John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi again,

I'm about ready to order the materials for my basement studio project.
I haven't figured out yet exactly how to insulate between the walls, and up in the ceiling joists. I've been thinking rockwool up in the ceiling, b/c it will help cut down the sound going to the upstairs, and just regular r 19 in between teh walls to the CR etc...
does this make sense? i'll be hanging two layers of sheet on the ceiling and on the walls of the tracking room, the ceiling being hung from RSIClips

thanks
David

I would definately use Roxul in the wall as well, it will really help cutdown the sound transmission.

You can see some of my construction pics here:

http://www.pbase.com/riadanza/studio

Rob

Riad, your place looks great!
Couple questions for you if I may. Was your studio built in a basement under a (your) home? It looks very similar in the early/pre construction phase as mine, where I'm planning to build. Are your ceilings the standard 8' (approx) height when you started?
If so, I'm wondering how the sound isolation came out from the room(s) above? Do they hear you? Can you hear them walking(jumping) around? (I have a couple kids - and though I'd probably be using my studio nights I can just imagine them jumping around during a great take and having to start over!)
Did you insulate your ceiling with the Roxul prior to sheetrocking? For building code I had to insulate with R-30 (the basement ceiling). I'd hate to have to remove it and reinstall something else - but I'd rather do it right the first time!
I'm guessing you started with a concrete floor/slab? What did you do (if anything) prior to laying your flooring? Any subfloor?

I've managed to talk the wife into 'allowing' me a roughly 13'x16-18' section of the basement. One long wall is poured concrete (about 8" thick) - virtually all underground. One short wall is 2x6 construction, 1 layer of fireproof sheetrock on both sides, insulated with R-19 (again, fire code for when/where I built). The 8' ceiling is currently joists with R-30, some water pipes through the joists, as well as AC duct. I'm looking to build the biggest control room I can (for use as a small band practice area as well) along with a vocal room. Most of what I record is direct into the board (from amp outputs) but I want the vocals to go in clean. I plan on floating the vocal room floor.
I've got no neighbors to speak of, and won't - I own several hundred feet on both sides. I'm mostly concerned with sound leaking down from above and leaking up from below (during live band playing).

-Krag

OK... It is a basement under my home. The ceilings are 8' raw, but now they are more like 7' 5" which BTW is fine for my needs.

I left the "pink insulation" in between the floor joists and the added Roxul 4" AFB but let it hang down from the joists a bit.... I used Resiliant Channel and 5/8" sheetrock. I then thought about adding a 1/2" layer of sheet rock laminated to the 5/8" but decided that the extra cost wasn't really going to buy me much.

I then created a sloped ceiling in all the rooms that start about 6" then goes to nothing for an 8' span (to eliminate the floor and ceiling from being parrallel) and did the same on the opposite side of the room this created a very small cathedral.

So how did this all work? Well when I crack my monitors to a listening level that's too loud to work with for the test, the noise upstairs directly above the control room you can hear the faint sound of bass. Almost sounds like there is a party down the street, very faint. My wife was extremely satisfied and even by her own admission thought it wasn't going to be that good. She can be directly over control room and watch TV and be fine.

If it's very quiet in the vocal booth or control room and my 2 year old runs across the floor you can hear it. But it's not enough for the mics to pick up. If you had teenage boys wrestling in the room above you, more than likely that would be too much. I also have hard wood floors upstairs, if you have carpet that would be a huge difference.

The floor in my studio is laminate flooring. I could have used real hardwood but then I would have needed a subfloor. Home Depot sells prefab subfloors with little rubber feet over laminated plywood that you can use. I bet it would work really well, however, I would have lost another 2". I used a heavy plastic vapor barrier first then a foam called quiet walk then just layed the floor in.

Let me know if I missed something....

Cheers,
Rob

Thanks for the quick reply Riad. I appreciate the information!

I'm still figuring out the actual (size of the) space I'm going to be (allowed to be) using. It's a bit of a 'battle' with the wife between studio space and storage space. Fortunately the basement is large. Unfortunately current traffic flow between the stairs to the main level and the doors to the garage and walk out back of the house (sliding) door command a lot of the space.

