My First studio

Manfriday · Post by **Manfriday** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 7:46 am

This post is a bit belated, but I sorta found this place late in the game.
I have a small basement studio that i am working on. Two rooms, control & live.
The control room is, for the most part finished construction-wise. I need to figure out what to do as far as acoustics and such.
The live room really has not been touched yet, and I think that room will be a bit more of a challenge than the control room.

I was building on existing construction becuase I am a semi-cheap bastard. They had built this room using 3/8 drywall and no insulation.

here is a rather ugly drawing of my layout:

North is the top of the page by the way..

Now, the basement is only partialy underground. The basement is concrete up to about 4' 5" or so.
from there up it is insulation and timber.. The house is a "raised Ranch"

So, what I have done in the control room is slapped another layer of celotex on the west wall (shared with the live room) and the south wall, which is toward the rest of the basement.
over top of that I have 5/8 drywall.
So those two walls are 3/8 drywall ,1/2 celtoex, 5/8 drywall.
The north and west walls just got another layer of 5/8 drywall on them.
I was not too concerned with noise getting in our out from there.

The ceiling is R30 insulation, RC, 5/8drywall, 1/2cel, 5/8 drywall.
I did my caulking like a good boy.

The floor is concrete. I will be putting down tile tonight.

electrical outlets are located two on the west wall down where they belong and 4 on the east wall, but they are up near the ledge at about 3' high.

There is also a closet area to the north of the control room. I plan on keeping the computer in there, as well as other gear.

on the outside of the south wall I put insulation, RC, 5/8drywall, 1/2 cel, 5/8drywall.

I plan on doing the same thing for opposite side of the shared wall between the live room and the control room.

So that leaves the west and North walls of the control room half concrete and half insulation/2x4's.
The ceiling, I am planning on doing a "between the joist" ceiling like Bryan did. I have too much crap running along the underside of the joists in that area of the basement to move it or drywall over it.

So at this point I am not sure what I am going to do with that live room. input would be greatly appreciated.
The control room, well.;; I already built it. I probably should have built it differntly but if you have any suggestions as for what I can do for the acoustics short of tearing it all out and starting over I would be greatly appreciative.

Sorry for the very wordy post. I have been accused of being many things, but succinct is not one of them.

peace

J

Post by **John Sayers** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 10:46 am

J - what is that room at the north end of the control room?? Stairs??

I assume that you access the studio via the room containing the HVAC??

cheers
john

Manfriday · Post by **Manfriday** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 11:27 am

it is just a closet area. IT used to have two entrys in that north wall.. for large folding doors. I close one if those off and made the other a bit smaller for a regular sized door. I could close that up and cut a door into that area from the "live" room. Or I suppose that wall could go if absolutely necessary.

yes, I actualy only have a portion of the basement at my disposal. the entry to the rooms are off the area that contains the hvac, washer and dryer, etc..

thanks much!

Jason

Post by **John Sayers** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 1:10 pm

Cool - it's just that the door is in the spot you'd put your monitors if you put your speakers at the top of the room. You suggestion of moving it to being accessed from the live room is a good idea as you could use that area for mike storage etc.

Are you going to put in a window between the control room and the studio??

cheers
john

Manfriday · Post by **Manfriday** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 3:12 pm

I did'nt plan on putting in a window, no. At least not in the near future.

I will wall up that door way and put the door on the live room side.

thanks for input!

jason

Post by **John Sayers** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 11:21 pm

did'nt plan on putting in a window,

why not?? how are you going to communicate with the people you are recording ??

cheers
john

Manfriday · Post by **Manfriday** » Sat Nov 08, 2003 12:03 am

well, I had been communicating with them just thru the talkback mic, which worked, but you are correct a window would certainly make things easier.
I'll have to investigate the cost. For some reason I had it in my head that it was rather costly to get glass that was thick enough for such purposes.

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Sat Nov 08, 2003 3:12 am

The thickness of the glass is only part of the equation - two glasses, different thickness, totally sealed, and as much air space between as you can part with... Steve

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 4:39 am

Depending upon the size of the window and thickness of the glass (I recommend laminated glass for the price/performance is better than regular glass)

Can be either very high or extremely reasonable. Just for info, the laminated glass panes for my studio were $40.00 for the live room and 75.00 for the control room (these are approx. I remember it being like $38.97 and 72.45 or something)

I used 2 dfferent thicness. Realize I have a small window so if you doubled the window size hey double the price and it is still reasonable considering all things.

Bryan Giles

Manfriday · Post by **Manfriday** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 4:41 am

I could swing that kinda cost.. what sizes are your windows?

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 4:55 am

30 x 25 is the size. Like I said, kinda small.

The neoprene for the sealing the windows coast $28.00

so for less than $170.00 I was able to do my windows, sealed and moulding attached.

Bryan Giles