Indiana Home Studio Build

Well, the Doors are in!!! Well, they are hung and shimmed, but are not trimmed out yet. That probably won't happen until I trim out the rest of the studio. These doors are probably not considered "ideal" studio doors, but I wanted to have doors with windows in them to keep open lines of visual communication between the rooms and also to prevent the feeling of claustrophobia. These doors are outside doors, solid core, with 2 panes of glass with some blinds sandwiched in between the 2 panes. I will use some heavy-duty rubber seals to make sure that they are air-tight, and be done with it. These doors were about US$325 each, pre-hung. I know there were probably better choices in this price range when it comes to sound isolation (like those without windows), but again, this is my home studio, built for my own needs, and the desire for the windows outweighed any other considerations. With the use of the airlock as I have done, I am sure that I will have enough isolation for my needs. Some pics: And he swore that he "didn't do windows"!!! This is from the live room looking into the airlock. You can see the other 2 doors opening to the inside behind Pierce into the airlock. These next 2 pictures are from the live room looking into the airlock. The control room door is to the left, and the iso room door is to the right. There is some kind of weird reflection thing going on with the back wall in these 2 pictures. Maybe the camera flash reflecting off of one of the windows? Close up of the iso room door. You can see an old set of storage shelves in the background. These will not be there in the final build. Finally, here is a (lousy)picture of the iso room. This has been where we have been storing everything during the build. Now that the doors are out of there, I can at least get a picture, although this is one is quite blurry. You can see the old platform that I used to use for elevating amps when recording them. I will probably use it again, but this time I will clean it up and carpet it properly. Also, to the left, you can see one of my old bass traps (a bit dusty now!) that came out of the live room. It had to come down when I cut out the window, and I am just storing here for now. It will go back into the live room eventually. Close up of the control room door. Here we are in the control room, looking towards the airlock. And finally, I am standing in the iso room with all of the doors closed, looking through the window, through the airlock, into the control room. Next up: Electrical wiring and lighting. I *was* going to do the floors, but we are getting really tired of tripping over extension cords and moving lights around all the time, so it makes sense to spend some time getting the electricity sorted before moving onto the floors. I am going to be out of town for the next couple of days, so things are most likely on hold until the weekend.

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?

Dan: I found the color swatch. The color is called "Brick Hearth" (MS053) from the Martha Stewart collection at Lowe's. It is a Valspar Signature paint, done in satin.

If you have a 5 gallon bucket that you could keep fresh water in you can keep your wall mudding tools clean and damp. Keeping them(mud tools, pan included) crude free and wet can be key to getting a slick finish on walls. And you have done enough to certify as a finisher by todays standards just gotta log in more hours perfecting your flat elevations. Believe you me, if I can do it even a dumb ole girl can:)

xSpace wrote:

Believe you me, if I can do it even a dumb ole girl can:)

So, are you calling me a "dumb ole girl"???? :) Haha! Thanks for the tips, I need all the help I can get! BTW, I have decided to re-mud that horrible butt-end joint in the control room. Any hints there (other than "hire out"? Thanks!

doublehelix wrote:

<sigh> what's a poor girl to do??? :)

Back from page 8. Best remedy for a butt joint is a wide mud knife. The wider the better, like a 12 inch mud knife isn't too wide. With a clean damp knife and a pan of stirred up mud skim the mud on thin and as quickly, in one smooth motion, as possible. Look at the butt joint as a center line. Spread mud on the left of this line and then spread more mud on the right of this line. Using a 12 inch knife this should cover approx. a 24 inch wide area. The result is that the joint isn't such a dramatic change in the sheetrock elevation and it more resembles a flat surface. Good luck,

Thanks Brien... That is really helpful. I am going to give it a go tomorrow when I get home from my trip. I had forgotten about that "poor girl" comment, but I got a good laugh out of it once you reminded me! Old age causes you to forget what you were tal :lol:

Well, believe it not, I decided to bite the bullet and patch a few spots that were bugging me, including the *BIG* spot on the front right of the control room where there was a but-end drywall joint that just did not look right. It sucks since I thought I was done with sanding and painting in the back rooms, but I just could not live with the sub-standard results. Also: WE HAVE LIGHTS!!!! And electricity to the plugs of course! I have been working all weekend installing all the switches, receptacles and lights, and man, what a job! My arms are killing me from all of the overhead light work. The good news is that we can get rid a lot of the construction lights and extension cords now, and things are starting to look more and more like real rooms! I now need to go back and finish all the patch work that I decided to do (what an idiot!), and repaint those spots. Next up, soldering! I decided to go ahead and get all of the wiring installation done in the 3 back rooms before I put the flooring in. One less thing to worry about if I drip any solder on the floor. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the patch jobs and the new lights!!! The third picture is another picture of the air lock, but for some reason, I cannot get a good picture, clear picture of that room!

