Garage studio - what to cover the walls?

Hi all, I have a 20' x 20' garage that I am renting but the owner has given me the go ahead to do what I want with the space. It has a concrete floor, pitched roof, exposed beams and exposed studs framing the shell of the garage. The object for me is to have a practical mixing room that is relatively flat. I don't mix loud, and I don't need to worry about sealing the room as much as I need good acoustics. The only live recording will be vocals, acoustic guitar and voice overs, so I'm just going to make it one big room. I am currently wiring everything according to the star wiring scheme which has been very helpful. I would have not learned that without this site. But my question now pertains to the walls since that's where I will be soon after I finish wiring. My plan is to first stuff every square inch between the wall studs up to the pitched roof with rockwool. I also have 4x8' large gobos built with rockwool and wrapped in fabric. These will be angled around the room so there are no parallel walls. Heavy bass trapping in the corners as well. Question: After the rockwool, should I cover my walls with 5/8" drywall and later play with hanging absorbtion and diffusors, the gobos, etc. or should I simply cover the walls with a porous fabric? Fabric would make it more dead, drywall more live. But, I have a concrete floor. Maybe I need to go for as dead as possible with the walls? I had considered covering the walls with pegboard but read that is not a good idea and that it would create a helmholtz resonator effect. Thank you for any insight you may have. Matt

Hai mattiasc and welcome. So, your current construction is just a frame with one layer on the outside? In that case, I'd hang GB (Gypsum Board) on the inside after filling up the gaps with wool. It'll increase your transmission loss (isolation). Even if it's not your goal to have added isolation. When done you can, indeed, use wool to adjust the acoustics in your new room. When just adding clouth to the inside instead of the GB you will create a very, very dead room. Why don't you give us some more details on your current construction. (photos may help).

Ro, Thank you very much for your response. Yes, the space is basically a frame with an outside wood layer (thin) and covered with plaster on the outside. I don't want the room to be too dead, but the floor is concrete so I think that will help with keeping it live. My first plan was to do the 5/8" drywall on the walls and then adjust acoustics to taste, but I've been in many studios that had fabric-covered walls so I wanted to ask some opinions on that. At this point I'm completely open on how to treat the walls. I will take pictures tomorrow and include the arrangement I am considering. Matt

You might wanna search this forum for "inside out walls", that's the frames with cloth most of the times. But in your case I'd definitely add some mass on the inside and even, if it's worth to you, on the outside (you talk about a very think outside layer) While you do some research here, might wanna pay attention to a thing called "two leave walls". If ye ain't so sure, I'd advise to really take some time to browse this forum. There's too much good info to grasp in one day.

The insulation is Ultratouch r-13. Got a good deal on it, only a few pennies more than Roxul in my case. I will still use roxul and 703 for the panels.

This hanging shelf runs along the back wall. The owner wants it to stay. Build a modular wall of gobos off of it? Use it as studio storage?

I will post my studio layout idea later today. Again, the space is 20' x 20'.

Seems like you need something quick and dirty to get going. If you are not going to seal up the garage door permanently, then the options become less IMO. I would use the shelf to hold your speakers. You could also fill up the remaining space on the shelf with wool to create some massive bass traps which you will need since its 20x20, a square box basically. If you want to get into hanging all that sheetrock and then adding more treatment, that will work and give a better TL but it sounds like in your situation that a modular approach using stand alone gobos would be better. Plus you can take them with you when you go-go! Make gobos that have both a dead side with fabric and a live side with slats. then you can simply place them around your mixing space and rotate some of them to create lively-ness as you need it. Portable studio. I think that is a better investment than building a whole bunch of stuff in a rental space. -bassman

Quick and dirty, indeed... My original thought was to put the speakers on the shelf. The shelf extends exactly 3' from the wall. The walls are 8', the pitched roof another 4' above that. Nice round numbers... I tried using sketchup but it was beyond my expertise/time. My plan for now is to face the east wall. I will use the shelf to support my modular gobos and hide my workbench/general crap back there as well. I will then duplicate this with a row of gobos along the garage door side wall (3' from the door to match). This gives me a 14 x 20' room with a peak of 12'. I'm going to leave the roof alone for now and wait to take some measurements and see how we're doing. The UltraTouch stuff is really easy to work with; completely non-toxic. I can't see making gobos or panels with this stuff though - way too flimsy. The electrical is done and I installed one pvc pipe for audio (not to cross any electrical, thanks to this site). Next week I'm going to cover the three walls in 5/8" sheetrock. Guerilla studio warfare at it's finest.

