Indiana Home Studio Build

I am mostly concerned with with visual reflections. You hint at ways to deal with that and yet still keep parallel panes. Can you expand on this?

I was just speaking of sound reflections. Rod says in his book that if you use glass that is generally a bit heavier than your wall assembly, the negative isolation effects might not be that bad. You should be able to avoid the light reflections with the angled glass. I am wondering how it would work if both panes were angled the same direction. That would maximize the volume in between the panes while also providing acoustic reflection control. Not sure about how it would affect glare and other visual issues though. -bassman

I elected to go with the thickest glass that my supplier could provide, 3/4" and 1/2" (for some reason, no 5/8" was available). Hopefully, I will be OK. I also have to keep in mind my originally stated goal: This is a home-based studio, and will never be perfect. I am going to make this build the best I can under the circumstances. There have had to be some compromises made here and there, but that is to be expected considering the limitations of the room, my finances and my talents.

Here is a quick update: Been working hard to finish the drywall taping and mudding, and then of course all the danged sanding that goes along with it! It has been taking me 3 coats of mud, with sanding in-between each layer, partly because I am a perfectionist and want the walls to be perfectly smooth, and partly because I am such an amateur and have no idea what I am doing! After the 3 coats are complete, I have been going back and filling in any small imperfections and then giving things a final bit of polish with the sand paper here and there. As of last night (Monday), the control room is complete (!), the airlock just needs that final bit of sandpaper polish after the imperfections were filled, and the iso room is done with the 3rd layer of mud, and just needs the final sanding and then the small fill-ins where necessary. I have not touched the live room walls at all other than the initial tape and mud. I am going to have to wait until I can get all the gear out of there before I start sanding those walls. It makes too much of a mess, and even covering everything makes me nervous. Here are a few picture of the progress: First off, my wife thought it was pretty funny to see me covered with dust from head-to-toe, especially after doing any ceiling sanding, so she snapped these next 2 shots, laughing all the while... Personally, I did not find it *that* amusing, and my hair is not *that* gray!!!

The next 3 pics show the walls in various states of mud/sanding. The first picture is of the air lock, and the next 2 of the control room.

And now finally, a bit of paint!!! Ya-Hoo!!! In these next 3 shots, my able-bodied assistant son, Pierce, applies a coat of gray primer to the walls of the control room. I proceed to apply the first coat of ceiling paint.

And finally, here are a few shots of the control room with some primer and ceiling paint. They actually look like walls now! We still have some touch-up work to do around the edges tonight, and will also hopefully get the airlock painted as well. By tomorrow, the goal is to have all 3 rooms primered along with a single-coat of ceiling paint. Like I said, that is the *GOAL*!!! As slow as we are, this could take another month however!!! ;)

So, that is it for now. Still plodding along at a snail's pace, or so it seems. I have put in an awful lot of hours in the last 10 days or so, it is just hard to see the progress since tape and mudded drywall looks the same no matter how many layers you have, or how many hours you have spent sanding!

Rock on DH! The end is in sight...

BradJacob wrote:

Rock on DH! The end is in site...

Thanks dude! I am not sure if it is in sight yet, but it is certainly getting closer, and putting some paint up, even if it is only primer, feels like progress!

It's a shame that sheet-rock covers up all the REAL hard-work underneath it all.

BradJacob wrote:

It's a shame that sheet-rock covers up all the REAL hard-work underneath it all.

Yeah, you got that right! It is hard to believe all that goes into these things! After the first coat of paint was dried and I looked around, I ended up dragging out the mud again, and re-patched pretty much every wall to remove most of the imperfections and pits and then sanded a bunch of bumps! My son thinks I am a lunatic and that it was "good enough", but we have come too far not to at least *try* to make it look decent! I am such an amateur at this stuff! It is amazing how much work this all is. Here are a couple of pics, and if you look closely at the middle picture, you can see that I did some significant work on the ceiling too (sorry about the blurriness).

Quick update: All 3 rooms are complete with primer and 2 coats of ceiling paint! Ya-hoo!!! We can hopefully get started with some COLOR today! I do want to make sure that the ceilings look good before I start painting the walls however, so this morning I will see how everything looks after drying from last night, and if the ceilings look good, I am off to the world of COLOR!!! If not, I might decide to add a 3rd coat to the ceilings first. Here's hoping! :)

I actually was reading your words and got that fuzzy feeling - it goes to show how wishful thinking takes over. I'm really psyched for ya man! I'm starting rocking this weekend, (only 50 boards total) so I know the end is in sight for me as well. Can't wait to see the color. You know what's cool, download Sketchup and model your room. This way you can virtually "paint' the room and see what it looks like - because the program even produces "darker" shades of the color as it would be in a normal room (because of lighting, etc). SOOOO cool to try different colors and move acoustic panels around into new locations. Gives you an incredible "taste" of what's to come. I've done so much work on my sketchup rooms, that when I went into the actual "real" room, I felt like I was actually walking around in my computer! :shock:

