Basement studio in West Virginia: build diary

Maybe I don't understand the definition of "gobo"... But on the Real Traps website , it looks like they have peices of framed OC703 4-6" thick that make their gobo traps. On the Ready Traps site, it looks like the same thing. They all look like bass traps on wheels to me. Maybe I'm missing something.

some of these?

I measured exactly the space I am starting with. In the Control Room, there is 19' max by 13'. _________________ ( Spam signature deleted )

I started work on my daughter's album recording before the bass traps are built. You can see drummer Bob Workman in the drum room with bare OC 703 rigid fiberglass piled up against the walls. This did help to deaden the room and minimize the room sound on the recording. There are also pictures of the piano recording setup where I ran the little bro snake upstairs. I just keep it hid in the HVAC return register when not in use. I also did a mic shootout for my daughter's vocals. From top left to bottom right: Groove Tubes AM51; Shure SM58; Shure SM5; AKG C414; Neumann BCM705 (dynamic); Rode NT1. The $400 Groove Tubes mic won, over some more expensive competiition. Sometimes the cheaper mic just fits the voice better. The midrange seemed to flatter her voice a little better. Bass trap builds will be posted next.

I finally got around to start building my bass traps. As per Ethan Winer's recommendations, I'm starting in the corners with 4" thick Owens corning 703 panels, so they will absorb bass frequencies almost evenly with mids and highs. Three years ago, I bought 60 2'x4'x2" panels for $360 at Geo. V. Hamilton [removed] in Pittsburgh, PA. They have been sitting in my basement waiting for this day. I bought 5.5" x 0.75" x 8' boards at Lowes for about $6 each. I measured the height of my drum room and made the traps almost that tall. I used a drill and jigsaw to cut out the oval holes in the lumber, similar to Jakemans panels. I bought some fabric on sale at Jo Ann Fabrics at the mall and stapled the fabric on. I put some small 2x4 blocks on the bottom as feet to keep them off the floor. Part 2 is next...

I made traps in four colors for the drum room: blue, red, purple, and green. Part 1 is here.

I have taken most of my pictures with my iphone. I decided to take a couple with a decent camera. Here's the drum room shot through a wide angle lens...

They look great! And they should work great too. So what's the verdict? What kind of acoustic change did you get in that room? - Stuart -

Thanks Stuart! I haven't done any measurements to the changes in the room yet. Even when I recorded some drum tracks there, I had bare 703 piled up all around! Maybe I can do some room response measurements to find out.

gullfo wrote:

did the additional window cut the HVAC unit noise?

Glenn- I finally got around to testing the noise reduction from the second exterior window in my control room. With both windows open, the noise from the outside air conditioning condensing unit measured 52dB. When I closed the outside window, it was below my Radio Shack dB meter range, but I could still hear it. When I closed the second window, I could not hear anything. So the second window did it's job, but I have no measurements. I will have to re-measure my room isolation with the meter, now that the extra window is in place. I did measure 64dB isolation between the rooms. But that was with a big hole in the back wall, before the second window was in.

you could also set up your DAW with a mic and calibrate it (crudely) to your sound meter and then see if you can get a decent estimate on the very lowest levels. run the sine sweeps at your normal level (85db) then at your low (55db) and high (110db) and see if you can match up your DAW recording levels. then you should be able to record what's happening below your sound meter range - if nothing else to identify what's there - but it should be a reasonable approximation. you would do this just so that when you are recording with an open mic and the levels are really sensitive you're not surprised.

I made four more tall corner bass traps. These are in the control room. I used the same technique as the other ones.

