Some time this year, I will break ground on a small music studio.

I am establishing all criteria now, and I welcome any input. The list below is very preliminary and growing but this is what I have so far.

Structural Layout
Arched, open ceiling (probably barn style)
Angled Walls (minimal parallel wall surfaces)
Two isolated recording rooms
Acoustic Panels at all reflective points (this is a topic all to itself, and one that I'm doing plenty of sound modeling on)
Bass panels at corners
Hardwood Floor
Softer Wood Walls or Drywall (TBD)
Security Doors and Security Glass
Exhaust fan for cigar smoke

Non-Structural Features
Couch behind station
Edison Lighting
Heat/AC Unit

Equipment to Add
These are items I plan to add, along with current tentative selection of models.

Studio Monitors: 2 x Adam Audio T5V
ISO Acoustic Stands for above
Board: Allen & Heath 12 Chan
Cable Routing (no idea what's best yet, visually speaking)

Equipment Owned
Shure Mics & Mic Arms
Misc Pedals, Footswitches, & Amps
More guitars than shown

Although not shown in the design, the synth will be on a roll-away desktop via a Zaor Miza X2 studio desk and a computer+keyboard will also be present.

Studio Footprint is 24' W x 26' L. Budget is $150k but I probably will have to cut some corners to hit that. Some construction work will be done by me. Design work was done in SolidWorks.

Tagged, looks cool.  I love music/theater/sound equipment...
I dream of one day building a Pole barn Home Theater where it has a stage in one end that can be used for projecting movies on or having a live band play.  

We've had a few parties out back pf our place, had a band set up on our patio as a stage and they jammed for a few hours playing covers for our guests...  It always turns out a good time.

A you doing this as a Hobby, business, just you, a whole band???  
Seems like it might get a bit cramped if more than 2 -3 people or a whole band get set up in there.

Still looks really nice so far.

I'll be interested to see it develop and maybe learn about some sound gear.

Taggity. I think you're off to a good start with the right ideas. Assuming this is a hobbyist setup for solo or small band work?

I'd really consider a sub setup with the Adam's. I wasn't a believer in a studio sub before but now that I've done it (and most importantly made it as switchable setup), I'd never ever go back. Made an incredible difference on my low-end mixing.

Also, I'd recommend adding in a good (and a bad/mono) commercial pair to sit along side the Adam's. Another thing I didn't do enough of at first but really value now that I'm mixing to ALL my possible sources rather than monitors.

For sound treatment, definitely DIY with frames & rockwool. Hard to beat it, cheap and super easy to construct. 2x4's & 2x8's are a snap to build. And plan on bass traps. And, even then you can find problematic spots or instances where you need more control and free standing baffles are great for this, and also super easy/cheap to construct. A friend of mine used coffee bag material (bags are super cheap on eaby in lots and have some great designs and a neat vintage look to them) to cover his baffles and treatment frames, as an example of how you can do it and make the finished look really nice. I'd avoid acoustic foam as much as humanly possible for control, it's useful in stopping some high end reflections, and little else.

All very good suggestions, thanks! I especially like the "crappy monitors" vs good, for comparative mixing. I'll be doing that for sure, and will likely add a sub - I'll have to find one that's powered and has connectors like the Adam's have.

Why do you say avoid acoustic foam? I have access to basically any foam density and design I can come up with. Nearly all bass traps that I have seen are 4-6lb / cf foam.

It's primarily a hobby venture, with the idea that up to 3 people can record in it. That should make it possible for 5 people to lay tracks without too much discomfort, but it's primarily for my use.

Also, I just noticed that the mixing board was not in the layout, but that will sit on the desk.

Miza X2 Flex

Looks cool.  Attached to the house or ???  

I always made sure that the AC/Heat was seperate from the main house as you need control for that room alone.  Guitar amps can sorta generate a lot of heat.  

BTW, if you decide to upgrade on the monitors let me know.  I've got a set of JBL LSR6300 I no longer use that I would sell very reasonably if shipping doesn't kill it.  Things are heavy.

Stand-alone near the house. That's why no bathroom is included.

To get the same acoustic properties of a good insulated sound panel (with a good dense insulator like rockwool), you're going to need a lot of foam, if it's the type that's commercially sold as studio foam to match the same performance (I will have to dig for my reference material, but there's some good youtube videos on this). I think I recall it was like 12" of the open-cell eggcrate style foam to match the performance of 3" of rock wool. And, I recall that any diffuser or absorption that's not 3" deep isn't really effective across enough frequencies to be useful.

But, if you have access to a lot of textures and densities, then by all means go that route. Definitely do your homework on this part of the process, and be prepared to re-work it a LOT, cause it took me some serious experimentation to get a grip on my little room. The bigger the space, the more that's gonna be the case. There are some great professional quality vids on studio design and how to maximize control. It's a balancing act, as you diffuse the highs/mid and trap the bass...but too much or too little of either and you'll get some fucky acoustics.

And, then there's the rabbit hole of whether or not you'll record in your control/mixing room, because sometimes having a really well controlled room sounds like fried ass, and you may WANT some character from your room in that mic's signal. Vocals, especially, I've found that my voice sounds muddy and strange when isolated in a vocal booth, it does much better with some reflections (I actually record a lot of my vocals in my living room, which beyond furniture has no treatment, but that's what works for it). Some signals really want to be in a long/wide room.

Bass traps, btw, tend to be dense and very thick...for good reason, those long waves need some serious absorbent material to slow them down. I'm very home-studio/low rent, so I used two memory foam twin mattresses, and then folded them onto themselves, cut them in two four traps and those along my wall away from my sub to stop bad reflections. And, I have an entire bed in my little studio that helps a lot too...cause it's a spare bedroom, lol.

Ethan Winer has some great vids/material on this on YT.

Good info, thanks. I won't be sticking a folded up mattress in the corners but I understand the reasoning.

Off to look up Ethan Winer.

I would let the room unfold to you,  let it tell you what it needs, before committing a lot of money
towards treatments that may or may not be ideal, despite what the design indicates  should happen.

 The specifics escape me right now, but some years ago, some folks wanted to recreate a well known "room"
that had been demolished. Their intent was to "capture" that magic by building it again.

They had the entire set of plans and all, so it seemed to be a no brainer. Well, the upshot is,
it did not work out as intended. They ended up with a room that sounded great, just not what
they anticipated.

 Personally, I would opt for being able to track an entire band at once. At least get fundamental tracks down.
I like those cubical panels, they make great gobos. A little track bleed isn't the end of the world.
 Depends on how much punching you gotta do to fix things.  There are ways to mitigate that too.

  Another suggestion would be to Subscribe to Tape Op magazine
 It's a freebie that has lots of great content. I have been getting it for 20 years. Absolutely recommend it,
no matter where you are in the recording spectrum.

As Always YMMV, do not fold, spindle or mutilate.

 I am awaiting a Tascam TSR-8, from a friends studio, so I can digitize the pile of tapes I did years ago.