new basement studio in working progress , lots of pics!!!

Hello guys, my name is Michael from Berlin (germany) and I´m building my home studio in the basement at the house I´m living in, see the pics please. I started whith one of johns designs and have finished the room dividing walls already, doors and window included. Right now I´m making the wall which divides the control room from the record room a little bit thicker cause I find 8" for the wall is not enough. I will made it 20" - 25" thick. My room dimensions are: control room: 10.1 feet width 12.5 feet in length 7.5 feet ceiling record room/vocal booth 10.1 feet width 6.5 feet long 7.5 feet ceiling I´m also right now building my soffit´s where I want to put dynaudio bm6a´s in it. Is this good idea or is better to put them on stands? I have used this design I attached for building the studio. Except the door of the control room is in my room on the left side of that design everything is the same. Ahh I forgot I did not use sliding doors , I have built a window between the rooms. I want to use the control room as a mastering and mix room for any music style although I´m doing mostly hiphop and r&b stuff arranging, recording mixing. Are there any special things I have to keep in mind for that? I need some advice now on absorber, diffussors and where to put them? On the ceiling I want to hang up a acoustical ceiling , 8" deep in black for lesser light reflections and better mid/high absortion. I will use metall perforated whith 4" rockwool insulation between original ceiling and acoustical ceiling. This would give me also a good absorbing effect in the upper mids and bass or? Is this enough? More is not possible cause of the ceiling height. This is enough for now. I try to post alot of pics... thx ms-scope

starting point...

building the rooms...

studio window..closing of the walls

metall studs..

closing the walls whith gypsum 2 layers on every side

closed walls more pics...more pics of the floor and the angled walls are coming..

this is a smartdraw version of the dimensions and the absorbers I already planned and built. :wink: My question now at the pro´s is what should I do next. Where to put some more absobtion where diffusion if needed in this small room and so and on... some advice is needed! If you need some more information from me for clear answers please aks me I will try to answer them whith my limited english knowledge :P

Hi Michael - thanks for posting the pics - I'm sure others will benefit from seeing them. I only have one question - how are you mounting those two windows? from the pics thay appear to be joined when in fact they should be totally disconnected?? cheers john

Hi John, I used for the studio window 2 frames of isolated standard glas windows (everyone is built of 4 mm glas, 16 mm air, 4mm glas)in an alu frame. the frame between these 2 windows is of 2" wood. I noticed that this was a fault cause it would have been better if I had made the space between the windows whith insulation and absorbing material. Anyway I will make the wall bigger and bring on every side another glas on which will be angled. One glas will be 10 mm the other 6 mm is this enough? The space between the new glasses and the already excisting will then be filled whith insulation and perforated wood or metall. Am I right or is there missing something and I´m doing again a big fault? Michael

this is how it stands so far... pics of the rear absorbing wall in the recording room

and the plan goes on and on 8) pics of the soffits and the new basement window

This how a window works - BTW it's drawn as an inside out wall so your drywall will be on the outer side. - your 10mm and 6mm glass will be fine - put the 10mm on the control room side. cheers john

here are some pics I did from my new acoustic ceiling whith lights integrated. I wanted it to be black because of lesser light reflexions in the studio window and it looks cool :D I have also finished the outer wall whith the little basement window. This is how it stands so far. These days I finish the ceiling and then I make the ceiling and the room in room construction in the recording area... Michael

here are some more pics of my finished ceiling and the broadband panel absorbers I made for the control room. I have to do some mixing jobs right now and therefore I placed them in the corners and on the side walls to have a better acoustic for these jobs. These panels are latter only for the side walls and the recording room walls. The panels are 2 feet wide and 5 feet high. I used the same microperforated panels that I have used for the ceiling. On the inside I used 2" fiberglass whith black acoustic side on it. It´s something like roxul afb but it´s from the firm heraklith. The desing of the panels is a slot resonator design I think it has the same good effect on the highs . Correct me if I´m wrong here. I´m really happy whith the result. After I finished the mixing I will build the soffits or I will go whith the tube trap designed front wall. Have to think about it. Lots of work to do but it goes on and on.... Michael

more pics...

more pics...

Nice Job :D

Awesome!!!! :-D

Hey thanks for the posts + pics. I'm working on a basement studio as well, but in the Paris area. I have quite a few questions that perhaps you could help with. Here is my first design ideas and here is my latest idea. Notice any similarities with your studio? From your pics it looks like your construction is similar as well; concrete block right? Probably normal hollow ones like mine, although I have plaster on the inside and ciment texture on the outside. My ceiling height is lower though; only 2.21m. Questions: - are you doubling your interior walls? - how much did you lose on your ceiling, and what is the new height? I didn't think I could do much with 2.21m - what are you putting on the floor? - what about ventilation? I'm trying to figure out where to mount a VMC unit and where to route the ducting and silencers. Thanks for your help! Russ

Rats. Forgot to add a couple more questions I had: - did you put neoprene or anything underneath your metal framed walls, either for humidity or acoustic reasons? I've heard both that you SHOULD put something underneath for isolation and you SHOULDN"T to keep the 'leaf' solid. - I'm wondering how you put those halogens in such a shallow ceiling; normally you need to leave space above them for cooling. Is this a new type that doesn't require this? - Were you able to find acoustic caulking? I haven't found any here in France. If you know of a supplier in Germany I'd appreciate knowing what it is; I have good friends that could get some for me. Sorry for all the questions. Studio looks great and is encouraging for me. Thanks again! Russ

Hallo Michael! Sieht sauber aus!! I have a question for John: John, given the dimensions of Michaels' control room are A: on the small side (8' by 12' after he is done, but excluding angulation of walls and 14' by 12' before) and B: the dimensions are very close to being a cube, even though he has done an immaculate job and it looks awesome, how good will the room sound in the end? roughly his total cubic feet measurement would be somewhere in the vicinity of 1260; as I understood it, rooms in which high-end quality sound can be produced have to be at least 25oo cu ft.

as I understood it, rooms in which high-end quality sound can be produced have to be at least 25oo cu ft.

where did you read that?? I've seen high quality sound produced out of rooms much smaller. It's not the volume of a room it's the treatment IMO. cheers john

From your pics it looks like your construction is similar as well; concrete block right? Probably normal hollow ones like mine, although I have plaster on the inside and ciment texture on the outside. My ceiling height is lower though; only 2.21m. Questions: - are you doubling your interior walls? yeah I have used 2 metal stud frames seperated from each whith little air space between and fixed 2 layers of gypsum board on every outside of the frames - how much did you lose on your ceiling, and what is the new height? I didn't think I could do much with 2.21m normal ceiling height in the basement was before 2,28m the new ceiling height is 2,06 m after building the acoustic ceiling. The sound becomes so much better caused by the new ceiling.- what are you putting on the floor? on the floor I have some kind of laminated wood - what about ventilation? I'm trying to figure out where to mount a VMC unit and where to route the ducting and silencers. I will put ventilation in the new ceiling . I will mount my vmc on the outside of the little basement window I have built . you can see it on the pictures. Thanks for your help! Russ[/quote]