Echo Bar Recording Studio Build Diary

Hello All, My name is Erik Reichers. I have recently finished building my studio in North Hollywood, CA. Well, almost finished, I still have a few things left to do. I guess I'm about 90% done. Anyway, I have utilized the information on this forum and other sites to help me achieve my goal. I did not post things while I was building and perhaps to my detriment, however I am very satisfied with the way my studio has turned out. I learned so much from this forum that I thought I owe it to this community to share my photo journal. Perhaps it will be of use to others in their research?! First, I want to say thank you to John. Without your knowledge, experience, and generosity for sharing with all of us, my studio would never have been built. I also want to say thank you to everyone else for your contributions no matter how great or small. I can't tell you how many hours I went sifting through post after post to find that one crucial piece of information that helped me move forward with my studio. I have a lot of photos to share. Hopefully they will provide for good discussion among the members and readers here. Keep in mind I am not posting them in real time. My build is done. Wether I got things right or wrong the point is for everyone to learn something from my successes and mistakes. So keep in mind, "Shoulda, coulda, woulda!"

Here is the sketch up design for the studio. It went through many revisions but this was the most practical idea that I came up with.

The best part about my sketchup plan was that it was to scale. I purchased a laser measurer and mapped out the existing perimeter of the building and built it into my computer model. Once I had a finished design, I took it to an architect who imported it into auto cad. He made some necessary adjustments and then we submitted it to the city for approval. Everything was permitted and up to code. These are a few pictures of the building before I did the demo. incidentally the building was a former medical marijuana shop. Someone spent a lot of time hand painting this mural on the wall.

here is the full mural The building ended up having a lot of useful infrastructure. There were already 2 air conditioners on the roof and 2 ADA compliant bathrooms. I should also mention that the entire ceiling was insulated. this was a big bonus. Here are a few more shots before demo began.

Before I began my demo I spent a day in the building with an SPL meter listening to and documenting the environmental noise. I took measurements from many different parts of the building. I made note of the loudest noises that occurred throughout the day. This was important so that I could build accordingly for noise reduction. I really did spend all day in the building!

This is day 1 of DEMO! I did all the demo solo! I used a big heavy hammer called "The annihilator" It made my top 10 list of favorite tools to use during my build! This is the very 1st hole I made in the wall. It grew and grew! I did all this destruction with one hammer! It was a great stress relief!

I had 3 main walls to knock down. None of them were load bearing. I spent about 5 days on DEMO! I rented a 20 yard dumpster and had the debris disposed.

Finally onto a few fun details. This was the first shipment of supplies that came to the studio. This was a pallet of 1" by 1" by 3' long wooden dowels from Madison Mills in Nashville. What are these for you might be asking? They are for my custom diffusors that I made for my back wall of my control room. This a sketchup design of one of the diffusors. It is to scale. I had to cut each and every single piece for these diffusers. here is a document for the frequency range and lengths for each piece. Overall there was 2600 linear feet that I had to cut. It took me 17 hours to measure and cut all the pieces I needed for my diffusers.

The easy part was cutting the wood. The hard part was gluing them in sequence without shooting myself! These took me a week to make. They came out great!

More photos to come!

They're looking for people like you for the City Planning Commision! :lol: Seriously, they look good. Will you finish them in laquer or a nice bright acrylic? Hope you took a nice rest after that stint.

Hey Brian, Actually I left them "al natural" they work nice with the color scheme in my control room. I didn't have much time to rest because the framing crew came the next day. Here is a shot of the lumber being dropped off. This was a happy day. It felt like progress was being made finally after so much time planning.

Here are some shots of the framing crew chalking out where the sole plates and walls were built. This was really neat to see because it was exactly like my sketchup model that I designed.

Also, it is worth mentioning that prior to framing I went around the existing perimeter of the building and filled and sealed all cracks with backer rod and caulk as well as filling in any holes in the concrete with quickcrete. I also added another layer of drywall with green glue to the dividing wall that separates me from my neighbor.

Very much enjoy the pics & description on your build Erik !!! Only wish you would've been here [posting] during the planning & design phase. Look forward to the continuing documentary :) Sincerely.

Only wish you would've been here [posting] during the planning & design phase.

Sorry RJ. I regret it myself. But I am glad you are enjoying the photos.

Here is my contractor cutting the neoprene to be put on the bottom of all the sole plates. You can also see the frame for the first wall being made in the background. This is control room B

more progress on Control Room B As you can see from this photo the control room is a rectangle. It has finished dimension (drywall to drywall) of 21' long by 14' 4" wide by 9' feet tall. This is based on the Sepmeyer ratio.

Here is the framing for my control room going up. It is the same dimensions as control room B. If you look closely you can see the fresh drywall that was installed with backer rod and caulk on the left side of the photo. This is the dividing wall between my studio and my neighbor's business next door.

Here is a photo of a friend doing some of the prep work on that wall this wall was sealed and caulked before adding a 2nd layer of drywall and green glue.

Here are some photos of that same wall from my neighbor's side.

I debated a lot about what to do with this wall. Ideally, I would have liked to add a second layer of dry wall with green glue on my neighbors side but that would have been too difficult to displace my neighbor while that happened.

This is the beginning of the A booth being framed out. You can also see Control Room A framing in the background. The A booth framing completed.

The old garage door coming down. Here is the garage door framed and in from the outside. This door was framed in with 2 layers of mold resistant drywall and green glue. Then topped off with particle board.

I debated a lot about what to do with this wall. Ideally, I would have liked to add a second layer of dry wall with green glue on my neighbors side but that would have been too difficult to displace my neighbor while that happened.

You could have done it from your side quite easily, without bothering your neighbor at all: Just beef up between the studs. That's a commonly used technique here on the forum, for cases like yours.

Here is my contractor cutting the neoprene to be put on the bottom of all the sole plates.

I'm just wondering why you did that: Was the floor especially uneven, and needed the extra seal? Also, from the photos it's not clear how you attached the wall frames to the floor: I don't see any bolts visible, so I guess you just used nails. But it looks like a concrete floor, so how did you accomplish the nailing? You DID attach the walls to the floor, right? - Stuart -