Mixing Room

Hello, First of all i would like to thank john for kicking this design at me ,, and everyone else that has helped, inspired, and put up with all my questions :),,,although I'm sure I'll have more ;) After a long 8 1/2 weeks of getting up around 5am, going to my job(drywall finishing contractor), coming home and working on this room till 11,,12 o'clock at night,,and from the time i wake till i just cant keep my eyes open on the weekends. During this time i didn't have an Internet connection at home to post pics as i went but I did take pics of everything i did as i went so i could share. I am almost done with my build now, and have had my computers back up for few days and have been downloading pictures like mad off my camera to post and I'm sure its gonna take me a few days to get them all posted. (although it seems i'm missing a couple, and am hoping my brother still has the ones i sent him ) The first thing i had to do was rip out the carpet that had been here since the previous owner, and see what i was up against as the floor had some pretty scary feeling humps under there. What i had found was at some point an air conditioner had leaked and had ruined a good sized section of the 3/4 particle board underlayment, so i started to tear that section out an come to find when they installed the particle board over the plywood sub-floor, they had put a layer of roofing felt between the two and when the water ruined the particle board it never made it to the sub-floor so good call on that. i decided to rip the whole layer of underlayment out as it had some swags between the floor joists,, and it all came up easier than i expected so i thought I'd just start fresh with a 2 layers of OSB Glued and screwed and stager jointed after i went under the house to try to even out the joists a little. I got most of the floor joists leveled out and extra bracing but was left with 2 that were a little high that I'll just have to live with( and they fought me at a couple of steps too). After all that was done i broke out the hand plane and went to work on the edges before i put down the veneer and the cherry hardwood looking sticky tile which looks great, the pictures don't do it justice.

Sup? :) OK,,now that the floor was in it was time to start building all the cabinetry. I started off with 17 sheets of 3/4 particle board(and had to get 1 more due to a cutting mistake after working for 17 hrs, but as it turned out I was able to use up all of the mis cut piece so 18 total) and figured up a cutting plan to get the most out of my lumber with the least amount of waste. I bought all new saw blades,and used Strait-edges, and "C" clamps and obsessive surgeon like measuring to make the cuts with the power saw. I measured around the room from floor to ceiling and my lowest point was 95 1/4 in, due to the 2 high floor joists and maybe a low ceiling joist or two, anyway, I made the bottom cabs 45 1/2in, and the top cabs 49 1/2 in to give me a 95in total height. I ripped 3/8 channels under the slat units and the speaker soffit units to allow me to run my power strips underneath. John had made a comment about building different chambers in the slat units to provide greater flexibility, so i kept that in mind and partitioned them down the center so i could insulate them different. I also partitioned the front top unit( one of the missing pics, but you can see it in later shots) as I knew i would be hanging a flat screen from it and would need some sort of support. the bottom front isn't partitioned , i just have some bracing to help support the middle. It took me 7 days, to measure, mark, cut, and assemble the 10 units,,plus 4 bottles of wood glue, and just over 10,000 trim gun nails. when they were all built i covered the bottom of all the units with felt. and then it was time to stack them and start caulking and insulating :)

oops forgot the original pic and cut pattern :oops:

:) and a little test fit of my new JBL LSR 4328P on their rubber mats

Then came the acoustical caulk and the raw fingers :lol:

Looking Good, I wish i had your skills with the saw i've had several miss cuts. Keep up the good work Cheers Alan

