Basement Studio For starting engineer.

I have been doing music audio for about 3 years now (but starting to really learn the works) and starting to do audio post-production, special effects(After effects) and some 3D work. I am young and do not have much money. im starting with around $500. The big room is going to be the control room and where the two rooms are adjacent (9" of brick between the rooms, thinking about gettin some glass to see room to room.) is where my computer and equipment will be. i'll be recording vocals, instruments and foley sound as well. Looking to get input. Frames aren't on the other walls becuase i couldn't rotate them correctly.

welcome! please update your profile to include location etc. also please describe the isolation requirements, equipment used/planned, music/recording scenarios etc.

gullfo wrote:

welcome! please update your profile to include location etc. also please describe the isolation requirements, equipment used/planned, music/recording scenarios etc.

I updated it. The rooms are brick, I have a 3d model in google skecth up (goind to add more ideas soon). The control room is 22' L by 6 1/2' W. The booth is 11" L by 6 1/2' W. They are adjecent. Thinking about making 2 5x6 1/2 iso booths out of the with the extra wood that i know im going to buy. I also wanted to know about a some nice motherboards or so to build a good computer with.

given the space restrictions, you might want to look into this: http://www.johnlsayers.com/Studio/Mainpage/MP-Mark.htm maybe you can add another booth similar to the small room in the other half of the CR (although the extra volume in the CR with the full length is more helpful) so maybe just keep the CR and booth as defined 6.5x22 and 6.5x11 respectively. work on treatments to get the CR as symmetrical (acoustics) as possible and the booth to sound good. if you don't need the isolation, maybe only put the framing in the booth and spend the extra money on treatment and the windows between the CR and booth (one in the brick, one in the isolation wall in the booth).

Should I use as much isolation in my CR as I would in my booth? what affect would using the full length vs. putting another iso booth in the back half of my CR room have (or my mixes for that matter).

couple of quick questions: the SU file shows the width of the rooms as 5'10" and 5'5" - is this correct or is the 6' width correct? what are your options for putting in a door(way) between the booth and the currently set CR space? i realize it's over your budget but perhaps there is a way to add a slider door there and put the booths side by side and the CR in the back of the long room, or just a large opening between them and really create a much better space for the CR.

sorry about that. the picture is the correct size of all rooms. Should I use as much isolation in my CR as I would in my booth? what affect would using the full length vs. putting another iso booth in the back half of my CR room have (or my mixes for that matter).

the room size is already a significant constraint so while having the full length available, it probably couldn't hurt to create another small booth there - perhaps an amp room?

Amp room? please explain? thanks for the insight. even though i will do more research what are inside-out walls and what are the slat/absorbers made of?

an amp room is an isolation booth where you can place your guitar or bass amps (or keyboards) so the player sits in the CR and performs and the signal is run via a DI box to the mixer plus the amp in the isolation room. also useful for "re-amping" when you need to change the sounds - run the raw guitar signal through another (or changed) amp. a small room could be used for voice etc as well. definitely spend some time reading up.

thanks and will do. how can i determine what acoustic treatment to use so i know im getting a good level of absorbtion in my CR. any tools you can suggest

check out the reverb calculator on this site and also the excellent Chris Whealy Control Room calculator. you can plugin the various construction and absorption options to get yourself into the 400ms or so range.

A Design Gulfo Made For Me. 75% chance i'll use this exact design. may not add small booth, not sure yet. CR-22 feet long by 6 1/2 feet wide (without small booth) Big Vocal booth- 11 feet long by 6 1/2 feet wide. so when i do the inside out walls do I: 1. put cloth up to cover the studs and insulation (i read i do but just wanna make sure) and what type of cloth? 2. would it be better to do staggered studs or regular studs? 3. how do i know what angles the walls should be in the CR (and the slot resonators that will be on the walls in the CR) and the vocal booth walls. in the vocal booth

the cloth can be any breathable cloth like muslin, burlap, etc. you can dye it and treat it so its fire retardant. regular studs since you're only build a single wall except to divide the small booth later and that is a pair of single walls (if you will). the angles on the slats and absorbers is between 6 and 15 degrees depending on how much room there is. in the CR the sidewall slats will likely be 6 degrees since there isn't a lot of space. in the booth we can get more angles on the corner slats.

