Recording & Mixing Studio in Argentina
Posted: Wed, 2020-Jun-10, 20:31
Hello everybody,
First of all, thanks Stuart for the forum! There's such high level of information and knowledgement here! It's very valuable.
My name is Eric, and I'm designing a recording and mixing studio for a friend of mine. It's located 500 kilometres away from where I live, so, by now, I'm working online.
The inner dimensions of the studio are:
- Control Room: 5.17 m. (L) x 4.24 m. (W) x 3.72 m. (H)
- Live Room: 7.07 m. (L) x 5.21 m. (W) x 3.72 m. (H)
The studio was original designed by another friend of us who has passed away last year, so I took the job from then. There's no many data from the original designer, but all the outer shell (made of bricks, 30 cm. thick), floor and ceilings are already done.
The tasks remaining are the inner shell (which is gonna be 3 layers of drywall, 12 mm. each, and an air gap of 12 cm.), put doors and windows in its place (over both shells), air conditioning system, electric installation, pipes between control and live room for audio wires, and, of course, acoustic treatment.
The floor is floated. Made of a big, thick 15 cm. concrete platform, over Mason's floating floor stuff. The inner walls will be over that floor, and attached to the outer shell by Mason's Wics, and the ceiling will be hanging from the outer ceiling by Mason's ceiling Hangers. All that calculated by Mason Engineers.
There aren't any buildings or constructions surrounding the studio, at least by one or two meters. It's located in a house's yard, in a quiet small town. The main noise issue is trucks traffic nearby. The bet is that the studio could be used at any hour of the day, without bothering any neighbors, and get rid of any noise from outside. Maybe the isolation is a little exaggerated for the real needs, but it's already contemplated, so I don't think it harms anything. Therefore, I think the MAM system, with insulation in it, may help with some low mid absorption.
The budget is sort of relaxed. The owner wants the best solutions available for best sound, for a non comercial, but personal studio.
I will start with the control room, and once it's done, we will go on with the live room.
By that time, there are some questions that I have, and hope you can help me with:
- The air conditioning systems are already bought. There are splits. One for control room and two for live room. Which is the right way to pass trough walls the pipes that connect inner and outer units, avoiding flanking points?
- Do the studio need ventilation system for air renewing? In case that needed, which is te best way of doing that without harming isolation? Considering that there's no HVAC central system.
- Again, which is the best way for passing audio cables between control and live room without harming isolation? The best advice I took for that was using multiple 2" pipes, against one bigger, and, that way, sound gets harder passing thru. But I'm afraid i'd be dificult deal with pipe's curves.
- The main layout I draw for monitors and listening position is with the monitors freestanding in the room, since there's little space for soffit mounting, but, due to the fact that the main door is in the spot where first reflections will hit, and it's a glassy reflective surface, I draw an alternative layout where I tilted the door by 20º, in order to redirect that first reflections to the back of the room, and that gives me more room to build soffits and mount monitors into there. What do you think about this alternative layout? Are there any consequences for modal prediction and behavior if tilting the inner wall where door is? Since, by now, it's a perfect rectangular room with a good modal ratio. Will be soffits enough big in that layout? I think the baffle's face will be a little small. Will the separation between monitors be a little big that way? Perhaps it's too much.
- Since the window between control and live room is located in our control room's front wall, right behind the monitors, are there any advantages tilting it up by 12º? (it's the maximum angle the wall's thick allows me).
- The previous designer promised to the costumer installing a big difusor on control room's rear wall. Since my research, I don't know if it's such a great idea, or even necessary. Perhaps a fully absorbent rear wall will be ok, and we don't mess up with certain scattering patterns, but I want to know what you think about.
That's all for now. I hope you can help me, and we can go on with the project soon. Now is in standby because COVID19 restrictions.
Thanks for your time, and sorry for my not great English. Any other sugqestions are welcome!
-Eric-
First of all, thanks Stuart for the forum! There's such high level of information and knowledgement here! It's very valuable.
My name is Eric, and I'm designing a recording and mixing studio for a friend of mine. It's located 500 kilometres away from where I live, so, by now, I'm working online.
The inner dimensions of the studio are:
- Control Room: 5.17 m. (L) x 4.24 m. (W) x 3.72 m. (H)
- Live Room: 7.07 m. (L) x 5.21 m. (W) x 3.72 m. (H)
The studio was original designed by another friend of us who has passed away last year, so I took the job from then. There's no many data from the original designer, but all the outer shell (made of bricks, 30 cm. thick), floor and ceilings are already done.
The tasks remaining are the inner shell (which is gonna be 3 layers of drywall, 12 mm. each, and an air gap of 12 cm.), put doors and windows in its place (over both shells), air conditioning system, electric installation, pipes between control and live room for audio wires, and, of course, acoustic treatment.
The floor is floated. Made of a big, thick 15 cm. concrete platform, over Mason's floating floor stuff. The inner walls will be over that floor, and attached to the outer shell by Mason's Wics, and the ceiling will be hanging from the outer ceiling by Mason's ceiling Hangers. All that calculated by Mason Engineers.
There aren't any buildings or constructions surrounding the studio, at least by one or two meters. It's located in a house's yard, in a quiet small town. The main noise issue is trucks traffic nearby. The bet is that the studio could be used at any hour of the day, without bothering any neighbors, and get rid of any noise from outside. Maybe the isolation is a little exaggerated for the real needs, but it's already contemplated, so I don't think it harms anything. Therefore, I think the MAM system, with insulation in it, may help with some low mid absorption.
The budget is sort of relaxed. The owner wants the best solutions available for best sound, for a non comercial, but personal studio.
I will start with the control room, and once it's done, we will go on with the live room.
By that time, there are some questions that I have, and hope you can help me with:
- The air conditioning systems are already bought. There are splits. One for control room and two for live room. Which is the right way to pass trough walls the pipes that connect inner and outer units, avoiding flanking points?
- Do the studio need ventilation system for air renewing? In case that needed, which is te best way of doing that without harming isolation? Considering that there's no HVAC central system.
- Again, which is the best way for passing audio cables between control and live room without harming isolation? The best advice I took for that was using multiple 2" pipes, against one bigger, and, that way, sound gets harder passing thru. But I'm afraid i'd be dificult deal with pipe's curves.
- The main layout I draw for monitors and listening position is with the monitors freestanding in the room, since there's little space for soffit mounting, but, due to the fact that the main door is in the spot where first reflections will hit, and it's a glassy reflective surface, I draw an alternative layout where I tilted the door by 20º, in order to redirect that first reflections to the back of the room, and that gives me more room to build soffits and mount monitors into there. What do you think about this alternative layout? Are there any consequences for modal prediction and behavior if tilting the inner wall where door is? Since, by now, it's a perfect rectangular room with a good modal ratio. Will be soffits enough big in that layout? I think the baffle's face will be a little small. Will the separation between monitors be a little big that way? Perhaps it's too much.
- Since the window between control and live room is located in our control room's front wall, right behind the monitors, are there any advantages tilting it up by 12º? (it's the maximum angle the wall's thick allows me).
- The previous designer promised to the costumer installing a big difusor on control room's rear wall. Since my research, I don't know if it's such a great idea, or even necessary. Perhaps a fully absorbent rear wall will be ok, and we don't mess up with certain scattering patterns, but I want to know what you think about.
That's all for now. I hope you can help me, and we can go on with the project soon. Now is in standby because COVID19 restrictions.
Thanks for your time, and sorry for my not great English. Any other sugqestions are welcome!
-Eric-