f e at u r e

Jon Burton

lthough Im not aprofessional studio builder, Ihave worked as asound engineer for many years, both live and in the studio. Iam often asked by bands Iwork with if Ican help sort out their rehearsal rooms, so they can practice without disturbing the neighbours and do demo recordings there. Iinevitably wish that they had come to me before they signed the lease! We all know studios that are nothing more than aconvenient collection of cheap rooms with some carpet on the walls, foam on the ceilings and, if you are lucky, bass traps. Some of these thrown-together rooms can sound OK, and be reasonably successful at producing acceptable results but if they do, its blind luck! Ihave been in many rooms that will never be right no matter how much time is spent on them, either because

Build Right
Professional Advice For Home Studio Building
If youre looking to build astudio, theres masses of information out there but no substitutes for professional advice and experience.
they are fundamentally the wrong shape and/or because they are constructed from inappropriate materials. Building astudio always requires acertain amount of work, and often involves reducing the existing dimensions as you put in double walls, floating floors and extra ceilings in an attempt to isolate the recording space from the surrounding structure. If you are not on the ground floor, all the issues are made more difficult, as any weight you add will need to be supported by the existing floor: areal concern and potential major expense. Many properties simply are not suitable: rooms with flimsy stud walls and beamed wooden floors are unlikely ever to be made sufficiently solid to be

The basic plan for Jon Burtons Laundry Rooms studio complex, as devised by Recording Architecture. Experienced professionals can come up with solutions in minutes to problems that might otherwise plague you for years.

118

June 2013 / w w w . s o u n d o n s o u n d . c o m

able to stop the sound of afull-on band migrating to neighbouring rooms. Iwas recently shown one ideal building that was already equipped with studio-sized rooms except that all the rooms shared acommon roof void, above the suspended ceiling tiles, affording no separation at all! Even if separation issues can be solved, theres the question of how suitable the space is: low ceilings, box shapes and parallel walls rarely produce good-sounding rooms.

Faced with all these potential problems, the idea of paying for professional help seems alot more attractive!

Roger That
Several years ago, Idecided that it was about time Ibuilt my own studio. Ihad found ahouse with asuitable basement, and it looked like becoming my dream home. Unfortunately, the market crashed, as did our house sale but Ihad become attached to the idea of owning my own

studio, touring less and working at home. After much searching, Ifound adisused laundry building in Sheffield and anew dream was born. Obviously, by this point the idea had grown out of all proportion to my original concept. Inow had abusiness partner and alarge building that needed to pay its way. Iwas no longer building asingle studio, but fitting as many control rooms as Icould into the space and sub-letting them. I had read countless books, visited numerous forums and web sites. Ihad

The DIY Route

If your studio is to be amoney-making venture, investing in professional design and construction advice is very worthwhile, as youll discover in the main text of this article. But what about those of us whose ambitions, and budgets, are more humble? If you dont have the money to pay for tailored professional advice, you dont need structural work, and you are just trying to convert abedroom or spare room into amusic-writing space, do you turn to companies that provide balanced room kits, or search the Internet for do-it-yourself sites and advice? And how do you know which advice will be sound, or relevant? One of the great things about music is peoples willingness to share ideas and experience, and this crosses over to studio design. The many forums that are out there are testament to this. Aquestion can be asked and adozen replies arrive overnight one look at the SOS forum will provide you with many examples! At the beginning of my own build, Ipored over countless sites and read numerous pages. Ialso encountered contradictory information, as well as some that was just plain wrong! An online calculator that appeared on several sites was posted on another with acorrection, as the equation used originally had been mistyped! There are some very good reference books out there, aimed at different sections of the market, and some great self-build sites. Iwould, however, cross-reference everything you do, read more than one article and more than one book, and see what the tried and trusted methods are. The nature of sound means that preference does come into play, but this doesnt mean that good studio acoustics are not quantifiable. The subject was broached many years ago by such organisations as the BBC, and guidelines laid down, depending on the studios use, stating the reverberation times best for different uses. Studio sizes were debated and ratios of room dimensions detailed between small, medium and large rooms. Almost all this information is in the public domain, although sifting through it is time-consuming and can be confusing. One of many people who provide advice and help on the Internet is Bob Gallagher, whose
Peter Janis of Radial Engineering.

