Recording Studio Improvements - 10 year anniversary!

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Hello Everyone,

I've been wanting to do a few improvements to my studio for while now. It has been 10 years since I first moved into the space, and what better way to celebrate a 10 year anniversary than with a renovation.

The studio is located in a 2 storey, 3500 sq/ft building. Construction is brick/cider block. Ground floor is concrete. Steel I-beams span the building about every 12 feet, and along with 2x10’s, support the second floor which is made up of 6” wide planks, a layer of plywood, and cheap thin tiles.

The first floor consists of a 19'x35' live room, 10'x12 isolation booth, and a 19'x10' garage. The second floor consists of a 16'x15' lounge/kitchen, and a 19'x36' control room.

The main purpose of these renovations is to minimize the impact noises from the control room above, reduce sound transmission from the live room (ground floor) to the control room (second floor), and deaden and improve soundproofing in the isolation room.

I'll be posting more photos and sketches as I go along, but for now, here are a few simple sketches of the two floors.

Thanks!

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I've decided to start with the isolation booth.

The plan: remove the drywall, reframe so that the door and window are facing the live room, double-up on the walls, insulate, and drywall.

Years ago, I believe there was a machine shop in this building and this room must of been the office space.

Here's what the room looked like before demo:

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Here are a few photos of the existing structure of the isolation booth, as well as the framing for the door and window.

There is a drop ceiling in the booth, and my initial plan was to keep it and blow-in insulation.

That plan has changed, and I've decided to take the drop ceiling down temporarily keeping only the exterior framing. I will then finish the real ceiling like the rest of the room (insulate, clips/channel, and 2x drywall), and then re-build the drop ceiling, fill with attic insulation and fabric wrap for acoustic treatment.

[Soundman2020]

Smart move! There's a lot that can be done there to make it a better studio all around.

One thing I would suggest, is re-designing the control room around several important aspects. First, room ratio. That's a very long thin room, and there aren't that many good ratios in the "long thin" end of the Bolt area, so I would suggest that you play around with several possibilities using Bob Golds' calculator, or Andy Mel's (or both!) until you come up with a good one, then position one of the end walls appropriately for those dimensions. The height and width are pretty much fixed, but you have a lot of leeway for adjsuting the length.

Second is symmetry. Left-right symmetry is critical for control rooms, and from the diagram it appears that the room isn't as symmetrical as it could be. Assuming that the orientation of the room has it facing the lounge/kitchen, then it's the back wall that has the huge angle on it (the wall to the stairs). That isn't as terrible as if it were the front wall were non-symmetrical, but there's still room for improvement here. Re-doing that wall to make the room rectangular and symmetrical would be good. However, the other issue here at the rear is the door to the stairs, and the door to the bathroom: those are both right where you need to put important parts of your acoustic treatment. There's also the issue of having the bathroom opening directly into the control room, with all the usual problems associated with that.

So I'm thinking the best option here might be to just build another wall across the back of the room, a few feet in, with just one single door roughly in the center of that, leaving a passage between the rear of the CR and those other rooms. That would take care of all three issues at the same time: ratio, symmetry, treatment options.

Also problematic for symmetry is that pillar that pokes out into the room on the right wall, towards the front. How big is that, and is there anything that can be done to fix it?

With that done, you'd be able to lay out the control room geometry in the best possible way, to provide the cleanest acoustics. You'd also have the best options for treatment, and since the room is a nice size overall, this bodes very well for being able to make it into an excellent control room that meets international specs such as those of the ITU, EBU and AES.

You don't mention isolation as being an issue, so I guess you already have that covered with the existing structure? In other words, no issues with sound betting out and annoying neighbors, nor unwanted sound getting in and messing up the recording sessions, or disturbing the mixing/mastering sessions?


- Stuart -

[treatments]

Second is symmetry. Left-right symmetry is critical for control rooms, and from the diagram it appears that the room isn't as symmetrical as it could be. Assuming that the orientation of the room has it facing the lounge/kitchen, then it's the back wall that has the huge angle on it (the wall to the stairs). That isn't as terrible as if it were the front wall were non-symmetrical, but there's still room for improvement here. Re-doing that wall to make the room rectangular and symmetrical would be good. However, the other issue here at the rear is the door to the stairs, and the door to the bathroom: those are both right where you need to put important parts of your acoustic treatment. There's also the issue of having the bathroom opening directly into the control room, with all the usual problems associated with that.

For the last 10 years the room has been facing the other way, facing the staircase/bathroom. We didn't have enough money to do any kind of redesign or build when we moved in, so we set the board up about 15 feet from the back wall (the one dividing the control room and the lounge), treated the walls a bit, and worked in a big open space.

