Building new home sound studio

Chanimal wrote on 9/15/2005, 6:18 AM

I am building a new home and want to create a home recording and filming studio and need advice for my specs.

I have five kids and we've been into piano lessons for over 7 years and are starting the other instruments (played drums for 30 years). We will have a semi-pro family band (Osmonds and other Mormon bands).

I want one room for the instruments. Another with a window for the recording equipment. Another area specifically for voice.

I will also seutp one wall with greenscreen for filming dance moves.

Since I can build it from scratch (and am about to come up with the plans for the builder), I need to know dimensions, wall/floor/ceiling materials, how to handle air conditioning, windows?, etc.

Spot and others--if you had this opportunity, what is the ideal configuration? I need a lot of details from the pros.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 9/15/2005, 11:29 AM

The pros will have far more input, based on real-life experience, so wait until they contribute. However, here are a few things I know from home theater experience (which is somewhat related):

1. Use staggered studs and batt insulation for sound proofing. Staggered studs means that you have two sets of studs, one for the inside wall, and one for the outside wall. This way, none of the sound can be transferred via the wood because the walls don't share any common supporting elements. Fill the gaps between the walls with insulation to keep the air from transmitting the sound. I think there may even be insulation designed for this purpose (like they use in cars).

2. You need to pay special attention to grounding of your electrical. There is probably even more than this that needs to be done that the pros will know about. However, the one thing for sure is to make sure that everything is wired to the "same side" of the electrical circuit. All North American houses have 240V coming into the house, and this is split into two circuits -- if you put part of the studio on one half and the other on another half, you can create some pretty nasty ground loops.

trock wrote on 9/15/2005, 1:36 PM

The Recording Studio Design forums at:

http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

are an excellent source of such information.

Tony

Chanimal wrote on 9/15/2005, 6:12 PM

John,

Good comments about the ground circuits - never thought of that.

Keep the suggestions coming...

RalphM wrote on 9/15/2005, 6:46 PM

You may want to invest in a copy of "Audio Post production for Digital Video" by Jay Rose www.dplay.com. some good words for studio construction, and a good all around resource.

Spot|DSE wrote on 9/15/2005, 8:48 PM

I'd be more looking at Jeff Cooper's book, and other books by sound designers. 15 years ago, I was ace on this stuff, it's what I majored in. SO many new materials are available today that weren't available then. Sheetrock rails, rubber mount blox, lots of stuff. Spend a little time on the Auralex site.
Forget sound proofing, there is no such thing in the budget of building a home studio. You can significantly reduce STC (sound transmission coefficient) but you can't stop it without spending as much as you would for a house.

Power is critical. Be sure everything ties to a single ground point, and it's a good idea if it's a separate ground from the house. Code requires specific distances between grounding rods. A power conditioner is great.
High ceilings are very helpful in design, as it allows you to avoid square rooms, which are the bane of any studio. You don't want any squared walls or ceiling if you can avoid it. Plan on double sheetrock over Celotex, but there are other options available these days for less money. Sand filled cinderblock is great for tracking rooms if you need one, that's what our rooms are, floated cinderblock filled with sand, masticked together on neoprene laid rails. PITA to build but very solid and low transmission.
Doors are one of the single most expensive components. Solid hickory doors with Ztrap bottom are not cheap. And not totally effective, but way better than a hollow core door with cardboard inserts.

Plan on not building in soffits for speakers, stand mounted is better for small rooms. Plan on having a walk-behind area so you're not working against a wall.
Use only good cable. It has to last a while, so buy it like you need it to last 30 years. Canare/Mogami
Invest well in the building, and that will help you save in the operating.
Airconditioning...you need a spill chute. This slows the velocity of the air so it basically "falls" out of the vent, no actual air current. Expensive, but again....reduces the single greatest cause of noise in a studio. Air. Remember that ducts transmit sound very well, but there are step up/down ducts with spill suppressors that aren't too expensive. Your Plumbing and Heating guy will likely know about them.
Owens Corning also has some really nice tools.
There is a website called "Myths of sound proofing, I can't find the link right now, but these should help.

http://supersoundproofing.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi

http://www.finetuning.com/articles/p6-228-home-improvement--an-overview-of-doityourself-soundproofing.html

filmy wrote on 9/15/2005, 9:33 PM

Insulation will be important , actually it is a bit obvious because I think most people, myself included, focus a bit more on the inside of the studio - what speakers sound best, where to put them and so on. But a few years ago there was an article in the paper about homes being built by the freeway. It had nothing to do with studio's or media of anysort. It was just about how more and more people are buying up the unused land close to freeways and building there. The thing that jumped out at me was the fact that the local building codes only required an R-Rating of like 2 but they were using insulation with an R-Rating of, like, 25. And the reporter who did the story noted that inside the house you really would not know you were within a few hundred yards of a freeway.

Anyhow - here is some info of intrest on the topic:
Noise Basics - Sound Control 101

Chanimal wrote on 9/16/2005, 5:37 AM

The John Slayers's website Trock refers to is incredible. It contains floor plans, angles for walls, insulation, interior double walls, etc. Incredible information.

Thanks.