John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello all, I'm a long time lurker on this board and over the years have been fascinated by the wealth of knowledge and the breadth of people's ingenuity that I've witnessed. Although plenty still eludes me, I've learned an awful lot by sneaking around here listening to what people have to say about this stuff.

Please allow me to present my own, weird little scenario...

I've inherited the use of a small outbuilding on the outskirts of London, UK. It's approximately 3.5m x 3m x 2.2m high. The previous occupant was also a musician friend of mine and they had basically built a room within a room there - 4' x 2" studs set on neoprene strips fixed to a concrete floor, what looks like 100mm rockwool slab in the cavities, finished with 2 layers of plasterboard/sheetrock on the inside and two solid core doors, one being the external door and the other being the one attached to the stud room. (Both doors are set in the middle of the longest wall) The building is at the end of a 40 metre garden and doesn't directly back on to any neighbours. The nearest one being around 20 metres away. The isolation as far as I can tell without actually properly measuring it, appears "pretty good". (Yep. I appreciate that's a crap term, but that's all I have to go on at the moment) I've checked it out with having a (again, crap term) "fairly loud" decent hifi system on and for the most part all you can hear from outside are the very low frequencies, but even then one has to actually "listen" for them as the daytime outside ambient noise masks it all pretty well.

Anyway, I realise that the dimensions are far from ideal, but I'd like to turn it into a small mixing/overdub room. I would be using the room mainly for writing and mixing rock/pop and monitoring through a pair of Genelec 1030a speakers. There would also be the occasional full tilt vocal going on plus I have been offered an opportunity to record some audio books which may turn into an ongoing thing, so I'd like to squeeze in a very small voiceover/iso booth along one side and was considering doing a version of John's vocal booth design. However, I'm in a quandary as to what would provide the best isolation. Bearing in mind that the whole thing is already a room within a room, if I were to build another "room" inside that would I compromise the overall isolation by adding another leaf that the booth would bring? I realise there are other factors to consider - acoustics, bass trapping, air flow, ceiling height, etc, etc, but for now I am wondering what anyone's thoughts might be about this potential leaf issue. Another "room within a room" ? Or would it be better to build off what already exists and essentially only add two new stud walls to enclose the booth in a corner maybe. I know I could just leave it as one larger room and when doing vocals or od's just monitor through headphones but I'm erring on the side of a booth because from experience I've found that people tend to be more confident and less inhibited when they're in that slightly separated environment plus there's also a high likelihood of an amount of late night recording going on, which, as we all know, tends to be more noticeably audible to the outside world if circumstances aren't ideal.

Anyway. There you have it. What do you think guys 'n' gals? Anyone have any input? I would have put up a Sketchup file to show you what I've been thinking of, but I think I need a little while to get to grips with how to use it.

I'd say welcome but you've been here a while!!!

If you have to struggle to hear low end with loud speakers cranking in the room, I'd say you'll be fine with audio book recording. I understand the issue with confidence in a separate room but I honestly think your space is too small to have a decent mixing area and booth. If you're not too picky about how it looks in there, maybe just hang a blanket in front of the performer so they can't see you???

Greg

Hello Greg, Cheers for the reply.

I guess it's partly an amp thing. (If I do ever need to crank something up a little it would be good to have the confidence that it wouldn't spill out) and yes, partly visual I suppose. Bearing in mind the possibility of having outside clients in, it would probably create a more "professional" impression if the space was more purpose built. Plus I think the booth could be treated well enough to cope with low level vocals through a cardioid mic. (Probably a U87 or possibly an RE20)

I know there are some severe limitations owing to the overall size of the space but I do think this is the way I would like to go. Just unsure about the construction aspect of it.

Any and all feedback gratefully accepted.

I totally understand. In a perfect situation, you would sever the ceiling and walls at the point where you want the divider wall. Then, stick frame 2 new walls with doors in the middle. This would ultimately create this layout except you won't have the hallway and you'll have 2 rooms instead of 3 --- but I think you'll get the idea: I would suggest drawing up your room with SketchUp Make. From there, we can dissect your plan and make sure you go into the modification with confidence.

Greg

Yep. I saw that design, and have myself built a bunch of rehearsal studios that way. Problem is here that the stud walls are already up, so the only way to go "inside out" would be to tear a large proportion of it down to be able to put the drywall on the back of the stud walls. And, to be quite honest, and without meaning to sound like I'm just copping out, I just don't have time or the the energy to do that.

I am thinking I could separate the perimeter stud wall and split the room that way. Build a new stud wall from there that to divide the whole room, (2 layers of drywall, etc), seal it all, put a door in, then build the booth inside that. (stud walls, 2 layers of drywall, door, etc). What I'm not sure of is how much the "leaf effect" might muck things up. Though, as I say, the booth will be largely for vocals so there isn't likely to be much low frequency content to be dealt with at least.

You certainly don't have to have inside out walls/ceiling. What I am suggesting is to split the room up and you could build the partition walls inside out if you'd like. Nothing is easy but it should achieve what you want without too much work.

Greg