Mighty! Productions studio design and construction

First post, be gentle. I'm in the design phase of a two room project studio. I've done a good deal of browsing this forum for the past few months, and have Rod's book on the way. Still, Im looking for advice along the way that will hopefully spare me future pain. Here are the details: Space: I have a new construction single family house in a fairly densely populated subdivision. I have the corner lot, so I have neighbors to one side (approximately 10' between houses), and a neighbor to the rear (approximately 60' between houses). Im planning on using the smaller half of the unfinished basement. The basement consists of poured concrete floor and walls. I have two sliding windows on the rear wall, one of which will be along one of the studio walls. I have a sump pump in one of the corners of what I plan to be the main control room, and a bath rough in behind what I plan to be the isolation room. Working around the sump pump concerns me a bit, knowing that I will need to leave some sort of access to it. Above the space is the family room and living room. Use: The primary use will be for recording solo material. A lot of tracking will happen in the control room, especially with any direct instruments. I do occassionally record drums and live bands. For that purpose, I would like to have the ability to move my desk into the iso room to free up the larger control room for tracking the drums. I plan to keep my gear fairly portable, as I do quite a bit of recording away from my home. Tracking and mixing volume will normally be moderate, with the occassional drum kit or mic' d amplifier bringing things up to "loud". I would like to keep bleed from the studio to the outside world at a reasonable level. I am not after a total "hermetic" seal. Gear: Protools Digi002 Rack system running on a laptop computer. I have the Digi002 housing in a portable rack with an 8 channel mic pre, 4 channel headphone amp, and power conditioner. Other outboard gear I plan to implement includes: higher quality 2 channel mic pre, patchbay, and a source controller like the Mackie Big Knob or PreSonus Central Station. I'm running non-soffit mounted nearfield monitors. Instruments include the usual array of guitars, amps, acousitc percussion, and electronic keyboards and percussion. Budget: I'll be spreading this project over a period of 6 mo to 1 year to spread the cost and work load out. Ideally I' dl like to keep the total down to $5k or less. Construction: Due to the complexities, cost, and space constraints involved, I'm not planning on floating the floor. I plan on building double walls between the two rooms, and the other side of the basement. Question: How much added isolation will mounting the wall frames on rubber (other similar material) pads give me? I will use 2 layers of drywal (1/2" and 5/8") on the interior and exterior walls. I am debating whether or not to use surface mount electrical and signal boxes to avoid all the work involved in gasketing in-wall boxes. Thoughts or suggestions here? I would like to make a hinged glass block window in the wall where the outside window is. This will allow for some natural light, as well as access to the outside window if I need fresh air. Any thoughts on using glass blocks for this application? The area of biggest concern is the ceiling. My original thought was to run ceiling joists between the existing floor joists to create a physical seperation. However, the floor joists have cross bracing which will make this difficult. The cross bracing also makes it difficult to mount extra layers of sheet rock directly to the floor above. The height of the floor joists above is 7'8.5". I'm looking for suggestion for alternate construction methods. Also, I a bit confused about how to properly implement the various bass absorbers, slot resonators, diffusers, etc that I've seen discussed here. Perhaps Rod's book will clear some of this up. Any input on layout, construction methods, acoustics, etc will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Mark B from Aurora, IL

You've allowed space for soffits, even drew 'em in - seems like a waste NOT to reap the benefits - otherwise, looks pretty good... Steve

Thanks for the response Steve. I've edited my original post to provide a bit more information, and bring my jpg size down to 700 pixels wide. Regarding the soffit mount issue, I suppose I drew those areas in thinking they would be the space alotted for the bass absorbers. My monites are ADAM A7 nearfields. Are these even suitable for soffit mounting? Also, given my desire to be able to move my desk into the iso room, soffit mounting my monitors would not allow me to move them with the desk. Perhaps someone could suggest a more appropriate layout for the front half of the control room? Mark

With the Adams' cute little bevels by the tweets, this makes them hard to soffit mount (although I think Barefoot had a plan for this) - but for portability, I think you're on the right track. IF you make those fronts absorptive, you could push the speakers right up against them and probably not have to use any baffle step compensation... Steve

I finally have Rod's book in hand, and am working my way through its contents. In the mean time, I continue to tweak my layout, trying to maximize the space I have available. I'm curious to see what others think of this idea. This layout actually maintains better symmetry than the previous, although Im not sure if the space left for acoustic treatments is adequate.

