Planning design of a full recording studio/ Now building...

More pics.

Things are going great, beside an aching elbow and the 25cm of snow :shock: ! This is way too early ! there I was shoveling, nailing, shoveling again. Anyway, got the first half of the ceiling (the slanted section) almost finished with framing, beginning the second half today. Last week getting the central joist in position at 10ft in the air alone was no easy project. I had to use pulleys and cables cursing here and there :) , took me more time to set-up than to actually putting the joist into place. (no photo sorry :? ).The joist is made of 3/4 plywood sandwiched between two 2X10, nailed every 12" and glued with PL premium glue (incredible stuff). I had some help with the rafters wich was more than welcome. They were all nailed into place before putting the joist hanger. Since the lumber i have were KD, i've pre drill the holes for the nails to avoid cracking. It was a great experience cutting the side ledger board at 6 degres vertical and 15 degres lateral in one operation and putting it perfectly into place. Man that was cool. 8) I had a sliding compound mitter saw of course. And above all I and knew exactly what were the angles, no trigo works, thanks to CAD. Got to continue.

Sic 'em, Git 'em, Bite 'em, KILL... :twisted: Makin' some serious sawdust there Eric, lookin' good 8) Might wanna look at this, buy it used for less than $5 - http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/002 ... .y=0&Go=Go Steve

Things are still going great finished all the ceiling framing yesterday.(pics to come). Pulling some electric wire today. And fiberglass (yuk) stuffing. Steve, even in my wildest dream i wouldn’t imagine such a book could ever existed, I am ordering one for sure thanks :D . Steve, I woke up with this idea in my head this morning ( see below ). In the slanted section of the ceiling i could use some of the space between the rafters as soffited acoustic traps on walls perimeters.I think it is a good idea since they would be place near the front wall/ceiling corner. Yes, it would be more complicated. Unless somebody here thinks it doesn’t worth the effort for the difference that would make, i think i am gonna go for it. Dimension and angles are yet to be determined but you get the idea. Gotta go.

Too buried in video stuff to go thru all your variations - refresh my memory, is this inner wall one of your two leaves? If not, I'd just lay lots of fiberglass in the ENTIRE joist area and cut VENTS around the perimeter. If this IS your inner leaf, then what you drew would work for mids and up, but would have to be MUCH larger to do more than a little for bass absorption... Steve

Steve, yes my ceiling is my inner leaf but nevermind, just forget that brainfart of mine i was just not very awake when my mind was out of control. The deepest i can go is about 1foot, without compromising isolation too much, that is not very effective as "bass" trap, won't work under 250hz or so. Please forgive this brief moment of delirium. Back to work Here's some other pict.

Ducting, in all things I’ve done so far, this is the thing I hate. I don’t know why , I just hate it , I don’t find any pleasure whatsoever in doing it, it’s just a drag.. did I mention I hate it ? Well maybe handling fiberglass score pretty much on the same level, but it’s pink and it stinks , so that came as no surprise. I guess I’ll be happy that I did put somekind of way to ventilate the CR in the hot summer days. But I hated doing it, did I made my point yet ? 8) Those 6” ducts will pass thru somekind of silencer box made of MDF. At the end of those ducts there will be an air exchanger… someday. Budget is tight for this year so for now till next summer an in line Fan will do, because I said so. :wink: Starting RW in the slanted section of the ceiling tomorrow then GB and when everything is over, hopefully I’ll be driving a BMW… :lol:

Soooo... Do you hate it? ;-) :lol: Seriously -- looks like your kicking butt!! 8) Don't they require framing, electrical, and mechanical inspections up there before the insulation goes in? :roll: --Keith :mrgreen:

