Studio Design Help... new space

Yup - and, if there's earth backfilled outside, one HELL of a leaf. Still, the insulated 2x's are your one air gap - so for those walls, just 2-3 layers of different thickness wallboard should do fine. Maybe use celotex over the existing layer, then 5/8 wallboard. I'm gonna write another simple spreadsheet that will figure this out for me, since I keep forgetting how to convert the right way - but basically, a 1/2" air space will have a Coincident frequency of around 2 kHz, right in the enunciation area of speech/singing - so, if you were to add Resilient Channel over the existing wallboard and THEN put a couple more layers on the RC, it would weaken the wall for that frequency range. I may be off by a bit so don't quote me on the frequency - still, multiple air gaps don't work well, which is the bottom line here... Steve

Steve, Yes... only the top foot of the 8 foot high cement wall is exposed on the outside... the rest is against solid earth :) ONE whole wall is even under the garage... which has another 8 inch cement cap on top of it. Will I have issues because of the wall being shared all the way around the room? Should I cut the header/footer the seperate out rooms and maintain a break in the walls between rooms that way? I'll take some better pictures this weekend. Thanks, Velvet Elvis

Yeah, the best case would probably be to REMOVE that layer of wallboard, put up RC, and put the wallboard back (or new stuff, more likely) - then, at the corners, keep the RC about 1/2" short, run the first board to reach the corner within 1/8" of the intersecting frame, then butt the second, intersecting, piece of wallboard ALMOST against the first (leave a 1/8" gap here too) and caulk the joint. This lets each wall diaphragm operate independently. considering the heft of your outer walls, if you just put a single layer of 1/2" or 5/8" wallboard over RC, you'd end up with panel traps at around 60 hZ, given the 3.5" depth. The formula for this is Fo= 170/sqrt(m)(d), where Fo = frequency, m=surface density of the panel in pounds/square foot, and d= depth of air space. The insulation would broaden the response which is a good idea. Doing it this way would probably save you building several bass traps, and I doubt it would hurt isolation because of your heavy concrete walls. Ceilings are another matter... Steve

Steve, Yeah... right now there isn't any wallboard of any sort... just the 2x4s with insulation and a vapor barrier (plastic) over it... the ceiling I am concerned about... its NOT very well isolated from the outside world, so the majority of my concentration will be on keeping the ceiling quiet. Its all I-beam construction so I should be able to add mass between each Ibeam... then insulate... then resilient channel and then hang 2 or 3 different masses of drywal below that (which will make the finished ceiling slightly lower than the top edge of where the concrete stops. I'm hoping to make it quiet enough to do drums. Am I being foolish in thinking that? Velvet Elvis

Your basement sounds like it's built like Bruce's basement ?? cheers john

John, Yes... its nearly identical to that... except I don't have the support posts (since they used I-beam to span the above floor). Did Bruce build his new studio IN his basement? I thought it was off site at a seperate location. Thanks, Velvet Elvis

Yes he did - mind you- he's not eager to advertise it :):) cheers john

wow... I thought ol' Bruce had a fancy new building for his studio. I'll be. Cool. (we are talking about the same Bruce right? Mr. BB himself?) Thanks, Velvet Elvis