While I'm still hammering out the design details, I know that I'm going to lay in drywall between the floor joists to improve the outer cieling leaf isolation. My joists are 2x10 on 24" centers, spanning 15'. Im planning on laying in 2 layers of 5/8" drywall. Does this pose any loading concerns? Should I get a permit at this point, or just prior to framing once I have my detail drawings complete?

Questions about doors... My original plans included sliding glass doors between the CR and the Iso room. It seems that single pane sliding glass doors are just not available anymore. Rod's book indicates that he prefers standard doors over sliding for isolation. I found it curious that he recommends tieing the two leaves together with the door jam. Wouldn't this negate a bunch of the isolation that you worked so hard for everywhere else? Has anyone built a sliding glass door from scratch using the proper glass?

I'm hoping somebody can comment on my second layout. I'd like to start designing in more detail, but want to know if I'm heading down the wrong path with that design. My second layout is rotated 45 degrees from most of the layouts I've seen posted here. This only allows me one corner bass absorber in the front and rear of the room. I'm worried this may not be adequate, or may be in the wrong place to do the job. I prefer the second layout because it allows me better access to the sump pump, and appears to give me more square footage in the room itself. Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks, Mark

Hi. Not too much to say as Im no expert, but the position of the window will create stange reflections to the mix position! You could put 4" absortion over it when mixing? Just a thought. oZ

Maybe like this? Oz

Thanks for the reply Oz! Good point about the reflection off the sliding doors. I believe I may be ditching the sliding doors for a conventional one plus a window, but I will still have glass on that wall to deal with. I am also concerned that I dont have enough bass absorbtion at the front of the room. Typically, I've seen the bass absorbers directly behind the monitors. Maybe I should put some low-mid slot resonators along those walls.

Here is what I have in mind for absorbtion: Blue: Bass (hangers) Green: Low-Mid (slot resonators) Yellow: Mid-High (wall panels and clouds)

I've begun laying drywall in between the floor joists above. I bought my caulk and backer rod from Contractors Tool Supply. The OSI SC-175 was $2.99 per 29oz tube, which seemed like a decent price. I was able to pick it up in person since it is here in the Chicago area. Here is the link: http://www.contractorstoolsupply.com/os ... ries-sc175™-acoustical-sound-sealant-p-2591.html

Aloha and welcome to the forum, Mark :D

I'm hoping somebody can comment on my second layout.

Here's an excerpt from the SAE site: http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html (Acoustics tab on the left; Shape & Size tab at the top)

I suggest that a control room ideally should be at least 6m x 5m with a minimum ceiling height of 2.4m. This size room means a good sized working area with space for the musos, friends and hangers on. Also because you don't want rear reflections to interfere it is better to start with a longer front to back dimension than the side to side dimension. i.e. 6m x 5m.

That said, I wound tend to go with your first drawing and treat accordingly. If you do a search on studio plans (especially those by John) you'll find that there are alot more plans similar to your first drawing than not. Here's a list of "bits of info" I've collected along the way that might be helpful. • Soffits angled 30 deg. in from a flat wall result in speaker baffles being perpendicular to the two legs of equilateral triangle comprised of two speaker centers and a point about 10" behind your head • The baffle extension (the face of the soffit) should be as large as you can make it, up to about 45" in each direction from the woofer in a system with a LF cutoff of around 45 hZ - There's a formula based on LF cutoff that ensures full 2 pi response for the woofer if the baffle is at least the size obtained in the formula's solution - • Monitors should NOT sit on the console but behind, placed on heavy decoupled stands - console placement causes early reflection problems in most cases, unless the console is slanted down in front a LOT. • Distance to wall behind speakers will change response drastically - there is a wall bounce calculator on the Acoustics forum that's fun to play with (needs Excel) • Moving either speakers or your head by as little as an inch or two can sometimes make drastic changes in response, due to modal peaks and dips. • Left/right room symmetry (at least within a foot or two of ear eight) is important for good stereo imaging. • Mix positiion roughly 38% of total room length from the front wall • Equilateral triangle formed by left speaker, right speaker & mix position • Monitor angles 60 degrees • Monitor height – woofer at ear level (avoid mid point of floor to ceiling measurement – either sit higher or lower if necessary) • Angled side absorption panels – left/right of mix position • Side walls 6-12 degrees • Ceiling 12 degree slope Hope this helps, Aloha 8)

