Would love some help with my basement studio and Sketchup!

Hi folks, man this forum is invaluable! I've already gleaned so much advice it's amazing. So, we bought a new house and we're turning the unfinished basement into a studio. My hopes for the studio are: -large control room, surround ready -ability to use control room as viewing room for movie projects -decent sized studio, (10' by 8' at least) -all inside walls built on RC with a second window placed where the current side windows are. -ability to turn all rooms into some kind of suite for resale of the house in 10-15 years. -small entrance room What I have to work with already: -18'by 40' room -HW and Furnace placed already -bathroom roughed in (putting Washer and Dryer where tub is roughed in) -8'3/4" ceilings (some lower spots for pipes) -concrete floor and side walls -open ceiling (just floor joists) -about 10-$15,000 I don't pretend to know a lot about building or studio design, I've read a lot and will continue to do so, but any help would be greatly appreciated. I've attached my first attempt at Sketchup, if someone could open the file and trhow some advice on my methods that would be great! (notice that the toilet goes through the wall!) I was having a tough time with it here, but it's great software! Also, the post box is the heater, and the garbage can is the water tank! :? The strip running down the right side is the stairs. The only things that can't really move are the stairs, the HW and Furnace, and the bathroom (and the windows). Other than that, if someone has a better plan for my narrow studio, that would be great! (I tried going width-wise, but the distance to the back wall would be too short for the speakers) Thanks so much for the help, again, this is a very cool forum.

jef - the problem I see is that if you want 5:1 the control room ends up a similar size if you go crossways or lengthways as the width of the rear speakers control the size of the rear of the room See below cheers john

Thanks for the tips John! I've searched through this forum and read through the Surround standards article and I'm a little unclear on one major thing: I can see that the speakers in a 5.1 setup should all be equidistant from the listener, but does the room have to be as long as it is wide (and is that why your plan had the small room even if you went length-wise)? If that's the case, I'm thinking of downgrading the surround setup... Could I have the surround speakers on stands in a longer CR that is 12 feet by 21 feet (by 7.5 feet)? The surround speakers would mostly be for reference (film composition done in stereo and sent to a PP house for mixing in 5.1) What do you or others think about that? I'd just really like to make a longer room for the control room. If there is advice on this topic, please point me in the right direction (don't want to waste anyone's time)! <update: I just realized that this article has a CR that is surround and almost my esact dimensions! http://www.realtraps.com/art_studio.htm any comments on this design?>

Yup - you can go that way - actually Ethan's rear speakers are at 120 degrees instead of the recommended 135 which is what I drew. If you go for a free standing setup you can use the longer contol room. cheers john

Here's my latest idea, mostly concerned with layout right now and how to best use my narrow but long space. After trying to go lengthwise with my control room, I realized it would be too hard for people to get past the equipment to the studio etc. so I tried a width-wise CR but very wide (I know this goes against using the longest wall for the length). Does anyone have any better suggestions for use of space? I like the width-wise plan the best as it opens the room up. The problem is that my pic doesn't show how the walls will be thicker after we build the inner wall. Any suggestions or naysayers?

Any thoughts on this design? Or other ideas? The Control room should be the biggest and the only things that are somewhat set are the bathroom, stairs and furnace/heater.

Jeff - I'd suggest you reverse the control room so the windows aren't behind you - then you can treat the rear wall heavily and be able to see out as well. cheers john

OK, here is the new idea (reversed) please excuse the irregularity of speaker and desk placement (I can't seem to find an easy way to move things in Sketchup, half the time my couch is floating in mid air!) Here are my construction ideas to make this project not too expensive. Every day I spend at least an hour going through old posts, I'm just feeling overwhelmed right now. We take possession on Nov 18, then we can start the studio construction. I plan to get a few past clients that are builders to do the bulk of the work, I will do what I can. Walls: Since the basement is almost completely underground with concrete up to the ceilings, I am not going to do the room within a room approach. The contracted house builders are going to put drywall to the "frostline". I am going to ask them if they can refrain from doing any drywall, so I can put the inner 2 layers of drywall on RC, thus making my 2 leaf system with a (very minimal) air gap. Windows: Place inner windows inside (this will make a 10” air gap between the inner and outer windows). The windows are dug out with a retainer, I plan to use the windows for ventilation whenever I’m not being that loud… the neighbors are very close though! Dividing walls: Basic wall structure with steel studs and differing gyp-rock thickness on either side (also using RC on one side) I’m not too concerned about noise transfer between rooms. Floor: Hardwood over the concrete. Basic moisture resistant foam underlay as I am in a basement! Ceiling: I will be putting 2 layers of gyp-rock in between the joists (using the glue and runner method from this forum) to beef up that leaf. The main floor of the house also has an extra layer of cork underneath the laminate (as thick as I could get it). I will then put 1 to 2 layers of gyp-rock on RC attached to the joists (as long as it can support that). This is the main area that I want moderately sound-proofed to tone down my toddler daughter’s running and to minimize the amount of transfer to the rest of the house (notice I said minimize not eliminate!) Acoustic treatment: This I will tackle once the room is up, I wouldn’t mind getting started on a home –made bass trap though… I plan to put 2 bass traps in the evil corners. Also, on the wall next to the stairs there will be a duct that is closed in, will this cause any strange problems? AC: I plan to use my portable AC/dehumidifier in the entrance (as it can be easily vented outside there) With that and the windows, do I need to worry about other venting? (the venting/ HVAC stuff on this forum is way over my head!) I know that the “live room” doesn’t have any windows, but it won’t be used that much and could have a portable fan in it…. Is this lame? So, please Hammer, don’t hurt me… I’ve been searching extensively on all of my above ideas (and I will continue to do so!), I just figured it’s time to throw what I’m thinking out there and see what y’all think. Let me know if you can think of a better room placement system as well (considering my afore-mentioned needs). Thanks again for this resource, I don’t know how I would do without it!