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... ight=gobos I've made 6 of these and use them all the time for recording and setting up a mix zone. They have worked wonders and being able to reverse them proved invaluable in so many situations. One caveat, they are SOOO heavy that I like to call them stay-bos instead. :P -bassman

You have no way of getting air in or out of this environment other then the garage door? Looks like no way to physically get in or out other then the garage door? Have you considered framing a double leaf wall running parallel with the garage door to break up the square dimensions of this room? It could have a solid core door installed as a means of egress since there seems to be none there now. Or construct a wall as mentioned and install the solid core door where one used to be on the side of the building.

I like those gobos bassman. I'm going to definitely consider that weighty option. xspace - the sealed door you see in the 2nd picture will be opened back up as a solid core door. I'm sorry I didn't mention that originally. I'm also researching hvac solutions at the moment (by doing searches on this site and reading Rod's book). I don't think one of those portable air conditioners is going to do the job unless someone has another idea. I will be making an attempt at some sort of double leaf wall for that garage door, but it has to be modular. I could try to build a frame so that the gobos seal right in, but in consideration of the squareness of the room, I had been planning on a wall of gobos 3' in from the garage door and the back 'shelf' wall, creating a 20' by 14' space which to work in. I'm not trying to make this place soundproof, no drum tracking or anything and again, I'm renting, but I do want to absorb as much as possible in consideration of the neighbors.

Yes sir, what I see is there is no air for the building first and you guys second;). There are no gable or ridge vents to throw off buildup of heated air in the roof. The yellow lines (in the included cutout of your picture) pointing to the eave/overhang is an airflow area. It is probably not vented either. I'm just looking at some areas that the building needs to throw off heated air buildup and not seeing them. This affects the building but once closed up will start affecting you and people in this room. Heat will find the path of least resistance ,which will be the ceiling, and enter there. It will also warp, over time, roof decking and shorten the shingle life considerable. I see these things coming back to you in the not so distant future so I just offer it as it is there to consider.

xserve - thank you very much for that. I'm discussing the A/C options on Monday with a an AC installer so I will show him what you posted. What if I installed 2 vents at either end of the walls (about 12' up)? How do people typically deal with ventilation vs. sound loss?

They ventilate the attic, try to pretend it's not there acoustically :? and create a heavier 2-leaf ceiling under that. Not really feasible unless you own the place and wanna do a LOT of changing in structure... Steve

I've decided to only drywall up to the 8' mark. I don't know what to do with the attic area now. I will drop some absorption panels from it, but beyond that, I don't know how to solve the air conditioning/ventilation issue without leaving it open. I'm definitely building more gobos to go around the perimeter, but I will still lose a lot of sound and air to the attic. It just seems that to go any further at this point when I don't own the place would be overkill. signed, Stumped in California.

quick update - there was never any ventilation to begin with. :roll: Those spaces xSpace pointed out were sealed.

Did your AC guy offer anything to work with?

Haven't talked to him yet. I did learn about radiant barriers, however. These are becoming popular in the south. They are double-sided aluminum sheets which are apparently quite effective in attic spaces at stopping radiant heat. You can put them between the rafters. Sounds interesting, but part of me worries it would turn out to be one giant antenna. Here's a new pic of the drywall going up.

Radiant barriers installed in rafters must have soffit ventilation (that heat has to go somewhere). Back to square 1. We'll see what Mr. AC has to say.

Well I see it hasn't slowed you down ;) I do remodeling here in Mobile, AL so that is why I saw your situation for what it is. I too am only learning about isolation.

It slowed me down alright.. to about 8'! I'm only drywalling to there for now. Even though the air is very mild around here, I know it's going to get hot in this garage no matter what. Currently thinking of two gables at either end of the side walls, close to the peak. You can buy a gable with a fan so that when it's getting stuffy and you want to get rid of hot air, you turn the fan on and the gable automatically opens, otherwise it stays shut. I guess I'm way beyond isolating sound at this point. But to have a nice acoustic room suitable for composing and mixing at 85 db would be fine with me.