Wow great post Kendale.. your a wealth of information

Aloha V, Thanks to John, Steve, and the rest of the guys on this site. :wink: Aloha 8)

Great feedback Kendale - thanks! Sounds like I'm gonna need to hang a tennis ball from the ceiling to make sure my head is in the optimal monitoring position :P Seriously though, I think that sump pump is my main obstacle layout wise. I definately want to maintain access to it. I'm trying to imagine how I could build a bass absorber around it while still maintaining access.

Aloha Mark, Here's a few ideas to toss around. How about something (roughly) like this? You could build your sump pump access door into the trap like this: http://www.johnlsayers.com/Pages/Bluebear.htm (about halfway down the page). Aloha 8)

Ok, based on the feedback, I've made some changes, and think this should work well. I apologize for the quality of the JPG. I work a lot faster in AutoCAD at this point, and it has me jumping through hoops to get a JPG out of it. When I get the time, I'll import this into Sketchup.

Well, pics are always fun, so here is what I've got done so far:

I cant seem to get the comments to post with the pics, so here they are: 12-13-06 008: I think I also need to lay in drywall on the vertical joist (not sure what its called there) along the perimeter. 12-13-06 001: I'm gonna need to get a few more sizes of backer rod... 12-13-06 005: Looking from the bath rough in 12-13-06 003: Looking from the sump pump 12-13-06 002: Lesson learned: There are two sizes of caulk tubes, I have the gun for "the other size"..... 12-03-06: Lesson learned: Specify 4'x8' drywall! I had to cut each of these 4'x10' sheets in half just to get them down to the basement.

I finally had some time to work my latest layout into Sketchup. Havent modeled up the absorbers in the ISO room yet.

As I continue to beef up in between my joists (teeeeedious work!), I'm mentally moving ahead to other aspects including my ceiling construction which led me to the span calculator(http://www.awc.org/calculators/span/cal ... cstyle.asp). I ran the calculation on my current joists (Douglas Fir grade 2 2x10, 24" o.c.) at 10psf dead load/40psf live load stated in Rod's book, and was alarmed to see this only covers a span of 12'5". My span is 15'! Houston, do I have a problem!?

Polite bump.. I'd like to know if I've done the span calculation wrong, or if my house is facing immenent collapse..... Thanks M

Moved to Construction at your request - as to span, you could be in trouble depending on how much you're adding to the joist load. I've not followed your thread (don't spend much time in the Design forum these days) but if your existing floor sheath is typical, just your joists and the upper floor panels could add up to 6-7 PSF with no other materials (even framing weight is figured into what the framing can support) - Then, if you intend to beef up between joists with gypsum it'll add about 2.4 PSF per 5/8" layer, as will lower layers. Adding just one layer of "beef" and 2 layers below, including insulation, will add approx. 8.2 PSF to whatever's already there. So you could already be at 15 PSF if all this will be hung from your joists. This brings allowable span down to about 11'8" with the joists you now have. I'm assuming you're measuring span from the wall to that steel beam? There apears to be a couple of options here - one is to lower your ceiling height to that of the steel beam by interleaving new joists between the old ones - this can be done but has some disadvantages. You may not have enough headroom as is, for example. Another is to "sister" your existing joists (double them) which would give enough support for all you want to add. This can also be a PITA but might be your only viable option short of adding more steel beams :shock: Another thing - looks to me like you're using 16" centers on the new wall studs - this is a waste of lumber and effort because sound walls perform better on 24" centers... Steve