Paradise Studio - Conversion of a detached garage

Oh and I finally recieved these great pieces from F. Alton Everest. I should have read these long . . long . . ago . . but its never too late. They look like a fantastic life's work. I hear it referenced all the time. I just recently spoke with Bob Katz, Mastering Czar at Digital Domain and this was one of the very first things he said . . did you get F.A.E.'s book . . . . well just follow the recipes. Has anyone here read either in its entirety?

Pretty much; I have the older version of the "budget" book, first book on acoustics I ever bought (about 1982) - another good read (haven't finished it yet) is Newell's Recording Studio Design. Lotta really useful stuff in it as well... Steve

Hey -- it looks great! I'm just curious: what makes up your exterior wall, from the inside out? From the pictures and your description, it looks like 1/2" OSB, then some number of drywall layers, then the Hardi, but I can't quite tell. Did I get that right?

SB: From the outside-in: Hardie board, 1/2" OSB, Double 1/2" drywall, insulation, then double 1/2" drywall. I have trains about 2,000 feet away, and they are all but gone (minute sub low residual as expected). Don't have the inner doors up yet, or the window to the CR. I am happy with the results! (that's the key) I live in the middle of 5 acres and my neighbors are not a problem. As it stands right now with stepping about 6 feet from the building outside, you almost hear nothing. I am anxious to see what happens when the "air locks" get sealed up.

Cool, sounds like you did everything right; trains, even at 2000 feet, would require at least a 4" thick floated slab on sylomer blocks with rockwool fill between blocks, and probably 2 more layers of everything everywhere in order to get m-a-m resonance to about 6-7 hZ - lotta $$$ if you can stand to record in between trains... Steve

Another issue that could be helping is two hills between me and the tracks. Its a rolling sine wave of about 18 feet up from the studio and then down maybe 25 feet and then up again another 12 or so. Think that matters? I will check closer . . I might be full of sh@# . . probably

Depends whether your "dirty sine wave" is in or out of phase with the trains... :wink:

Funny you mentioned that because I was thinking that if they could raise the roof on the tunnel that the train goes through, it would act like a Hi-pass filter and further assist my cause. I think I'm on the right TRACK here. The other thing is they are mostly freight trains and therefore don't have good conductors. .. bring me my boots.

We gotta stop this or we'll prob'ly get run outa town on a rail...

Sounds like this debate has resulted in a tie. But being the good engineer I am, I yeild to your more experieced training.

Here are some recent photos. Its getting exciting. I have reached a milestone in the Studio/Stage area as one now has to wipe his feet before entering. We painted last weekend and are now about finsished with the second layer of the sub-floor so we will soon be laying the engineered oak. The control room drywall is all but finished except for two small 5" strips and then I have to mud. Did I mention that I hate drywall? The room certainaly has some strong echo . . some strong echo .. strong echo . . . echo . . . o . . we'll fix that.

This is the layout of cabling in the Studio Stage area, I am going to begin programming the lighting of the 20 circuits for differant moods and brightness settings. We've created "media centers" throughout the building" The stuido is hardwired now for: CATV Firewire800 HDMI Ethernet CAT6 RS-232 Industrial Automation network (CompoBus/S) DMX as well as around 80 channels of audio throughout the room.

Here's a couple new shots. We are starting the framing for some corner trapping in the stage area. There will be some indirect lighting behind the rear trap. I also purchased the EFT software which is now called RPlusD and am just beginning to run some analysis, the room is certainly a big echo chamber. Check out the Timpani . . 60's vintage, Ebay $299 sounds cool.

hey man, that looks promising. keep us (me :) )posted on the buildin corner traps, I was thinking of constructing it the same way, during wallbuild. Could you take some more pictures, more detailed stuff about ANTYTHING. always cool, too bad we missed out on the framing phase. I just love seeing frame com up :) cheers!

Holy crap, that's so friggin' cool!!! 8)

I am adding this link to a short video of the studio. The oak flooring is down in the studio and we have started installing the 705 fiberglass in the stage area. Time to find some fabric for the corner traps. Anyone have any thoughts? PARADISE STUDIO

Cool!! 8) 8) 8)

Thanks Sharward!!!

I absolutely Love this thread......lots of visual information indeed......and I'll take heed! ~14K~

first off, awesome job! i'd like to come and check your studio out sometime! i'm not building anything on 'that' big a level, but i am building a smaller, in the garage, studio. i live in moon township just west off pittsburgh. i'm having trouble locating some materials. i was curious as to where you were able to get some of the building stuff outside of lowes and home depot. the more common stuff i am able to find there. when i asked about resilient channel, for instance, they looked at me like i just fell out of a tree! at lowes, they even had a brochure showing resilient channel used for sound isolation, and even with that they were unable to locate a dealer (lowes doesn't carry it, they just advertise it, go figure). are there any people in w.pa. that deal primarily with this type of construction? thanks, in advance, for any help you can give me! phil herrle

Phil, I just noticed your post, sorry for not getting back sooner. Yes Lowe's is run by a bunch of a$$#@les. Although I have given them oddles of money for standard items. I have some channel here, you can have it if you want it, I changed design and didn't go that route. I live in the Latrobe area. Here are some contacts, they are all great people to deal with. Resiliant Channel OC Clauss http://www.occluss.com/ Rockwool Ceiling Systems Distributors Inc [removed] Pittsburgh, PA 15205 [removed] Owens Corning 703 and 705 Geo. V. Hamilton, Inc. [removed] McKees Rocks, PA 15136 [removed] Fabrics for your acoustic treatments Three Rivers Supply 477 W. 7th Ave Homestead, PA 15120 [removed] These guys sell fabic for automotive use, the twead style fabric is great for studio. If you call about studios they may not know what you are talking about, I suggest running down and taking a look at their samples and decide for yourself. They are nice people as well. You are certainly welcome to come out and see what I have done and take a look at the channel. Its pretty long, I think 12' and I have a good bit, I was going to dump it, but I will hang on to it for a while. I have been on this project going on two years and am finally coming to some end. I have done a great deal of reading and posting. Everyone has been so helpful (except for Lowe's), I am happy to share what I know. _________________ Mark

Hey Mark Nice Video clip you did! You mentioned you had been on this project for 2 years. I was curious as to how long you were in the "planning" stage of your project. Also, it looks like in one of the pics a ceiling is angled. Is that correct? Thanx

hey mark! i sent you an email to the personal box

Camistan Yes the ceiling is slanted both in the "stage" area of the studio as well as the control room. I really only have had 1 year of solid work on the studio even though I started in 10-2004. That fall and winter I only fixed the bad wall, and then it sat until last spring. We really began major construction then. As for planning, you only need read Knighfly's posts to recognize that planning is "ALL". I do 90% of my work on AutoCad and Excel spreadsheets. I have been generally a month or two ahead on planning versus whatever labor I am on. If you are fortunate to have lots of help, its great to have prints when people show up, or at least a good list on paper. As much as I have thought ahead, I missed things, fortunately nothing major, but a bit annoying. Post your drawings and ideas, someone here always critiques usually for good reason even though sometimes you may stubbornly disagree. Bottom line is you you'll make the final decision. I'll tell you this, I am so excited when I go in there, just dying to set up equipment, but it would be the kiss of death. I'm getting close. :D

HEY HEY hey. Lowes is cool. Homey Depot has the market locked down on Butholes. LOL. At least in michigan thats the case.