Sup? Thanks for the comp. bro :) I could have done without all the little dilemmas and the "whew..glad i caught that before I ....." along the way ,and believe me it was "something" at every step.... but if it was easy,,hell,,everyone would be doing it :lol: Now that i had everything in the room and stacked up, it was time to add the deadwood so the speaker soffit faces could have something to screw to, and get all the cabs aligned, screwed together, and squared up to each other and the room, and cut my hole between the top and bottom soffit units for the wiring and air to cool the powered JBL's I used mending plates on the backs to keep them from shifting once i got them aligned and screwed them together at various points that can be unscrewed without having to go inside the cabs, for when the day come i have to move all the to another location i can do so without demo'ing anything. Due to one of the high floor joists being the first one out from the wall on this side of the room(and they run side to side) I had to clamp the soffit cabs and slat cabs to keep them aligned when i screwed them together. the other high floor joist is out toward the middle of the room and was only a moderate pain as it only really gave me a little trouble with getting the left slat cabs lined up with the soffit cabs. when i was building the cabs it dawned on me about how was i going to get power run from the outlets to the inside of my space as the original plan is wall to wall, so there is no way to plug in a power strip without compromising the integrity of the cabs somehow. I scratched my head for a while on this as i was building cabs, and the only solution i could come up with short of running new wire from under the floor to boxes in the new space,, was to make the center absorbers shorter to allow the the combined soffit and slat cabs to be moved in, away from the walls 1.5 inches to accommodate a low profile plug. I made the center units 6in. shorter so that gave me the 1.5 in. between the wall and the cabs and the 1.5 in between the center units and the soffits that i figured i could stuff with 703 and a piece of trim to cover the gap in case i had to do some finagling cause my room isn't exactly square :roll: . so there is more or less 1.5 in. between the wall and all the units. I got the two sides in there respective places then got them squared up to each other, and bolted them with "L" brackets( soffits to the front wall and the opposite end of the slat cabs to the side walls) so they could not be bumped or moved out of line. i took a piece of string and a framers square from corner to corner on the floor and the ceiling at soffits to get them aligned and marked the ceiling so i could align the center cabs. then i taped the floor around the units so i could tell if any of it moves. I took the shot with the tape as i was staring at it all contemplating something that i don't recall :lol: AAAANNNDD,,,due to the aforementioned P.I.T.A. :evil: front floor joist, the center section wanted to lean forward,,and more on one side than the other. To combat this little inconvenience, i installed Eye rings on the corners of the units and into the wall so i could run a cable through and tighten it up to help pull back the unit and just in case the unit should decide to fall forward after i hang my flat panel screen(which for now is only a 26 in. and will be upgraded to a 50 at some point :) ) the cable will not let it come crashing down. When i got the unit in place and centered between the soffits, i installed little "L" brackets on the ceiling to keep it aligned with the soffits. the screws in the wall came out, and if you look real hard you can see the eye ring in the the upper left near the soffit cab.

SUP :) OK, so now it was time to start insulating.. I stared with the soffit units first, they all got 3in of ridged Fiberglass on every surface and a piece to cover the top rear corner on the top units. Then came time to do the center units and the slat units. I strung the center units by marking a line on the sides and putting screws on the line and stringing around the screws. the center units have 6in. of R.F. and IIRC,,about 4 1/2 in of air space behind. Now for the slat units, the larger side got got strung the same way as the center units, the narrow side however, got the screws in the back and i used a block while i was stringing to keep a uniformed air space. The Narrow end has a constant 1in air space and 2 to (IIRC) 9in of R.F.,,the big side has a constant 6in of R.F. and a variable airspace.

I did have to have a little help to get some pieces to stay put while i was cutting the next piece to go in, so i used a fine misting of the spray glue we use for custom corner bead products at work :)

Now it was time to staple the fabric onto the units. O.K. LISTEN UP,,to these words of wisdom.... In the first pic, you will see a Stanly electric staple gun. DO NOT PURCHASE THIS PRODUCT!!!! this thing is the biggest piece of shit i have ever wasted 20 bucks on :evil: If you look at the surrounding area in this pic you will see all the staples that just fell out as i ran my hand over them. My father has one of these also, and we had the same problem just trying to re-attach some upholstery on a couch and some chairs a couple of years ago,,I thought maybe he had got a bum unit so i bought one thinking they got to be better now right?,, ,,NOOOO,,,they just suck. I think when my room is completely done I'm gonna hang it in a tree out back and shoot it with my Desert Eagle 50 cal. to celebrate :twisted:

Aloha, Hey, looking good! (brought back some memories, too)

In the first pic, you will see a Stanly electric staple gun. DO NOT PURCHASE THIS PRODUCT!!!!

I have the standard Stanley spring powered model and it had a few issues driving the staples as well. I ended up going over the offending staples with a hammer to drive them home. Just curious, after installing the insulation in your cabs, how much of a difference in room sound did you notice? Be safe and keep up the good work! Aloha 8)

Wow Moshwicz! Looking great! You have definitely got the knack with the woodwork... something that I don't seem to have the patience for. I got an electric staple gun as well, Arrow brand (the same manufacturer of the staples that seem to be everywhere), and it sucks as well. Go pneumatic is my new mantra! I will never buy another crappy electric staple or nail gun again. Keep the pics coming! I love it when you can make such fast progress through the process of the time warp when you start posting *after* you have competed the project! Hehe... Anxious to see it finished!

