Indiana Home Studio Build

Soldering is good, it means you're nearly finished! You gave me a heart attack mentioning Father's Day, it's in September here. Hope you have a good one, any Dad with his own studio must rank pretty highly on the fatherly scale.

adam wrote:

Soldering is good, it means you're nearly finished!

Yep, you are right! I am trying not to get too excited though, I still have a "few" tasks ahead! ;)

adam wrote:

You gave me a heart attack mentioning Father's Day, it's in September here. Hope you have a good one, any Dad with his own studio must rank pretty highly on the fatherly scale.

How funny! When I typed that, I wondered how it worked in the rest of the world. I know that the U.S. and Canada share the same date for Mother's Day, but not Father's day. You would think it would be an international date like Christmas, but apparently not! Oh well!!! Happy (EARLY) Father's Day to you too!!! (Assuming you are a father!) Yeah, two of my boys take great advantage of having a studio at home! You would think I would get a "father of the year" award or something!!! ;)

Yeah, two of my boys take great advantage of having a studio at home! You would think I would get a "father of the year" award or something!!!

I think young people tend to take that kind of stuff for granted. that's why mine are going to a village in India for their 16th birthday. :twisted: Give them some perspective.

Love the floor for the live room.! It's pretty close to the color of the CR & air lock right ? Or maybe it's just me going crazy.... It's a chance! LOL As far as soldering... It's a task that must be done... But it's well spend time when you're recording and trust your cables to be "hummm.. free" PS: Here in Argentina we also had Father's day yesterday! =) Keep on with the great job James, you're getting there... It will be finished before you know it!! :wink: Best regards.

As usual, this past weekend was filled with activities designed to keep me out of the studio! I had one of my cousins (whom I love dearly) and his wife come into town for the weekend from Chicago, my son had a gig on Saturday evening, I had a party to attend on Sunday afternoon, etc. It seemed to never end! In spite of all of that, I did get *some* work done, although not as much as I would have hoped. First up, I did lay another bunch of flooring, and I am almost to the half-way point in the room. I also cut, stained and hung a couple of more pieces of the wooden paneling for the back wall, so that is now complete. Next up, I did a few pieces of trim: around the window, and the door to the airlock. I figured since I had the miter saw out to cut the wood paneling, and had to stain those couple of pieces, I might as well cut a few more and then stain them all at once. I actually did the pieces for the closet door as well, but have to wait until the floor is complete before I can hang them, plus I need to paint the door frame and door with white paint. Also, although this has nothing to directly to do with the studio construction, it was a task that had to be completed nonetheless before I could go much further... There used to be two computers in the basement in front of the stairs that the family used for their own personal use. It was always a sore spot with me to have them in the studio, but the Mrs. was firm on that. When the studio remodeling project started however, she gave-in, and told me that if I consolidated all the info, log-ins, email accounts, etc. into one of the two computers, she would "allow" me to buy her a nice fully-enclosed computer cabinet where she can shut the doors to hide the contents when not in use. This of course costs a boatload of money for the cabinet, but I also had to spend several hours consolidating all the data, logins, email accounts, etc. I did all that last night... FINALLY!!! So now all I have to do is to buy her the cabinet, and the last computer will be history too! Like I said, it doesn't sound like much, but it took me all night, plus I had to disassemble the old unit, and then drag that old computer desk upstairs, etc. Not very glamorous, but it feels good to get it done once and for all! Here you can see the lone remaining computer sitting on its old desk... Ready for its new piece of furniture and its new upstairs location!

Looking good James - Love the floor colour! :wink: Stay with it Bro' you'll soon be there, Kind regards, Lou. 8) (Bastards!!!!!!!!!!!! :wink: :lol: :lol: :wink: )

Lou wrote:

Looking good James - Love the floor colour! :wink:

Thanks, my married friend! I am kind of digging the floor as well! I am wondering if I made the door and window trim too light of a color, but let me give some time to get the rest of the floor done before I decide if I like it or not.

Lou wrote:

Stay with it Bro' you'll soon be there,

Yeah, us "amateurs" keep plodding along... all by myself... It should be done soon... I am thinking sometime in 2012 at this rate!!! ;)

I don't know if i missed this or not, but where exactly did you put the silica desiccant in between the windows, was in under the fabric? THanks, Everything looks awesome J

mkane wrote:

I don't know if i missed this or not, but where exactly did you put the silica desiccant in between the windows, was in under the fabric?

Thanks for your comments! Yes, the desiccant was placed in a "trough" between two layers of rigid fiberglass, and then wrapped in fabric. Take care!

