Hello and what do you think?

Greetings. I am glad all of you mods and studio-philes exist; Before finding this site, I thought I was shooting in the dark when it came to remodeling my home-studio. Thanks to you guys, I at least have a Flashlight now! -edit The Space is a two car garage, 22' long from driveway to rear wall, 20' from side to side. Floor is Concrete slab. Ceiling is 8' House is Covered in Brick Neighbors in every direction, closest is less than 30' from South wall of Studio. -edit What I want? a Control room that is Isolated from the Live Room and suitable for 5.1 monitoring a build that is good as it gets for the space provided. an accurate space to track / mix What I Do play drums use keyboards and guitars through a PA and/or amps have a roomie who's a bassist compose have rehearsals with different size ensembles, usually 3 -8 people record different projects Must not cover up access to the water heater. -edit ... and the whole-house water-softener. -edit Budget is ... $8k. :shock:

since you have a limited budget, and you've already had a run in with the local law enforcement regarding noise, you probably want to get things right rather than spend $3K and find yourself slapped with a $5K fine. my 2¢ - 1) get a sound level meter from Radio Shack and a program to measure the room (ETF or Room EQ Wizard) 2) go out and buy Rod Gervais's Home Studio Construction - Build It Like The Pros book and read it, 3) build the isolation completely and correctly. if this means taking things apart and reorganizing how its put together then thats what you should do. one thing - redo you sketch as a really accurate 2D floor plan to scale (one of the nice things about sketchup) and mark doors, windows, odd features, plumbing, beams, etc... that would impact using the entire space. I'll try to sketch up something tonight based on the overall measurements.

Thanks Gulfo. That design is really cool. I like how you've tried to minimize the noise factor by putting the drums closest to the house; this is problematic because you'd have to go through the live room to get to the Control room. I've come up with this - It's based off of a control room design that Mr. Sayers has done and posted - Fantastic Stuff! Thank You immensely! I've been refining costs and designing, and tearing the old structure apart. Here is what I've got so far. Edit- The .skp file for this pic is 605K, so I can't upload it. However, there is no window; the center object is a monitor. As far as Visual Communication, I am seriously thinking of Camera / Monitor combos for each room. The control room will most likely have 3 - 4 monitors soffited with the speakers. I'm kinda Lucky with the neighbors, the previous owner of this house ran a studio out of it so the surrounding people are used to such "noise". Despite that, i have to find another playback system to scope the room since I can't get mine above 85DB. I should be able to get 110DB inside with a friends PA. I am very curious to find out How much BASS is getting outside. I live outside of the City, so Noise ordinance does not apply to me - only the penal Code which requires <85DB AFTER 11:00PM - this is mitigated by the Officer on call, if there is a call, to determine what is reasonable after this. I ordered Rod's book today. I am also an Information-Junkie... If you want the SKP file, PM me and I'll mail it to ya. Ed

you could replace the window in the CR with a door into the isobooth... or just flip your design to put the drum room next to the house...

So I've "Scoped" the room, more or less with not so surprising results. And the budget is limited right now, but the way i see it, i have years to complete this since it is basically a project studio, and a place for me to learn the art of micing, mixing, and production. Scoping The Room I used a Behringer DEQ2496 (RTA, SPL, + other uses) and a Radioshack Digital SPL meter. I Used the Noise Oscillator from my AW2816 ( White Noise ) and MegaDeth's Symphony of Destruction CD and a Bass Guitar compressed to within an Millimeter of its life run through a Loud P.A. I took SPL measurements, A, C, and No weight, with program ~ or = 116DB The current control room was 88 DB Highest Frequencies Outside, Megadeth CD, 116DB Inside were: HZ - DB - Behringer Readings @ 3' from front wall 40 - 74 45 - 69 80 - 77.6 125- 75 Basically a hump from 40 - 130ish The RS meter confirmed an average of 78DB. At 15' the bass coming through was indistinguishable from the highway 6 blocks away. At the driveway you couldn't hear anything above the 55Db ambient noise from my neighborhood @ 4PM. Cars driving by drove the meters on the RS to 60-68DB, while talking went as high as 75DB ( meter in hand). ON the neighbor side the same result; The Decibel readings on the property lines are, on average, 18DB below the Penal Code requirements for ambient sound level AFTER 11:00PM, when there is 116DB of full bandwidth noise. So please let me know if you think I missed anything, or I did the test inaccurately. On to Helmholz....

i would just recheck with levels below 250hz to be sure but otherwise it sounds like you won't need a lot more isolation (for escaping sound) as the outside ambient noise is pretty high (but you may need more for sound penetrating your room...)

Here are my latest two Control Room designs. I have a bunch of pics of the Demolition that I'll post later. Since I'm still in the design phase, I'm designing. Already picked out the monitor system, the board I'll eventually get, the speakers, and wiring. I've been pricing each different design and keeping a running tab in Excel, based on linear wall feet, green glue coverage per drywall sheet, and 12% overage since I'll have a couple of pro's helping me when it all comes together. other sheets have Romex, Mogami, wall plates, Connectors etcetera... Finishing wood and MDF for Reso's and traps, Roxul,.. I found a supplier of Laminated glass and didn't get the sticker shock I thought was coming. Now just to finalize the plans ( sure, sure, these two represent revision 8 and 9), get my permits and build it. So questions up to now... Is 20Ga Steel framing adequate for two layers of 5/8 Drywall? The local HD has a sale... basically 1/3 the price of wood, for the 20ga - the 25 has to be ordered and is more than the wood. Doesn't Using the lightweight steel preclude me from using the "Super Door"? ( I have a 1.75" thick, 3' wide, 7'11" high Solid Core Door that I'll be re-using) If I wanted to use the Super Door AND the Steel Framing, how should it be done to make sure the Door is secure? One of my Professional guys has given me some raised eyebrows when I mentioned some of the angles that need to be cut if we use the septet-CR design - it seems pretty straight-forward to me. So help out here, I am a drummer, and rarely have to count past four; is there something I am missing besides Mitered Plates, and end studs ripped to precise angles w/ a table saw? I have a meeting scheduled with an HVAC guy, hopefully we can tie into my existing system and get the cooling and Dehumidification necessary for the space. (Again, thanks a million Mr. Gervais, Mr. Sayers, for teaching a brother how to fish) I don't anticipate problems with putting up non-load bearing walls in the Garage, though an architect/engineer will come out and give me the once over - it helps to do good work - I never anticipated needing an architect/engineer when I made this guys record last year. Any questions for me?

i believe 20 ga is ok for this application. here's a couple of links with some good info on sound and fire as well as general info on steel framing. http://www.steelframing.org/PDF/SFA_Fra ... al%202.pdf http://www.steelframing.org/PDF/design_ ... uide-1.pdf

I forgot a question, I've noticed that in Mr. Gervais book, and in several drawings, the Fill is refered to as Insulation... It seems that OC703/MineralFiber are the prefered materials, while R-XX can be used to save cost. Is this practical? I would imagine that Even 9 1/2" of R-30doesn't come close to the attenuation of 2" of mineral fiber. I have been planning to use 2" of Roxul AFB for the interior of the wall. So am I to deduce that 20Ga framing will require the use of Lumber to strengthen the "Super Door" frame, if used, and the Window Frame?

these are good questions - esp for the construction forum :D that said, i would use wood for the door and window frame or get heavier gauge steel. R-13 or R-19 will be fine in the walls.