Well it’s been a while since my last post. I can confirm that winter has definitely arrived here :cry: . I had a couple of gigs two weeks ago so everything stopped for a couples of days. Wich was a relief for that aching elbow of mine :roll: . But nevertheless much have been done since. -Filled the ceiling with RW, -put the first layer of 5/8 drywall, using 1 5/8 screws in full schedule -mud the joints, -seal the edges. -Did the second layer of 5/8 drywall perpendicular to the first layer, using 2 ¼ screws in full schedule offseted by 4 inches -finished the second layer two days ago, -began joint compound. This is where I am now. More photo to come soon. Notice the pictures called DIY Drywall elevator. Is my solution for fixing 70lbs 4X8 drywall sheets to the ceiling alone. It’s basically a 2X4 frame with hinges at one end that I’ve fixed to the central joist then lift the other end using a cable and pulley. A little tricky but it work great and it’s free. I could have rented a real elevator but at 30bucks a day, I though I could use that money for even more drywall ! Gotta go, Got to work !

more pics

Folks, now in the bad news departement... the so-called acoustic caulk i've used is cracking ! :evil: after only 5 months ! :cry: The caulk is cracking where it is more than 1/4 wide and exposed to air. I did a test a couple of months ago and in the back corner of the CR i've cover the caulk with a polyethylene film and it did not crack since then. But almost everywhere else it cracked. That may be a temporary solution. Anyway i'm glad i made a routine check before i'll be finishing all walls perimeters 8) . The stuff i used is made by Mulco it's gray and it comes in a blue tube with a white bold "acoustic" name on it. Don't buy it ! Around here the only acoustic caulk i could find was Mulco or bulldog grip. I'm going to try bulldog but my guts tell me i may get the same result as Mulco. Anyone knows where i could get USG acoustic caulk in Quebec Canada ?from what i've read about it seems like the real thing, not just something i'd rather call a vapour barrier adhesive.

Post some pictures of the cracking... I wonder if it's just not adhering to the cut edges of drywall... :roll: --Keith :mrgreen:

Keith here’s the pics. You asked for. If you have any clues regarding this issue please share. Thanks. I've used 28 of those 29oz tube just for the CR ! dammit !

Ok as promise here are lots of pics of the final layer of my ceiling. Obviously joint and seams are not done in their final stage yet, only the first of layer of joint coumpound is done. Caulking the perimeter and mudding the corners is yet to be done. I am still investigating for reliable caulk, I’ve contact USG, they sent me to someplace in Ontario… to be followed. A quick note for Steve’s if he’s still alive :wink: . I’d like to thanks you, and Mark for helping me out with my multiple ceiling variations. With my slanted ceiling now being done I can already hear a huge difference between now and the flat ceiling I had before. Modal activiy ( that sounds just like reverb ) has been cut roughly in half. Before clapping my hands in the empty CR produced a “reverb” about 2.5 sec long somewhat middish , as of now it’s about 1.5 / 1.7 sec and very smooth. No very scientific test done but to my modest sound engineer ears tells me I did the right thing… :) or did I ? or maybe I’m just in denial :? . Still busy with a couples gigs till Tuesday afterward construction continues… :P

Some more

Well, the hollydays are over. Still i have managed to get some work done. Here's what is done as of now : -Mudding is finally over :twisted: , down to the last finishing layer. -White Primer/sealer have been put on the Bare gypsum. -The CR is all white it just look like some sort of asylum :shock: !!! -I have begun framing the soffits for the monitors and framing for the rear corner supermegachunk bass trap -CR Temporary door have been installed - the CR is happenning :D i can't wait to begin testing it. -Made some modification to the original plan for the rest of the studio. -Began construction of little boxes for elecrical outlets. Pix comming soon..

Good work Eric. We are in the exact same stage of our builds. I am very curious to see the pictures of your soffit framing. That is where I am stuck right now. Cheers Vince

Hi Vince Really ! lot of work huh , are you doing the work yourself ? Where can i see some pictures ? This is quite an impressive basement studio you are building. i wanna see pictuuuuuuressss.... :wink: After looking at your plan i though you were not going for a soffit design. I am bulding "as if " i was going to soffit my monitors, but in fact for a start they just won't be soffited. They will stand in front of the soffit baffle wich would be build like corner bass traps for now. I am going to run some test like that and see the results. If serious problem arise wich could be solved by soffiting, then i will. And part of the framing would be already done. I'll post pictures soon, i am in the middle of a mix right now, so things move slowly.

