Input appreciated - Small studio w/control room & booth

Hi! I've been lurking in the forums here for a while, and I've tried to learn at least a little bit before crying out for help. :) I'm planning to build a small studio in my basement, and the room shape is a bit strange, but I thought I might be able to get a decent control room and a small booth for vocals and micing some small guitar-cabinets. I haven't added a ceiling (nor any treatment of it) in the Google Sketchup drawing yet. I've added gypsum/rockwool to the left angled wall, but I'm not quite sure how much/little to add to the right one to get them to absorb/reflect about the same. I'm also not sure if I would need to add gypsum to the inner walls of the booth or not. The floor in the booth are to rest on Auralex' U-boats. The door is also just crudely put in there. I guess some serious separation would be in order to isolate the outer wall from the inner wall. I would really appreciate any inputs/feedback on it. I'm not even sure that the placement of the console is the wisest, perhaps it should be at the other end? Also, forgive me for linking to my (external) website. The file was too big for uploading on the forum. http://www.jonsibar.org/stuff/studio_rev1.skp Thanks.

The floor in the booth are to rest on Auralex' U-boats.

To be honest, I wouldn't bother trying to float that floor, for many reasons. Floating the floor isn't necessary for a vocal booth anyway, and I'd just buy/build a simple decoupling pad of some sort to put amps and cabs on for recording guitar. But first, an important question: What is the existing floor made of? Also, the existing walls and the existing ceiling. Regarding your room shape and layout. Looks good to me! I can't see any better way of fitting that into the available space.

I guess some serious separation would be in order to isolate the outer wall from the inner wall.

The general rule is a minimum of 4 inches air gap (distance between inner-leaf and outer leaf surfaces). That is easily do-able with normal 2x4 framing, which already gives you a 3 1/2 air gap. so if you set your frames at least 1/2" apart, you meet the minimum. But more is better, of course. The question here is: how much isolation do you need? - Stuart -

Thanks for the reply! The walls are clad with wooden panel. Behind the wall of the left-, front- and front-right-walls (facing the console) there is solid rock. My house lies partially into a rocky slope. My space is limited, and since I do need to get the guitar cabinets into the booth, I will just have to do with whatever isolation I get. I doubt recording at (very) high volume will be needed. What concerns me the most though, is whether the side where the vocal booth is, absorbs/reflects differently than the left side. So I'm not quite sure how to build up the leafs so that they're as good as identical.

Does anyone have any input whether I should build a double wall on the left side of the console as well? Just to try to get the two walls as identical as possible. Or will it be sufficient to leave it as it is on the drawing, or perhaps to have rockwool on the inner walls as well?

hi Those splayed side walls really chew into the available space ... especially considering what type of acoustical treatment is planned. Corner traps, side panels, clouds. ?? I'd be curious if the front was built to keep the rectangular form, and let the treatment like 'chunky corner traps' be workable. Also thinking about the side 'first reflection' points ... lot of booth window there. Speakers going on stands ?? Last idea ... would a type of 'inside out' design be considered. Sorry for butting in :wink: ... but nows the time to throw the design ideas around. :)

Agree with RJ: I would put the speakers on stands against the front wall, not on the desk.

Does anyone have any input whether I should build a double wall on the left side of the console as well? Just to try to get the two walls as identical as possible.

No, it should only be single. If you made it double then you would have a three-leaf wall, which is a bad idea. I also agree with RJ about making those two splayed walls "inside-out", to gain a few precious inches of space. That might mess with the isolation of the booth, though: You do need at least 4" of air gap between the leaves of the booth, for good isolation. But maybe you can figure out something, perhaps using the "beef up between the studs" idea, for extra isolation without losing too much space in the room or booth.

whether the side where the vocal booth is, absorbs/reflects differently than the left side.

