Curved Block Wall in tracking room!

Hi All, Thanks to John, Steve, Ethan and anyone else who contributes to this awesome site! heres the background info: (hope i don't miss anything!) I've been perusing the site for a couple months now. I'm in the design phase of building a new project studio and trackingroom/home theater in WV USA. Mainly want a decent drum room! I know the end goal of a live room is well balanced, and the HT is dead, but i'll compromise on that (the home-owners mandate includes usefullness and aesthetics!) I will probably have everything from rock to bluegrass musicians, so there will be a different array of noise from the trackign room. Isolation is only important between upstairs and downstairs. There is a hardwood floor upstairs, so I plan on insulating the joists and adding a layer of 5/8th drywall. from there, I was thinking of building aesthetic and functional sophets to hide ducting and lighting and add seperation. where there are no sophets I was goign to add bass traps to the ceiling and just acoustic tile elsewhere (for a variety of material and another leaf?) I will build a seperate iso/vox booth as part of the control room. (in back wall or somethign). I have an empty basement as my beginning, in a new house(2003). Block walls, Cement Floor, 9'1" floor to bottom of open wooden joists. There are two "major" problems, and numerous smaller ones. The first is the back wall being a curved block wall. I have No Idea how to treat this. I know drywalling a curve into the room is a bad idea, so??? we were thinking of applying a false concrete to texture it like large rocks(the upstairs has this same facade on the fireplace, looks awesome. not sure if it would help the acoustics! diffuser?) The second is the HVAC running through the room. I'll talk about that, since I have a gameplan for it. I plan on building a sophet around the entire system (as in the sketchup), insulating the outside of the ducting and then adding two 5/8 sheetrock to the sophet. mainly to keep noise from the rest of the house and visaversa. I have attached a sketchup file with a rough layout, but dimensions are fairly accurate (within an inch or so!). (My initial studio idea is on the "buildout" layer. My budget is about $5k for materials. I will be doing all the installation. (as keeping in spirit of the forum!). also, i'm wondering how people are cleaning the inside face of a dual glass wall that has been biult seperately, but do not open for cleaning, or is it just a too bad... theres dust on your glass window? If there is anything else for me to know please let me know, i will try and follow the rules as much as possible! Thanks for your time! (i'll try and get some pix up soon too!)

Ok, got the file size down! The model doesnt' show actual walls like johns models, just the empty room, with an example wall of where i'd like to seperate the rooms. I'm also getting a suspicious feeling that I posted inthe wrong forum. Though I'm mainly concerned with the acoustics from the curved wall and how to treat it, I think this may need to be moved to the design topics! Thanks! Sandledfoot

> The first is the back wall being a curved block wall. I have No Idea how to treat this. < 4-inch thick absorption will fix that pronto. > we were thinking of applying a false concrete to texture < If the depth from peak to trough is 6 inches or more it might help. But thin "pimply" coatings do nothing useful below, say, 35 KHz. :) > I have attached a sketchup file < No Sketchup here. Can Sketchup render it as a standard GIF? --Ethan

Thanks Ethan, Heres some pix from sketchup... kinda crude still! You can see the pocket for the HVAC. It is not as low as the sophet, its about half that, but it dips fairly low down to pass under the steel support beam, so i will probably just keep it all one level. Comments/Suggestions ? So, basically, if i build out a few inches and frame up a bunch of 703 4" deep on the curve, I'll be ok as far as focusing a reflection? Should I leave a bit more exposed drywall on the other end of the room to make up the difference to keep a "live" room sound? I had also wondered about the size and angle of corner traps, is the angle of the walls and bass traps based on a formula? if so, could you link me to it (or give me a rough idea how it is determined?) I noticed in alot of Johns designs he liked 120- 130 to pass over the 90 corner... The false rock / concrete would be on the curved wall behind the column, and can be made to whatever we request, so the depth variation could be drastic per "rock" such as a couple inches on the surface and the "mortar" joints could be a couple inches deeper. I'll try and get a pix up tomorrow of what it is upstairs, which would probably help give you an idea if that might work. It resembles real rocks, no two are the same size/shape,etc... not just a spray on coating.

> if i build out a few inches and frame up a bunch of 703 4" deep on the curve, I'll be ok as far as focusing a reflection? < Yes, four inches of 703 will reduce the bulk of the focusing problems. And that room looks very nice! > Should I leave a bit more exposed drywall on the other end of the room to make up the difference to keep a "live" room sound? < Probably. > is the angle of the walls and bass traps based on a formula? < Not that I know of, but I'm not really studio designer. My approach is mainly "brute force," and most of my customers have existing small rooms that need treating. So my standard advice is to put traps straddling as many corners as possible. > the depth variation could be drastic per "rock" such as a couple inches on the surface < That will help. --Ethan

Ethan, Thanks for your time and input. I'm going to re-post in the Design forum for suggestions on how best to angle the walls and get some feedback on the layout. Thanks again! sandled

Hi all, Just wanted to send a link over to my build diary. I'll also probably be re-visiting this side of the forum soon to ask some room mode questions... as you can see from the pictures, I don't think a standard LxWXH calculator will work! I'm just about to paint, so I've been thinking more specifically how to treat the room acoustically. I'll have some photos for you guys to comment and suggest on acoustic treatment placements within a week or so. http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... highlight= cheers! kevin