Got some more work done this weekend, but it seems there is never enough time to meet my goals! I had planned on finishing the basement floor, and got most of it done, but unfortunately, I will have to complete it next time. We did get a few other odds and ends done however. The first thing I did was to wall-mount some old Event 20/20bas monitors that I have had sitting around for a couple of years collecting dust. I decided that it would be a good idea to wall-mount them in the live room for quick and dirty playbacks, and also for setup and chill out music. These mounts are the Omnimount 60 lb capacity versions with the longer arms to get them further from the wall. Now that I see them, I probably should have gone for the regular arms, but they will do what I need them to do if I can keep folks from hitting their heads on the speakers! (I have done it twice myself since hanging them yesterday!) Here are some pictures showing the floor growing... slowly! Here is a picture of Pierce painting the mic closet door frame. He also got the stair trim work painted. So that is where we left it for the weekend. Hopefully, this week I can get the floor done and then get started on the soldering by this coming weekend.

Here is my ceiling cloud design for over the drums in the live room. I probably could have posted this in the acoustics forum, but wanted to keep everything together if possible. The actual fabric will be more of a light gray/off white color. Bottom (towards floor): Top (towards ceiling): Comments/suggestions appreciated.

depending on if your clouds will be hung as a unit or not, you might just extend the braces on the back across all three panels and use the braces to hoist it into place. it might make it a bit easier to keep them all level and to reduce the number of connection points needed in the ceiling.

gullfo wrote:

depending on if your clouds will be hung as a unit or not, you might just extend the braces on the back across all three panels and use the braces to hoist it into place. it might make it a bit easier to keep them all level and to reduce the number of connection points needed in the ceiling.

Glenn: Great suggestion. I was actually going to hang them all as individual units to keep the weight down, but I never really thought about the level issue. Thanks!!! Great comment!!! Otherwise, looks OK? I am only going be using 2" of fiberglass, but could easily go to 3" if need be (I have both 2" and 1" panels). Will it really make a difference either way? I am mostly concerned about ceiling reflections rather than any trapping. Thanks again!

Makes me wonder how someone can hit their head...twice...on speakers all the way at the end of a hall at eyeball level? Don't mind me, I'm still stuck on wonder why the sky is blue? Brien I know, refraction and all that...but why blue?

you could start with 2" but leave yourself the option to add another 2" if you find the mids are a bit out of balance.

xSpace wrote:

Makes me wonder how someone can hit their head...twice...on speakers all the way at the end of a hall at eyeball level?

You have to understand that I am not that bright!!! ;) Actually, I was working on putting in the flooring both times, and on my knees looking down, and then stood up and BANG! @$*^%$%$#!!! Glenn: Thanks, I will start with 2" and see where it leads me.

doublehelix wrote:

You have to understand that I am not that bright!!! ;)

Yea you are.:) ...you just didn't treat it like a construction zone. {construction helmet emoticon (]: ) }

Well, I finally got the floor done, and it was a lot of bending, kneeling and stooping! My back and my knees are killing me, but then again, I am an old man! So far this weekend, we also got a few other miscellaneous items completed as well, and there is still tomorrow where I hope to get some soldering done. Anyway, here is a few pics of the floor: I also got the trim up around the mic closet: Tomorrow, a bit of tidying up, and then out comes the soldering iron... Oh, the joy!!! ;)

From this... To this...

very cool! Even cooler than those spammed-pix I've seen around here lately (what's up with that!)

Thats sweet.!!!! Looks awesome dude! You'll be recording in no time.!!!! Looking forward to see it with the clouds and corner traps installed. Best regards! :wink:

Thanks a_r and Ro!!! I really need the cheerleading right now, I am tired and anxious to be done with it all so I can get to the music. I spent the day cleaning and soldering as planned. I still have a few more small panels to complete, but the large main panel is done, which is a huge relief. I tested for continuity and polarity as well, and everything checked out perfectly. This panel has 20 Neutrik combo jacks, as well as 2 instrument jacks, and 2 MIDI jacks. The combo jacks are a pain in the butt to solder!!! Someday, Neutrik needs to make combo jacks that are pre-normalled for both XLR and TRS without having the solder the small jumper wires. Anyway, here are a couple of pics of the main panel.

Hey, looking great man! Did you solder the entire box on the floor? I can't imagine how you would do that. Aren't you almost done yet?

That breakout box is just the right distance from the floor to set a refreshment on. That is, if you have been working long hours on a body breaking job...and you have! Be good to yourself, you deserve it :) I did a floor damn near identical in product, color and the room size last year 'bout this time. Fella I did it for helped. One day, 400.00 usd. I will NEVER do one again! Man I was in pain in places that shouldn't even have nerve endings for days!!!! But if I ever do anything for that one particular fella again, I'll do it for 20% less if he doesn't help!!! ;) Let's get ready for a new work week!

Well done! Keep it up! A comment about your cloud: the difference between a 2" 3" or 4" ceiling cloud will be the frequency to which it absorbs. Thicker material, lower frequency. Also, space the cloud from the ceiling a few inches (the same as the thickness of the insulation). If it were me, I'd make the ceiling cloud 4" thick, especially if I had enough material already to do it. If not, start with 2" and go from there, you can always throw another 2" up if needed. Also, make sure the wood panels that face down, that the lights are mounted into, are not at the exact first reflection points if possible. Have the wood take up as little surface area as possible.