I have a cheap electric staple gun. I find the only way to get effective use from it is to push it into the workpiece as hard as possible before firing.

Sup? thanks for the comps guys :) kendale,,,,Ya, i could definitely notice that i was in the space between the cabs when i walked into that side of the room, i could listen as the timber of the "whir" from the air conditioner would change. After the cloud went up and the flutter disappeared on that side the whole "space" seemed to "zero in",,for lack of a better term, and was quite noticeable . Speaking of cloud,, this is how i went about doing mine. I didn't want to have to build a frame for the cloud and spend any more on lumber than i already had, so i scratched my head until it just dawned on me how to just hang each panel. First off , i already had the center of the ceiling marked ,then I measured out and marked every 2 ft. left and right.then screwed a 1x4 to the ceiling, (centered) on the marks and screwed a 1x4 3/4 away from the slat units running at the same angle. I measured up (IIRC) 78in. from the floor and made a mark on each side of the center cabs. i taped a string on this mark, and ran it up at 12 deg. to the ceiling and taped it there. i measured out about 1.5 in. along the string and put a piece of tape. i then measured 4 ft. from that tape along the string and put another piece of tape, this would represent the length of the rigid fiberglass i was using to make the sections. I then took a plumb line and held it to the ceiling to get the 4 foot mark and the 1.5 in. mark transfered onto the ceiling, then I did the same on the other side. I placed a screw-in hook on the 1x4's at the 1.5in mark away from all the units. I taped a string to the ceiling across the 4ft. marks an marked the center of the 1x4's on this line. I then took hook and put one on all the marks. this would give me the hanging points for the first set of sections. For the second set, i measured back from the 4ft. hook 3.5in and made a line across all the 1x4's and placed another hook, then from that hook i measured(IIRC) 47in. and placed the hooks. I know they sound like odd measurements for (mostly) 2x4ft panels but there was method behind this madness as you will see. OK,, each section is made up of 2 panels of 1.5 R.F. that i first wrapped in this material that i was given a whole 4ft. roll of, off one of my jobs about a year ago, that i thought might come in handy one day and that i can only describe as having about the same consistency as a dryer sheet. Anyway, i folded the 2 panels up like a Christmas package, and taped the ends on the back till i could hot glue them so they wouldn't come undone. Then i took my trusty orange speed square and marked a point in, 2in. from the sides at every corner. then i took a length of string and tied and hot glued a washer to the end, then measured the distance along the string i wanted the panel to hang and tied+glued another washer, with the rest of the length behind it. Then i took an embroidery needle with the string attached,and pushed it through where my 2in. points intersected and pulled it through till the washer was touching the panel, then brought the string around and threaded it through that washer and back around a few times till i ran out of string then tied it off and hot glued the knot, This leaves the desired distance of string to hang the panel with, as the washer on the end of the string gets put onto the hook .The cloud hangs about 2.5 in. off the ceiling The reason for the odd measurements for the hooks and only one hook for two side by side panels to share, is that all the panels now push against each other in every direction making the whole thing a pretty tight and rigid structure. To cover the panels with the final fabric i stretched the fabric around to the back and hot glued it. which leaves the exposed side with no punctures or frame. 8) I also replaced the ceiling fan with a more befitting light, I had to slit the sides of the 2 panels around it for it light to come through( which i just slit the sides and hot glued a swatch of fabric in the cavity so there is no insulation exposed and looks pretty good too ;)

while i was doing all of this i was also working like a mad man on other parts, here is the test fit of the speaker faces, and the bottom cab faces, which i cut out of one piece and made a dish to hold the 3 in. of fabric covered R.F. I also put the dryer sheet material on the inside of the soffit cabs so i wouldn't have any fiberglass dust blowing into the room. The bottom cabs got some of the Grey material, to hide the inside when looked at from the front.

