John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Finally found my usb cord for camera.

More pics of demo.

Not sure how I will manage the ducts yet. Putting a soffit around them, if I need too, is going to take a while. I have no job right now so I am trying to knock out all I can. Still tinkering with the design a little, but I am knocking out things I know will need to happen.

It has been a little while since my last post, sorry for that. Beefing up subfloor is almost complete, it is a much longer process than I thought it would be. I have changed my design a few times and I think have the one I like now. Just not sure how to deal with my windows yet.
I need some help with something. My original idea was to put clips, hat channel and then drywall for my ceiling, but as I read and get my head around acoustics and smaller spaces, it seems more beneficial to go inside out. My question is, if I go inside out construction will that take away the need for clips, hat channel and clouds? Or will that be determined after I get room built and test with room software(REW)for the clouds?

Also , I believe I am going to do inside out construction for walls also, after considering doing double drywall on the inside layer I see it being more difficult to properly brace all of the inside structures, where as with inside out construction I can use the 2x4s from the walls and joist from the ceiling to help me with strengthening all structures. If that sounds wrong let me know, because I still have much to learn.
How in the world do I get ceiling(frames with drywall on top) on top of walls, as that is one of benefits of inside out construction.
Pics are to come shortly

Woohoo! I see lots of progress with the demo! Good work!

it is a much longer process than I thought it would be.

Yup: Everything about studio construction is like that: it takes more time than you ever imagined, and more money too!

My original idea was to put clips, hat channel and then drywall for my ceiling, but as I read and get my head around acoustics and smaller spaces, it seems more beneficial to go inside out.

If you can, yes.

My question is, if I go inside out construction will that take away the need for clips, hat channel and clouds? Or will that be determined after I get room built and test with room software(REW)for the clouds?

By the time you get to testing the room with REW, the ceiling must already be built! The ceiling is not the cloud. The ceiling is what isolated your room, and rests on top of the walls. The cloud hangs below the ceiling, and is for treatment, not isolation.

So you'll need to decide long in advance if you are going to build a proper inside-out ceiling that rests on the inner-leaf walls, or if you are just going to hang the ceiling from clips on the underside of the joists overhead. You do have to take into account that if you use clips, then the weight of that ceiling is an extra load on the floor joists above you, but if you build the ceiling on the inner-leaf walls, then it is only a load on the floor below you, which is concrete. You could easily overload those joists above, if you add too much mass up there. You need a structural engineer to take a look and tell you what you can and cannot do safely and legally.

How in the world do I get ceiling(frames with drywall on top) on top of walls, as that is one of benefits of inside out construction.

The way I normally do it is to divide the ceiling into several modules, build them flat on the floor, then lift them into place. When I do it like that, the ceiling "joists" are more like beams (larger dimensions) and spaced further apart (often 32"), so the modules fit in between those, and get bolted to them, with generous application of caulk on the mating edges, to ensure a good seal.

Pics are to come shortly

Looking forward to seeing those!


- Stuart -

After a few months of beef up, tweaking designs, removing water lines, (and for the love)caulk and backer rod, it's time to get started on rooms. I will be posting some pics in the next couple of days. Hopefully I can build walls faster than I could do the beef up.

I have decided to build the control first, so I can get my equipment out of my sons room(per the wife), so I will be posting my design in a day or so. I am so ready to get this thing rockin.

Here are a few pics of the beef up. Now on to building control room.

new layout. Quite different from my first one. Still a ways to go. I have one that is almost complete, but I am going to finish the design before I post it.

tell me how this looks guys. My actual sketchup file is too big to put on the site so I took a couple screen shots. Just for reference.
I have more layers I just havent added them on the pics. I am ready to get this thing going.

You're using the 2/5 rule here for the soffits right?

You can upload the file on mediafire or something similar and post the link here I guess.

The room is about 13'8" wide. So I set up the baffle at around 3'2". The speakers are set at 30deg. and the listening position is around 5'8". I am starting on the stairs tomorrow, beef up is complete and the control room walls will be going up next week.
Line of sight for the main room is going to be good but I am going to put in cctv for the vox booth.....bummer. If I got rid of the bathroom the line of sight would work, but you have to have a bathroom.

Check out this file and see if I am headed in the right direction. https://www.dropbox.com/s/15c442lf70sp2 ... 9.skp?dl=0
Hey Stuart, I finally realized what you were talking about with the speakers as far as distance from side and height. I know the side walls are not all the way finished but I was just making sure the angle of the wall would be ok and making sure where the glass will be is going to be correct.

Hey there Marc, you seem to be doing well! The new layout is looking good, the dimensions seem fine, and I'd say you are definitely on the right track.

I think what Scavneck was talking about is the positioning of the speaker on the soffit baffle: It should not be spot in the middle of the baffle, but offset to one side or the other, such that the distance from the acoustic axis of the speaker to the edge of the baffle is different in all directions: So it is not centered either vertically or horizontally. In other words, the distance from the center of the speaker to the left edge of the baffle is different from the distance to the right edge, and both of those are different from the distance to the bottom edge, and all three of those are different from the distance to the top edge. The "2/5" measurement he mentions is a good starting point, meaning that the acoustic axis of the speaker should be about two fifths of the way across the front baffle of the soffit. The reason for all of this is to reduce the "lobing" effects of having a sound source centered in a panel.

So you should modify your soffit design to ensure to take that into account.

Another point about your soffits: they need to be built very rigid, strong, hefty, tough. The idea is that they cannot be forced to vibrate at all by the speaker. They must be able to resist that.

- Stuart -