A few more...

doublehelix wrote:

A few more...

Hey hey!!! Those are the SAME lights as me! Lowe's, right? Great to see them in action.

BradJacob wrote:

doublehelix wrote:

A few more...

Hey hey!!! Those are the SAME lights as me! Lowe's, right? Great to see them in action.

Yep! Lowes *and* Home Depot actually. It is hard to see the detail from the pics, but the track lights are from Lowe's, and the sconces and a couple of the overhead lights are from Home Depot. One of the OH lights is from Lowe's. Let me tell you how wonderful it felt to turn those puppies on for the first time! Amazing!

doublehelix wrote:

BradJacob wrote:

doublehelix wrote:

A few more...

Hey hey!!! Those are the SAME lights as me! Lowe's, right? Great to see them in action.

Yep! Lowes *and* Home Depot actually. It is hard to see the detail from the pics, but the track lights are from Lowe's, and the sconces and a couple of the overhead lights are from Home Depot. One of the OH lights is from Lowe's. Let me tell you how wonderful it felt to turn those puppies on for the first time! Amazing!

I believe the sconces are the same too? I just got done installing the ceiling Isomax clips in my control room. Getting there.... So C'm,on, build some more... I need my daily fix!

BradJacob wrote:

I believe the sconces are the same too? I just got done installing the ceiling Isomax clips in my control room. Getting there.... So C'm,on, build some more... I need my daily fix!

Haha! I am going as fast as I can! Remember, I am a one-man band here like you, and also have the full-time job and 4 kids and a wife! There is never enough time... Those sconces are similar, but not quite the same. Mine do not have the little metal cup and screw on the bottom, and have a marbling pattern to the glass, but other than that, they look pretty similar in shape to the ones you got from Lowe's. It is pretty funny how similar they are however! Great minds think alike!

Time for a quick update. As they say, "The devil is in the details...", and I would have to agree wholeheartedly! There are so many small details that need to be attended to, it is crazy! I have only documented a few of these, but rest assured, I have been very busy over the last week taking care of a million small details that needed addressing... such as caulking around the back of the "ugly window" for example. These things, while quite necessary, are difficult to document, and impossible to see with a camera. Trust me when I say the to-do list is longer than my arm! So here is where we are: If you recall from the last update, I bit the bullet and decided to re-do one of the side walls in the control room due to a horribly amateurish job on a butt-end drywall joint. I finished that project, and it looks much, MUCH better!!! First mudded, then sanded, then primered, and then painted. It sucks to have to do this stuff twice, but when you have no clue what you are doing, this happens a lot! Mudded: Primered: Then painted (the paint is still wet in this picture): Next, I began the soldering process. This part seems to always take forever as I am so picky about my soldering. I have soldered thousands of solder joints, and have the process down pretty good... no cold solder joints anywhere! Here is my first panel. I stated easy, with a simple 2-pair of XLRs: Next, onto the main patch panel. This particular panel has 20 XLRs, 2 instrument connections, and a pair of midi connections. And finished! Here is a close-up (and as usual, blurry) picture of the door frame. The space between the door frame and the wall frame was filled with backer rod, and then caulked. There were a couple of spaces that were a bit too wide for "normal" caulking, and those were filled with insulation and caulked. Next up, HVAC vents. I have 2 exhausts and 1 return in the control room. And still more soldering! Here is a second panel, holding 8 more XLRs and 10 headphone sends, which are in reality, Ethernet Cat-5 connectors and cables. I have also done quite a bit of soldering in the airlock and the iso room, but don't have any pics of those yet. I will post some more later. The windows are due to be delivered on Monday (tomorrow) after several delays. I had originally ordered 3/4" and 1/2" panes, but was able to get 3/4" and 5/8", which is pretty cool! The Ugly window is going to be 5/8" rather than the 3/4" I had originally specified, but that will be fine, and saved me some money. Lots more detail work today, a bit more soldering, and then prep for the window delivery tomorrow.