I'll probably be back with more questions over the next several weeks as I plan more and get closer to building.

Riad,

A question about the Rockwool/Roxul. Just wondering where you ordered it from? Was the price reasonable? I live kind of i the sticks in upstate. Not a whole lot of anything up here, let alone insulation contractors that do enough business that they'd sell me something without demanding to do the work themselves.

Thanks
-Scott

Scott,

I posted the information in the "where to buy" section of the forum. A company in Elizabeth, NJ called SPI... they were very nice but I don't know how far they will deliver. I'm in Orange County...

Regards,
Robert

Ah yes, I think I saw that.. great information. In fact I think there was a listing for a store in Albany. I'll try giving them a call and see.

I'm in Ulster County. I used to work in Orange County. Now I just go there a lot to Alto Music What's worse is I'm working in Westchester/Tarrytown. Drive stinks, but the pay is allowing me to buy more toys and to build my room(s).

If you haven't seen it, I put up a topic under Studio Design titled "And Yet Another Basement Studio...". If you get a chance take a look and let me know your thoughts. I'm anxious to get started, and I'm impulsive enough to start hammering now and asking questions later, but I'm trying to get as many details as possible worked out in advance - a challenge for me My plan is for one big(ger) room as a CR/band practice room and a small vocal booth. Nothing fancy. Not for professional recording. Keeping external sound down is ideal of course, but it doesn't have to be a tomb (aside from the vocal 'booth'). I refer to your construction photos a lot. I'm using them and the final product as a loose target to shoot for. I like the idea of the slotted walls (looks great - hopefully functional as well) and the sloped ceilings. Looks great too.

I hear you about the drive. I drive to Stamford, CT everyday from Monroe... yikes.

I always go to Alto.. just bought a bunch of mic stands and cables yesterday. If you ever feel like driving another 20 min. south to see and 'hear' the studio let me know.

The construction for me was much common sense, instinct, guess work, and plenty of reading this site. I'm really happy with the results and I should have the Live room finished this week and I'm shooting for my first session this Sunday.

I got stuck with a few gotchas that I couldn't avoid such as the mail support beam running through both my live room and the control room. I'm sure I'm getting sound transfer from that beam but hey it still sounds fantastic.

I did see your plans... feel free to ask me about anything along the way, and although I'm no expert perhaps I can tell you what I did and the other folks here can tell you "that's exactly what not to do!" haha.

Rob

Man I'd love to see and hear your studio. No better way to check things out then a first hand account, especially when it comes to sizes/proportions, etc. Some things look great (or bad) on paper, but until you can actually see them in person and get a feel for it it's hard to judge. At least for me.

Just let me know when a good time is (in general). Maybe I can take a ride down at some point.

No problem. If I get the studio finished this weekend perhpas we can schedule something in August. Send me your e-mail addy and I'll keep you posted.

Rob,

I PM'd my email to you. I wouldn't normally check or even notice if I got a PM probably so I wanted to be sure you got it

BTW, I think we've hijacked the original thread, eh?

-Scott / Krag

Yeah, what happened to David?

It's all good...

I'm still here. Just resurfacing after a crazy full weekend of building. Assembled a very capable and enthusiastic motley crew of friends and builderfriends to crack it out this weekend.

we've framed the whole thing in- tracking room in steel, everything else in wood. caulked up in the joints of the tongue and groove floor upstairs, hung 3' roxul up inbetween the joists, hung the rsic clips and hat track, and run all of the electrical. I have yet to hook up all of the outlets etc, but the first two lighting circuits are working.

what a weekend.
all I can say about that is if you can get a bunch of friends to help and build, definitely do. It has been a ton of fun,-and what would have taken me months more or less by myself took a weekend.
I'll keep you posted, and post the pics online when I can.

we did run into one problem- namely that we're doing the walls 24' on center, but when I went to put the insulation in, since we're using steel studs ( which are hollow on one side) the space is too wide to hold up the roxul. We're going to try some spray on glue- liquid nails or the like.
otherwise all is well.

David