Many Thanks to All who helped! Here Are The Pics!

Hey everyone. I have been a lurker here for over two and a half years! Main reason being that I was learning the whole time and really had nothing to add that would be of any use. I would like to thank everyone who contributes to this one-of-a-kind forum! Your ideas and thoughts have helped me create the home studio of my dreams. The first couple projects have rolled out and are a success! My control room seems pretty nuetral except for a little boost in the 55 Hz range, but I can live with that. Otherwise, all sounds great! No humz, buzzes or other issues. I built this studio from the ground up. It is the building-within-a-building type of construction. Every wall is either dual or triple layer with an air gap in between rooms. 3/4 and 5/8 inch glass, floated floors, isolated grounds, etc. The whole process took about 1 year and cost around 44k finished without equipment. So, again, Thanks to all who have helped my dream become a successful reality! Cheers to you. Enjoy the pics! M

Fuck me that's nice!!

Awesome man ... From one lurker to a next ... congrats! Great job ... wanna build me one too ? :lol: How about posting some more details? What's the dimensions of those rooms? Are your floated floors concrete or wood? *Envy sets in*

Man! Fantastic! That is a cool idea about cutting in those can lights on the absorber panels. I was trying to think of a way to hang track lights without interfereing, but that is so much cooler. I guess you would have to make sure the fabric was not highly flamable. Tom

Fantastic Hi Def! Thanks for sharing the results with us. I hope you will stay around and share your experiences with other builders. Andre

That has to be one of the most beautiful studios I've ever seen. 8) And yes, I echo Andre's sentiments -- please stick around! :!: --Keith :mrgreen:

Another echo here. Very nice indeed :lol: Darryl.....

Just a quickie adding on to what has already been said: It is great to see results from people who mostly lurk..We see many readings of posts and don't always know what some readers are doing with their newly gained knowledge. Andre

Nice vibe you have going on there....if this is a commercial facility, I expect it to be very busy! If its a personal project studio, I expect you to be very productive! One question, what's the wooden panel thats in the 3rd photo (not the slat resonator, but the other one)? Is it a Helmholtz trap, or just there for diffusion? Cheers, Kris PS: I love that entrance...the door is awesome, and the perimeter lighting is superb.

Those interested in more details may wish to review Marty's initial thread from January 2004... And this thread about his floating floor from August 2004. :mrgreen:

What a beautiful studio. Great pictures. Do you have any more pictures during the various construction phases? The door is great too. How is that constructed and sealed?

Hi Def wrote:

Hey everyone. I have been a lurker here for over two and a half years! Main reason being that I was learning the whole time and really had nothing to add that would be of any use. I would like to thank everyone who contributes to this one-of-a-kind forum! Your ideas and thoughts have helped me create the home studio of my dreams. So, again, Thanks to all who have helped my dream become a successful reality! Cheers to you. Enjoy the pics! M

Great looking studio man, looks awesome. Out of interest, have you used the 'make a donation' button yet? I think everyone who completes their project with help from here should donate something towards the running of the site, the info that can be gleaned on here is worth $$$$'s Do you have any 'under constructioin' pics, the guys on here get real horny for those kinda jpg's! :P

Very nice indeed!

