alright, first off what do you mean "And, as I mentioned before with the floor: ceiling?" I think i wrote a post about the whole ceiling situation. Anyways, lets start with the floor.

I begin with placing some sort of "foam-mat" (gosh i suck at english) and after that placing the woodenfloor.

That how I though it would go down, but I'll check out those things you metioned!

[garageband]

Sorry for missing the ceiling (and pix) post: missed it on the page shift. After seeing the pictures, I'd have to echo what someone else said, "You're going to wish your live room was bigger.". If it was me and my space and all, I'd not subdivide the space you have for a corridor and chill room. As enticing as that is, you have a shot at having a no-excuses studio environment to record in. Shoot, throw a couch and armchair (bass traps!) against the back wall when you need to turn the machines off, get your heads together and figure out the next more. It would be a shame to compromise that for a couch and a hallway. You'll still need a place to store and secure equipment, so the small rooms are a blessing.

But yeah, hang out at the pub on the corner and ditch the chill room. That room is just perfect and your records will sound amazing if you can make full use of it. There are thousands of bands that would love to have this perfect of a resource to make records in.

[tona9101]

Alright! But i will probably have to build some sort of an Room inside the Room option to make it more soundproof or what do you think?

[tona9101]

2 thought! if the room remain as large as it is, when recording vocals, will I have to use some sort of vocal absorber? (thinking if the room will be more "roomy"

[jagcmos]

Originally Posted by tona9101

Alright! But i will probably have to build some sort of an Room inside the Room option to make it more soundproof or what do you think?

Are there heaters/boilers located near the space that may generate a lot of noise ? I think you said that this is the basement area of a office building.

It looks like radiative heating, but the boiler may make noise.

[garageband]

Originally Posted by tona9101

2 thought! if the room remain as large as it is, when recording vocals, will I have to use some sort of vocal absorber? (thinking if the room will be more "roomy"

Since you will have a serious studio space (put on a serious face here), plan on making some gobos. These can easily stored or used to manipulate other aspects of recording, like instrument isolation or room bifurcation.

But i will probably have to build some sort of an Room inside the Room option to make it more soundproof or what do you think?

If the "landlord/neighbors don't mind or not too much sounds escapes from your immediate environment, I wouldn't sweat it. Again, would pay very small sonic dividends corresponding to added expense and difficulty. Let's not forget: You don't want to build a studio, you want to have a studio. Your pictures remind me of old-school studios like at EMI or Capitol or Columbia. Hey, to that end, for wall treatment, you could take masonite pegboard, put fiberglass insulation between the pegboard and the wall, bow the sheets out into the room, use firring strips to hold/hide the vertical edges and hold it all to the wall and paint the whole thing brite white.

The partially suspended ceiling is an amazing acoustic asset, as well. Are you always this lucky? (I'm guessing "yes".)

All this talk of box-in-a-box and floating floors makes me want to show you something.
Beatles Recording Studio.jpg
It's become a ridiculous cliché to say, "Well, the Beatles did it that way", but this is independent of them. Their documentation is just easier to come up with. Look at this huge room. Look at the crash bars on the door. Cogitate about that for a while. Look around the room to see what they are concerned with and not concerned with. Check out the drummer's nest. The omnipresence of the rolling boom stand (yes, you should have one or two of these).

[tona9101]

Okey, here's the deal. this office building was before a hospital and that's why the interiors look as they look. When i stood in the room (at 8 p.m.) last night i heard some noise through the ceiling, like a humming. outside the hall in the corridor on the opposite side of the corridor theres a room... And i should probably tell you that there's a big dentist facility in this building too. anyways, in this room the whole machinery to the vaccum suckers that dentist have (those who tries to suck out your tounge) is located. And it makes some noise, yes!

Maybe as you say, the room is too nice and big to cut down, anyways did you see the windows to the "controlroom?". That's what I call lucky

[garageband]

anyways did you see the windows to the "controlroom?".

They're awesome and look purpose-made for recording. To the end of solving the down-the-hall noise, possibly consider a triangular vestibule in front of the door leading into the tracking room? "Sounds fancy... and expensive." Not at all. This will just be one short wall on the diagonal in front of the door with its own oversized door than opens inward. In your case, you may need to put a roof over it as well, so its walls don't have to reach the ceiling. I have one of these and it makes a huge difference in controlling the interior sound.

I'm guessing the overhead hum is not atrocious. If you can stand it, your recording will probably be fine. As far as hum, The bigger challenge mightl be the EMI and RFI coming off those huge fluorescent fixtures. Again, may not be a problem. Or they might have to go before you record a note.