Now i was onto making the next 2 side units, and putting my book cases back in.. The window that the air conditioner sits in, has fabric wrapped insulation between the glass and the 3/4 plywood that is screwed to the wall around the window, with the hole cut to fit, and the air conditioner is screwed to the plywood so it cannot just be knocked in from the outside. This window side unit and the other side unit also sit 1.5 in off the wall and are screwed together and to the slat units so they don't move. I had also ripped down a couple of 2x4's on the 1.5in side to just under 1/8th in. strips, and stained them with some mahogany stain i had leftover from my kitchen cabinets, to make trim pieces for where all the cabs meet and such,,I'm pleased with how they turned out. :)

Sup? :) O.K., by this time my wife was ready for some of this stuff to come back out of the living room, and i was at the point where i could actually oblige her on this, as i had just got done laying out the angles to get my mix position, which is at 38% from the front wall. and the distance from speaker center to speaker center, and where they cross paths are EXACTLY DEAD ON to each other at (IIRC,,i have it written down somewhere :oops: ) 94 3/4 in. Just before this, I was in the shop, drilling and countersinking my holes for the screws in the top and bottom soffit faces, and the trim pieces i had cut for the center units. After getting the floor laid out and taking a little break, i started in on getting my console desk set up, the Flat panel video screen hung up, and the trim pieces put on. One of the cool things about the cloud construction is that i can just unhook one side If i need to get to the space it covers ,in this case , to put the trim pieces on the center units.

Now it was time to put in the hangers in the bottom soffit cabs, and get my fans mounted as a little heat insurance for the powered JBL's. ;) also,on the bottom soffit, i hot glued some black screen to the inside to cover the opening, and help hide the inside of the cabinet,,the Grey material does the trick great behind this. I bought some good computer fans for this task. i wired them up so i can just flip a switch on a spare computer power supply i have and they come on, and as they are only 12 volts and don't put out much in the way of interference :) As you can see on the back of the speaker bezel, I didn't let any rigid fiberglass go to waste, matter of fact, i have to find another local supplier, as I would like to get about 3 more bundles to finish the room out in the back and for the backside of the bottom soffit face,, and the supply house where i got what i had is out. I made panels to go over my book cases that are behind me and attached them with Velcro. I'm gonna take the closet door off and make a new absorber door on hinges so i can make use of the closet's air cavity for more trapping :wink:

Hey Mosh - is that an A.R.T. SGX 2000 Express I can see in pic 025 :?: Hey hey - great progress Dude,:wink: Regards, Lou. 8)

Lou wrote:

Hey Mosh - is that an A.R.T. SGX 2000 Express I can see in pic 025 :?: Hey hey - great progress Dude,:wink: Regards, Lou. 8)

Sup Lou :) thanks for the comp bro, and your eyes do not deceive you :D MOSH ON DAVE

Sup? Now that its just about done, what i have left at this point is cutting and installing the slats on the side units. I'm gonna use 4 sheets of 3/4 in. Birch plywood to cut them out of, as I still have some red mahogany stain left that i used on my birch cabinets in the kitchen that looks awesome, and the birch takes the stain better than pine which is what i used for the trim pieces on all the rest of the cabs. Other than that,, after i find another supplier of the Rigid Fiberglass, I'll make panels for the main door, and bookcases in the back of the room. I am also going to take the closet door off ,and make a new door, by using a screen door with fabric wrapped R.F. that will be even with the panels on the bookcases, clean out everything inside, and line the inside with fabric wrapped R.F. panels, but I will hang the clothes back inside when I'm done :) I still have to finish stuffing the R.F. pieces between the front unit and the speaker units, as you can see the trim off of the left unit in most of the pics. I also wanted to be able to still use my Kenwood stereo speakers for listening to cd's and audio off the computer and such without firing up the JBL's for just casual listening, but didn't have anywhere to put them that wasn't obtrusive to the "critical" listening space, but it just so happens that while building my console, i built the side cars big enough that they hold my rack gear and have enough room in the back of to hold the speakers, that are pointed out the back, so that worked out fine and still sound good :wink: Anyway, here are the pics of the room now. and for the first pic,,i had to figure out how to get the speaker in the right position once the bezels were in place ( or if i should have to adjust them for some reason) so i came up with the string thing which worked out perfect. and when i was done getting the speaker as close as possible without touching, i just tucked the strings into the hole , and if i need them again, I can extract them with a paper clip ;) MOSH ON DAVE