Small basement all in one studio in East Coast U.S.A

I have been planning on building a studio for a while and luckily came upon this website while searching one day. The room has a length of 25' 1" its widest point is about 11.4' and then changes to 9'. The ceiling is 7'7" up to the joists in both rooms which are 2x10 joists. There is a wooden beam running down the room which is 5 1/4" (.16m) wide by 7 1/2" high (.22m). There are then 3 support beams that go down that piece of wood. Another obstruction is a radon pipe which goes up in one corner then down the side. The final obstruction is a vent that will require a structure 1' 2 1/2" x 2' 9" x 5". I will be doing a laminated floor. I will do a drywall ceiling and to cover the radon tube I was planning on constructing another tilted false ceiling that will cover the length of the room. I would also probably add a cloud bass trap above my mixing position. I am planning on doing a single stud construction and then put one layer of drywall on the outside and use Roxul c423 3" rock wool insulation in the walls and ceiling, put a resilient channel and either do a single sheet of 5/8 or double all around. Let me know if this would work. I plan on putting my monitors and desk in the narrow end of the room pointing to the wider end. Should I build soffit mounts or just place them on stands? Also, where would I want to put slot resonators if any? Also, I should probably do super chunks in all the corners I believe? The studio will not be that loud but it does not matter as my neighbors do not mind. The budget is as needed. I can usually figure out a way to get more cash but I would like to keep it around $10000 Please let me know if you guys need any more details or anything. Sorry I am terrible with sketch up! All help is greatly appreciated!

There is a wooden beam running down the room which is 5 1/4" (.16m) wide by 7 1/2" high (.22m). There are then 3 support beams that go down that piece of wood.

Those are going to be your biggest problem. You'll need to figure a way to build some kind of decoupled "sleeve" around them, since they are part of the outer leaf.

There are already 3 walls with studs and are pictured.

It looks like all three of those are coupled to the outer leaf! Is that maybe just due to the camera angle, or are they really attached to the joists above?

I was thinking of doing either a floating floor or a tile not sure which would be best.

You don't need a floating floor, and you certainly don't have the budget for it, so I'd go with tile, or perhaps laminate flooring. Floating your floor is really hard to do right, and really expensive. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8173

Also, as far as the ceiling goes since I will not be able to tilt it due to the height restrictions would a drywall or cloth ceiling be better or is there something I am not thinking of?

If it is "cloth", then it isn't a ceiling at all! Isolation will be nil through that. You are tight on height, and you say you don't need too much isolation, so maybe just RC and a layer or two of 5/8" drywall would do.

I am not quite sure what to do whether to just finish each room and then buy corresponding bass traps and diffusers or try and change the design away from the rectangular.

Regardless of wall angles you will still need a lot of bass trapping! And you won't need any diffusers: it is a small room. Bass traps are needed without any doubt, and the room is too small for diffusers. I'd go for a typical John Sayers design, I think, with soffited speakers, a reflection free zone around your mix position, absorption on the first reflection points, absorption on the rear wall, plenty of bass trapping, and slot walls to keep it lively. - Stuart -

thanks for the reply it was very helpful! The walls are attached to the joists and I left about an inch of airspace between the outer leaf and the new wall which I built. Would I have to build the "sleeve" for the wooden beam and the three poles or just the poles? My next question is how much would everything suffer if I only put in a single sliding door instead of how John posted in the "small studio" build with two sliding doors? If I did do that would I still do a double wall build or would that be pointless? Third in the second room should I slant the back wall like in John sketch up or just leave it rectangular?

I will be doing a laminated floor. Also, as far as the ceiling goes since I will not be able to tilt it due to the height restrictions I will do a drywall ceiling and to cover the radon tube I was planning on constructing another tilted false ceiling that will cover that do the same thing in the live room. I would also probably add a cloud bass trap above my mixing position.

The walls are attached to the joists

Let me just clarify: You are saying that the new inner-leaf walls are directly attached to the joists of the floor above you? Is that correct? If so, then you have to fix that, or you will never get good isolation. That is a direct flanking path!

Would I have to build the "sleeve" for the wooden beam and the three poles or just the poles?

Beam and poles. You'll need to build that sleeve such that it does not touch the beam or the poles at any point. You cannot attache the sleeve to the poles or the beam anywhere. Two separate things. Also, the beam must not touch the inner-leaf walls anywhere. No physical contact at all.

My next question is how much would everything suffer if I only put in a single sliding door instead of how John posted in the "small studio" build with two sliding doors?

You would lose most of your isolation but just using a single door. The two doors are part of the MSM system. Each door has mass, and the air between them is the spring: Together they form a tuned system, which is what actually creates the isolation. If you take away either of the doors, then you no longer have a tuned system, and your only isolation comes from the mass-law associated with the single remaining door, which isn't very much...

I will be doing a laminated floor.

Great! Good move. Easy to install, looks good, good acoustically, and not expensive.

Also, as far as the ceiling goes since I will not be able to tilt it due to the height restrictions I will do a drywall ceiling and to cover the radon tube I was planning on constructing another tilted false ceiling that will cover that do the same thing in the live room.

That should work, as long as you take care to prevent the ceiling from touching anything else, such as the joists above, or the radon tube, or the beams / posts. The most important point is that everything must remain decoupled. But it looks like your big problem at present is to fix the issue where you have your inner-leaf walls attached to your outer-leaf ceiling (the joists). Unless you fix that, everything else is pointless. - Stuart -

Stuart noise is not too much of an issue I was looking more so to make a nice sounding room. Rarely is anyone walking above the "studio" area, and there is not going to be much incoming noise other than if some water pipes or A/C turns on at the other side of the basement. So would you say not to even waste money on rock wool insulation and resilient channel or will that help keep out the noises I mentioned. I will be doing a lot of treatment to the room once it is done my main goal is to get the best sounding room I can not so much isolation.

Hey guys so I've been busy between school and work and building this studio here is what I have! The studio is all painted I will take a picture hopefully later today to show you guys how it came out!

looks like some nice workmanship! how were you thinking of laying this out in terms of mixing?

Hey glad you like it! Sorry again for the long time between updates I had to finish up junior year in college! Anyways here are some more pictures almost done moving in! Also, you can see where the monitors are now it end up making my listening position 38% of the room. I have yet to try it though I'm hoping the column doesn't cause any problems with reflections!

from a mix position - i think putting the monitors on the wall opposite the couch may be your best option.

Hopefully soon Ill get a chance to run some measurements and actually find out which place would be better as I have heard even from GIK both options so anyone else who might know feel free to contribute!