Dog + Bear Studio build

[stevev]

well, so much for getting the studio finished by the end of 2012

Ive got to say though, a stint in hospital at the end of december with Quinsy (severe 'throat-closing' tonsilitis) didn't help!

Managed to get back into it in the last few days which means i've finally hung the last of the plaster board!!! that's right, all internal ceilings and walls are done. I can tell you I'm not sorry to pack the panel lifter away, that's for sure.

now on to internal doors and windows, which i'm feeling confident about in terms of research and planning.

Thanks to all who have put forward their advice and ideas about the build in 2012, and with any luck it'll be completed in 2013. (if it isn't I'll fly you all over here so you can beat me with a big stick!!)

[Soundman2020]

that's right, all internal ceilings and walls are done.

Cool! And congratulations: That's a major milestone completed. So now the REAL work starts....

But there's a saying around this forum: "Pics, or it didn't happen". In other words, to be believed that you did it, you have to post some photos of what you did, and how it looks!

(if it isn't I'll fly you all over here so you can beat me with a big stick!!)

Wow! Great! It's been more than 30 years since I was in Aussie last, so I'm looking forward to it! (And I promise I'll only beat gently... )


- Stuart -

[stevev]

So now the REAL work starts....

funny you should say that Stuart, because a lot of people who see where we're up to say 'oh WOW, so you're nearly done!'....and I say 'OHHHH, NOOOOO, that's the easy bit done (i:e planning, excavation, concrete, brick work, framing, insulation, plaster) now I've gotta make it sound good!!!'

so here's a couple of pics of where it's at right now.....

IMG_1332.jpg

IMG_1336.jpg

all the pics look kind of the same no matter where I shoot them from as both rooms are the same size, but none the less, you can see ceilings and walls all completed. there is still some sealing work to do, but I need to move all the tools and extra materials to the other room so I can do this.

looks like I won't be able to get back to the build in a meaningful way for a few weeks as I have a load of work to do. But the positive is that we're still going forward

[stevev]

internal doors.jpg

finally got some time to get back in to the build after a while!!!

internal doors are in ( no seals yet ), comprised of a 32mm MDF sandwich with 10.5mm glass. surface density ends up at around 24kg/m which is equal to the walls, so i'm feeling good about that:)

[Soundman2020]

Doors look good! But just a quick comment on one aspect: you have used ordinary door latch sets, which penetrate all the way through the door, and that is a potential weak point. Basically, that's a big hole with just a thin bit of metal over each end, which certainly doesn't add up to 24 kg/m3. The best method for keeping doors closed is to use an automatic door closer, which controls the speed of the door so that it cannot slam, and also then applies pressure on the seals once the door is closed, to ensure that you get good airtight seals. Done like that, you don't need things that go through the door, like normal latch sets, and instead you can just use surface mounted handles, with no door penetrations at all.

- Stuart -

[stevev]

ahhh, yeah, didn't think about that

looking for a positive on having the standard latch is that the unit's are quite bulky, and the internal structure of the handle does cover the entire penetration. I'd have to take a look but there's probably a minimum of 5mm of steel covering the hole at any one point.

One thing this does remind me of though, is that i haven't sealed around where the mechanism penetrates the door. I'll put that on the 'to do' list for tomorrow.

[stevev]

super chunk.jpg

super-chunking for the live room begins. I'm putting a plastic cover over the front to retain high's and help hold in any stray fibers from the glass-wool.

[stevev]

yep, i've been busy building bits of studio over the past week, that's for sure!

window.jpg

the window is in as per Rod's design from his book. Still a little bit of sanding on the outside to finish it up. Keeping sealant away from the fabric trim when installing the window stops etc, took a huge amount of concentration and care but I got there

cable.jpg

Cable has gone in between rooms. 11 individual mic cables, a 12 core snake, and 4 cat-5's. I can't think of anything else that would need to go in, but I still haven't sealed it up yet in case someone says "oh, did you put a thingy-majig connection through"

soffit.jpg

Soffit construction is under way. I spent a good few hours going back over what I already learnt from this site and Rod's book before grabbing a nail gun. It's nice to see the control room taking a bit more shape.

bass hangers.jpg

Bass hangers in the bottem as per John's design which is what the whole unit will be based on when done.