Wow, thanks everyone for the wonderful compliments! That rocks! OK, might as well get right to it huh? I'll try to answer all the questions thus far. Yell at me if I get off track OK :o This is a semi commercial studio. My wife and I are signed to deal with Interscope records that unfortunately is shelved at the moment. Her name is Shelby Norman. You'll see her name if you go to Interscope.com. I produce and co-write her stuff. Since the record has been shelved, we are more focused on getting a writing deal through a certain publisher that I can't name right now, sorry. :( So in the meantime, its for us and freinds who want to come and jam and make a few bucks as well. The Studio is a building within a building type of construction. The outer shell is 42x32x14. 2x6 framing. Oh yeah, it rests on a 5 inch floating concrete slab. The outside of the building is covered with 7/16 OSB and sided with the concrete composite siding. On the inside of the those walls (we're still talking the outer building) I cut 22and1/2" strips of sheetrock to put in the middle of the 2x6s. Two layers and sealed with caulk. This was to beef up my walls so it wouldn't be just the OSB and siding stopping the noise from getting through that one leaf. As well, the attic was fully insulated and double layer sheet rocked. The control room is about 17x22x11.25 rough dimensions. It is not square so I can't give you exact dimensions without a drawing which I will get up here when I find it! The control room is floated on neoprene pads. The layers of the floor goes as follows: neoprene - 2x4 on edge - 7/16 OSB - 5/8 sheetrock - 7/16 OSB - quiet walk insulator - laminate flooring. All of the joints were caulked to insure complete seal. All of the cavities were filled with r-19 insulation. I used PVC pipe to run all my tie lines and other stuff from room to room keeping power/network far away from all audio lines! The walls are of 2x4 construction on top of the floated floor. Each wall has three layers of 5/8 sheetrock. I was willing to take the gamble of resonating vs mass with keeping all the same thickness drywall and it all worked out great. Each layer was screwed, glued, taped and mudded. As for the outlets putting wholes in an otherwise sound wall?... When framing, I framed out and area around each outlet box roughly twice the size of the electrical box itself. Then attached a triple layer of drywall from scraps on the backside. It keeps the wall mass intact so there is no leakage through the outlet areas. Hope that doesn't confuse anyone. I'll post a pic of that later. Now to the ceiling. For the ceiling framing I used 9 inch laminate beams to span the way across the room. My cousin manages the local builders supply joint in town and his engineer spec'ed these things out to handle something like 100 pounds per sq.ft. over a 30 ft. span and have only 3/16" sag over 30 years! Hows that for spec! I thought is was pretty cool to have this cat rattle off all these figures! I ended up using these beams for every room. Spendy, but worth it. Three layers of sheetrock on the ceiling too. The Control room shares 6 20 amp curcuits. One for the console and outboard rack, one for soffit speakers, one for the ProTools rack and two for the front and back wall outlets. One more for the lights. And, all the audio related curcuits are on the opposite leg of power the lights and other stuff in the studio. The Main room (Drums, etc) is roughly 26'x25'x12.5 again it is not square so these are general. This room's floor is the concrete slab that was poured for the outer building. I just put the quietwalk and some laminate flooring down and it worked great. It is a separate wall system with 2 layers of 5/8 sheetrock. Uses the same ceiling beams as the control room with 2 layers of 5/8 sheetrock as well. As far as the question about the wood panel...it is a difussor of sorts. Its really only a 3/16 4x8 sheet of plywood bent and mounted to the wall. Insulations is stuffed in back to stop it from ringing. I did it mainly for looks but it has made a difference in the reflections of the room over all. It wasn't really planned out per say. The room sounds really really really good for live drums. Its got a great ambience and farely flat sound. Every drummer who has come in says it sounds very organic and natural. I would agree with them. It's not perfect, but is far from sucky! 8) The vocal room shares the same construction techniques as the main room only the dimensions are smaller and it s on a floated floor. All of the doors in the studio are solid core luan doors. And, are door/air lock/door setups. Some of the doors I beefed up quite a bit by glueing and screwing a layer of 1/2 inch birch ply on each side. after screwing those peices on, I covered the holes with some 3/8 dowels and it turned out pretty nice. I then put those cool little door closers on and sealed it with a neoprene gasket. It took a little bit to get the seal right but it eventually worked. All of the casings had to be remade and the stops recut to accomidate the bigger sizes and seals. The doors are always the weakest part in the whole isolation thing. I think mine turned out fairly nice but not perfect. On a scale from 1-10 with 10 being completely sealed, I'd say my doors are a 7 or 8. Windows!!!! Separating the control room and main room is a 42"x92" window. It is a double leaf window with 3/4 tempered glass on the control room side and 5/8 tempered on the main room side. Separating the vocal room and control room is another window with same thicknesses of glass. Dimensions are roughly 4'x5'. Each window was built using Johns method of venting in between the rooms. The vent is covered by fabric covered styrofoam on the top, bottom and sides. As well, I threw some silica gel in there too just incase of moisture issues. I am very happy with the way things turned out. The isolation between rooms is awesome. I can a have a metal band that goes to 11 in the main room jamming like hell and only hear a little tiny rumble in the control room. Great isolation! This is the same from room to room. You can hear a little more volume outside of the building but nothing to really worry about. I did all of the work accept for the siding, roof and concrete. By the time it was all done it ran me about 43k! I got a lot of hook ups on materials through family and friends so that help out quite a bit. It took about 1 year and some minor hand injuries to complete but it was all worth it! Hopefully I addressed everyones questions so far. I wil post more pics as I find them. Have to go through some CDs of puter backups to find them. Again thanks everyone, you helped make my project a success. And, I will donate to the forum. How much to keep the forum running for a year, John? Let me know. I'll talk with the wife. :shock: Thanks all. M

Sorry, missed one point. The lights that are mounted in the ceiling panels are pushed in just like a normal reccessed can would be. I framed out a section for each light and mounted a 3/8 inch OSB panel in the middle of the panel. Cut a 4 inch hole out, stapled the fabric around the hole and pushed the can through. Looks clean. The lights do get really hot and the whole fire thing concerned me at first. But, I run the lights at like half the wattage on the dimmer and they don't get that hot anymore. There is plenty of light the way I use them so they should be OK...I hope. I'll keep an eye on them. No problems in the past few months at all. M

What was your construction method for the walls around your windows in the control room? I am about to tackle that area now. Did you frame, then rock, then the wood treatment? Stuff insulation behind to fill the airspace? Thanks for the wonderful inspiration and pictures. From one luker to another I also echo the sentiments. Thanks for being here!

Man-O-Man... I have to put the "finished product" as one of the best I've seen. You can betcha bottom dollar many will be printing these pics and using some of your designs!! Take Care and GOD Bless Stan

Hey Andy. The Front Wall around the windows...I used your typical 2x4 construction and framed for the window as you normally would. R-19 Insulation was then stapled up between the 2x4s, then 3 layers of sheetrock. All layers were taped and mudded. Any space between the window box and the and the framing/drywall was caulked to the max for a complete seal. If your were wondering about the upper deck where the soffits are, that is is a completely new section framed over the finished work mentioned above. That is all one big section that holds the soffit speakers as well as two racks I use for speakers eqs and Protools. It has 2 layers of rock and is super over-stuffed with blown in insulation. When you pound on it, doesn't ring at all and feels like it's fill with concrete! Hopefully thats not confusing. I have a terrible time explaining these things so they make sense. Sorry. Thanks for all the cool comments. I found some construcion photos and will be posting them soon. M

HiDef, I think I got the jist of it. Would love to see the photos too. Thanks man, you AND your studio rocks!

Hey everyone! Here are more pics! Hopefully I can answer any questions ya'll have. As well, I will be posting some tunes that have been coming out of the studio. Here they are! M

More.

Here's some pics of the soffits with the recessed lighting. I used my left over ceiling beams for framing them out. Worked nice!

This is the oulet frame I was trying to explain earlier. Frame around the outlet box so you can attach a few little scraps of rock on the back! This way the outlet cavity is totally sealed and no leakage!

Here's some pics of the drywall in the control room.

And last but definately not least. My kids! They put up with a lot of crap waiting for the studio to get finished. Now, they hang with me pretty much every night and offer their production expertise! THe studio kids Beethoven and Mozart! Had to include them!