Wow looking awesome! Can't wait until mine gets to that stage! I've been wondering for a while now, how do you use Cat5 for headphones? Do you have a headphone amp/distribution system that uses Cat5 or is it just a matter of the cable being okay for audio? Thanks, Gareth

gareth.h.rees wrote:

Wow looking awesome! Can't wait until mine gets to that stage! I've been wondering for a while now, how do you use Cat5 for headphones? Do you have a headphone amp/distribution system that uses Cat5 or is it just a matter of the cable being okay for audio?

Thanks for the comments! I am using the Hear Back Headphone System which uses Cat5 cabling to distribute the audio... the Aviom System also uses Cat5 cable btw...

Nice stuff. Exactly like how I had figured to have my connections done. Custom wood boxes with 19" connector panels. I've done some serious soldering myself too and am NOT looking forward to that job.. as it is tedious but in the end worthwhile tho :) Currently I too am using cat5 wiring for foldback distribution, it's cheep stuff (well sorta) and works great. nice job and keep'm com'n!

Ahh thanks for that DH, always wondered what this Cat5 for headphones was all about. Unfortunately the distribution systems themselves are pretty pricey, so I think I'll be going with normal audio cable for that! Thanks all the same, Gareth

Ro wrote:

Currently I too am using cat5 wiring for foldback distribution, it's cheep stuff (well sorta) and works great.

Ro: I found some pretty cool wall plates for the Cat5 cables that have a female Cat5 jack on the back, which means that I do not have to solder any of the Cat5 cables. I just buy the pre-made ones, and then plug them into the back of the panel... so easy! It probably costs a bit more for the pre-made cables, but it is SO worth it! I made a bunch of Cat5 cables and jacks several years ago, and bought all the crimping tools and stuff to make them... YUCK! never again! What a total pain in the rear to line up and get all those small wires into all of the right grooves at the same time! Trust me on this one... if you have never done it before, you DO NOT want to try it! It is a horrible job and not worth the cost savings! Here are a couple of pictures, one of the front side and one of the back side:

Lovin' it all DH, just lovin' it all! :wink: :wink: :wink: Cat 5 it is then for me! Thanks Buddy. :D Awesome job Dude! (For a first build - Older Man! :wink:) You know I'm kidding - I really don't mind you being more experienced in life than me - hell my Dad is!!!!!!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Warmest regards, and festive wishes, Lou. 8)

Lou wrote:

Awesome job Dude! (For a first build - Older Man! :wink:) You know I'm kidding - I really don't mind you being more experienced in life than me - hell my Dad is!!!!!!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

What??? Me old??? Ha! Just a spring chicken in my *prime*!!! Bok... Bok... Yeah, it sucks to get old, that is for sure, but I guess it beats the alternatives as they say! Building is definitely *not* my forte, I am learning quickly how difficult it can be to do "on-the-job training" when you have no trainer!!! Ouch! Thanks for the kind words Lou, even though I know that I am just making myself a poor little hobbit hole in the ground... Heck, compared to your build, I might as well have just painted an out house and called it "a day"! My windows are *supposed* to arrive tonight within the hour! Here's hoping!!!

Grrrrr...... My windows did not show up, and the guy called me and told me that they were delayed until Wednesday!!! This sucks!

