Desinging a House (with a music room/studio) from scratch

[surfsup]

Good stuff guys, thanks! I've got some homework to do...

[overtone]

All good points, the lot runs east to west and is somewhat narrow so i think there will be a decent amount of southern exposure. I'll check out this golden ratio. I would assume architacts and architectural software is familiar with this ratio?

Generally you can say that a room is easier to furnish if you follow the golden section. It is mathematics and you can apply it to every decision that you make, but it helps to get a feel of it first rather than blindly follow it. Sometimes you need to break the rules. I used to measure every room that i encountered that felt right, like tracing the schematic of an amp, to understand it.

A narrow lot suggests a long drawn out building which could be perfect for what you want. Those kind of plots are good for families.

True isolation is a major investment. In commercial projects we usually settle for a heavy weight mineral batt in perforated steel panels, like studio gumbos, to meet the statutory targets. If you really need to stop low frequencies then you need the box in box solution with the inner box being as massive as possible. Hope this makes sense, it was a long night here,
best,
tony

[Structo]

Cool site, man some of these guys really go the extra mile for a studio.

Would be a lot of fun.

[Gibsonman63]

Diffusion can make a big difference. If you are unable to build a room with the golden ratio, you can at least break up the resonant frequencies. TapeOp had the plans for the BBC version. Basically 2"x2" blocks of various lengths in a specified pattern attached to a 2'x2' base. You can make them out of almost anything.

[NickC]

It's tough to get everything right in a retrofit. Compromises must be made.

My room is not Golden Ratio friendly: it's 12 W x 20 L x 7.5 H. Not friendly at all.

It's set up to fire the near-fields the long way. Behind the monitors the entire wall is treated. To each side it is treated, strategically along both flanks. The rear wall is treated with bass traps in each corner. The back wall (the wall the monitors fire into) is also treated with a combination of absorption and diffusion (mostly absorption). My compromise is on the side of absorption, so that standing waves don't compromise the listening position sweet spot for mixing.

[Reeltarded]

We just kept piling up wood until it sounded about right and then started piling up money until it sounded almost perfect and then started piling up numbers on paper until nobody could hear the difference.

Honestly, my back hurts just thinking about the last 90% of time it took hauling pictures of money there at the end.

[surfsup]

So my latest idea is use ICFs to do the walls of the house and have a solid wood door on the room where it opens to the rest of the house. This particular room will jutt out from the house and have three walls on the outside, and one common internal (that will have a bathroom with insulated walls between it and the reast of the house). That's going to be good enough for the very rare occasions I will want to crank an amp (and likely be the only one home).

The 6" concrete and 2.5" of hard foam on each side (5" total for 11" total wall thickness) should insulate the neighbors well...

I decided i didn't really want a "music" room, more a room that is multi-functional. Should be pretty sweet...

[Firestorm]

Solid wood doors are pretty resonant. You might want to spring for a multi-layer soundproof door.

[Reeltarded]

Only real way is room in a room with air as the barrier and double doors creating a lock at each entry.

Our studio has double heavy sheetrock coverings on inner and outers, a cubic mile of 703, a parsec of rock wool, and 3 billion 2x4s as studs on split bottom and top plates. It all floats..

[NickC]

Solid wood doors are pretty resonant. You might want to spring for a multi-layer soundproof door.

+1

[NickC]

Only real way is room in a room with air as the barrier and double doors creating a lock at each entry.

Our studio has double heavy sheetrock coverings on inner and outers, a cubic mile of 703, a parsec of rock wool, and 3 billion 2x4s as studs on split bottom and top plates. It all floats..

Stop! You're causing me to salivate uncontrollably!

Sounds wonderful!









P.S. - That OC 703 is dang-near impossible to source around these parts. Only folks that can special order it are big-time industrial contractors, and their minimum orders are a-hundred-times bigger than my maximum in my wildest dreams. Great stuff though!

[Structo]

I always loved the look of Studio C at Blackbird Studios in Nashville.

http://www.blackbirdstudio.com/#/home/