Hey Brad... I looked at Sketchup once, and decided I did not want to take the time to learn another drawing program, so I never really spent any time with it to try and master it. I hear it is pretty simple once you dive it, but at this point, I think I'll probably pass for now. Thanks for the encouragement! As you know, it can get frustrating really quickly! Good luck with your walls... I don't envy you! I am so glad to have that part of the project behind me! Here is the update for today: It has been a loooong stinking day! The Missus decided that it was about time I got out the Christmas decorations and got busy decorating the outside of the house before January arrived, so I spent most of the day (which I took off of work to spend the time in the studio!) dragging the decorations out of storage, and making our house look suitably festive to please the woman and the kids. I then set up the Christmas tree inside (no decorations yet!), and hightailed it down to the studio before the entire day was wasted, er... I mean "spent doing *other* useful family activities"!!! My son and able-bodied assistant decided that Friday night was not a night he was going to spend locked in the studio with his father, so he proceeded to tell me that he was going out with his girlfriend, and he would see me tomorrow! Great! So now it was early evening, and I was on my own. The day was not going according to plan... A quick survey told me that I needed another coat of paint on all three ceilings just to be safe, so I dug in and knocked it out. My arms were killing me by the time I got done, but in the end, it was well worth the effort. Then... as tired as I was from my full day of "other (quite useful) activities, I decided to plow ahead with some color!!! I finished both the control room and the iso room in the same orange, completing the main part of the walls, the corners, and the floor edges. Tomorrow, I have to get out the small brush and small roller and finish out the top trim part, and then hopefully get the second coat completed on the main walls while my son gets started on the airlock (it is going to be a different color). As I have heard many people say when they post pictures of their walls, "It looks much better in person", and I would have to say this is true in this case as well! The pictures just do NOT do this color justice. When it is wet (as in the first couple of pics) it looks too orange, and when it is dry, it looks too brown. Anyway, here are a few pics to show you the progress:

Like I said, the last couple of pictures make the color look more orange than it really is, and these next few pictures (with the paint somewhat dry) make it look more brown than it really it. In reality, it is somewhere in-between...

If you like it I love it DH! It's all about what you think about it. My wall paint color matches your wall paint color from the freshly applied/wet pain pix. And I have to say, I like the heck out of the tone. You have a nice looking job overall.

xSpace wrote:

If you like it I love it DH! It's all about what you think about it. My wall paint color matches your wall paint color from the freshly applied/wet pain pix. And I have to say, I like the heck out of the tone. You have a nice looking job overall.

Thanks xspace! Yeah, I was hoping for it to be a little brighter, closer to the wet paint, but maybe not quite that bright. All-in-all, I am happy with how it turned out. Actually, at this point, I don't care what danged color it is, as long as it is painted!!! :)

Today's progress report: Got the edges painted in the control room and the iso room, and then later in the day, added a second coat to both rooms. I am thinking that they are probably done, depending on how they look in the morning! Cool, eh??? :) The airlock/hallway got its first coat of paint this morning, but I was not happy with the color at all. It was *supposed* to be a gray/gunboat type of color, but instead, it was a very light/pale blue, reminiscent of something that you would put in the baby's room! Poor Pierce, he painted the entire room, and as soon as I took one look, and I knew right away that it had to go! Another trip to the paint store in the evening yielded a color that was much more to my liking, so the airlock got another coat of coat of paint later that night. Unfortunately, it was only its first coat of gray! This means, at least one more coat in the morning. The iso room is piled high with doors, and a ton of tools. I have cleared a space around the perimeter for painting, but it does not lend itself to photography which is why there are no recent pictures of that room. Now that the painting is (almost?) done, we will be installing the doors, which will free up a lot more space in that room, and I will try to take a few pics. It is the same orange color as the control room. Here are a few progress shots of the painting. Next up: DOORS!!! The first 2 shots are of the airlock/hallway. The control room door is to the left, and the iso room door is to the right. The second two shots are of the control room.

DH, AWESOME job on those walls! I feel ya when you have to keep going back over them skimming with mud. After primer, all the little imperfections show through clearer. Part of me says to just not mess with getting them perfect where there are going to get covered up with absorbers, resonators and the like but after going through all the troube of being so detailed with everything, it's hard not to make the walls absolutely perfect. I love that orange color. I built a house for a lady who had a similar color and after taking some pic's, the flash on the camera made it look much brighter as well. The actual color was more of a "burnt orange" which is probably similar to yours. What's the name of the color? I was curious about your doors. What kind are you going with? Great job and I'm exited for you as your project is down hill from here out. Dan

Dan Scott wrote:

AWESOME job on those walls! I feel ya when you have to keep going back over them skimming with mud. After primer, all the little imperfections show through clearer.