homestudioguy web site provides low-cost build plans. As Bob says, Even if someone is just beginning to record with asmall setup in their basement or spare room, major acoustic changes can be made just by incorporating some appropriately placed acoustic materials and rearranging furniture as has been shown countless times in Sound On Sound magazines Studio SOS articles. In those cases, the suggestions are made by professionals and are generally low-cost and easy to do. The hope is that those who receive the help, and those who read the SOS articles, will take those lessons learned and continue to utilise professionals as their studio facilities change and grow. To get alarger manufacturers point of view, Ispoke to the ever-enthusiastic Peter Janis at Radial Engineering, who have been involved with studio acoustics for many years now, with their popular Primacoustic range. After seeing the first Digidesign software in around 1987, Isketched out aplan for the folks Iused to work with that basically put the computer in the centre of the studio and analogue gear as acircle around it. Part of this vision included room acoustics. When Iwent out on my own in 1992, Iapproached Sonex, who at that time was the market leader, and became the Canadian distributor. Back then, they held anumber of acoustic courses that taught us the fundamentals, including acourse by acousticians

Hoover & Keith. Isoon realised their focus as acompany was more on the architectural side of the business, not the recording studio, which is more of my passion. So Idecided to launch Primacoustic to better suit the need of the burgeoning home studio. Primacoustic, along with companies like Auralex and Vicoustic, have become stalwarts of the small studio, offering out of the box solutions. Peter goes on: Over the years, we changed our product offering to fill the gap between entry-level foam panels and the high-end studio finishes that can be very expensive. By creating amodular system using high-performance acoustic panels, we enable the home-studio engineer to produce recordings that are aleap above the typical demo quality that is produced in ahome, and these are usually good enough to be confidently transferred to the larger recording facilities for mixdown. As an acoustic panel manufacturer, we do not so much provide services, but provide the products, basic know-how, and guidance on what to use where for good results. We also offer complete solutions in the form of London room kits that will turn aspare room into afunctional facility and get you 90 percent there. Peter is quick to point out that it is important to quantify your expectation. If you want afully fledged recording studio, to achieve 99 percent [of the performance of aprofessional facility], you will need to hire adesigner and invest alot of money to build it from the ground up. But Ican tell you that some of the top artists in the industry have home-built studios that use our Broadway panels and MaxTrap bass traps, and they get 95 percent, which is very acceptable. No matter how big the name, how good the design, you will always hear of folks being either satisfied or disappointed. Ultimately, you will get used to the room you have and likely tweak it as you go forward. Go listen to various rooms and walk around to hear how the bass and lower-mids work. If the room is balanced, then Ithink you have agood designer.

w w w . s o u n d o n s o u n d . c o m / June 2013

119

f e at u r e
Professional Home Studio Design

absorbed lots of information, but still felt that Idid not know enough to start work. If it had just been me, Iam sure Iwould have forged on, but as Iwas now spending my business partners money as well, Idecided to seek help. Having engineered for many years, Iknew many artists who had their own studios. Aquick call around some of them still failed to get me anywhere positive. Most had done it themselves, and had not had agreat time doing it. However, afew names did crop up, and Ispoke in depth to several companies and even visited afew. One company stood out, and Iarranged to travel to Greenwich to meet with Recording Architecture for apaid consultation. The cost was relatively low, at around 100, but the idea of paying for help with my studio design still represented aleap of faith for me! I dutifully arrived at the offices with areasonably accurate floor plan of my building. The next two hours were what can only be described as an epiphany! Roger DArcy, the architect, proceeded to sketch out in pencil the rough shape of five control rooms around acentral live area. He also managed to do something Ihad failed to conceptualise in the previous months: get all the rooms connected by asingle corridor, with doors entering into the rooms at the correct place. Iwatched in wonder as my studio took shape. Roger admitted that after so many years of drawing studios, he had afair idea of what he wanted to achieve and that it was just acase of making it fit! I signed up on the spot and agreed to pay for his most basic service. For afew

One of the control rooms in the Laundry Rooms. The acoustic treatment was built to Recording Architecture designs.

thousand pounds, Ireceived all the plans for my studio, as well as instructions on how to build almost every aspect of it down to doors, floors, walls, acoustic treatment and oft-neglected but vital things such as lights, heating and air! Some will say that 2000 is aconsiderable sum, and indeed it is, but it is also the cost of agood mastering EQ or top-end nearfield monitors. What this money did pay for was asolid design on which to start work. Inow knew what Iwas building, how, and why it was being built that way! All through the build, Roger and his drawing partner Hugh Flynn were there with support, helping us with extra drawings, explaining further bits we didnt understand even redrawing two rooms when we decided to double the area of the live room. They were also able to tell us which parts of the plan we could change and which aspects were crucial. This meant that we could prioritise our expenditure on the most important parts and scrimp and save on things that werent.

The Professionals
I decided to talk to Roger as well as afew other professionals in the field, to find out what prospective self-builders could learn from the professionals. Having left university in 1981, Roger worked as an architectural designer at Andy Munros Turnkey Two until 1987, when he teamed up with building technologist Hugh Flynn to form RA.

120

June 2013 / w w w . s o u n d o n s o u n d . c o m

f e at u r e
Professional Home Studio Design

Roger DArcy of Recording Architecture.

Recording Architecture was commercially set up to provide full architectural, acoustic design and project management services for larger commercial and institutional facilities, frequently built from the ground up. That said, maybe some 30 to 50 percent of the 15 to 20 projects that we handled per year could be considered small (some very successful project studios for notable artists and producers have been extremely small, often no more than asingle room within aprivate residence, such as Neneh Cherrys or Sades). Not everyone requires, or can justify the cost of, afull architectural service, along with structural engineers and piles of construction details, and we were always very mindful to make our time available on aconsultancy basis to anyone that needed it. This worked best and was most cost effective when clients would visit our offices for acouple of hours or so, armed with survey information and photographs. Arough sketch with dimensions was enough. We would then quickly redraw to scale as the meeting got underway, before discussing and sketching out appropriate construction details for acoustic treatments and advising on material specifications. But would you get this expertise from any architect? Rogers love of music led to his interest in studio design, but he says that most architects do not have this grounding. Architects are taught very little about acoustics, and are highly unlikely to have knowledge of studios, or the recording process. However, in association with an acoustician, they can help plan and efficiently construct the host space to be adequately sound-isolated. Likewise, an acoustician and they should be specifically experienced in recording studios

is generally not able to visualise space or understand how to make things, but again, in conjunction with an architect or agood builder, their input can be invaluable. Roger is insistent that taking advice from an experienced professional is the best way to ensure you get what you want. Taking professional advice can be so important, if only to point projects in the right direction literally, establishing optimal orientation/ console and monitor positioning and strategically, but perhaps more importantly, to help avoid the many potential pitfalls and serious mistakes. It is often more costly to apply the wrong techniques than the correct ones, and there seems to be an overwhelming urge to apply too much treatment, rather than just enough of the right thing in the right place. Roger is also outspoken about the deficiencies of off the shelf solutions to acoustic problems, which he compares unfavourably with specific advice tailored to individual studios. The difference of professional input can be enormous, particularly with regard to low-frequency control, which is usually inadequately addressed. The shameful marketing of relatively inexpensive, lightweight material systems to be glued to walls and placed across corners, as if they were efficient, complete acoustic solutions, has much to answer for. Perhaps the main issue is how to select and evaluate the particular professional required. There is no substitute for appropriate experience, and the greatest value is often simply to talk to acouple of appropriate consultants in the architectural/studio professional
Peter Keeling of Studio People.

fields, and pay for their time. Discuss your project, establish the best strategy and, most importantly, simply avoid big, expensive mistakes.

Get The Rooms Right

Peter Keeling from Studio People echoes many of Rogers comments. What Ialways say to people is: get the rooms right before you spend all your budget on equipment. Its very difficult to change aroom, easy to upgrade or change equipment. What you hear is affected more by the room than even the best speakers, and good room design is more often about the right techniques rather than specialist and expensive materials. What Ihave learned over the years, particularly from doing projects in very compromised spaces, is that sometimes you have to throw the book away and work from experience and practicalities. Many projects just dont have the budgets to perform fancy and complicated acoustic treatment designs, but there is usually asimple and more cost-effective solution! That said, dont compromise on isolation. If you need it, because of your location, type of work or nature of the building, you must follow all the rules and then some isolation doesnt come cheap and is usually the most costly part of any project, whether self-build or contracted. Getting that part right is the most useful part of advice that we can provide. Peter started in 1978, designing and manufacturing audio equipment ranging from 24-track recorders to desks. His company started taking on studio design

122

June 2013 / w w w . s o u n d o n s o u n d . c o m

f e at u r e
Professional Home Studio Design

One of the great benefits of working with professionals is that they can communicate in away your builders will be able to understand what not to do!

