OK

What are the basic rules when it comes to shaping a room in which

1. a band rehearses in (tracking room)
2. the mixing / mastering / general listening to music is done (control room)

...First, let's say all the walls are made of standard brick.

Bass traps? How big do they need to be (comparing to the length and width of the room)? What material should they be made of and what is their thickness supposed to be?

Absorbers? I have no idea what these are or how they look like. Help please!

What kind of material will provide good sound isolation for both rooms?

What kind of material does the wall between the control room and tracking room need to be made of in order to provide "complete" sound isolation?

Doors?

Paralel walls?

Thanks in advance!

Interactive Room Designer<---- Click the linkie!!! Remember, Auralex is trying to sell you their product, so they'll put product specific information on there. Don't get me wrong, Auralex is good stuff. It will hand you the basics of what you need to know based on your room size and application.

As far as seperating rooms. In order to create isolation if you are building your own walls are more or less as follows,


With doors, I would do 2 2" Solid Core doors with sealed door ways. Each door would open in the opposite direction. It's best, however, if you can have the two rooms, each having these type of doors and a hallway to connect between the two, rather than a doorway connecting straight to the control room.

Even better, if you have the option, when pouring your foundation, pour footings for every wall, then when you pour the floor, put a one inch gap of air between the floor and the footing.

Windows, 3 panes of 1/4" glass with your outer panes tilted upward, off axis by about 5 degrees each. your center pane at 90 degrees. each pane at the narrowest point should be no less than 2 1/2" apart.

This is probably the most expensive way to do everything, but it will be the most effective. Enjoy!

It really depends on your budget. If you give me an estimate, I can probably give you an idea of what could work the best for you. We just spent about 500 dollars and were able to construct 2 medium size and 1 very large gobo (mobile absorbing wall) complete with Auralex and what not. It really is dependent on what your budget is in order to effectively setup a room. Something else we did is go around to the city and pickup mattresses and couch cushions to help with sound absorbtion (yeah it's gross, get some disinfectant and spray it on them, your not going to be sitting on them, they go on the walls). Also, go to your local carpet dealer and ask for any sizeable scraps that they would be getting rid of and either hang them on the wall or throw em on the floor. The more stuff you can get for free, the better! But anyway, let me know what your budget is and I'll see what I can figure out for ya.
_________________
Bob Seifert, SEIT
LiveSine Productions
Drummer of 3up3down

I'm sorry to be another one of those who ask a question, wastes your time and doesn't even say Thank you or come back. I'd like to prove I'm not. Uh... Well anyway, I haven't had much time and I completely forgot about this topic, sorry!

Thanks for the answers. The thing is that right now these questions are purely for informative causes. I don't have the money nor the space, nor the knowledge to start building a studio now. I'm a youngster, other than that, so the budget question can be wither not answered or answered "0". I'm just looking for info, non-budget wise.

I understood what you guys told me, now I have more questions. Again, for knowlege's sake, which can hopefully one day help me in constructing my (now) dream studio.

Anyway, in the meantime i picked up a bunch of info on absorbers, bass traps, and other stuff, but right now I'm having problem figuring something out.

If you are willing to help, take a look at this picture:

http://racehorsestudios.com/images/console_back_mid.jpg

..and answer a few questions.

This is a picture of the control room at Race Horse Studios, LA (I think). (THIS IS NOT A COMMERCIAL FOR THEM, I HAVE NO CONNECTION TO THEM WHATSOEVER AND APOLOGISE IN ADVANCE IF THIS VIOLATES FORUM RULES.) This is obviously a professional's studio and looks quite fancy and fairly expensive, and an album I heard which was recorded there sounded quite pleasant to my ears. Here are the questions:

1) At your first glance, does that control room seem acoustically well treated for pro-mixing purposes? I kinda noticed that there are no bass traps on the ceiling/wall joints, as well as on the back walls, and the front walls I don't see that well, so I can't figure out if there is any bass trapping going on there. For a pro-studio, this seems a bit odd, well at least for my eyes.

2) Are the red and grey square-shaped things hanging on the walls absorbers? Are these the kind that are made with a wooden construction and fiberglass/rockwool inside? (I'm used to looking at the acoustical foam ones.)

Thanks in advance! I apologise for any potential inconvinience.

http://www.foambymail.com/soundproofing.html

for cheap acoustic foam that works really well!!

Dude, nice find man! I'm definitely thinking this is the stuff we're going to go with. We went with Auralex the first time, and it cost us an arm, a leg and a really nice microphone. This stuff has very near the same NRC as Auralex (.80 for Auralex, .81 for this stuff for 2" foam). Thanks for the find man!!!!
_________________
Bob Seifert, SEIT
LiveSine Productions
Drummer of 3up3down