Actually, there is one HUGE SPOT that is just HORRIBLE!!! There is blunt-end tape job in the control room that is just ABSOLUTELY HIDEOUS. You can see it in the last picture I posted, on the right wall adjacent to the window. It needs to be feathered out about 10 inches or so from the tape joint. I have gone back and forth on this a couple of times... do it... don't do it... do it... don't do it... This particular area will be covered with a bass trap, so I could probably get by without doing it, but I will always know that it is there, and it looks VERY AMATEURISH. :oops: At this point, I am leaning towards biting the bullet and just taking care of it, but my son keeps telling me that it is not worth it. Realize that this is not just an imperfection (there are quite a few of those!), but a major screwup! <sigh> what's a poor girl to do??? :) I'll probably make a decision on it today.

Dan Scott wrote:

I love that orange color. I built a house for a lady who had a similar color and after taking some pic's, the flash on the camera made it look much brighter as well. The actual color was more of a "burnt orange" which is probably similar to yours. What's the name of the color?

Ya know, I am not sure the name of the color to be honest! It was from the "Martha Stewart Collection" at Lowes. I'd have to go back and look at the swatch and see what it says, but I think I may have thrown it away. If I can find it, I'll post back.

Dan Scott wrote:

I was curious about your doors. What kind are you going with?

I have a feeling I am going to be taking some slack from the "pros" around here on my doors, but hey, this is a "home studio"!!! ;) They are solid exterior doors, with a window in the top-middle. The "window" is actually *two* parallel windows with some mini-blinds sandwiched in-between that I can raise and lower, or open and shut. They were about $325 a-piece for the pre-hung variety, and should work OK for my needs. These will probably be the weak link in the construction, but I do have an air lock design between the control room and the live room and iso rooms, so hopefully, I will be OK. Here is the layout one more time (although I did away with the splayed wall design for the CR): You can see the hallway in the middle with the 3 doors. Hopefully, this will give me enough isolation... I really wanted the windows in the doors so I could maintain visibility between the rooms. I am thinking that the airlock will be used as a spot for the vocalist to stand while doing scratch vocals during the initial band tracking, and I wanted to make sure it didn't feel like a tomb in there. Plus, it opens up visual communications between band members, and also to me in the CR.

Dan Scott wrote:

Great job and I'm exited for you as your project is down hill from here out.

Sheesh! I hope so! Thanks for the kind words, it has been a real struggle.

my main concern with the doors - what if there is a fire? having the doors open so they're not in the way of an escape should be an important consideration. the 2 doors facing each other in the air lock - i would have them open into each room so they don't inadvertantly block each other. or have only the isobooth door open into the air lock since its behind the CR door and won't block it. this is also probably a bit late now as well (I don't think i'd ever seen the floor plan before) - if you had the air lock wall mirror the CR wall, you could have gotten some more space in the airlock plus an angled wall to cut some reflections side-to-side... otherwise.. its looking good! don't sweat small details that are cosmetic and will be covered! otoh, do sweat the small details that improve isolation and acoustics!

DH Wrote:

At this point, I am leaning towards biting the bullet and just taking care of it, but my son keeps telling me that it is not worth it. Realize that this is not just an imperfection (there are quite a few of those!), but a major screwup!

Well, I can't blame you if you leave it alone "for now at least". If you are going to cover it with base trap as well a cover any other bad places with foam, traps or furniture, I would just move on and forget about it. "Out of sight, out of mind" :D Your set up is real nice and I don't think you'll have any problems getting great recordings. I've seen guys with worse than that doing business :shock: Acoustics and gear also play a big part in the whole picture. Dan

Thanks for the encouragement guys... I still haven't made a final decision on the wall repair. I would obviously rather not deal with and just move on, but it is nagging at the back of my mind just HOW BAD it looks. I'll sleep on it, and decide tomorrow. As far as the doors go... The are actually different than it shows in the drawing. That is a very old drawing, but the new configuration might actually be worse! Both doors from the CR and the iso room open INTO the airlock. BUT, the airlock is wide enough so that both doors can be opened fully without hitting (36" doors, 6' 2" wide airlock). Is this safe enough? Also, the door to the live room will open into the air lock, with the hinge on the iso room side of the airlock, but it will also open fully without hitting either of the other 2 doors.

as long as the doors don't end up in a situation where you might be contending for the exit you should be ok. its just that the older drawing looked like a bad situation where the doors could end up blocking someone from escaping...

Just BBQ outside and don't light any fires in the studio - that's all! :lol: