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DESIGNING AND BUILDING A HOME STUDIO:
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In the previous article I explained my decision to convert our garage into a home studio in order to be able to play my drums without disturbing people living nearby. I also explained the long and frustrating experience of setting out to find someone who was willing and able to help me build the studio. In this article I will explain how I selected a person to help me build my home studio and also discuss the team of experts we worked with to effectively design and build it.
Designing a facility as complex as being able to withstand the sound of someone playing drumset is quite a task and should not be taken lightly. The person who needs to be in charge of designing and building a home studio facility is an architect. I never knew very much about architects before, except that they design buildings. What I know now is, there's really a lot more to architects than just designing buildings.
An architect is a person who wears many hats. He/she is the person who not only physically designs the studio, but is the leader of a whole team of people involved in the design and construction process of a studio. In my case the architect, Ron Hobbs, oversaw the work of an acoustical engineer, a contractor, and a large number of subcontractors and construction workers (close to 50 people) who were all involved in the design and construction of my home studio in various aspects.
When I originally set out to build my studio, I felt like I didn't need the service of an architect. I wanted to have complete control and be in charge of the whole thing myself. Now I realize what an impossible task that would have been. There's too many people involved in the process of designing and building a studio, and also too many technical decisions involved, to be in charge of it yourself (unless of course you are an architect!).
An architect also is a person who oversees the entire project in your best interests. He/she is a person who is on your side and prevents you from being ripped-off by contractors, subcontractors, construction workers, and other assorted weasels that you may come in contact with. (I was amazed at how many ways people can and will take advantage of you when involved in a construction project.)
The architect is a person you practically have to trust your life to. He/she is the person who ultimately makes the studio a success or failure. The architect (who works closely with you) has more power than any other single person in designing and building your studio. (See figure below) He/she is the person who all of the contractors and workers have to answer to if something goes wrong. He/she is the person who communicates to them, in terminology which they understand, how to get the job done the way you want it done. So, it is of the utmost importance to be careful in selecting an architect capable of doing the kind of job that you want done on your studio.
Here is the hierarchy of the people involved in the designing and building my home studio.
ACOUSTICIAN
CONTRACTOR
SUB-CONTRACTOR(S)
CONSTRUCTION WORKERS
CITY INSPECTORS
How does one go about choosing an architect? I was lucky enough to choose one of the world's greatest architects by accident. I happened to meet him because he is the father of a student of mine. There are, however, several good ways in which a person can select a suitable architect for a home studio project.
Talk with people who live in your area who have had similar facilities built (example: home studios, recording studios, radio or television studios, schools, churches, etc.) which involve an acoustical type of construction. Ask them who was the architect in charge of the project, then call that person. If that person can't be of help, he/she might be able to recommend someone else who would be able to help you.
Another method of selecting an architect is to contact The American Institute of Architects. If you live in a metropolitan area they are listed in the phone book. The AIA has a listing of all the architects in that area and provides information such as what firm they work for, how big that firm is, what work they specialize in, etc. The American Institute of Architects is to the architectural community the same thing as the American Medical Association is to the medical community. They can be a great help and you should definitely check them out.
Most important, make sure to really analyze the architect you select for your studio and make sure he/she is someone who you can trust, someone who has knowledge in constructing facilities where acoustical considerations are involved (as mentioned above) and someone who conducts business in a professional manner. Ron Hobbs suggests that in designing a home studio it is also a good idea to select an architect who specializes in commercial type buildings rather than someone who mainly works on a residential level because, even though a home studio is literally a residential project, there are many acoustical considerations involved which make it more of a commercial project.
Architects are paid for their services either by an hourly rate, or more commonly, by charging a fee of between 6% and 10% of what the construction project costs. (In other words if the architect charges 6% and the construction of the studio was $10,00, you would pay the architect $600 after you paid $10,000 for the construction.)
I feel very fortunate to have had Ron Hobbs for the architect in charge of my studio. He is a very professional person who is easy to get along with and has a great talent for designing facilities and communicating with the many people who are involved in the construction process.
The first thing that Ron did upon accepting my studio project was to enlist the help of an Acoustical Engineer (or Acoustician). An acoustical engineer is a highly skilled person who is knowledgeable in the physical and scientific aspects of sound (including music). He/she is a person whom it is advantageous to consult in the designing stages of a music studio because he/she can specify exactly what is needed in order to achieve the desired results. The acoustical engineer can also make sure that you don't under-design or over-design your studio. The acoustical engineer is comparable to a doctor in that he/she is a specialized person whose skill and expertise you pay for. Also, an acoustical engineer probably makes more money than a lot of doctors. (A good acoustical engineer charges about $100 an hour.) This may seem like a lot of money, but when you realize the service this person provides may easily mean the difference between your studio being effective acoustically and not effective at all, you can't really afford not to consult an expert.