in the 90s, and his background experience in electronics, construction and acoustics have helped him build aturnkey company able to provide all aspects of studio design. Atypical project can include consultancy, so well help you out with design ideas and specs; design drawings, either detailed or just sketches, depending on the clients needs; construction on-site; mechanical services such as air conditioning; electrical services; audio/video cabling and equipment; custom joinery, technical furniture and so on; and, most usefully for self-build projects on areally tight budget, an offering of standard acoustic-related products such as absorbers, resonant traps, doors, windows and any custom joinery required. Well even supply skirting, dado and architrave if it meets with the overall studio theme requirement. Like Roger DArcy, Peter Keeling is very much aware of the traps that self-builders can fall into. Architects and local builders just dont generally understand whats important and will generally have little or no experience of proper studios. You have to employ the right people, and Ihave witnessed many many projects that have fallen foul of the builders bodge syndrome. Youve seen it before: suspended ceiling, fluorescent lighting, nice parallel walls plastered and painted (so lots of standing waves), noisy air-con, windows too high, doors not sealing... its along list

and many Further and Higher Education establishments have spent millions getting this all wrong, by using the wrong people to specify and build the spaces. All the best equipment in the world will not improve the sound of abad room, or stop Johnny the drummer bleeding through two floors to the offices below.

The Pros Of Pros

With big recording budgets now athing of the past, more bands are investing in multiple-purpose spaces where they can store equipment, rehearse and track/mix. The majority of bands Iwork with these days are in this situation, and have solved it with varying success. The number of music professionals working at home in their own studios is also increasing, as can be seen just by the increased amount of technology that is being bought to equip these home studios. For people in this position, it seems clear to me that it makes absolute sense to pay for the services of someone like Roger or Peter. If you are looking at anything that could be described as structural, Iwould definitely look at involving aspecialist architect; the modest outlay can easily be recouped in money saved through doing the job right first time. My own experience chimes with Roger DArcys, in that Ive found that builders are very able to advise on construction costs, but tend to have little knowledge of how buildings perform acoustically.
Although Roger DArcy has retired and Recording Architecture no longer practice, much of his experience and knowledge has been set down in Recording Architecture: The Book.

Irecently talked to an architect about aloft conversion, and he admitted that Iprobably knew more about mechanically decoupling the floor in the loft from the host building than he did. It just wasnt something he dealt with very often, although this is an area where legislation is helping, thanks to recent laws regarding transmission of noise between adjacent flats beginning to have an impact on builders and architects. New materials are also becoming available at your local builders merchants. An Internet search can turn up several different types of flooring system available at abuilders yard near you! Hopefully, builders and architects alike will start to pay more attention to this aspect of construction and, in turn, this could help drive material costs down. If theres one thing that unites amateurs and professionals, its acommon love of music and the search for the perfect space! Talking to Roger and Peter, Iwas struck by their continued enthusiasm for the subject. These are people who live and breathe studio design and love their subject. Recording Architecture has now closed its doors, but even in retirement Roger is still enthusiastic about studios. He has left agreat reference book (reviewed in SOS November 2011: www.soundonsound. com/sos/nov11/articles/ra-the-book.htm) detailing many of his projects, with plans of how they were done, and if you buy acopy he says he is willing to answer mail and provide advice. My own recommendation is always to seek out help where you can, and dont be afraid to pay for it. Money spent in planning is invariably saved in execution, and the less you spend on the build, the more you can spend on toys!

124

June 2013 / w w w . s o u n d o n s o u n d . c o m

Mix with the best!

Besides the excellent interviews and fascinating, indepth recording and mixing articles, Ican always depend on Sound On Sound for complete, unbiased reviews of the latest proaudio gear. Bob Clearmountain, engineer, producer and mixer, Grammy Award winner (Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, INXS) As aprofessional Iadmire Sound On Sound as one of the most trusted and credible sources of inspiration and information. Jack Joseph Puig, mixer, producer, Grammy Award winner (Rolling Stones, U2, Mary J Blige, Black Eyed Peas)

The Worlds Best Recording Technology Magazine

This article was originally published in Sound On Sound magazine,

June 2013 edition

follow us on Twitter find us on Facebook go to the SOS YouTube channel visit the SOS forum

Subscribe and Save Money!

Visit our subscriptions page at www.soundonsound.com/subscribe for more information on the Sound On Sound App go to: www.soundonsound.com/app
Sound On Sound, Media House, Trafalgar Way, Bar Hill, Cambridge, CB23 8SQ, United Kingdom Email: subscribe@soundonsound.com Tel: +44 (0) 1954 789888 Fax: +44 (0) 1954 789895

All contents copyright SOS Publications Group and/or its licensors, 1985-2013. All rights reserved. The contents of this article are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, whether mechanical or electronic, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publishers. Great care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this article but neither Sound On Sound Limited nor the publishers can be held responsible for its contents. The views expressed are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the publishers.