Well, the glass finally showed up today, two days late! The good news is that it showed up, so I should be happy! I am just pretty tired after a long day at work, and then a long night working with heavy pieces of glass. Anyway, the main studio window has two pieces of glass, one 3/4" thick (19 mm), and the other is 5/8" (16 mm), and the back small "ugly window" has a single 5/8" piece of glass (16 mm). These suckers are HEAVY!!! We got 2 of the pieces of glass installed tonight, and will finish the 3rd piece this coming weekend. I have a few more things to do to the existing installations to fine tune them, and I want to get that done before I install the 3rd piece. Anyway, here are some pictures of the process. These are the suction cup glass carriers that I rented to do the job. These things are the *second* best invention every, after the drywall ceiling lift!!! We could have never done this without these guys! Here is a roll of the glazing tape that we used to seal the glass. In these next two pictures, you can see the "ugly window" before and then after applying the glazing tape to the window stops. Here is a picture of my son applying a layer of glazing tape the outside window stops. Next, the glass was lifted into place, setting on several neoprene "pucks" to lift the bottom of the glass up off of the window frame by about 1/8". You will see a better picture of that later on when we are working on the larger window. Here is a close of the next step, caulking around the window perimeter. After the caulking is done, the outside window stops are installed with the glazing tape on the inside. Next, we tackled the inside control room window. This was the "biggie" that is the 3/4" (19 mm) thick monster! This thing weighs a ton!!! You can see my son's friend Brent in the foreground, and my son Pierce hiding in the background. If you look closely at the bottom of the glass in the this picture, you can see the neoprene pucks I talked about earlier to raise the glass off of the frame by 1/8". And "finished"! :) Actually, I am going to double the stops on this piece of glass just to be safe, and then of course, all the putty and hole-filling work to finish things off before trimming out the outside of the frame. So... how does it sound? Considering I only have one piece of glass between the control room and the live room, it is pretty amazingly quiet! I can hear the drums playing in the live room, but it is very quiet and I can carry on a normal quiet conversation even with someone banging on the drums as hard as they can! Also, I turned up the stereo pretty much to full blast (Stevie Wonder, "Songs in the Key of Life"), and could barely tell it was playing!!! All this with only a single piece of glass, and with the doors not completely sealed yet!!! Pretty cool!!! :) Once I get the second piece of glass installed and the doors sealed, I imagine that I will not be able to tell that the stereo is playing at all, and the drums will be even quieter! All this work, and you are always wondering whether or not it is going to actually be sound-proof... I am glad to say that the things I have learned from Rod's book and from all the friendly forum advice has paid off nicely! Thank you!!!

very cool!! Say, how much did ye for those windows?

doublehelix wrote:

All this work, and you are always wondering whether or not it is going to actually be sound-proof... I am glad to say that the things I have learned from Rod's book and from all the friendly forum advice has paid off nicely! Thank you!!!

If you read Rod's book, you'd know that the number one rule is that there is NO such thing as "sound proof"... :lol: :lol: Just busting your stones - someone has to! :lol: :lol: I mean, c'mon - most of us shmucks are still stuck doing drywall - and you're there basking in all your glory. ENjoying the fact that you can't hear drums. I think I'm gonna be sick.... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Those windows look SWEET! I'm VERY excited for you James. All that hard work - and now you can sit back and get to making music again. I'm jealous...

Ro wrote:

very cool!! Say, how much did ye for those windows?

Cost-wise? A *LOT*!!! (ouch!) I have a friend in the business, so I got a *great* deal, I probably shouldn't say how much I paid because it will only make you cry!!! Let's just say that I paid about 1/3 what I would have paid had I not got their cost instead of the retail price. Plus, all the cutting and finishing/polishing labor was free, so I basically got them for very little compared to their worth. Of course, I had to wait a few extra weeks past the promised date to get them, but it was hard to complain considering I got them at his cost. But even at cost, they were quite pricey.

BradJacob wrote:

If you read Rod's book, you'd know that the number one rule is that there is NO such thing as "sound proof"...

Ya know, when I typed that, I knew somebody was going to jump in on that comment!!! And of course, it had to be you!!! ;) Haha! I guess I should be saying "sound-attenuated", but somehow it just doesn't roll off of the tongue like "sound-proof"! But you are right, it will never be sound-proof, and I do realize that. It is much quieter than I expected however, which is a good thing, and I still have one more sheet of glass to install!!!

BradJacob wrote:

Just busting your stones - someone has to!

Stones? STONES??? These are BOULDERS baby!!! :lol: You are gonna need a sledgehammer for these suckers!!! ;)

BradJacob wrote:

I mean, c'mon - most of us shmucks are still stuck doing drywall - and you're there basking in all your glory. ENjoying the fact that you can't hear drums. I think I'm gonna be sick.... Those windows look SWEET! I'm VERY excited for you James. All that hard work - and now you can sit back and get to making music again. I'm jealous...

Dude! I paid my drywall dues... trust me! I hate drywall!!! Don't worry, you'll get there soon bud! I *wish* I was making music again, unfortunately, I still have a ton of work to do! One more window, the flooring, lots of trim work, including the doors... And then, I have to move all the gear, and finish the live room!!! OUCH!!! Dang, this is going to take forever!!! :evil: It is fun to do *some* finish work however, like the lights, the paint, the windows, etc. It makes things start to look "finished" which is a much better look than drywall, trust me!!! Like I said, you are getting there, it won't be long for you either, and to be honest, you will probably finish before I will, at the pace I am moving!