I am still busy mixing so there is not a lot of change since my last post. But here some pictures of the soffit work and superchunk bass trap in progress. The front sofits are going to be held together by slot resonator above and below the main window opening (wich is still not cut out yet, as you can see). The center freq. of the resonator are yet to be determined. I'll do some tests with the front corners and super chunk in place and go from there. And while i'm at it... the two rear walls are going to nee some hi freq absorber for sure. See graph below. Note that the only purpose of the framing of the superchunk is to hold 6" of RW lined against the wall. When that be done, i'll just fill that corner with RW from top to bottom, then put a false wall in front of all that, wich will also be filled with RW and cover with cloth. That massive superchunk could go to 4' deep. But i'll do some test at 3' deep first.

Sorry... I'm a little late to the party with comments about the cracking acoustic sealant. Did you use backer rod? If not, that could explain why it's breaking loose. --Keith :mrgreen:

Hi Keith ! Yes i did use Backer rods everywhere in those corners :( . Until i find a suitable caulk, now what i've done is just to put a layer of polyethylene film over the caulk where i can. That seem to keep the caulk from cracking. I don't know if it's a no go, but it's done anyway. But since only the CR is built, i can still caulk the corners from the outside with a better caulk, so all is not lost. Still thoughtfull about it...

Back to work ! I was bumped to page 4 :shock: , That is lots of posts since my last update. The mixing project I was working on is almost over, client is happy :D , going to mastering soon. So, that means I have more time to finish the damn thing :twisted: . Here’s a couples of pict of the work I have done recently. The front wall framing is almost done, that includes the possibility of soffiting the monitors and having two slat resonators ( one above and the other under the CR window). For now the “soffits” will just be used as corner bass trap and the monitors will be placed on stands in front. I’ll give it a shot like that and see ( I should say hear) the result. The supermegaridiculouslybig superchunk bass trap (OK I am exaggerating a bit…) is under construction with the 6” of RW lined against the corner walls. I have also put the rear walls 4’X8’ high Freq absorber in place each side of the superchunk (no pic sorry). Those are centered at ear height when seating Now the room with all those traps in place sounds a lot better but still, it is not dead sounding, wich is, as far as I’m concern a good thing. One thing I’d like to share here is the difference the slanted ceiling make concerning flutter echo. When making a sharp sounds at the listeing point or where the monitors will sits, all I have is the actual sound plus a short rev. tail coming from the back of the room. But if I do the same thing near the rear corner superchunk, where the ceiling is flat, you can clearly hear an ugly flutter going between the floor and ceiling.(the only parallel sufaces in that aera). I knew I would have to have a cloud there, this is no big deal, but my point is : I have slanted the front portion of my ceiling the bare minimum (a little more than 6 degres) and I am surprised how much it is efficient. It is probably not that efficient at the whole spectrum with that angle but nevertheless it is doing something, without having to put Hi freq traps all over the ceiling 8) . It is surely old news for some or an obvious fact for others, but actually hearing the difference it make was a revelation for me. We all know the math and theories, but real life experiences is just priceless me think. My 2 cents.

Nice work Eric. The last photo says "rear corner suppa chunk". To me it's more like 2 broadband panels stacked in a corner. A "real" (what's in a name) superchunk bass-trap is a corner cross-filled with wool (more volume of aborbing material)

Thanks ! Well you're right, but see the suppa chunk thing is "in the making" this is just the first step. There will be triangle shaped RW stack from top to bottom then a wood frame in front of all that also filled with RW. Take a look at the acoustic plan i made a earlier on this page. A picture's worth a thousand words they say....