Basement studio in West Virginia: build diary

I found out my rubber setting blocks were not as thick as I needed. So I glued two of them together. I peeled off the first side of the glazing tape and stuck it to the area where the glass would touch the wood. I glued the rubber setting blocks to the spot where they sould sit. I figured out in a test run that the glass was heavy and would knock them out of place if I didn't. I peeled off the second side of the glazing tape. Any mistake in the glass placement could now be stuck in the worng place! I picked up the glass (heavy!) and placed it on the setting blocks and it stuck to the glazing tape. I cut more glazing tape and stuck it to the glass. I peeled off the other side of the glazing tape. I cut quarter round trim and stuck it to the glazing tape and nailed it in place. I put up trim around the window that matched the door trim and painted it.

With my temporary desk in the room, I noticed that I don't have space for two sets of speakers. I did not build soffit structures as part of the wall, because one of my main goals was to have a fairly "normal" looking room, in case I ever need to sell my house (I know the control room window would need torn out and drywall put in that hole). I am still wondering about free standing structures for soffit mounted speakers. These would be built like many other soffit mounts on this site, but would have a back wall in them, and would sit against the room wall corners. I attached a rough drawing. Could be done with good sounding results?

Nice work Brian! The window looks great. Have you tested the resilience of the separation since the installation? Did you get to set the exterior window yet?

Hi Butch! I still need to come up with a plan for the exterior window. When I have someone play drums in the drum room, it makes a very quiet sound in the control room. I'm very happy with the separation. I have not measured it with a decibel meter. You and John should come over and hear it sometime. I still have to do the outside window, and some electrical outlets in the hall, and the rigid fiberglass acoustical panels.

I finally got a Radio Shack spl meter to make some measurements of my isolation. There is still an open hole at the back of my control room in front of the outside window. That may explain why the control room isolation readings are 4 dB worse than the drum room. Also, the drum room ceiling is completely independent of the floor above, while the control room ceiling is hanging from Green Glue iso clips attached to the floor above. Eventually, I'll put a second layer of glass in front of that outside window to get my MAM. The meter was set to "C" weighting and "fast" response. I play Cheap Trick's "Come On, Come On, Come On" from their Rockford CD at 121 dB in the control room and measured the sound level in the drum room, kitchen (one floor above) and outside the house. Then I repeated this for the drum room. When I put the 121 dB source in the control room, the level in the drum room was 57dB and the level upstairs was 57dB (the same test before construction in 2007 was 87 dB). You could hear some sound escaping outside in my neighbor's yard, but it was not as loud as the fan in the air condensing unit outside my house. It did show me that I need to put a second window in front of the outside window to complete my control room and get my MAM in front of that outside window. When I put the 121 dB source in the drum room, the level in the drum room was 57dB and the level upstairs was 53dB. You could hear no sound escaping outside anywhere. When I played a 90 dB source in the control room, it could not be heard anywhere upstairs in the house. When I played a 102 dB source in the control, it was just barely audible in the rest of the house upstairs. I tested to see how loud something had to be to be heard if it was in the drum room and the listener was in the control room (or if the source was in the control room and the listened was in the drum room.) Sources at 85 dB and lower could not be heard between the control room and drum room (in both directions). Sources above at or above 86 dB were barely audible beteen the control room and drum room. I don't know if these measurements can be subtracted to get the level of isolation I acheived with this construction, or not. Does 121dB - 57dB = 64dB isolation???

" Does 121dB - 57dB = 64dB isolation???" Yes sir, that is how you do it.

My daughters, my nephew Todd, and I recently played a few songs at my daughters vocal recital in a high school auditorium. Hannah is playing drums and just turned 12. Brooke sings and just turned 15. Erica is 9 and plays on one song. Todd and I take turns playing bass or guitar. Here are the home videos... Helter Skelter I Want You To Want Me Everybody Wants You Revolution

After spending almost all of my time working on our new hospital (thenewuhc.com), I am finally ready to work more on my studio. We moved our patients into the new hospital on Oct. 3, 2010. I bought two desks for my studio. I started building the bass trap frames. My final window arrived at Home Depot. Pictures to come soon.