My idea was to keep the same orientation, but build a small vocal booth and machine room at the back while keeping the area to right open due to the window and split air conditioner. I also like the idea of keeping the control room as big as possible with a bit of an open concept feel. Do you think the open space to the right might be problematic?

Also problematic for symmetry is that pillar that pokes out into the room on the right wall, towards the front. How big is that, and is there anything that can be done to fix it?

The pillar sticks out about 15" and is 16" wide. Inside is a chimney for the heating furnace located in the basement.

You don't mention isolation as being an issue, so I guess you already have that covered with the existing structure? In other words, no issues with sound betting out and annoying neighbors, nor unwanted sound getting in and messing up the recording sessions, or disturbing the mixing/mastering sessions?

No problem with neighbours. We definitely hear/feel the occasional truck drive by, but that doesn't bother me that much. I like having the option to crack open a window and see the trees while I work.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Gilles

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Double walls are up in the isolation booth (don't have many pictures of this).

The ceiling is also completely gutted out, and we're ready for insulation.

The ceiling joists, for the most part, are 12" O.C. with strapping running perpendicular 16" O.C.. After insulation is done, I'll be running clips and hat channel in the same direction as the strapping.

In the second photo you can see the 3" ABS pipes I've installed in the ceiling. They are to pass wires from the console to the rack gear.

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This is what the ABS pipes look like from above in the control room.

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Also problematic for symmetry is that pillar that pokes out into the room on the right wall, towards the front. How big is that, and is there anything that can be done to fix it?

Here are a couple more pictures of the pillar.

The first photo is taken from the 2nd floor. Pillar is far back on the right. The other photos are from the ground floor.
Inside the pillar is the chimney that is connected to the boiler for the buildings heating system.

I was thinking adding a little insulation in there. At least in the ceiling section in between the floors.

I could also add a layer or two of drywall to the exterior of the pillar.

Not sure what to do.

Any suggestions?

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Next step was insulation.

I've got 6" of pink stuff in the entire ceiling, including the isolation booth and live room.

I put 3" Roxul safe n' sound in the double walls of the isolation booth.

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Moving along!!

I've got sound clips and furring channel going up on the ceiling and on a few walls.

I've also placed clips and furring channel along both sides of my I-beams. I built plywood covers for the I-beams lined with drywall and green glue, and they will be attached from the sides to the furring channel. In the close-up photo of the I-beam cover you can see all the layers including the backer rod and caulking between the drywall layer.

Next is backer boxes for live room lighting.....


I'm pretty new at all this so feel free to comment or suggest things.

Thanks!

[Soundman2020]

Whoa, Gilles! Slow down a bit there! You are doing some things that don't make sense, and others that don't seem to make sense but might be fine: it's just hard to figure out form the photo.

The "doesn't make sense" part is putting clips+channel on top of a flat surface, then putting drywall on top of that again! That's an MSM resonant system with a very tiny air gap, and therefore a very high resonant frequency. A RSIC clip with hat channel on it gives you a depth of 1-5/8" (4cm). Assuming that you are using 5/8" drywall on there (16mm), the resonant frequency of that system is roughly 90 Hz! It won't isolate at all until about 120 Hz, and only isolates well above about 260 Hz.

In other words, any note that you happen to play in the range of about 60 Hz to 120 Hz will not only NOT be blocked by that construction, but rather will actually be amplified by it! It's a resonant system, and what it wants most in the world is to hear it's own resonant frequency so it can sing and ring and swing along with that, and pass it on to the other side, even louder and even clearer than the original...

The idea with an MSM resonant system is to force the resonant frequency so low that it is out of the range of human hearing, or at least out of the range that you need to block. To do that, you need a large air gap (at least 4", preferably more like 8") and plenty of mass (probably 2 layers of 5/8" fire-rated drywall, or something similar. Anything less wont push the frequency down low enough.

RSIC clips are mean to be used on studs, not on flat surfaces. There needs to be an air gap that is the full thickness of the stud behind it (3-1/2"), plus an additional inch at least, to create enough air space for the MSM resonance to be low. And that air gap has to be filled with suitable damping material, meaning either fiberglass or mineral wool insulation of the right density.


The "doesn't seem to make sense" part is that you have the drywall decoupled with the clips+channel, and good use of backer rod + caulk in the joint at the bottom, but at the top of the vertical piece of drywall, it looks very much like that is butting up tight against a 1c4 that is nailed to the joists! Maybe there is a gap there, filled with backer rod and caulk, but form the photos it doesn't look like it....


