John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

Hi Everyone,

Well, I'm certainly learning alot from these forums and all the great posts. Thanx to John for such a resourceful site!

I'm a Canadian who recently bought a new small bi-level home with the intentions of designing a project studio in the unfinished basement (8 ft. ceiling, unfortunately). Usable space is roughly 950 sq. feet, with the Control Room only coming in at about 13' x 15' x 8' and Live Room at 16 x 17 x 8. We also have a small vocal booth in the plans (4 x 6 x 8 ).

The house is in a residential area and is about 11' from neighbors on both sides, and we're quite lucky to have no one behind us (backed up to a school ground, but the school is at least 300 yards away so it is quite quiet). The north side of this design faces the open school ground.

Due to the problematic location of the furnace/water heater and all the jackposts, we've re-worked our design several times, and have finally come up with something that we hope is feasible.

We haven't drawn in bass traps, slats or paneling yet. You may notice the Control Room has a closet in the corner; we had to conceal a drainage pipe from upstairs. In addition, the Control Room utilizes a short Pony Wall so that we don't have a bare jackpost sticking out like a sore thumb.

We just wanted to get some opinions on whether or not this design can be viable, and any suggestions are welcome!

Thanx in advance to all who can give us a hand.
Warm regards from Alberta, Canada
- cris

PS - We used Smart Draw for the diagram, and can submit the original file...

Looks like that jack post is going to ruin the control room symmetry. It's probably better to have a jack post free standing in a studio rather than a control room. Any possibility of swapping them around so the control room is at the bottom of the stairs?

cheers
john

Hi John,

Thanx for your suggestions and comments regarding the symmetry issue and the jackpost. We went back to the drawing board and came up with this design. We axed the mini-vocal booth entirely, and I'm hoping that reversing the location of the Control Room and Live Room will be more suitable.

We still would like to use the remaining open area for a 5.1 theater system (eventually).

Any comments and suggestions are welcome in regards to both designs.

Thanx in advance,
- cris

Yeah - either way the control room suffers - your new one is even smaller and less symmetrical - try your original layout BUT with the jackpost removed and see how that works out.

BTW is the rest of the layout (i,e, bathroom etc) fixed??

cheers
john

John,

Yeah - unfortunately the bathroom is fixed as the plumming was already put in. The other problem is the location of the furnace and water heater....most new houses have this stuff situated in a corner and out of the way.

These are things that were overlooked as I was having the house built while I was still living overseas (Korea). Otherwise, I would have put in a higher ceiling, moved the furnace, etc.
Live and learn I guess!

We are more partial to the first design, but wouldn't putting an I-beam in be a massive undertaking?

Thanx again for your help...
- cris

Not really chris - all you need is some agro props that hold up the joists while you remove the bearer. Put the I Beam (you might not even need a steel beam but just a larger beam) up and you are in biz.

As a rule of thumb for a span divide by two and add 0ne. i.e. for a 12' span you need a 7" x 3" beam. For a 20 foot span you need an 11" x 3" beam.

cheers
john

Thanx for the tips John - it's really appreciated. What I'm going to do is research this option with some local builders and then take action in the near future. I'd rather take some time and get it right rather than rushing into things. Sure learning lots in the meantime!

Best regards,

cris