Advice for my basement studio plans

MOre pics

lookin good! looks like a great space to work with.. i wish i had some more input but it looks like everything has been covered up to this point

Thanks! The pictures are a little out of order, but you can tell whats what, I will be putting up some drywall this weekend, so Ill try to upload some more pics of my progress.

Hey Everyone! I moved all of my drywall this weekend down to the basement... what a tremendous effort... it involved a 3 step process that had about 5 different angles to wiggle it around corners and down stairs.. I am pretty sure I no longer have any friends after I made them all help me... lol Anyway I have a question about insulation in my live room... I have 16"OC ceiling joists and I am running iso clips and hat channel across with 3 layers of drywall and green glue capped with Acoustiseal around the perimeter. Since the joists are directly connected to the living room above, I really want to add as much sound attentuation as possible. What is the best 'standard' insulation to use in the ceilings? I am using r-13 in the walls but was thinking r-30? Any suggestions? Thanks -Sam

Great progress! Just use the "standard" stuff like you did on the walls (pref. without the paperbacking). It's to absorb, not to actually isolate. You've got iso-clips, 3 layers of GB with GG in between. That's already a great isolator. You might wanna add more mass BETWEEN the joists, DIRECTLY at the ceiling which is comparable with the 3 layers of GB you hang on the clips. That way you'll create a 2-leaf system with mass on both sides, just as you do with the walls.

Awesome advice! What do you recommend for mass in the joists? 703 or just a few layers of sheetrock stuffed up in there..

I have an additional question about HVAC, I read the thread on this, but couldn't find info on my particular situation. I have an existing air system that I would like to tie into. You can see the supply and return ducts running through the center of my space in the pictures. In the large recording room I have an aluminum supply and return duct running through the ceiling joists then up into my living room on the 1st floor. My original plan was to take these 2 ducts down replace them with insulated flexible ducting and build baffle boxes to cycle air to the room. So I have 2 questions about this.... Will this affect the air flow to the rest of the house? Is this the best / most cost effective solution to bring air into the space while maintaining reasonable isolation? Here is a link to what Brad did that I am trying to emulate... The duct baffles are about half way down the thread. http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... ght=easton Does anyone know what kind of insulation he put in there? It looks like compressed r-13/19? EDITED: I think I stumbled upon something I didn't put much thought into.. I need fresh air coming in too... not sure if this will supply enough fresh air to the space.. I am holding on construction until I figure this out. Any help is appreciated.

My HVAC looks like it draws fresh air from outside, so I think I am in good shape with that... but can anyone comment on my plan? Here is a birds eye view of my HVAC system.

Ok, I know why no one was responding.... I did my homework now. I have a fresh air line running into my central air system so that takes care of fresh air supply. I am going to build silencers outlined in all of the great threads that I found. I also did the calculations to make sure that my air flow was going to be sufficient and not take away from the rest of the house. I will also be replacing all of the standard metal ducts with insulated flexible ducting. So my only question that needs resolution (because I couldnt find proper data to support my build) is how many 90 degree angles per silencer? I know that the volume should be double the size of the duct you are using, but how do I calculate that in 90 degree turns? And from what I understand, the return doesn't need a silencer since sound runs back to the fan and gets trapped there.. Is this true or is someone pulling my leg? I am not going as far as to tune my ducts etc like some of the threads suggest... I just want good airflow without severe impact on my isolation. Rod has given a ton of good advice on this forum about this particular step, I am just looking for a few details that I can't seem to figure out.

I'm no expert in this area, but from what I've seen in various threads, it looks like you need at least two 90 degree corners. I don't know if more corners would help or not, though.

eightamrock wrote:

Ok, I know why no one was responding.... I did my homework now. I have a fresh air line running into my central air system so that takes care of fresh air supply. I am going to build silencers outlined in all of the great threads that I found. I also did the calculations to make sure that my air flow was going to be sufficient and not take away from the rest of the house. I will also be replacing all of the standard metal ducts with insulated flexible ducting. So my only question that needs resolution (because I couldnt find proper data to support my build) is how many 90 degree angles per silencer? I know that the volume should be double the size of the duct you are using, but how do I calculate that in 90 degree turns? And from what I understand, the return doesn't need a silencer since sound runs back to the fan and gets trapped there.. Is this true or is someone pulling my leg? I am not going as far as to tune my ducts etc like some of the threads suggest... I just want good airflow without severe impact on my isolation. Rod has given a ton of good advice on this forum about this particular step, I am just looking for a few details that I can't seem to figure out.

Hey EightAm- I have a question, since I am on the same stage as you are- HVAC. You seem like you are running a duct in from your central are, which I would be. Do you have a second duct as your fresh air intake as well as an exhaust as you would normally have in a room. If it would not be a problem- could you diagram what you have with your duct setup? I know I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks Man

Yeah no problem! I have a friend who does HVAC coming over to help me map it out today. I will post my findings and a sketch of what I decide on.

