gbondo9 Studio Design & Build

Hello all. This isn't my very first post here - but I'm still brand new to this site. At Rick F's suggestion (over at homerec) I decided I would make a thread here with as much info as I have about my studio ideas and progress. With that being said - this is my studio thread: Me: - I work in Audio (recording and editing broadcast speech), and have done some level of homerec in my spare time since I was 14. I'm a guitarist, drummer, singer, songwriter, and I have all the tools of my trades in my basement. I have a decent amount of homerec gear (mostly budget) and desperately need a space to use it. - I'm 29 and I live in Virginia Situation: At my last house - I had a space to record, mix and edit (it was just a room - and I was happy with it for the most part), but since we've moved - all my gear's been boxed up ...and it's killing me. Since we bought the house - I've done nothing but dream of plans to build a studio in the basement. My House: - Just bought the house last year. The basement is nice and big. Built in the 1950's, 2 story brick house, passed every level of VA Home Inspection. - My House is on a hill, the front of the basement is underground for about 10 feet before the ground slopes down (on both sides of the house) and the rest of the basement is level with the back yard. After a year - I cannot detect any moisture issues in the basement - although the part of the basement that is underground does smell a bit damp after a big rain. Purpose: - I would like a somewhat neutral sounding space to mix, edit and record. - I don't need to record drums in this room, and probably will not be recording bass amps (I usually go DI). Guitar amps are a probability, but mostly it will just be me with my MIDI, Guitars and Vox. Budget: Ridiculously small. It's possibly so small that I shouldn't even be posting this here - but I'm conflicted with the desire to do it right, so I keep reading and researching, and this seems like the best place to find the right information. Anyway - I'm looking at a couple hundred dollars a month at the most......so this may take years (or longer?). I can do all the labor myself, and I have friends who can help in specialized area's. Basement: Concrete Slab floors and load bearing walls with cinderblock walls inbetween. Issues so far: - The room I want to use is in the very back of the basement (Back wall is also the back of the house). The floor has a slope to it. - There's a drainage pipe running through the room (From the downstairs shower, toilet, washing machine). - No Ventilation What I've done so far: - In attempt to level out the slope - I started pouring some concrete. That is the 3.5" step you see at the back of the room (Which is perfectly level now - to the tune of 25x80lb bags of concrete). I realize now that without a building permit/structural engineer to look at this - I should have waited, and I'm going to get someone down there to see if I can even do what I planned on doing. So where I'm at now: - I just schooled myself on Sketchup and I'm downloading Smartdraw as we speak. Hopefully I'll have some more visually informative drawings for everyone shortly. - I've read Rod's Book once through and I go back to it alot, and I've been reading up on Sound Isolation and Acoustic Treatment for years. I still don't understand a lot of stuff. What I've been thinking - Non-parallel walls. Possibly slant the ceiling as well. - Eventually I think a desk in the front of the room - with my PC, mixer, outboard gear, monitors, etc. - Back of the room used for tracking - maybe with some Gobos to separate the space when necessary. - Bass traps in all corners. 703 panels scattered throughout the room. Wood floors perhaps? Anyway. I realize I need more illustrations (and possibly more info). Please let me know if I'm missing something here. Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this and post a response (good/bad/constructive). More on the way! Thanks, Todd *EDIT ADDITION: Isolation: -Isolation from neighbors is not an issue. I play drums in basement all the time and they don't mind (Ive talked to them about it). - I need isolation from my upstairs. Currently I can hear when someone's walking upstairs (hardwood floors through out the house). When my kids start running/jumping/rollerskating upstairs is when it gets loud down there.

Very simple concept design. I realize that I don't have hvac/floor/ceiling designs in here yet - but this way at least I can show you what I'm thinking (so far). It's very very simple (hopefully). 2 different wall concepts. Is one better than the other?

Here's the current pics (took literally 20 minutes ago!). Hope these help.

More views and some areas of interest

Aloha, Welcome to the Design Forum! :wink: Glad you're here. One of the first things we need to do is resize our pics down to about 700 pixels wide in order to eliminate scrolling and making the text body readable. It's also part of the Forum rules. Then we'll be able to take a look at what you've got to work with. Aloha 8)

Aloha, Okay, that's better. A couple of question, if I may; - What is the width of your room - Could you post your Sketchup file, please? Aloha 8)

I've attached the Sketchup file (so far). The Width of the room is 8'3" (or 99"). :idea: Ill resize the pics from now on - sorry bout that. Ill try to post a diagram of my house slope and the whole basement layout today sometime. Thanks! Todd

Here's a rough (not to scale) drawing of my basement layout (just so you get the idea) . The yellow lines are windows. Ill try to get the actual measurements and hvac stuff up tonight. Thanks, Todd

Aloha, Perhaps something like this? Aloha 8)

Aloha, If you are planning to use the storage room for a live room at some point, you may want to flip the control room to face the live room, or maybe put the control room in the storage space if you have the room. Aloha 8)

Kendale - Wow, Thanks for the drawings! That storage space is not a usable possibility at the moment - for multiple reasons. Down the road though (it's on my "in the next 10 years" radar). But I do want to face it - in case I could eventually turn it into a live room (and maybe put a window in that front wall). Should I consider putting my speakers in soffets? I just read the great sticky's on them and they seem to generally improve the direct sound source.

Aloha,

Thanks for the drawings!

You're welcome. :wink: I hope they are helpful to you.

Should I consider putting my speakers in soffets? I just read the great sticky's on them and they seem to generally improve the direct sound source.

While I have read other's views on the subject, having worked in both situations - soffit/no soffit - I would go (and did) with soffiting monitors. If you care to see an example, try here - http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... sc&start=0 Aloha 8)

kendale wrote:

If you care to see an example, try here - http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... sc&start=0

Great thread! OK - So - if I put my desk and soffets at the front of the room facing the storage area - I still have to decide where my non-parallel walls are gonna go. It seems like the door and the 3.5" step in the back of the room are gonna cause the room design to be a little odd. Would this work?

i think you should either keep the walls parallel and add some absorbers at key reflection points. the back wall can be multiple angles to allow for adding absorption or slat resonators. i also think you should level the floor either with poured cement or sanded filled flooring. the 3 1/2 step would be odd for most people to deal with in the middle of the room but less problematic in a door way.

Thanks for the design idea! I need to get an engineer/inspector in to verify the load my floors can take. Leveling out the whole floor is going to be an additional 2000 - 6000 pounds I think. Just getting the step in there was 25 x 80lb bags of concrete.

How does one go about finding a "Structural Engineer" to tell you how much weight your basement foundation can hold? Do they have other names? Can I just hire one out of the phone book?

check yellow pages under architects/construction/structure engineers. some architects/builders have structural engineering backgrounds, in (many) other cases, its a specialty. here's a site that might help - but i'd check references... http://www.servicemagic.com/category.Ar ... 10541.html

Awesome!! Thanks!!!!

In reading Rod's book - theres a paragraph on walls that says: "Facing walls can be made out of parallel by at least 1 in 10 (6%)...." What does this mean exactly? Is there a minimum angle (degree) I could apply that is in line with this? Thanks, Todd

roughly 6 degrees (actually 5.7 but 6 is a good even number...)