It takes a confident architect with a very stable ego to admit he does not know everything about acoustics and suggest consulting with an expert such as a acoustical engineer. Ron Hobbs suggested consulting Bill Johnson, an acoustician who works for a Dallas company called Acoustic Design Associates, Inc., for his advice on how to effectively design my home studio so it would be exactly what I wanted acoustically. Bill's job was to evaluate the type of sound which would be produced in my studio and then suggest how to design the acoustical treatment for the walls, ceiling and floor so that the studio would be effective in containing the sound when I play drumset.
The single biggest challenge in designing and building my studio was dealing with the acoustical considerations involved. If I had simply wanted to convert my garage into a living room or game room, things would have been much easier on everyone involved and also much cheaper on my pocketbook. However, when dealing with a critical issue such as containing the sound of a drumset so that neighbors and family members do not hear it, things become much more complicated!
In last month's article I explained the number of people that I contacted which were unhelpful in building my studio. The problem with all of these people (before I started working with Ron) was, no one understood what I really wanted to do. That is, convert my garage into a studio so that I can play my trap set and other high volume electronic instruments and still contain the sound inside the studio. To me, that sounded like a simple request. What most people didn't realize is, drums produce a complex series of decibels and frequencies which require a specially designed structure to contain. (Notice I'm not requesting a soundproof room. I learned early on that due to the complexity of frequencies and decibels involved with drums, the only place a completely soundproof room could be constructed is in outer space!) So, the design of the studio had to take into consideration what instruments were being played and the amount of volume they produce. If I had wanted to build a room which would contain the sound of an acoustic piano or almost any other musical instrument, things would have been much simpler, and cheaper. Drums are the loudest of all musical instruments. They produce a greater spread of frequencies (from the low frequencies of the bass drum to the incredibly high frequencies of the snare and cymbals) of any instruments. Drums also create the biggest challenge of all in the acoustical design of a home studio.
Back when I was searching for someone to work with me to design and build my studio, I came up with a list of guidelines (which I described in the previous article). Ron Hobbs and Bill Johnson wanted a copy of my studio guidelines so that they could set out to design the studio in my best interests. I took the list of guidelines to a meeting which was set up between myself, Ron Hobbs the architect, Bill Johnson the acoustical engineer, and a contractor that Ron wanted to also be present.
At our meeting, we went down my list, item by item. Although I was the only musician present at the meeting, I also was the only person who didn't know anything about how structures were built or the construction process. It was a very interesting afternoon. On each point in my list, Bill Johnson suggested acoustically what would be necessary to achieve the effect I desired and Ron Hobbs suggested what building materials would be necessary to achieve that effect, then Norman Phillips the contractor explained whether or not it could physically be built as such. We ended up going round and round the table many times and consulting everyone's expertise on most every point. The really good thing which came out of this meeting was, we all figured out a direction to take in order to get the job done acoustically and get the construction of my studio begun.
Generally, the sequence of events at this point would be, the architect and acoustical engineer collaborate together with you, then come up with a set of plans to build the studio. After the plans are complete, they are submitted to at least three contractors to get bids. The low bid gets the job, and construction begins.
However, nothing about my studio has been done the normal way yet. We didn't find the contractor by the normal way either. Ron (the architect) was familiar with a contractor who is highly recommended in Dallas, and one he had worked with on several projects before. This recommendation would have been good in itself, but there was another key point that clenched the fact that this contractor got the job for my studio. That was, he is experienced in building music studios! He has built home studios for two nationally known country artists who live in the Dallas area and is very knowledgeable in the critical areas of acoustics and home studio construction.
I did consult with some other contractors to build my studio and was surprised and disappointed that they didn't know anything about the extra care necessary in constructing a studio. In fact, other contractors felt like there was little more to my job than doing a garage conversion. They didn't understand how critical it was that the studio should be acoustically sealed in every aspect in order to be successful in keeping the sound of my drums inside. The other contractors also felt that I was being too careful and over protective in the design and construction. I could tell very soon that I was going to have to find a special person for a contractor, or all of the fine work that the architect and acoustical engineer had done would go to waste. Luckily, I had found the right person.
With the design process moving along nicely now and having a competent person for a contractor, I was well on the way to making my home studio a reality, even though the finished product was still about eight months away. The next couple of months were spent designing, redesigning, perfecting and re-perfecting the plans to build my studio. Next time I will explain, in detail, the design process, how and why it worked, and finally the construction and completion of my studio. See you then!
Special thanks to Ron Hobbs for his assistance with this article.