Hey guys, I just need some advice so I can start planning on room treatment of my live room. Any knee jerk reactions are welcome... I couldn't do anything crazy with creating a room that was obtuse (wife said it had to be presentable as a finished basement in order for me to get the ok to build) so now what I am stuck with is a live room that is 12'x10'x 6'8"... yes 6'8" high.. its low... really low. After 3 layers of drywall, furring strips and isoclips it really brought the ceiling down... But that is what I have to work with.. Any ideas on the best way to treat this room? I was thinking pyramid foam on the ceiling to absorb the flutter and putting up some of those fantastic diffusers that everyone seems to be making.. Before I waste my time and money, I just wanted to see if anyone had some input on how to deal with extremely low ceiling. Thanks in advance...

putting up some of those fantastic diffusers that everyone seems to be making.

I don't think you want diffusion in such a small space. My guess would be absorption, and lots of it. The trouble is, I think you could do with some treatment on your ceiling, but clearly there just isn't any room for that. Maybe treat the ceiling/wall corners, leave the ceiling as is, and carpet the floor? I think it would sound strange, but with such a low ceiling, there really isn't much else to do, IMHO. Maybe slot resonators would be useful here? Big ones, angled, along the walls, floor to ceiling. Dunno, really. I'm certainly not the acoustic expert. But you DID ask for a "knee-jerk", and that's mine, right there! (Probably more "jerk" than "knee", so take it with a pinch of salt...) - Stuart -

hi, Nice solid build! sorry I'm a little slow reading this one. But whats happening at the top of picture PA250590 Looks like you've got short noggens heading up behind the HVAC. Are they joining to the ceiling or will you remove them later?

Thanks for the advice Stuart! I was thinking about wood floors in the live room, but carpet makes total sense to cut down on reflections. That's sad because I really like the look and sound of wood in a studio, but I have to play with the hand I am dealt :P Envy - that picture is taken inside of the living/control area of the studio. I just framed in the duct work to add some drywall. I plan on stuffing some insulation in there, but not doing much more then that. Those beams run from the outside leaf of the live areas across the ducts and are then attached to the ceiling joists via screws.

Hi Eightamrock! Coming along with your build! Dont stop! Most would suggest that you go with the wood floor and rather keep a small loose carpet available if needed. Sometimes it may actually be nice to have the reflections and add to the overall sound - IE Acoustic Guitar. You could still maybe squeeze a 2" absorbtion panel flush with the ceiling ? I know it is tight, but maybe worth it. Try a simple mock up on the ceiling when you get there and see how it works. Good luck Marius

Yeah, I'd agree with Marius. I only mentioned carpet as a last resort. Maybe absorption along the wall-ceiling corners might help, but I'd skip making final decisions until you have the room mostly finished, then experiment with different things to see what works and what doesn't.

I'm happy I can go with wood floors. I'll pick up a nice throw carpet to help with reflections where needed. I was thinking maybe some well placed bass traps and foam on the walls will probably be good.. I will definitely test it all out.. 3rd layer of drywall and green glue went up in the live room last weekend. Im on to my last 2 rooms the iso closet and the vocal booth.. Then I move on to the doors and window.. oof.. I was going to go with 2 pains of 1/2 inch laminated for the window.. I have heard the you want different thicknesses, but it has come under some discussion. Any one have any real world experience with the difference/performance between the 2 options?

Hi eightamrock, I am pretty certain the two panes are of different sizes and thicknesses. You may want to double check that before you get your material. Good job, looking good. W

Here are some real world links, mostly moderated by Knightfly! He is, in fact, one of the experts around here. I took off on one of those tangents trying to get the simplest of information, to display in the simplest of fashions but found holes in my reading that had to be filled :) Hopefully, you have the same holes! But to answer the question on glass, two windows of the same thickness produce the same resonate frequency. If you could place a damping agent between the two, like insulation, then it most likely would not matter. Not that you could see, but it would help. The links are mostly in the order they came to me: http://www.saecollege.de/reference_mate ... indows.htm edit: http://www.saecollege.de/reference_mate ... indows.htm (with pictures) viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2781&start=0 simple window glass question viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8400 hold my hand for my Window install please! viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3330 Control Room Drawing - Need Door Info http://www.acoustics101.com/interior_windows.asp Acoustics 101 viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2781&start=0 simple window glass question

Thanks xSpace for the bit on glass. I thought two different sizes was the way to go. And seeing is good. :P W

xSpace, that SAE link is partially no working. Pics are gone. W

Hey, talk to maintenance!

Try this: http://www.saecollege.de/reference_mate ... indows.htm Cheers, John