Big NO NO's in studio design

coccla

This thread is limit the amount of mistakes I could possibly make in designing my own studio, I have a pretty good grasp of acoustics and I know a good bit on audio set up. My main concerns is being ripped off, choice of location, analogue vs digital... to name a few, also if I should have expencive instruments available for clients? I would appriciate any feedback of your own experiance and what to look out for.
Cheers!

PaulBrewer

This is what I do for my day job!

I'll gladly give you few pointers . I do see the same ole mistakes again and again as I go around the country.

The Biggest one is 'Build Now, Ask Later' which invariably leads to huge compromises.

By asking questions now you'll avoid the many pitfalls - so that's a GREAT start.



P

studiorat

What were your thought's on location? Is it a new build or are you squeezing it into an existing location?
Have a snoop around for google sketch-up and try a draw a few plans out then. John Sayers forum is good and so is the Gearslutz forum for this kind of self build business.

coccla

studiorat wrote: »

What were your thought's on location? Is it a new build or are you squeezing it into an existing location?
Have a snoop around for google sketch-up and try a draw a few plans out then. John Sayers forum is good and so is the Gearslutz forum for this kind of self build business.

Wow John Sayers fourm is great, I think I will referance my ideas and set important guidlines using this site. In terms of location, I have planning permission for a 2000 sq foot 2 story building and a single story 500sq foot building, The area is 10 mins outside of Wexford town, I don't know if thats a good idea or not, this is something i still need to research. My idea is to use the 500sq foot building as the main live/tracking studio complete with control room and a small canteen/kitchen as well as a toilet. The other building will have a mixing and mastering studio(I haven't chosen my digital audio sowftare preferances yet), a Midi studio(also design is undecided), kitchen, dining room, hall, 3/4 bedrooms and some bathrooms. I have plans for the "house" part but none for the live studio. My goal is to have a place where I can live and work whilst offering clients not only, half day to day sessions but as long as they want it for as long as they pay, plus they can live there for the duration, kinda like a B&B only with recording capibilities. I won't be starting to build this for another year at least, but I don't want to spend anymore money before knowing it could be profitable!

alan.com

Steer Clear Of Indian Burial Grounds!!!!!!!

studiorat

coccla wrote: »

I won't be starting to build this for another year at least, but I don't want to spend anymore money before knowing it could be profitable!

Should be interesting, that's a whole heap of space.

frobisher

I'm a strong believer in doing things not because they may or may not work but because you just want to do them, however, I think you should tread carefully here. I have no idea of your level of knowledge or expereince in this field (you could be a multi-million selling producer!) but that's a big project you're proposing, especially in the studio business of today. Just flagging this with you, you may know all this stuff already. Recording studios are not like amusement parks, "build it and they will come" does not apply. And EVERYONE will tell you it will be amazing, forgive my cynicism, and that they will book it etc but this isn't neccesarily the case.

You should do a feasibilty study on it and see how the numbers look when crunched in a few directions. A solid business pan would be my first port of call here then build out from there. Don't try and get the numbers to fit the concept, get the concept to work with the numbers. That way you'll still be there in 5 years time. All of that said, if it's an ambition you beleive in then you should just go for it. But it's a tough industry these days!

You should check out forums with bigger studio owners on them like Gearslutz and a few others out there. Sober reading.

PaulBrewer

frobisher wrote: »

I'm a strong believer in doing things not because they may or may not work but because you just want to do them, however, I think you should tread carefully here. I have no idea of your level of knowledge or expereince in this field (you could be a multi-million selling producer!) but that's a big project you're proposing, especially in the studio business of today. Just flagging this with you, you may know all this stuff already. Recording studios are not like amusement parks, "build it and they will come" does not apply. And EVERYONE will tell you it will be amazing, forgive my cynicism, and that they will book it etc but this isn't neccesarily the case.

You should do a feasibilty study on it and see how the numbers look when crunched in a few directions. A solid business pan would be my first port of call here then build out from there. Don't try and get the numbers to fit the concept, get the concept to work with the numbers. That way you'll still be there in 5 years time. All of that said, if it's an ambition you beleive in then you should just go for it. But it's a tough industry these days!

You should check out forums with bigger studio owners on them like Gearslutz and a few others out there. Sober reading.

Hell Yea-

I know lots of places that have good gear but are dogs of rooms - it puts a very definite limit on the quality achievable, despite having a studio that's good on the technical front.

I would also encourage invest all necessary to make the rooms bangin now - even if that may mean making cuts to the gear budget initially.

Your rooms are what will set you apart from the competition and unlike gear can't be easily changed, post build.

We work with a UK based acoustitian as we couldn't find anyone local who had the expertise. The guy is over here often as he's working on U2's gaff at the moment.

If you wanted to nip up to Dublin we could organize a free meeting over a coffee to point out the common pitfalls if that was of interest.

Anyone else who may be thinking about Acoustics is also invited to do the same.

frobisher

PaulBrewer wrote: »

If you wanted to nip up to Dublin we could organize a free meeting over a coffee to point out the common pitfalls if that was of interest.

Anyone else who may be thinking about Acoustics is also invited to do the same.

Coccla: That's a mighty good offer you've got there!

coccla

It is indeed a great opertinuity, and thank you for all your feedback.
In terms of the building; it will be built, but not necessarily for a studio purpose, My father will build on the permission if I don't. I did number crunching work with absortion coefficiants for materials and messed around with the shape of the live room to give certain parts of the room it's own characteristic. Having said all that: I am not expert and I will take the hand off paul for his very generious offer.

Eric Cartman

i have a room i cant really modify the walls in, i can stick stuff to them, its a square room abbout 4m x 4m, i am thinking of turning it into a studio, any advice about acoustics etc ?

PaulBrewer

Eric Cartman wrote: »

i have a room i cant really modify the walls in, i can stick stuff to them, its a square room abbout 4m x 4m, i am thinking of turning it into a studio, any advice about acoustics etc ?

Eric PM me and we'll have a chat....

studiorat

Eric Cartman wrote: »

i have a room i cant really modify the walls in, i can stick stuff to them, its a square room abbout 4m x 4m, i am thinking of turning it into a studio, any advice about acoustics etc ?

If it is square that's going to be a problem right from the start. It means you will have the same axial modes (standing waves) between the front and back and the two sides. Parallel walls with the same surfaces are a big no, no too. But thankfully not too hard to fix by using T&G cladding or similar on some of the walls, we've gone for 3" gaps behind filled with rockwoll seems to work well. Ideally you should try and shape the rooms walls by building flats in the corners and down the room a little and using rockwool hangers (strips 3" thick with gaps between each behind them.

If you are building absorbers etc, use RW40 rockwool (it's quite dense) and don't forget to mount them maybe 4" from the actual wall surface itself. This widens their bandwidth and makes them more efficient.