John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

Hello-
I am in the planning stages of turning a datacenter into a studio. I have attached a diagram of the facility. All walls are cinderblock, ceiling is 10' and floor is tile with concrete slab.
This will be a work in progess as the main room will serve as a reheasal room as well as main recording area.

What would everyone consider to be the top priority in construction?
If you had to pick 1 room would the control room be the one to complete first?
I'll be posting questions as I go. The building is bare, it mine and can do anything with it so throw me some ideas.
thanks!
Earl

Hey Earl, welcome to the board;

Concrete slab on earth, or suspended above a lower floor?

So, when you say "empty", does this mean that those gawd-awful parallel walls aren't built yet?

How loud are your neighbors, and how loud are YOU?

What's your approximate budget level, and are you a "hammer dulcimer" band or a "Pissed off Spinal Tap" kind of band?

Are the cinderblock walls filled, or hollow? What kind of covering is on the inside and outside?

Ceiling joists - how far apart, what size, what's hanging on them, are they trusses or just straight joists?

Air handler - is is isolated with rubber, loud, quiet, metal ducts or other?

The double doors - already there or future, well-sealed or crap, anything else that may be pertinent...

Anything else that my questions may have triggered, please elaborate - this type construction lives or dies with the details... Steve

Steve -
thanks for the response
I've answered the questions best I could. I am going to take some pics today or tommorrow and post them as well.

See below for answers:

Concrete slab on earth, or suspended above a lower floor?
Concrete Slab on Earth

So, when you say "empty", does this mean that those gawd-awful parallel walls aren't built yet?
Oh no- They are built. I have been trying how to decide how to get rid of all the parallel walls. but the diagram is how it is now.

How loud are your neighbors, and how loud are YOU?
Well I can get pretty loud. Neighbors aren't too big a deal as far as leakage. We are not in a neighborhood. It's actually downtown.
I was in a rock band. Loud Drums, Marshall Stacks etc... I have to be prepared for that but I would also like to be as versatile as possible even down to voice-over for video.

What's your approximate budget level, and are you a "hammer dulcimer" band or a "Pissed off Spinal Tap" kind of band? Budget hmmm.
I would like to get things right the first time. So if I have to put what I can into the control room for now I would do that. The main room will also serve as a rehearsal room for a while. I have basic equipment at present that will let me do some recording. Mackie 32x8, couple ADATs, ProTools, some OK mics etc....

Are the cinderblock walls filled, or hollow? What kind of covering is on the inside and outside?
I think they are filled I will see if I can find out. Walls are just bare cinderblock in and out.

Ceiling joists - how far apart, what size, what's hanging on them, are they trusses or just straight joists?
hmmm - will have to get a ladder and check it out. Ceiling is not the acoustic tile floating ceiling. I will post pics later today.

Air handler - is is isolated with rubber, loud, quiet, metal ducts or other?
2 air handlers. both supply entire building. being a datacenter you had to have backup. I have looked at using one for control room.


The double doors - already there or future, well-sealed or crap, anything else that may be pertinent...
Double doors are already there. Heavy metal doors but not well sealed.

Anything else that my questions may have triggered, please elaborate - this type construction lives or dies with the details...
I will take a bunch of pics.

thanks!
Earl

I've taken a few pictures and labeled them on the diagram so you can get an idea of what I am dealing with.

This picture is from location Pic 1 and would be the Control Room.
You can see the air handler in the back and a small closet that could actually be an iso booth. The door at left opens into the Main room.

the wall is cinderblock and I am looking into cutting a hole for the glass. Also looking to build a room inside this room for the control room.

This is the main room. This was taken from location Pic 2.
You can see in the back left the return for the 2nd air handler.

The double doors go into storage room.

I'm going to nit pick because I'm jealous of your space.

I think you need to correct a couple of the horizontal dimensions, unless the space is not rectangular. The bottom two dimensions of 25'-0" are presumably less.

Best of luck!

Pix help, but I still need the rest of the questions answered when you get time... Steve

If I were to take out the 2 inside cinderblock walls and basically make it a 25'x50' building, what would be my optimum setup?

In that size studio what size control room should I be looking at?

I will find out about walls and roof monday or tuesday. Would it be better if I could raise the ceiling in some area? It's 10'.

Earl

Here is a rough layout of one layout I am considering.
I will get measurements in there shortly.
the dotted lines are where the cinderblock walls are now.
red line show live floor in main room (hardwood)
the rest are walls.

The cinder block walls arent' load bearing are they?

I am going tommorrow to check. I have to get up in the roof to see the roof construction. They way the building was built I don't believe they are.
Anyway, I got to thinking that by taking the walls out that would leave me more options...
Earl

Earl, any updates yet? Just checking... Steve

Well we got started on tearing down existing walls. I am going to save part of the cinderblock wall as it will serve as a wall for the air handler.
cleanup is going to be fun. The existing walls can been seen in the diagram by the dotted line -about 12' and 10' from each end.
also attached is an updated layout of the studio. monitors are 8ft apart. I decided to make control room a little bigger.
2 ISO rooms and Drum Room.
Comments and suggestions are Welcome.
Knightfly - I am gathering the info you requested

thanks
Earl

I sure hope that wall isn't load bearing...

The Wall is not loadbearing. believe me I checked it out beforehand several times!