Tanuj Tiku
Senior Member
Gerhard, agreed there is a lot of misinformation online and it can seem hard to find the right resources. However, the biggest reason why there is so much misinformation is because people claim to know about things that they do not.
There is no way to verify anything. Anybody can be an expert and this causes flame wars we are all familiar with.
My opinion is that you cannot simply learn about quantum mechanics in 6 months by reading some books and start doing experiments on quantum entanglement. Yes, this is an extreme example but it holds true in moderation for just about anything. Want to learn to play the piano? Yes, you can do it - it will take a long time. Meanwhile, if you need to perform at The Royal Albert Hall in 6 months, no book or teacher is going to be able to prepare you for that.
This does not mean that anyone who wants to learn more about this should be discouraged. Just know that it will take a few years and lots of experiments and research.
The internet can be a difficult place to get information on this. I think reading books and AES papers or BBC papers as you mentioned from reliable authors is the way to go. This is exactly what I did.
I read Philip Newell's book, read his AES papers. It made sense to me. I met him in Brighton, UK where he was giving a talk in a conference on acoustics. I had already worked for several years in many LEDE and similar type rooms or rooms with larger decay times and was never really happy with that. Though some of these studios also sounded good.
But, there is no way I could have built my room to this specification without a designer who had the knowledge and experience based on a decade of research conducted at the ISVR, Southampton. And I just want to write music in a good sounding space at the end of the day!
Having said that, it is possible to find solutions to problems for home and project studios. Building a typical control room which does not require military grade isolation is not very difficult. I executed Philip's design on site myself with the help of a friend who is an interior designer. She did all the drawings and understood everything from Philip.
We built the whole studio remotely via e-mails. So, it depends what is the level of studio a person is building and what is the purpose of that studio. Certainly a project or home studio can be done very quickly.
There is also the case of expectation management. My studio is located on the 4th floor of a small commercial building. If I wanted extremely high isolation, a concrete floor with steel mesh would have to be laid. This is simply not possible as the floor would exceed loading capacity and would collapse. So, Philip and I discussed many things in detail about what can be done and what simply cannot be achieved. Luckily, I found the right space for me and my work.
To arrive at such conclusions, I had to for example to a GPR (Ground penetrating radar) test to ascertain the thickness of the slab. We also did a cement grade testing and hammer-rebound test. This was critical as it allowed us to calculate how much live-load (this information was not available from the builder at the time plus you can never be sure) we can put on the floor and how to build support from the beams and surrounding walls to build the studio properly.
There is a lot of stuff that goes into a successful design and I just feel its always better to hire an expert.
Anyway, I hope the OP will find the right resources and start to plan their build soon!
There is no way to verify anything. Anybody can be an expert and this causes flame wars we are all familiar with.
My opinion is that you cannot simply learn about quantum mechanics in 6 months by reading some books and start doing experiments on quantum entanglement. Yes, this is an extreme example but it holds true in moderation for just about anything. Want to learn to play the piano? Yes, you can do it - it will take a long time. Meanwhile, if you need to perform at The Royal Albert Hall in 6 months, no book or teacher is going to be able to prepare you for that.
This does not mean that anyone who wants to learn more about this should be discouraged. Just know that it will take a few years and lots of experiments and research.
The internet can be a difficult place to get information on this. I think reading books and AES papers or BBC papers as you mentioned from reliable authors is the way to go. This is exactly what I did.
I read Philip Newell's book, read his AES papers. It made sense to me. I met him in Brighton, UK where he was giving a talk in a conference on acoustics. I had already worked for several years in many LEDE and similar type rooms or rooms with larger decay times and was never really happy with that. Though some of these studios also sounded good.
But, there is no way I could have built my room to this specification without a designer who had the knowledge and experience based on a decade of research conducted at the ISVR, Southampton. And I just want to write music in a good sounding space at the end of the day!
Having said that, it is possible to find solutions to problems for home and project studios. Building a typical control room which does not require military grade isolation is not very difficult. I executed Philip's design on site myself with the help of a friend who is an interior designer. She did all the drawings and understood everything from Philip.
We built the whole studio remotely via e-mails. So, it depends what is the level of studio a person is building and what is the purpose of that studio. Certainly a project or home studio can be done very quickly.
There is also the case of expectation management. My studio is located on the 4th floor of a small commercial building. If I wanted extremely high isolation, a concrete floor with steel mesh would have to be laid. This is simply not possible as the floor would exceed loading capacity and would collapse. So, Philip and I discussed many things in detail about what can be done and what simply cannot be achieved. Luckily, I found the right space for me and my work.
To arrive at such conclusions, I had to for example to a GPR (Ground penetrating radar) test to ascertain the thickness of the slab. We also did a cement grade testing and hammer-rebound test. This was critical as it allowed us to calculate how much live-load (this information was not available from the builder at the time plus you can never be sure) we can put on the floor and how to build support from the beams and surrounding walls to build the studio properly.
There is a lot of stuff that goes into a successful design and I just feel its always better to hire an expert.
Anyway, I hope the OP will find the right resources and start to plan their build soon!