we are VERTIGO

[blackdrum]

we are well into construction on our new studio facility loacted in Hamilton, NJ, USA!. we ended up with a 9x13 control room(8 ft ceilings), a 2X4 window looking into the 'live' room, a 12X17 'live' room(10 ft ceilings), and a small 6x8 'preproduction suite' which is right behind the control room. we made all the rooms paralell. we know we are dumbasses. we wish we had found this forum before we started.

anyway, we used 1X3? metal studs to build all the walls. we glued (liquid nails)& screwed the gypsum.
the building is concrete, so on the concrete wall, the layers are: concrete, existing gympsum, air gap, 4" rockwool, new gypsum nailed to stud. For the 'new' inside wall, we built a double wall. The Layers are:gypsum, stud,rockwool, air gap, rockwool,stud, gypsum. we may add a layer of gypsum and just glue it up to the inside wall. we also built a gypsum/rockwool/stud ceiling in each room. Is that good enuff for the ceiling?

The floor in the control room is thin cheap generic blue carpet. i was just going to keep it for now. In the 'live' room, we plan on vinyl or linoleum (whichever is cheaper) Should we 'float' the floor? We still havent quite grasped the concept of floating the floor, so if someone has an explaination that a 4 year old can understand, fire away

After browsing this forum, weve decided to try & make some of those diffusor panels that john designed. They look pretty kool & pretty easy to make. In the control room, i was going put panels in the front corners and both sides of the room as well as the front wall (5 total). On the back wall, i was going to try for absorbtion. Will Auralex foam work well for this? there will also be a couch on the back wall.

The 'live' room will be used for everything:drums, guitar, vocals, horns, etc.

We have about 1000 USDollars more to spend on construction.

I think that about explains where we are now.

Any suggestion/advice?

Also, what should we do about diffusors/ absorbers in the 'live' room?

How bad did we screw up so far?

is there any hope for us?

Thanks a million!

Blackdrum

PS-the building was on fire before and a section of the floor is is sunken in. if you stomp on the floor, the whole place shakes

PSS-in this neck of the woods, rockwool is referred to as "rotten cotton"

[Ethan Winer]

Black,

> we ended up with a 9x13 control room (8 ft ceilings) <

That's pretty small, but if that's all you had to work with then so be it. You're going to need a fair amount of bass trapping and general broadband absorption to make that room accurate enough for mixing.

> Should we 'float' the floor? <

The reason to float a floor is to improve isolation between rooms, not improve the sound quality in the room. Since you have a cement floor I'll guess the main source of leakage is through the door and walls. If that's the case, floating the floor is of no value.

> weve decided to try & make some of those diffusor panels that john designed. <

I'll let John give you his advice on that, but I think your room is far too small to benefit from diffusion. You need broadband absorption, and lots of it. Not foam or carpet or thin fiberglass panels, but substantial material like thick 705-FRK rigid fiberglass to absorb at least down to 100 Hz.

--Ethan

[John Sayers]

Yeah - I agree with Ethan on floating the floor. So often we tend to overbuild and floating floors is definitely one of them.

What diffisors were you referring to?

Cheers
John

[blackdrum]

hi,
thanks for the quick responses!

the floor is wood, not concrete. im sorry, i should have been more specific.

I know i said that the building was one story in my earlier post, but there is a basemant under the studio. The floor shakes if you stomp on it. We do have neighbors. on one side, there is a 12 inch space between the buildings. garbage & leaves has filled the space up over the years. we went next door (a bar!:)) and listened while a freind smashed the crap out of a drum kit. We couldnt hear a thing. The other neighbor is the one im worried about. it is the side of the building where the 'live room' is located. the building on that side (barber shop) is attached to ours. Just wanted to clarify those things.

As for the 'rigid fiberglass panels', how do we them on the wall?

what about diffusors/absorption for the 'live room'?

thanks again!


Blackdrum

[giles117]

the floor is wood, not concrete....The floor shakes if you stomp on it.

Blackdrum

That is a very good reason to float the floor.

I higly recommend it. Especially based on those reasons stated above

[blackdrum]

anyone else?

any articles/threads about floating floors?

thanks!

[knightfly]

I just did a search (small print, top of the page) on floating floor - it returned 26 different threads. I don't mean to sound cranky, but this is pretty basic stuff - when you first discover a BBS, that's usually the thing to do before you ask questions - simply because a lot of this stuff is what EVERYONE wants/needs to know, so a lot of the questions are likely to have already been asked. Again, sorry if I sound a little short, but it's been a long day and will be a short night.

Try clicking on the search function at top of page, then entering the phrase floating floor, click "Search for all terms" -, then click Search. Once you've read through those threads, if your question isn't answered post it as a new thread and I'll try to answer any questions you still have.

By then I should be more rested and less grumpy , both of which would be good Steve

[blackdrum]

i am familiar with 'search' and how it works. the problem is that after researching, I have come up with too much conflicting information. I figured maybe one of the 'pros' here could lead me in the right direction.

I'll be more specific: we are going to build a wood floating floor. The SAE diagram shows the inner wall built on top of the 'floating floor.' I thought that the floor wasnt supposed to touch the inner wall at all. Whats the 'proper' method?

Am i making a big deal out of nothing? Is it just as easy as building a frame on top of neoprene pads and nailing (or glueing?) plywood on top?

Thanks!

[giles117]

The SAE Diagram is the one for you.

Everything else is a variation of the original.

trust that one, I have used it in 4 different studios with mild changes and been totally happy.

Bryan Giles

As far as that, I floated a floor inside of a room I just isolated the floor from the walls with neoprene. worked just fine.