The Consulate - Redoing a Michigan Basement

After some drama with SketchUp file sizes, I can now make this into a thread about my basement. Attached is the SketchUp file, as I have it so far. The red posts with the 4x4 on top are jacks that are being used to hold up the kitchen floor, so those can't move. Neither can the water heater. The dimensions are accurate. I measured them last night and this morning. There is a small window to the right of the mix position as I have it here, but that's of little consequence. It'll probably get covered over. That brings me to the soffits. As drawn here, the soffits are made from four pieces of 4' wide MDF. Even though, in the illustration, I have a set of speakers sitting in the soffits, my actual plan is to build a set of speakers right into the soffits. I'm thinking this design from John Krutke, with mods: http://www.zaphaudio.com/audio-speaker16.html I'd have to reduce the baffle-step compensation, but otherwise, I think I can make that work. Anyway, I'm wide-open on ideas for how to do the soffits at this point. This was just the first that entered my head as I was playing with SketchUp (something you can tell I'm not so good at just yet). The ceiling is composed of 2x6 joists, within which are sandwiched plenty of fiberglass insulation. That was something we did recently for heating purposes, but as it turns out, it may work out for me acoustically as well. Otherwise, the plan involves Superchunk traps wherever I can fit them, plus other panels to deaden the room. Any advice I can get at this point would be greatly appreciated. Also keep in mind, that I love to learn new things, so feel free to throw me to the wolves and not hand-hold me at all. :mrgreen: EDIT: I should mention, also, that the height I have to work with in the drawing, 6'3", is actually the height with a false floor installed. Without it, I get about another three inches. I'm going to see if I can finish out the basement in such a way that I can dispense with the false floor, but I don't know what that might entail just yet. EDIT 2: The latest SketchUp file can be found down below.

EDIT: Post no longer needed. Thanks!

Consul - everytime you add a component to sketchup it gets stored in the file EVEN if you don't end up using it. Go to Window/Model info/Statistics and purge unused. It will remove all the components and materials that aren't being used in your model and the file size will change accordingly. cheers john

Sweet! Thanks, it worked. It's now down to 1,787K, which still seems big to me, but it's a lot better than before. I'll go ahead and edit my first post to reflect the new direction this thread should now take.

Yes - it's the drum kit and keyboard that additional file size.

Actually, you know what it was? The amp. It took up a megabyte by itself. I found new amp and drum kit models. Now my file size is right around 460k. Much better.

I edited the first post to reflect the new purpose of the thread. Thanks!

How much work are you prepared to do?? The center Jackpost could be removed and the 4 x 4 replaced with an 8 x 3 - that would free up the work area. How much iso do you need from upstairs? To retain your current ceiling height you could use the method I've attached. cheers john

Well, the insulation is friction-fit in by my sisters, but I don't think they'd like the idea of redoing it. ;) However, it's not too big of a deal; I can control traffic going into the kitchen while I record. I can always reconsider that if it become an issue later. I'm going to continue working on the SketchUp model to outline more of my plan. Thank you for your help! EDIT: It was pointed out to me that the joists also contain a great deal of plumbing from one place to another, so it would be more work than it's worth to reinforce the isolation in the ceiling. It was also pointed out to me that we are not touching the jacks as they sit now. What can I say? It's not my house. Besides, I don't know the first thing about those things or how they work. I can work around them as they sit now.

Here's my latest SketchUp file. I added corner bass traps (blue), acoustic panels (reddish) which will likely be 2x4 pieces of 4' OC705, and I played around with the soffits some. My speakers models are lame (gray discs) but they do get the idea across, I think. I realized as I finished this up that I need to break up the parallel side walls somehow. Maybe I can mount the OC703 on some panels that will run in a sawtooth pattern across the wall. EDIT: Added latest SketchUp file in post below.

Sorry for the triple-posting. I have my latest SketchUp file attached to this post. The panel absorbers are now attached to 1/2"-3/4" plywood sections, which are angled opposite each other along the side walls. I staggered them so as to break up the parallel nature of the walls. I'm also counting on the water heater helping with this task. I haven't drawn in every detail, like the fact that these will all be freestanding pieces, including the soffits, and will thus require stands of some kind, but that's a detail I can work out in detail before construction. Right now, I'm more worried about acoustics. So, I'm now officially asking for opinions and comments. Thank you all very much for your time.

Yes - BUT - you aren't utilising the depth you have - it's depth that lowers the absorption frequency. Check out the attched file which I created for soulfood. These free standing units take into account two factors. 1 - utilising the depth 2 - the direction of the sound from the speakers relative to absorption and reflection.. cheers john

I think I'm missing something here. Do you mean the depth between my freestanding panels and the wall behind? EDIT: Wait, I think I get it. I'll see what I can come up with. So, if I just angle the rigid fiberglass without a hard surface behind it, that's enough to break up the parallel walls? My budget is also limited. What you see in my model in terms of the plywood, MDF, and fiberglass needed is pretty much my budget. Also, everything will have to be built in-place, as there is a really tight corner at the top of the stairs, preventing large units from being brought downstairs. I guess I should've mentioned all of this earlier. Sorry about that. It really is a crappy situation from hell, but it's better than using my current bedroom, because I can at least soffit-mount speakers in the basement.

As much as I hate to do this, I may have to dispense with the soffits. After doing some more measuring and planning out in the basement, I think they'll take up too much room. Plus, they seem to be heavily complicating speaker design and/or selection. I still need to solve some storage problems, too. That'll probably end with renting a storage unit. Anyway, thank you for all the help. I'm still hoping I can turn this into a usable space. EDIT: Scratch that. Another fellow turned me on to the JBL L100 series of monitors as an inexpensive way to decent monitoring, and those babies sure do look ripe for soffit-mounting...