Can I work around the Soffit in my basement?

Hello, Attached is a .skp file of my basement, which I would like to build a recording studio inside. I will be recording vocals, acoustic guitars, bass, electric guitars and a live drummer. Also, here are four photos of the room. Also, photos of the current space are at the bottom of this post. Here's their viewpoint: 1. Looking down the Soffit as it widens on the left side of the room looking from back wall. 2. Looking along soffit from back wall on the right side of the wall 3. A look a the room from the back left corner of the room. 4. A look at the room from the back right corner. As you can see, there's a Soffit for the air duct running right down the middle of a pretty good sized room. There are also two 7 foot vertical beams underneath the Soffit as well. Underneath the Soffit, the height of the room is 7 feet. Everywhere else, it is 8 feet. Also, the Well Pump closet in the right hand corner and the large open space at the stairway landing add to the asymmetry. I can build a hallway by building a wall that starts at the face of the first wall perpendicular to the landing wall, which would go to the other end of the room. This would give me access to the Storage Room. But I'm still dealing with the 7 foot and 8 foot ceiling asymmetry because of the Soffit. My thinking is to put two rooms on each side of the soffit: A Control Room and a Recording Room. I think I can can adapt [url=http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5457]URL John's Small Studio Design[/url to the right side of the Soffit, even though I only have 8 an foot ceiling. Is that correct? Then, I could use the left side of the room after the Soffit for a Vocal Booth, Live Room etc. But what to do with the space underneath the Soffit, which is asymmetrical itself? If it is walled off well with air tight doors, will it present problems? Or can I use the space, despite the lower ceilings and vertical beams? Thanks in advance for your thoughts. Frank

You could try 2 inch acoustic foam on the bottom of soffit and triangular bass traps going along the sides. you have a nice layout. I would use the far left 9' 7 1/4 space for vocal booth, build it just before where the soffit indents. Like maybe a diamond shape front the corner

Thanks for the vocal booth advice tessnox. I plan on treating the room acoustically. I just need to lay it out in a smart way. I can take out the closet in the front left corner, which will give me some more space. I've also been thinking about angling off the stairway landing opening and then using an angled wall design on the other side. Attached is an .skp file example with the Soffit top removed.

i'm assuming the decorative pillars are wraps around metal pillars which are actually load bearing?

You assumed correctly Glenn. :) I did another Sketchup model with symmetry in mind for a two room studio. I used where the Soffit width changes as the place to put the wall. I also put a hallway in to give access to the storage room without people having to deal with the studio. For symmetry sake, in the area designated "Control Room, would I simply build a mirrored decorative pillar that has no load bearing purpose? Both pillars would be 15' 4 inches from the front wall. Are the pillars a big problem? I'd prefer to not have to find another way to bear the load if possible, but I'd like to know how much a problem they are for stereo imaging, modes, nodes etc. Thanks for your time and consideration. Frank

here's what i'm thinking - wrap the soffit around the ceiling in the CR - use it to provide much need air and cooling plus create the symmetry up there. put in an angled cloud and large absorber. usual suspects for side and rear wall treatments. a window in the side into the live space. here's a couple of drawings with these ideas. you may have to get creative and cut a gap into the drywall (+ some frame bits) on the existing soffit to have it decoupled between room but that shouldn't be too hard.

Thank you Glenn! I'm gonna absorb your design over the weekend for comprehension and possible questions. They'll probably be the usual suspects, which I suspect I understand but would like to confirm. I've recorded songs for a long time, and made the usual mistakes, but the nagging to do it better with as much control possible given some $$$ limitations led me here. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the effort you put into this, and how much it helps to have a site like this. I'm also upgrading all my gear, with the help of like minded gear nuts. So, the anticipation to get it all in place is crazy. Then, all I've got to do is write, record, engineer and produce great songs. Heh. Have a nice weekend. Frank

Hi Glenn, I hope you had a nice weekend. I'm not sure what you meant by "wrap the soffit around the ceiling in the CR"? Did you mean make the soffit a perfect rectangle by extending the narrower width to meet the wider part? Looking at your design, I was wondering how you arrived at the Louden ratio of 1:1.4:1.9 for the CR? As sketched. the CR's left wall looks like it runs almost to the closet of the left side of my basement, which is at least 16 feet. With the ceilings being 7 feet under the soffit and 8 feet otherwise, the ratio can't have a length of 16 feet, can it? Thanks for your feedback. Frank

thanks for catching that... i made the mistake of using 8' instead of averaging it to around 7.25' so the ratio is 1:1.55:2.10 see attached for idea on soffit.