Reverse it mate - if you have trouble with moving objects right click - unglue!! cheers john

what do you mean by reverse it? (I did reverse the studio plan as you suggested before...) i'll try the unglue suggestion

well your whole room says speakers one way and your last post shows them the opposite.

The only reason they are switched is because you advised me to do that... "Jeff - I'd suggest you reverse the control room so the windows aren't behind you - then you can treat the rear wall heavily and be able to see out as well. " Does the old way make more sense? The only thing is that the speakers will be pointing directly at the windows, which shouldn't be that big of an issue as I monitor around 85-90dB.

Jeff, dude, :roll: John meant reverse the ROOM. Not the things inside the room. :lol: -Tomi-

Gotcha :wink: The only thing is that the plumbing is fixed, and so are the stairs! I think I'll just go with the first direction, and deal with the window problems as they come (block them up if I have to... I can also build some kind of baffle outside as they are cut out below ground level) What about everything else?

Tried reversing the shape of the room, what about this? (dimensions are off, just talking about shape). Will the one speaker being so close to the window be a huge problem? I could just block off that window and treat it... I don't really need 2 windows in there!

Any thoughts on my reversed studio?

Getting closer to build time, any thoughts on my plans?

3 weeks away! I'll post some pics here. Another question (in addition to my other ones, see page 1 of this thread!) -is it bad to have an overhang above my setup? It will be a framed in box around the heater ducting that runs along the whole wall. I plan on making the ceiling angle out from the box to give a slope. Here is the latest design:

And a shot of the basement (you can see the ducting top right that I was talking about)

gettin lonely in this thread!

well if you refuse to listen to our advice what's the point of offering it. I recommended that you reverse the room, you drew it correctly - now you've reversed it again for no reason and once again you are fireing your speakers directly at your rear windows again. cheers john

John I got no replies on that, did you think that looked good? (reversed). Sorry if you thought I was refusing your advice... if the windows are a huge problem, I will go back to the reversed room, my reasons were more for the layout of everything, but I can work with the reversed one if you believe it is more important... EDIT: Just reviewing my plans, I recalled why I went back to the first design... When I went to the actual building and taped out my reverse studio, the "reversed plan" proved to give me a very small recording space, so I went back to the drawing board and tried the original plan but shifted over a few feet. The reason the reverse plan won't work the same way is because of the window placement (the one closest to the far end of the building). I'd have to put the wall right down the middle of the window which seems to me a greater of two evils as opposed to having the speakers fire at the windows harking back to my first plan. My new plan gives me a big control room, less of an entrance (big deal) and a bigger studio recording space, does this make sense? I plan on treating the back wall with the necessary trapping and double windows, as well as heavy drapes over the windows. I guess I'm trying to figure out why the windows at the the back will be such a negative thing? (I assume you are referring to the sound transmission outside?)

Okay, went to the house again today and came up with a compromise that will put my studio in the reversed layout, speakers not firing at the windows. I think this is the one I'll go with... Do you think I should block off the window that is right behind the desk?

Thanks again for the help, will be tipping the cookie jar once this is paid for! Working on my 703 panels right now, then will begin the process of bass trapping... the studio already sounds great, so much brighter than my over-foamed previous studio with carpet floor. Noise from above is handle-able. Noise transfer to the rest of the house is fantastic (in the not-transmitting-enough-to-bother-anyone way). Did 5/8" drywall, RC, mostly Roxul Wool, shape that John insisted on, love it! Moldings are the last step. Now, how do I make music again??? I'm wicked-awesome with drywall, and paint, maybe I'll start my own business :)

Oh yeah, Grand total looking more like around $8,000. Sweet!