Phew, I'm in need of a beer or seven after the last few days

[stevev]

the L.G.M (laser guided monitor)

I can't get the monitor's lined up any better than this. focal point is about 20cm behind the listening position which has ended up around 38% room length. Monitors are at about 22% room width from the walls. Acoustic axis of the monitors ends up at about 1200mm from the finished floor height, give or take. I've allowed a bit of play as the control room floor will probably be a 20mm thick bluestone tile.

lasers.jpg

For monitor mounting i've gone with the cable tie down method and pads underneath. very solid! Loosely filled with insulation and all wiring in conduit. The pipe is 100mm which vents from the back of the monitors and has a feed from where the bass hangers are underneath. I let this one run for a while with signal and it's nice to feel warm air coming out the top

soffit insulation.jpg

here's the backing for the soffit mount. 16mm mdf. I'm not sure of the final finish for the soffit front. Either MDF, plaster or ply. still thinking about the aesthetics of the room for that one. I'm also going to angle the top section a little to help with first reflections from the ceiling.

soffit backing.jpg

[stevev]

I've had some time to put in the treatment for the control room lately. I've used the Australian OC 703 equivelant which is a product from Fletcher Insulation called FI 32. They produce it under licence from Owens Corning.

Treatment so far:

Entire ceiling is covered in a 100mm layer of Fi 32 with no air gap behind it.

First reflection points on the walls are covered in 100mm FI 32 with a 90mm air gap behind.

The rest of the walls to the back of the room are covered in 100mm FI 32 with no air gap behind.

The entire back wall is covered with 200mm FI 32 with a 90mm air gap behind.

There's no super chunks in the back corners at the moment and I'm wondering if that would help with the bottem end resonance?

I'm not experienced at all with REW, so any insight as to how these figures are looking would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if there's any other details from REW that would be helpful if there isn't enough info in the following pics.

I should also add that there isn't any treatment on the front wall between the soffits as I'm waiting for the A/C installation which will be in that position.

waterfall 20-500hz.jpg

waterfall 300-9k.jpg

eq pic 30-500hz.jpg

eq pic 500-2k.jpg

eq pic 2k-18k.jpg

[stevev]

It's amazing what happens when you re-read something you 'think' you've already read

So the graphs in the last post are of the monitors running in stereo. So not very useful!! Here's the link to the drop box that has an REW reading from both monitors in mono and one for stereo.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/416 ... 0both.mdat

I was also running the wrong .frd file for the SPL meter.

Soooooo, having said that, the same information applies from my previous post:

[quote="stevev"]I've had some time to put in the treatment for the control room lately. I've used the Australian OC 703 equivelant which is a product from Fletcher Insulation called FI 32. They produce it under licence from Owens Corning.

Treatment so far:

Entire ceiling is covered in a 100mm layer of Fi 32 with no air gap behind it.

First reflection points on the walls are covered in 100mm FI 32 with a 90mm air gap behind.

The rest of the walls to the back of the room are covered in 100mm FI 32 with no air gap behind.

The entire back wall is covered with 200mm FI 32 with a 90mm air gap behind.

There's no super chunks in the back corners at the moment and I'm wondering if that would help with the bottem end resonance?

I'm not experienced at all with REW, so any insight as to how these figures are looking would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if there's any other details from REW that would be helpful if there isn't enough info in the following pics.

I should also add that there isn't any treatment on the front wall between the soffits as I'm waiting for the A/C installation which will be in that position.

[MikeFFG]

phew...just read through this whole thread! (work has been light today...) and I'm impressed. I'm getting ready to build a studio within the next couple months and there's a lot of great stuff in this thread to learn from!

Keep it up!

Can't wait to see how it turns out.

[stevev]

Cheers Mike Glad there's some stuff in here that's useful to you. My bit of 'sage-like' advice would be to start your own build thread before you pick up a hammer. (something I didn't do )

The info you'll get from various people on this forum will save you a lot of grief by the end of your build. It's not always what you'll want to hear, but it'll be what needs to be done.

As i'm getting towards the final stages of my build I can honestly say that it sounds better in terms of isolation and acoustics than I thought it would, and that's mainly to do with input from this forum.

[Soundman2020]

Just taking a look at your REW data, and it actually doesn't look too bad at all. Maybe a bit on the dead side in the mid range? But definitely decent.

There's some modal stuff going on, so more bass trapping might help with that, and there's a "hole" around 125 Hz that might need some attention, plus there are some reasonably strong early reflections that you might have to deal with, but overall I'd say it looks OK.

Are you planning on putting any more treatment in there (apart from the front wall)?


- Stuart -

[stevev]

This first waterfall graph is of the control room with 200mm of FI 32 on the back wall and no super chunks. Also no front wall treatment between the soffits.

stereo.jpg

Adding a third layer of FI32 to the back wall, total 300mm and superchunking the rear corners, as well as putting a 200mm layer of FI 32 between the soffits has changed the room to this.

stereo superchunks.jpg

Both measurements are with the monitors in stereo and so aren't intended for analysis as such. More so you can see the difference in the room response with the added treatment.

Sounds great in there. I've wound up the monitors and listened to few well known discs and it's really tight in the bottem end. Kick and bass are well defined and the stereo image is really nice. I'm glad I didn't go with the wider spacing I was toying around with early in the build. Soffit mounting and room treatment has made the image wide enough.