New construction, with limitations.

Hi, everybody. I'm new to the forum. I was referred here by somebody from Studio-Central. I'm in an awesome situation where I'm going to be building a small studio from scratch. The duality is, it's going to be on an additional floor in the preexisting house of....my in-laws. :? The father is a stubborn man, and he won't permit an oddly-shaped room. To him, soundproofing is all smoke and mirrors. Imagine trying to explain acoustics. Yeah, so I'm stuck. My goal is to achieve a studio configuration with plainly-shaped rooms that would nonetheless be attractive to a knowledgeable engineer. Small, but optimally functional. This studio is going to be getting a lot of night-time use. My wife will be sleeping directly below the studio, but luckily the floor below is new construction too, so I should be able to double up on the lower ceiling's drywall and even possibly use some resilient channels on the joists. Either way, she's agreed to be compliant and increase fan noise in our room in proportion to any unfortunate transmission. Domestic issues aside, I live in a sparsely populated area, and a decent amount of noise isn't going to bother neighbors, but I do have to keep the noise of the train, about 300 yards away on the opposite side of the house, out! I plan on having a drum kit in the studio room, and that is going to decide my max volume. I don't have a spl meter or a drum set, so I can't tell you what the level will be, but when I get one I'll update this post. The double walls are going to be about 6" thick, slightly more depending on whether I add another layer of gypsum board. The studs will be staggered 2"x4"s. The floors will be regular plywood with berber carpeting. The height of the studio and control room are going to be 8'. The two windows in the control room are 2'x4'. The studio window is probably going to be 5'x5' with two parallel glass panes of different thickness, seperated by a 5-6" air space. My desk is 3' deep by 6'6" wide, with my KRK RP6s on either end, the cone centers about 4'4" apart. I'll have a full, 88-key midi controller to the right of the desk. The other dimensions are in the studio sketch. My computers (and eventually a sampler and other hard drive devices) will be out in the "equipment room" on the lower right, connected by wall plates (still some research to do there, but I know I don't want to run snakes). My budget is going to be $2,000-$4,000 on top of initial basic construction, with $4,000 being an extreme stretch. This budget is going to include things like custom wall plates and a few extra cables. Definitely still in the planning stages, but time to figure this stuff out is coming to a close. We have to bring the plans to the town council within a couple weeks to make this month's deadline. The amount of space I have is about all I've been able to squeeze out of this project. So... 1) I'm wondering if anybody sees any inherent problems with this setup that I don't. 2) I'd like this room to be as adaptable as possible on the off chance that another musician eventually considers buying this house when/if we sell it. Any suggestions, simple or otherwise, that I could conveniently take care of during initial construction? *this is actually the second configuration of this space that I've tried. I'm not averse to reconfiguring it, so suggestions in this vein are absolutely welcome. :wink:

Hi there, First up - get a structural engineer to assess the safety of building upon th existing structure. Second - Plywood and Berber carpet for floors above sleeping wife? You need to buy and read some books on this. (read Rod's book to start x 3 - plan and replan - then book some Skype time with John Sayers) Third - Father in law won't permit an oddly shaped room? I would forget it. Sorry to appear negative - but I can only speak for me - if your father in law is like that now.....wow....move out. It's almost like you want a motor car but he will loan you a push bike...he sounds like a control freak. It is his place and we respect that - but your dreams and aspirations must NOT be half hearted - if you want a studio - build a studio - properly. All the best

Thanks, Sideshow. I appreciate the feedback. It is structurally sound for the addition. The thing you have to understand is though: living in my area is expensive! In Mississippi, a decently-sized house that would accomodate both of our families (mine, and my in-laws) would probably cost about $130,000-180,000 USD. Here, next to the capitol (Washington D.C.), the same house costs about $500,000-600,000. So, if I'm ever going to get out of the "apartment trap" and possibly build my own house with a studio the way I want it, this is a necessary stepping stone. :? Why not take the money and run? To somewhere cheaper? Simple: there's more money to be made here. My father-in-law's a nice guy, he just doesn't get the first thing about soundproofing: mass+proper installation. Much less about acoustics. You should have seen his bewilderment. Him: "Double wall!?" Me: "Yep, with two or three layers of gyp board on either side" Him: "Two!!?" Me: "Yeah, but it doesn't have to be an inch, it can just be 5/8" gypsum." Him: "5/8"!!!!!!!!!?" Apparently, he assumed I would tell him that all we needed was some "magical" material to put inside the wall. I should have told him "well, I guess we could fill the walls, ceiling and floor with solid concrete, but wouldn't that be a bit heavy?" :D It's like trying to explain Buddha to a Christian, or Christ to a Buddhist. My wife said, "Well, you don't need a 'state-of-the-art' studio just to do your music." Right, only so I can hear what my mix actually sounds like. I guess I could mix with cotton in my ears, it just won't sound quite as good. Right? Better yet, why not find a nice 300Hz standing wave and mix right from the middle of a node? My wife: "You're not just gonna believe what some people on the 'internet' tell you, are you?" You're right, love. What are the laws of physics anyway? Pagh! Besides, they're digging their own grave. If my wife ever decides that the noise is too much, she can just kick me out. But then who's going to pay off the $170,000USD construction loan? Not me, I say. It's not in my name! :wink: j/k I think before that ever happened, they'd realize their "don't fix what ain't broke" mentality is what get them there in the first place. Then maybe I could fix the studio. I'm not relying on that, though. So, I'm stuck. As disgusting as it sounds, I need to build the best "half-right" studio I possibly can.

Aloha and welcome to the forum,

living in my area is expensive!

It seems like it's getting to be expensive just about everywhere, nowadays. Out here, a single family home is in that price range. :shock:

So, I'm stuck. As disgusting as it sounds, I need to build the best "half-right" studio I possibly can.

Would your wife & in-laws be open to some "studio-type acoustic treatment semi-furniture quality units?" :wink: If so, perhaps you might want to peruse this thread. http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4091 Be sure to show them the pics so they can see what the units could look like. They were based on the wall units described here: http://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm Hope this helps, Aloha 8)

That looks incredible, Kendale! I would love to incorporate something like that into my studio. Not to mention the money it would save me on treatments. Great thread! :) Thanks. Did you ever crunch the numbers and figure out what the whole project has cost you so far (minus tools; my father in-law has all we could ever need)? I see you never got around to putting the veneer on the speaker bezels, but it looks none the worse for it. I imagine the whole project must have been at least slightly cost-prohibitive, you being in the islands and all. Really nice job. It makes me wonder if I would run into problems having such a small room to put it in, though. My whole space all together will be about 21'x12', but I wanted to seperate that into a control room and recording room. I'd have more space if I could incorporate a ventilated "equipment box" into the control room for my computer and expand the room to take up the rest of that lower right-hand corner. Have you heard of anything like this? Any ideas? I've already shown my wife, and she seems not too uncooperative so far. :wink: Has anybody tried doing this with a studio window in place of the upper front absorber? I would be willing to do without it if the acoustical sacrifices were too great, but it would be nice to have a direct line of sight into the recording room. Sound first, though. Thanks for the quick reply, Kendale.

Just ordered Rod's book. Thanks Sideshow. 8) Edit (01/26): Just got my book. So I begin...