New Basement Studio

Hello and thanks in advance for the help. I have spend the last few weeks studying similar builds and reading Rod's book. There should be a rough sketchup and photos attatched below. I should mention my father will be helping me build this. He did carpenter work 40 years ago and I have no experience. I repeat, I have no construction experience. I am confident I will be able to do the job but I have lots of construction questions. This is where my main concerns are. for ex. how far back to you push the backer rod. As the subject indicates this will be a basement studio. The space is 12.5 feet wide from cement wall to wall frame. 8 feet tall to the bottom of the joices and 30 feet long. I will be building a free standing "room in a room", fully decoupled. I will be building a room approx 7.5 feet tall by 9 feet wide. The length can be up to approx. 20 feet. I plan starting construction in 5 days. I will be building 1 room, no live room or vocal booth. The basement is completely under ground with 1 egress window. The walls are 8 inch poured concrete. I am not sure of the thickness of the basement but it is poured concrete and it will be the floor. In the photos I placed a couple mic. stands to indicate appox. where the door to the studio will be. The first photo is taken from the standpoint of where you would enter the studio. In other words It is a photo of the space that will occupy the studio. I included other photos of what I have done so far and additional photos of the space incase they are useful. My initial thought for the room are as follows. due to a sump pump located against the right wall and an egress window I plan on a space of 2 feet between the studio and both cement walls it will come up against. Looking at the 1st photo it would be the wall to the right and the wall straight ahead. I plan on the left wall being just a few inches from the frame on the left. The wall with the door in it will be approx 10 feet from the wall I had my back to taking the photo. Although I have read quite a bit I still don't know poo. I am thinking of building the room inside out. Once I finish the room if there isn't enough isolation my thoughts are I could add a couple layers on the inside if I need to. If I did add a couple layers to the inside of the space would a create a triple leaf? I plan on using 2 layers of 5/8 drywall on all walls. Since I have to have the left wall so close to the framing I plan on building the left exterior wall first in the middle of the room and then slide it over to a few inches from the existing framing. Next I will build the frame for the other 3 walls and the ceiling. I am planning on the wall with the doors being on a 2x8 and using a couple solid core doors. I am thinking the 2x8 will give me enough room to put both doors there and I have the space lenghtwise in the room. I am planning on the other walls and ceiling using 2x4. Possibly doubling up the 2x4 in the ceiling if need be to support the dry wall on top of it. I was thinking of building the walls with 2x6 and then alternating 2x4 but my ceiling will probably be the weak spot so I am thinking 2x4, wood. I will not have any ventilation to the room so I will have to take breaks every so often to get in some fresh air. i will also not be running electricity but plan on running a couple extension cords into the studio. I also plan on building a couple mic cable into the room. I run logic on an imac and want the ability to take my computer out of the room incase I want to use the room as a live room with minimal room noise. Even in the summer it is cool in the basement. I do not have a specific decible requirement. I will be recording everything but live drums in the room. As I understand it the room is too small for good sounding drums anyways. I will probably do a live cymbal e-drum set up. My main goal is to get great at mixing. A few of my initial concerns are: I will only have a couple inches clearance between the top of the room the trussed from the floor above. Once I slide the drywall up there is it ok to just screw in the edges? I will have to get creative on caulking/mudding them but I hope to figure it out. I am also unclear of how to build the seams of the studio. Since I will have to build the 2 layers on the left wall first what is the best way to attach the ceiling to that wall. Hopefully you can point me to a build that discusses the construction details if ther is one. Also, a guy at work told me to nail the walls to the floor. Should I put rubber between the walls and floor? Hopefully this is enough info to get started. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and constructive criticism. * I have spent the last hour not figuring out how to attach my photos. Please let me know how and I will add them

I have tried to attach the photo. I still can't figure how to add the photos her using the img button above or if there is a way to cut and past it in here. If someone knows how please advise

Here are a few more photos I have added. I think they were too big before and that's why I couldn't add them.

I am going to step out of my depth here (because I am just getting started myself on learning about this) but if you say you don't have a specific decibel goal, and you won't be recording live drums, you're not going to do any ventilation, and no electrical, etc..... It sounds like you're only interested in acoustic treatment, rather than isolation. So I am not clear on why you are choosing to build one wall two feet inside one of the concrete walls merely because of the sump pump, and why you are building such substantial walls to begin with. Why don't you just enclose the sump pump with an access panel?

i'd strongly recommend you do this legally. get the proper permits and inspections. do the electric and air properly. this could be re-used later as a "home theater" etc.for resale value. if you build this without the proper permits and you have a fire or experience water damage, or someone is injured, it could void your insurance coverage. not to mention the safety aspects of no air, no egress, and improper electric. Sharward posted an excellent sticky on the construction forum which goes into the details about building coded and permits. viewtopic.php?t=4442 Knightfly has created a sticky with a massive collection of construction links which should answer many of your construction questions. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2125

Thanks for the responses. I would like to record drums but I am guessing I will not have enough isolation. I want to build the gaps around the studio so I can get around it to build it and so I can access storage in the back left corner of the room. I am guessing having the 2 foot gap wont hurt the design. As far as code is concerned I contacted the city and they said I am good to go. There is no code for the egress window but I will have access to it. I haven't thought of contacting my insuance agent so I will definitely do that. Maybe what i will do for my construction questions is actually start building it and post photos as I go. I am fairly certain my design will work. I still have to decide if I want to try to follow a room mode or just build it as long as I can and then deal with the sound issues later. From what I have read due to my lack of space it isn't ideal. Maybe I would be better served with a room that is 7.5 tall, 9 feet wide and 23 long. I do have the space. Also a concern I have is insulation. Since it is inside out construction I wonder if I can use the fluffy pink insulation in the walls or if I have to use fibrex. Could I get by with fibrex on the ceiling and the fluffy pink in the walls? Sorry to be all over the place with these posts. I have never used a forum before but it is very helpful. Just the process of trying to put these messages together gets me to make decisions on what to do. I am ordering all the supplies tomorrow at home depot. I will be ordering the fibrex later for traps and possibly the walls.

in general, the pink stuff won't absorb as much LF as rigid insulation will. i'd hold out for the rigid insulation for the cloth cover absorption sections of the wall, and use the pink stuff in the slat and panel covered sections of the wall. this way you can mix up the absorption types used to get the room under control. yeah the room isn't ideal but if you went to 11'1" on the length it could help by putting the room into a better overall ratio 1:1.2:1.49. and then you would have the option to make two rooms instead of one with a pair of back to back slider doors. this would give you a reasonable drum and reasonable mixing space which can then be treated to be more optimal for each one.

Thanks for helping me out here. If I understand correctly I should use the pink stuff in between the 2x4 and 2x8 in the walls and ceiling I am building and the rigid insulation for the super chunks and the other bass traps I have seen on the forum? Also, does it matter if the insulation has paper on one side for the insulation in the studio walls? After your ratio suggestion I did some thinking and measuring. I can actually have the room a little over 10 feet wide and I can get the ceiling to about 7 feet 7 inches or so then 14 feet 4 inches and I should be golden. I would still have ample room for a live room down the road. Is there any specific gap I need to keep between the studio wall and the poured concrete walls of the basement? I am contemplating getting 2x6 for the ceiling as I could put more dry wall up there. I am off to Home Depot to get all the supplies I know I will need.

Correct on the insulation. Paper is ok on the insulation but if you can get it unfaced there is less chance of resonances and improved air flow which can help with absorption. 8" is a good air gap to start with.

Thanks Glenn. I truly appreciate the input.