Wow! What a journey. I read this entire thread and I love what you did here! I too am a WV home recording enthusiast. I have a one room studio in a spare bedroom right now, but can't wait to move and build a multi room studio. My house is 120 years old and my basement ceilings are barely 6.5 feet from floor to the joist and my hvac hangs down lower than that (I have the head bumps to prove it!) and its really damp down there so I can't really use it for the studio. I haven't done much sound isolating from outside noise other than blocking in the windows with some 3 inch thick styrofoam insulation sheets. I bought some cheap foam off ebay and put it up in the room. It works ok. I am building gobos right now with almost the same design you used, but I don't have access to 703 so I used the blow in type isulation and made them 6 inches thick. I would post pics but I am at work and I don't have them hosted anywhere ATM. Thanks for doing this! it helps to see the process I must prepare for!

Hi Fender Bender! Always nice to hear from a fellow Mountaineer! I built the 2' x 4' bass traps for the flat wall surfaces. I made the frames the same way as the earlier ones. I made them 24.25" x 48.25" on the inside, so they would be a little bigger than the OC 703. A friend of mine has a business where he can take pictures and transfer them to material. So I took images of 24 of my favorite album covers and applied them to white material. Then I covered the frames with that. This way, I get some artwork to go along with the traps. It's really hard to pick your favorite albums. I didn't give any artist more than one album. And sometimes, if two albums were very close, I picked the one with the better album cover.

Here are the rest of the traps. My studio is mostly done now. I think I will hang my guitars and artwork. Then I'll be done.

Hi Britune, I read your entire thread and found your epic quest fascinating. I'd truly love to hear some of the results you achieved, especially with drums in that drum room. I'm planning a similar project so I'm really keen to hear how good your drums sound. Is there any chance you could post some MP3's on this board or send by email? Best Gavin

Must be the season for a new crop of studios! I'm about to start on more of a practice space, than a recording studio but I want to make it as soundproof as possible. Although I have read quite a bit about this, seeing this diary was totally awesome and the pictures answered a lot of questions that don't come across so well in writing. I think I can only dream of having a studio as complete as Britune but if I can make a room where I can jam all night long, I'll be the happiest I could be. Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into documenting the process. I hope this diary stays for others to see for many years to come!

JabbaJaw and Gavin- Thanks for posting and the kind comments. Please follow the forum rules and completely update your profiles. I will eventually use the free REW software I downloaded and post my room responses here. I hope to record drum sounds with and without my bass traps in the room, and post those, also. I have been way too busy to do that. Until I have time to do those, here are some drum sounds from the new room. The first one is just one mic across the room, an AKG C414 with no processing. The second sample has close mics on every drum and overheads. The third sample adds Waves CLA Signature plugins (compression, EQ, and reverb). This site has a 500k max download. So I had to make these short and of limited audio quality. At the time these were recorded, I did have the tall corner traps up, with some temporary pieces of 703 scattered throughout the room. This was recorded before the wall hanging 2'x4' traps were put up.

Thanks a lot Birtune ,that's exactly what I was hoping to hear. Excellent job on the processing and I'd love to hear more variations when you've done more recording with the other panels you mentioned. What kit did you use for the recording? Cheers Gavin

Bob Workman plays his Gretsch Catalina Club Jazz kit. The snare is a Pearl 3.5 x 14 free floating steel snare.

Thanks for the info.

Britune, kinda just checking back in, and man, your setup looks great! I love the album covers on the acoustic panels, nice work. Sandled

I second the build on the panels. They look really good.

sandlefoot and lowemae- thanks for the compliments! I'd like to put up my guitars on wall hangers in the studio. To use the drywall anchors that I'd like to use, I'd have to drill about a 5/8" hole in my wall (x 8 guitars, which would be 16 holes). These drilled openings (holes) would only be about 2/3 filled up by the screw. I was thinking of filling the extra unfilled opening with acoustical caulk, so the opening would be totally filled. Does anyone know if this would be OK, or would I be risking losing some of my isolation?

Hiya! Love the diary. I'm in the planning stages for a similar type build. I'm curious if you have a running total on your project. I saw some $$ at the beginning. Any thoughts on a ballpark of what you've spent to date? Also, what is your final ceiling height in your control room and drum room? Thanks! David Miner