They will act roughly the same. Just put two layers of drywall on each side, and you should be fine. Once again, use inside-out construction and the "beef up between the studs" concept for the second layer, to save space. The booth is going to be VERY small, but that's all the space you have. So it will need lots of treatment, making it even smaller. Is this a vocal booth too, or just an iso booth for cabs? Have you considered HVAC for the booth, as well as for the room? One more agree with RJ: I think you could relax the angle of the splay on those side walls a bit. Maybe drop it from 15° to 12°, or whatever makes sense: I guess the limiting factor is the minimum size that you think is acceptable for the booth: changing the splay angle increases CR volume, but reduces the booth volume. One final thought: How are you doing on your budget? If you have money to spare, maybe you could use denser materials to save space? Such as fiber cement board instead of drywall, or maybe even lead sheeting. They are much thinner, and will save you a few mm, but are rather expensive! - Stuart -

Thanks a lot for replying, both of you! Bear with me when I try to keep up with the terminology, but I haven't fully grasped the 'inside-out' build process. Would that mean gypsum boards on the inside, but not on the side facing the console? Also, the 'beef up between studs'-concept escapes me, but I'll use my Google-fu to source some information :) I'll consider reducing the angles of the walls. I'll try to measure the room dimensions this weekend using masking tape so I'll get an idea of the size. I'll use the booth primarily as an iso booth for cabs, but occasionally for vocals as well. HVAC will not be necessary, but there is a small 'ventilation shaft' in the room at the moment. This pipe goes directly to a grille on the outside wall of my house. I'm not quite sure if I should extend this pipe into the booth to get some ventilation, or if I should leave it be to ventilate any eventual moisture between the inner walls and the booth's walls. I'm considering getting some stands for the speakers, possibly some new wide-field monitors. I originally pondered about making them flushmount, but I think the stands will suit me well considering I have limited space. My budget is somewhat limited, but I'll check into what materials are available in my region. Perhaps thinner and more solid gypsum/drywall boards. I have yet to find fiber cement boards, but I'll keep looking :)

I've decided to go for the inside-out wall concept as well as not doing the floating floor. Here's my progress so far: I've clad the inner walls with drywall recently, and installed the inner door. I'll try to get some snapshots soon. The placements of the vertical studs are a bit strange since I originally thought of making each wall as a module (inside-out wall), attaching drywall to it and then connecting them all together. Then a friend of mine suggested that I might as well just make the entire construction and drag it out to the bigger part of the room where I could attach the drywall unhindered. :oops: And so I did. That's why the corner studs look a bit strange/misplaced. In case anyone is interested. :)

Some more photos. Drywall is up, caulked, the inner door is mounted and I've started insulating.

It's starting to look pretty good! :) - Stuart -

I think so too! :) I'm pretty happy that the build is going well. I'm suspecting that the biggest challenge will be the window. I can see it coming down the line... :P Outer wall and door is up.

Looking good ... BUT ... Did the door get moved to the other end of the wall ??? Or is the last pix from the inside view ?

Yes, the door got moved

(Maybe the moderators would want to move this to the Construction-forum) Progress: Insulation Got the first piece of the black upper cloth layer up. Can't say I'm crazy about the green :) Two layers of drywall up. Temporarily blinded the window because of all the dust in the room, don't want the booth to be messy now that I've started clothing the interior. Adjacent wall up. Rockwool and two layers of drywall (one plate left on this picture though). Needed to extend the ventilation due to potential moisture levels (basement).

The inside of the booth is fully clothed, and I've finished painting and moulding (sp.?) the walls now. The frame for the window is also up. Now for some glass, and I'm finally seeing the end of the tunnel! :yahoo: From what I've seen on this and other forums, slanting the glass for the studio window should be considered a lighting/glare issue only and not an acoustic one, so I think I'll either go with two parallel window panes or one slightly slanted on the inside of the booth. I haven't fully landed on a decision yet. Anyways, a couple of pictures if anyone is interested:

I finished the build a little while ago, and the iso booth works great!! We've started recording guitars now, and I'm really impressed with both the sound in the booth as well as the sound isolation. Here are a few more pics. Mounting the window panes. Not slanted. View from the booth Temporary placement of my monitors. Got to get me some stands. Into the void... Inside. The flash on my camera really helps point out the dusty fingermarks... :/