John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Well if you divide the conduit section (area of circle Πr² of inside) by the cross-section of the cable (not the gauge!) that will give you a rough idea. There's a reduction factor to account for wasted space but if you calculate for a couple of cables less it'll probably work. (If you have a vernier caliper you can get the diameters fast)

As for snaking the wires, make your life easier, get a cable puller. The ones made of nylon with a metal feeler are pretty cheap, or maybe you could borrow one.

if you run some strong thin rope as you assembly the conduit and leave enough to pull it back and forth, pulling the cables through is pretty fast and you can re-use it later.

Thanks for the tips guys!

I've finished the backer rod, caulk, mud and tape on the first layer of wall board on the inner shell today including a 2nd coat of mud.

No need to tape the corners until the final layer right?

Its interesting acoustics in there right now. No obvious single notes but the expected reverberant sound.

tape on the last layer. backer rod and caulk in between staggered layers.

gullfo wrote:tape on the last layer. backer rod and caulk in between staggered layers.

Great!
You ever bother to use any of those visco-elastic compounds between the sheets? (sounds kinky)
Wondering whether to push on with the 2nd layer of wallboard or slime it up.

Here's a few photos. 1st layer of wall board, caulked mudded and taped.
Rear Front right Front left

Green Glue and Quiet Glue have their uses and in this case, it might be worthwhile to do so. Ted White's company sells Green Glue and is a regular contributor here. there has also been quite a bit of discussion on Quiet Glue which appears to have substantially similar properties and has some references to lower cost but its really up to the distributor you work with to finalize the costs.

I just ordered a 5 gallon bucket of green goop and a dispensing gun. I shopped around and found substantial discounts.

From my vibration analysis days, I well understand structural vibrations, resonance and damping. This non-hardening, "snot like" material fits the bill as a "shock absorber", "damping pot", vibration to heat converter. Though the frugal bastard in me wanted to make my own 'cause it still seems TOO expensive. So I seriously considered mixing up some Poly Vinyl Alcohol, water, borax and green food coloring to make make my own green slime, but it would probably grow moldy and then dry out. So after too much research...official green goo it is. Like the star ground wires, you can't add em later. Also sounds like it will be useful for a damped floor sandwich as well. As we've discussed, the floor will be the final weak link.

I've yet to take any sound readings (my bad). Very little traffic this past winter except early in the AM before I am out of bed. I will try to set up Audacity on a sound activated recording mode. Do some comparisons of the result of all this construction.

Progress Report

First off, thank you Glenn for calling my room an "awesome control room" in protechtor's thread. I am humbly and undeservedly honored.
I do hope it will be awesome.

I'm still here....still working. I'd post a picture but it would look exactly the same as before. Except the room is another one and one quarter inches smaller in length and width and 5/8 of an inch lower (the second layer of gypsum...wallboard...sheetrock is installed).
So scroll back up a few posts and look at the progress.

Its a bit anti-climactic and a lot like deja vu...all this labor and the room looks exactly the same, and the walls are closing in on me

The green glue was interesting to apply. The viscosity was lower than expected but it did not run. I watched the on-line video beforehand and it was easy. Though I am not impressed yet with the damping effect (impact test using fist) I'll go punch the walls again in a few weeks after it reaches optimal cure point (30 days) I left some scraps out with the stuff on it to compare.

The perimeters have been dutifully and meticulously filled with backer rod and caulking, still leaving an undercut to allow for mud (wallboard compound) and tape. I went big bucks ($6) and bought the large roll of fiberglass mesh tape for the seams to avoid crackage later on.

The past week has been spent applying the tape and multiple layers of mud over the joints and screws, lightly sanding in between.

I'm starting to plan my broadband absorbers and searching for some 703 or equivalent locally.

Other than that, it's back to the mud and the dust

sorry the walls are closing in on you... it wil be much worse soon when its all "dead" from the treatments

While waiting for the primer to dry, I've been playing with the layout.

I have a bunch of stuff to store books: manuals, lyrics in binders, CD's, VHS tapes, cassete tapes, mic stands, mics, cables, turntable, vinyl records, old reel to reel tape deck, old 4 track, conga drums, guitar stands, junk, boxes, portable recorders, a theremin, violin, etc etc. I need to buy or make some cabinets. As I mentioned earlier, Brain Gasdson from Recording magazine had a sketch of a wall unit with the top compartments modified into broad band abosrobers, panel traps, etc.

I'm not a sketchup artis and never will be. I downloaded a model closest to the idea I could find.
I envision something with shelves up top and maybe louvered doors on the lower sections.
Maybe there could be absorbant material inside the lower cabinets with still be enough room left to store messy items?
The upper shelves could be customized to contain whatever absorbtion in needed based on testing (to be determined)
The middle shelves could contain books and the like arranged in a random fashsion for some diffusion.

1. Could this wall unit be all the way across and include enough bass trapping?

2. Am I better off with the corner traps as shown?

3. Any existing furniture thats more suitable to this appplication?

Is there a better way to acheive my goals.

that looks like a decent layout -- maybe consider a very heavy drape you could pull across (perhaps segments) the back wall in case you find it too reflective. take advantage of wall-ceiling "corners" to add additional absorption over the TV, cabinets, side walls etc - think open soffit frames which contain absorption - perhaps angled, cover with cloth and/or some slats where you decide to preserve some HF. (drawing of mine not to scale)

Thanks Glenn,

I've never seen absorption soffits before. Any photos of existing studios?

you probably seem them in studios all the time since they often look just like the duct soffits except they're basically super chunks in disguise. the framing is really to give the cloth (or whatever you use to cover them) a nice crisp finish. I think if you search fitZ's posts, he has a photo example of his which have some complex angles to fit the speaker soffits and angled out from the wall. basically though, some 2x2 framing should do it.