Basement recording studio. Any suggestions?

Hey glenn. The only thing I see that needs tweaked is the water meter area. The meter comes out approximately 1' 1inch from the wall. Should I go ahead and tape it up tonight? I'm guessing I will use 2 strips of tape to represent the 4" of the 2x4 that will be laid down?

yes, go ahead and tape and see how it works. in general, leave at least 1" out from the walls where the outer edge of the frame will be. this might allow a bit more space (3" or so) in the CR front wall.

Great. I'll do that tonight. Pics to follow and a short video also. As you can tell I will be documenting this whole process here on the forum and also on youtube. I will have about $2,000 to spend on the whole project this year. I'm hopeing I can find what i need pretty cheap. I am also buying the Yamaha HS80M studio monitors!

Ok so I taped it up and the measurements were spot on! Here's the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwE8i5npiRw Check it out and let me know what you think!

Hi Esco, Been following along on your design & build. Cool vid :) I'm in the UAN control room thread. Another basement build. Glenn took over my designing ... and has been graciously holding my hand through the entire process while trying to teach me a thing or three. What a great site ... with some great, talented people who are kind enough to share their knowledge & wisdom. Best to you on your studio ... like me, I'm sure you can't wait !! :)

for the water meter - maybe push the front wall of the CR out to 1" from the basement wall, then soffit the corner vertically to accommodate the plumbing and add an access panel there. this way the corner is only mildly offset and the front trapping / soffits etc will cover for that. on the doors - have them open into the basement instead of into the rooms - that will free up that space for people and equipment... it looks like some adjustments are needed on the ducts, the vertical PVC for the sump, and the PVC by the booth. the SU file attachment has the framing required except for the ceiling. if you're going with isolation clips and hat channel on the existing joists, you should be good. if you want to add joists to sit on the framing, then you probably could nest 2x6 joists given the small room size. another detail - fresh air. i think a few baffle boxes to exchange air with the basement should work. if you need AC or heat, then a split heat pump unit should do it.

Hey Glenn is there supposed to be a sketcup file attached to you post? I don't see one attached.

not yet.

Ok so do you think I'm ok to go get some wood? Also with the sump pump area I am clueless as to that to do with the pvc pipeing there. And the piping by the vocal booth, I can probably raise that up a bit but I'm not sure I can do that with the cold air intake. Any ideas?

RJHollins wrote:

Hi Esco, Been following along on your design & build. Cool vid :) I'm in the UAN control room thread. Another basement build. Glenn took over my designing ... and has been graciously holding my hand through the entire process while trying to teach me a thing or three. What a great site ... with some great, talented people who are kind enough to share their knowledge & wisdom. Best to you on your studio ... like me, I'm sure you can't wait !! :)

RJHollins, I checked out your thread and learned a ton from it! I am thinking we will have similar designs with our studios. I am glad I came across this forum because I would have ended up being one of those guys building a vocal booth out of egg cartons and carpet!!!

the sump pipe should get an elbow or two install to get it as close to the wall as possible in preparation for routing the ducting. the other pipes - not sure what they do but presumably the can have some work done to get them out of the way. on the ceiling - i suggest going with isolation clips and hat channel with 2x drywall in the CR room to ensure good isolation. maybe 3x drywall in the drum booth. i'll get the update plan done this weekend.

Ok thank's Glenn! You are truly awesome! I just found out that my budget for the studio has went up from $2,500.00 to $3,000.00!!! Truly Excited! Glenn your name is going to be all over youtube as a key memeber to John Sayers community. I hope you are ok with that! The Pipe under the vocal booth is my kitchen sink's drain pipe. So I think I can raise it a bit. Not quite sure that you mean by.

on the ceiling - i suggest going with isolation clips and hat channel with 2x drywall in the CR room to ensure good isolation.

but I will look into it and goodle the terms.

Ok Glenn I looked up isolation clips and i see what you mean. Would I do this with the walls also? or just the ceiling? The 2x drywall makes perfect sense as does the 3x drywall in the booth. Shouls we redirect this post to the construction section once I begin building? Or start a new thread there?

just for the ceiling. the walls will stand alone and will be decoupled from the floor and joists with neoprene or similar strips.

Rock On! Can't wait to see the new design!!!!

so here's the top level plan - some slight adjustments - front of CR out to 1" of wall. an additional inset for the water meter. access to water meter would have to be through the speaker soffit. can you provide exact height of the meter and the value? and the exact distance from the wall and the front wall? one thought - depending on how the meter is read - visual or electronic - if read visually - a small port/window to allow the reader to see it. and an access panel below for the valve. if electronic then it might not be a problem at all for viewing it. i put the ventilation silencers in 2 locations - on the inside of the booth up at the ceiling level. in the CR, the baffle boxes are in an extended soffit for the vent duct to accommodate 2 additional ducts which vent by the stairway/door entrance.

Ok so here's the measurements of the meter The meter comes out 1' 2" from the right wall and it comes out 1' 9" from the front wall it is 3' 11 1/2 " tall I do need access to the meter because it is also my water shut off for the whole house. I will tape the front wall today to 1" from the wall. This should open a lot of space! Let me know if there is anything else (other then the pvc and air duct) that needs to be done. Thanks again Glenn!

Ok i re taped the front wall and here's a picture of it. It looks great!

Ok so Glenn, Did I give you enough info on the water meter?

thanks! i just haven't gotten to redoing the drawing. will do so shortly.

Oh no problem. I can't build anything until this coming weekend. I was wondering how tall I will build the walls and how the ceiling will work? Do I need to buy special bracked for the ceiling design? Also, do you think I will be able to begin building the walls this coming weekend?

the ceiling will be using isolation brackets and hat channel - check out kinetics noise site. http://www.kineticsnoise.com/arch/isomax/index.aspx http://www.kineticsnoise.com/arch/icw/index.aspx

Ok I checked it out. Sounds cool! Can't wait to get them.

here's also another option: http://www.soundisolationcompany.com/so ... esilmount/ i would base selection more on cost as they're all going to be pretty close in performance.

Ok Cool! So what about the walls? Can I begin building this weekend or shal I wait?