I plan to use 3.5 in ultra touch insulation. Do i need something between the insulation and the cloth? Do i put a layer of insulation between my existing walls and the sinlge wall of the "inside-out wall" like in john's wall design? In the booth. with the slats being connected to the "inside-out wall", do i add insulation in the cavity of the "inside-out wall" as well as filling up the "slat/absorber" cavity? do i put cloth under the slats in the "slat/absorbers" in the booth and CR?

there are options for the cloth - plastic behind it helps preserve HF, and if you were concerned about fibers there is micromesh type cloth which will help retain fibers better than an open cloth itself. between the inside out drywall and your existing wall - a light insulation which will dampen the cavity but not couple it. cloth goes under all the slats. for the slat cavities built on the inside out walls - you can use vertical plywood panels to build up the cavities so they are sealed (very important) and you would fill the cavity with light insulation behind the rigid insulation. the rigid insulation sits about 25mm inset from the cloth. are you floating the floor? if your considering it, instead consider an interior floor using 50mm rigid insulation on the floor and then 2x 19mm MDF with seams staggered and sealed and then engineered wood finish. the walls would sit separately on 5mm neoprene strip of 40 hardness. this separates the floor and walls and gives you options in terms of floating or not (it could be done later if you need it - for now just polish the concrete).

no floating floor. i dont have much money to work with so i will try to use a cheap floor plan. carpet with some type of underlatment. what do you mean by verticle panels to seal the cavity and by light insulation behind the rigid insulation? the 25mm inset means 25mm of space between the insulation and the cloth right?

with the slat resonator, you need to have sealed cavities. the simplest approach is to extend out from the stud with a plywood panel to the slat frame and then seal it all. inside the slat cavity, the rigid insulation helps esp on the lower frequency units but no need to fill the entire unit with rigid so fill out the rest with light pink insulation. yes, you want air flow through the slats so leaving some air space there before the rigid insulation helps slightly with efficiency.

sorry to hit a nerve but I dont understand what process you are talking about with sealing the slot resonators. i know what the pink fluffy isolation is but what is rigid insulation?

No nerves hit. :horse: however I suggest reading up some as these topics like sealing slat cavities and so on are covered here in a lot of detail. Also, consider portable treatments where the entire slat resonator is built onto a plywood box. John Sayers has posted a components sketch up file which has just such a treatment and should get you started.

I will chose to make slot resonators out of a plywood boxes than add it onto the surface of my wall so i will ask more on that topic after i get a definate wall design then ceiling design. im 17 and i am paying and almost building it myself, with the help of some friends in a construction class that go to a career center with me, they know nothing about studio treatment so they only build off of the info i give them. reading all them pages and different info is confusing, although i have found good info on some topics i'll ask info about later. I am really a hands-on person so i really understand pictures and real simple explinations way better that technical terms, can you please simplify future answers you give me because this whole process is really stressing me out. CR: I have choose to do the inside out wall design with 2 layers of 1/2" drywall and 3.5 ultratouch insulation and cloth to cover. i am guessing that preserving some high frequecies, putting plastic under the cloth, will be good so i can have more choices in treatment for my room? what are some things i should consider when choosing insulation to put in the inside-out walls and why those things should be considered?

remind me - what is the ceiling construction? concrete or framed? if the ceiling is only 6'7" then it will be tough to add any isolation there if it needs it...

the ceiling is wood slates that that rides along the legnth of the room 22' with about 8 inches of width within each cavity and they are about 8 inches deep. my ceiling resembles this picture out of johns rec. manual but the support beams are actually connected and apart of the ceiling. i was going to actually do my ceiling like this one above. 1 inch or so between the insulation and the top of the cavity, drywall under the insulaton with wood screwed to the side of cavity under the drywall to hold it up, insulation under the drywall with some type of wire to hold that layer of insulation up and cloth to cover it all up. From the cloth of the ceiling to the floor would be 6'7. but i was thinkin since the walls cant touch any part of the original room and the support beams of the ceiling are apart of the original room that i could put a layer or two of drywall under the ceiling (about 2" of space in between) and connect that drywall to the wall framing so none of the "false walls" will touch the actual walls or ceiling. would that work?

what you might do is beef up between the existing joists to add mass to the upper floor and then use RC-2 (resilient channel) on the support joists and 2x drywall layers. lightly fill the ceiling with pink insulation keep the drywall separate from the inside-out isolation walls and caulk/bead to seal. attached is an overall framing and treatment plan. the actual doors and windows options are based on your budget. at a minimum solid core doors with good seals all around.

so what you are saying is do something silmilar to the picture below and at the ends where the wall and ceiling almost meet just caulk/seal it? (this is a picture you made for someone else, i did some research and found it). what exact benefit would putting a layer of plastic under the cloth when doing the inside-out walls give me? does it help in choices with acoustic treatment?