Glenn, Thanks for clarifying the design. With the new ratio, the CR is about 1,240 Cubic Feet. Given John's statement that he suggests that a control room ideally should be at least 19’ 8” x 16’ 4” with a minimum ceiling height of 7’ ((2,240 cu ft), I'm wondering what the acoustic quality trade off is with this CR compared to the bigger space (which meets John's specs) on the right side of the soffit, despite the asymmetry at the end of the room. I know acoustics are more complicated than merely height, width and length. So, I'm curious to learn more. A few other questions: Are those speaker frames in the corners of the front wall, with a wall unit to accommodate a large monitor, or absorption panels with bass traps in the corners? Are those two slat resonators on the left side wall? Are the large absorbers behind the cloud similar to the type that are in the component skp: http://johnlsayers.com/Stuff/components.skp With a window, a pillar and a door on the right side, how were you planning on treating the right side? Are all the walls dual framed with a 1" space from the existing wall? Is that why the "mirrored soffit" on the left side doesn't extend to the back wall like the existing soffit? I'm not sure what's on the back wall of the CR, where there's a symmetrical, jutted midpoint. Fascinating, but I haven't seen it before. So, I have no idea what it's purpose is. Thanks for helping me understand Glenn, and the time you've put into this project so far. And thanks for your patience in helping me. I am gaining knowledge, but still have a lot to learn. Thanks again. Frank

the mirror soffit doesn't extend like the other since it's sitting within the boundary of the CR and doesn't need to go beyond that. both sides of the front of the CR are symmetrical - soffits, slats on each side, even though the one side has a window in it, and on the back side where the door is located, the opposite wall is treated. the treatments on the back walls could be John's components or built in absorbers/hangers/slats/etc as needed. the front wall could be used for a large video monitor plus it's go absorption/slats/ etc as needed. the right-hand pillar would be embedded into the wall so you'd frame to accommodate that. strip out the pillar facade and rebuild for isolation.

Gotcha. Thanks Glenn.

Glenn, I noticed another issue: The closet enclosing the Well pump in the right-back corner of the basement has a door. I'm sorry I didn't make that clear. The closet needs access. Would adding a door to that wall at the closet be difficult? I was thinking about putting a vocal booth in that open space on the right side of the room. I don't know how that effects the rest of the room acoustically. If I wanted to put one there, would I be better off using a free standing one, and cutting a door in the wall to give access to the closet, or walling off a space for the vocal booth which also included access to the closet door? Thanks for your thoughts. Sorry for not being more precise. Frank

you can put in an access door to the pump. i would (effectively) build the vox booth in the lower left corner and angle it. if yo uput it int the lower right corner you might pick up more noise from the pump closet unless the door for the closet could be somewhere else besides in the booth. since the live room is OK with asymmetry, it should be OK to put one in. if in doubt, go with gobos until you need a vox booth. if your CR is quiet enough, perhaps monitoring with headphones while tracking vox is ok, or record them in the live room later, etc.

Thanks glenn. One last walls question: My wife was not real happy when she saw that she had to go through two doors to get to the storage room. Is there a place we could put that front wall-and not mess up the room mode for the recording room-so that she could just go from the stairway landing down a hallway into the storage room? Frank

Ah, the "significant other approval factor" (SOAF)... You might move the upper wall down even with the front of the CR front wall so the closet area is readily accessible. Adjust treatments etc accordingly.

Thanks Glenn. She'll like that.

Hi Glenn, Back with another question. When you say "slats on each side" are you talking about John's "My Room" wall design? http://johnlsayers.com/Recmanual/Titles/Acoustics3.htm Also, I didn't understand what you meant by cutting holes in the soffit. With the addition of the mirrored soffit, so much of the CR walls would be reduced to the 7' limit of the soffit. My understanding of ceilings was John's illustration below. Wouldn't I just build the walls to the wall-ceiling (with the current "ceiling" being 7') proportion suggested in the illustration? Or, am I missing something? Thanks for your help and explanations. Frank

the slats on each side of the CR (or elsewhere) could be due to inside-out walls or simply slat resonators built on angles to break of the space and create an RFZ in the CR. on the existing duct soffit - the idea is to cut the drywall and perhaps some re-framing a bit to accommodate the CR wall and the LR wall sitting partially under it. this way you are decoupling the walls as much as possible.

Thanks Glenn. I'm not sure how much the air duct takes up the space of the soffit. So, I'll check it out and see how much cutting into the soffit without touching the duct is possible. Thanks for clarifying. Frank