I have an outside window to my studio control room pictured below. The outside layer has an window that I wanted to match with the inside window. My house was built 4 years ago with Andersen 200 series windows. So I ordered the same from Home Depot. It took about 6 weeks to come in. When I got it, it was not a replacement window, but rather a new installation window with flanges. I called Andersen and they said that's how they make the 200 series. And that I'd have to cut the flange off and order some brackets to attach the window. So I went back to Home Depot and ordered them and waited another 6 weeks for them to come in. My neighbors are not too close, so noise out of this window is not a problem. But my air condensing unit is just outside of this window, and noise from that could be a problem for recording vocals and acoustic guitar in the control room. I decided not to use the heavy laminated glass that I used in between the control room and drum room because I need access to this area. I've had ladybugs get in there, even with the window closed. The need to be able to clean this area inside caused me to used vinyl window blind material, instead of cloth, to wrap the rigid fiberglass in between the windows. So my Mass-Air-Mass in this area is Window-Air-Window.

did the additional window cut the HVAC unit noise?

Gullfo- thanks for asking. I've been wanting to check that, but it's been 20 degrees every day! Maybe I should fire up the air conditioner anyway! I hope to test the difference soon. I also need to re-test my dBs of isolation, now that that window hole in my control room is sealed.

thanx for the updates, looking forward to you bass absorber build-diary :) !

I bought two desks on eBay and put them together. There is the main 6' desk for my mixer and monitors. I also bought a 4' desk for my keyboard. I'm not much of a keyboard player, but I use it some. They are not special recording desks, just metal desks with a formica like top. I added a keyboard tray underneath. They were easy to assemble. They both have built in cable trays and keep the cables neat and organized off the floor. They didn't cost much money ($241 + $177). I ordered Primacoustic Recoil Stabilizers (10 degree upfire) for the speakers that sit on the desk. I also bought a monitor bracket, so I can use two monitors when recording in Pro Tools.

really great work and easy to follow! thx

A bought a (loveseat) couch for the back of the studio. I didn't want to get too long of a couch and have it block the bathroom door. I also got an SE Electronics Project Studio Reflexion Filter. You can see it on the upper left. I had framed my large corner bass traps some time back, but I'm waiting to be able to print images on the fabric before I can finish them. I'll post the pictures when I can get more done. I ordered 4 speaker stand mounts (the kind that go on poles for PA speakers at live gigs), so I can make some portable bass traps and place them on stands. These will be similar to the Primacoustic GoTrap Studio Gobo, but I'll make them myself and save money, and they will mount on tripod speaker stands. I want to be able to put them in the corner of the control room, or in front of the glass between the rooms when I'm mixing, or behind me when I'm singing. I also bought a small open rack for the desk for my Mackie Onyx 800R and my Line 6 Toneport UX8. My Primacoustic Recoil Stabilizers have finally shipped, so I should have those soon.

looks nice!

I finally got my Primacoustic Recoil Stabilizers RX5 upfire. They are angled up at 10 degrees which points the tweeters right at my ears. My new open 19" rack is in the back of the photo. I also bought a Focusrite ISA One that is back there.

I built my portable gobos (bass traps). I wanted to make two that I could stack in the corner as bass traps, although by putting a small gap between the two sheets of 703, I compromised my bass response some. But I felt I wanted stability more than bass trapping. By putting two 3/4" boards inside, the gobos won't collapse if someone sits on them. I used all 3/4" x 5.5" pine boards. They cost about $7 for an 8' board. I used 2" thick Owens Corning 703. I bought some material at JoAnn Fabrics to wrap over the 703. I stapled that to the inner frame. I painted the outer frame black. The inner dimensions are 2' x 3'8". I added speaker stand mounts, so I can put the gobos up high behind a vocalist. I have the Reflexion Filter to go on the other side of the mic. Since one of my first reflection points in my control room is where my window to the drum room is, I can also stack the gobos in front of the glass when I am mixing. So I think I can get at least three different uses for the gobos.

By the way, I think I spent about $120 to make these. I think Primacoustic's (GoTrap Studio Gobo) professionally made version is about $450 each or $900 for two. Here is the rest of the gobo build...

I forgot this one...

I have heard the saying for years, you only need three items in a tool box. Duct tape, WD-40 and a hammer. If it moves, tape it, if it doesn't move put wd-40 on it and if a hammer won't fix it, you must need an electrician :) But sitting on your work should make the list since...really, who hasn't done that? Looks good!

My new Pittsburgh Steelers song is at this site... http://letsgosteelers.yolasite.com/ My daughters play on the song. Hannah (12) plays drums Brooke (15) and Erica (10) sing I play guitar, bass, and sing.

awesome man did you submit that to WTAE news in Pittsburgh they have some type of a contest going on

Thanks! I'll go find that on wtae.com

Great update, those GOBO's (or are they really just absorbers, a GOBO should have a HARD and SOFT face... right?) look pro! (dunno about the (to me ugly) cloth texture, but hey) Great work, as always!