John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

Dear all!
I'd like to ask you for advice concerning a studio project I'm about to undertake.

Objectives and intended use:

Recording of electronic instruments, monitoring via loudspeakers/headphones
Recording of limited acoustic instruments, e.g. guitar, saxophone and vocals
Mixing/mastering
Practicing by myself and with small ensembles, e.g acoustic Jazz duo.

The room (as you can see below...) is fairly small, but it's all I have and I will have to make it work; dimensions are 3.20m (D) by 5.60m (W) by 1.75m (H).
The walls are 6" concrete blocks, the roof is made from wooden beams and plywood, finished off on the outside with heavy red clay roof tiles. The whole thing is situated overlooking my bedroom and directly above a child's room.
The floor is AFAIK my main problem, it's just some plywood resting on some solid wooden beams, which are resting on/in concrete walls, so they can take quite a load. Footfall is extremely prominent, as is vibration from the ceiling fan in the kid's room underneath (photo!), the fan is NOT installed in the designated space.

I had the following plan:

Lay a 12mm recycled rubber mat all over the floor, remove the PVC sheaths of the cabling to make them smaller and cut some channels for the wires into the rubber, fill all spaces with caulk and around the perimeter.
Top that off with MDF plates, caulk around edges, no nails or screws top let the plates sit by their own weight.
Top that off with a velours carpet.
The opening facing the bedroom I was thinking of putting double glass windows in, and was thinking of decoupling them from the roof with recycled rubber strips ("ISO Sill")
The small window opens to the outside (roof terrace), put another double pane glass window in there in addition to the shutters.
As a door, I was thinking of having a frame made with two facing solid wood doors or maybe MDF, putting interlocking wedge foam on the insides.
Finally, I'll install a split unit airconditioning, since this project is situated in the tropics...

In terms of treatment for room acoustics, I was thinking of putting foam bass traps in all corners and some wedge foam on the side walls.

Vertical space is at a premium, so any floor "solution" needs to be extremely low profile.
Access is with a ladder, btw...

All and any information and tips about this project are very welcome, I know that this will be far from perfect, but I'll try to make it as good as I can, within my budget of around a 1000 US$.
Pictures below.

Thanks for your input,

Benji

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Island Music
Bonaire, Caribbean
http://www.islandmusic.pro

oyou're probably best off with some isolation on the windows and improving the room symmetry then applying the rest of your budget to absorption treatments to try to make the space somewhat usable.

what type of monitors are you using? mixer?

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Glenn

Glenn,
thanks so much for your fast and concise answer, much appreciated.
And: In my post I will state my opinions here and there, fully aware that you guys are the experts, so I'm really not pretending to know anything!
I guess it's first things first... so:

1. What is your experience with this material: http://www.soundisolationstore.com/12mm-rubber-underlayment.html? Does it look suitable for my intended use, which is reinforcing the floor with as little thickness as possible. I'd like to pour concrete for mass, but that's unpractical. Does this rubber material itself support a layer of e.g. MDF without wobbling, in terms of stiffness (walking around without tilting the floor...)?
2. The windows are yet to be put in, the space doesn't have windows! In the photo you can see it's just the wooden shutters, no glass, and it faces to the outside. I was thinking of having double glass windows fitted from the inside and caulked. I feel that the vibration transfer to and from the concrete wall with the little window will be minimal, however the planned larger windows overlooking the room below will touch the roof, and they likely need to be "decoupled". What do you think of just caulking/glueing them into place, not screwing them in or anything?
3. I was thinking of getting some prefab 703 bass trap panels, about six, and putting them under the roof above my listening position and on the walls.
4. Monitors will be Mackie MR5Mk2, mixer will be A&H ZED-R16.

Thanks for your input!
Benji

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Island Music
Bonaire, Caribbean
http://www.islandmusic.pro

I just discovered that I can attach the .skp file, in case that helps. There's no actual acoustic stuff in there, it's just the construction as best as I could manage.

B.

_________________
Island Music
Bonaire, Caribbean
http://www.islandmusic.pro