And the other "doesn't make sense" thing is that you seem to have a layer of plywood ON TOP of a layer of drywall! It should be the other way around. You should never have stronger, tougher materials attached to weaker, flimsier, more fragile materials as the base. It should be the other way around, with the stronger material as the base, supporting the weaker material as the final finish. So your plywood should go on first, attached directly to the channel, and then your drywall goes on top of the plywood, as the final surface.


The photo of the ceiling shows the correct usage of clips and channel: attached to the joists, with a deep layer of air behind, and the air space filled with damping (pink fluffy, in this case). That's correct. However, on the very last photo in your post it looks like there might be an issue where the drywall on the ceiling reaches the wall. There seems to be a 1x4 or something like that nailed to the bottom of the joists, so there's a risk of interference there: The drywall on the ceiling must not touch that wood, ever, at any point. Not even a tiny little bit. You need to make sure that there is no way that the ceiling drywall can make contact with that wall or wood.

So there's a few things that you should fix, before moving on to the next stage.


- Stuart -

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Hey Stuart,

So, we're talking about the gap between the peice of plywood the clips and channel are attached to and the plywood/drywall box right?

I've attached a very rough cross section sketch of the I-beam. The two 2x4's are actualy 2x3's.

I could't attach the clips directly to the 2x3's because I needed two rows of clips and channel and I couldn't fit them on the 2x3's. That's why I added the plywood.

The "doesn't seem to make sense" part is that you have the drywall decoupled with the clips+channel, and good use of backer rod + caulk in the joint at the bottom, but at the top of the vertical piece of drywall, it looks very much like that is butting up tight against a 1c4 that is nailed to the joists! Maybe there is a gap there, filled with backer rod and caulk, but form the photos it doesn't look like it....

There is a gap. No backer rod and caulk yet. I was planing on backer rod and caulk between the ceiling and the beam, but I can do both.

The photo of the ceiling shows the correct usage of clips and channel: attached to the joists, with a deep layer of air behind, and the air space filled with damping (pink fluffy, in this case). That's correct. However, on the very last photo in your post it looks like there might be an issue where the drywall on the ceiling reaches the wall. There seems to be a 1x4 or something like that nailed to the bottom of the joists, so there's a risk of interference there: The drywall on the ceiling must not touch that wood, ever, at any point. Not even a tiny little bit. You need to make sure that there is no way that the ceiling drywall can make contact with that wall or wood.

The 1x4 drops down 3/4", and the furring channel with clip comes down at 1 1/8".

And the other "doesn't make sense" thing is that you seem to have a layer of plywood ON TOP of a layer of drywall! It should be the other way around. You should never have stronger, tougher materials attached to weaker, flimsier, more fragile materials as the base. It should be the other way around, with the stronger material as the base, supporting the weaker material as the final finish. So your plywood should go on first, attached directly to the channel, and then your drywall goes on top of the plywood, as the final surface.

I wanted to have the plywood as the finish layer for the beams.

I understans I might have a few things to fix, but what would you recommend taking in consideration the information I just included?

Thanks,

Gilles

[Soundman2020]

The normal method for boxing in a beam, duct, or pipe, is to build a frame around it (2x3 would be fine for that), then put the clips and drywall on that. In other words, drop down some verticals from the joists on either side of your beam, allowing for a bit of clearance, then put some horizontals across below the beam, to join the verticals. Then put your clips on those, and add the drywall or plywood. That gives you the necessary depth of air gap, which you then fill with insulation (making sure not to pack it in too tightly!).

I could't attach the clips directly to the 2x3's because I needed two rows of clips and channel and I couldn't fit them on the 2x3's.

There'll be more than enough space for the clips on the framing, if you do it as above.

There is a gap. No backer rod and caulk yet. I was planing on backer rod and caulk between the ceiling and the beam, but I can do both.

OK, that's what I was hoping you'd say! It's just the angle that the photo was taken. So yes, make sure you have a gap there, and you might as well seal it with backer rod and caulk, then do the same where the ceiling drywall joins it.

I wanted to have the plywood as the finish layer for the beams.

Then do two layers of plywood! Don't use any drywall at all, just do one base layer of 5/8" plywood, then add your finish layer on top of that, with Green Glue in between if that's what you want. You can even save money there by using a lower grade of plywood for the base layer, then a higher grade for the finish layer (carpentry grade).

- Stuart -

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The normal method for boxing in a beam, duct, or pipe, is to build a frame around it (2x3 would be fine for that), then put the clips and drywall on that. In other words, drop down some verticals from the joists on either side of your beam, allowing for a bit of clearance, then put some horizontals across below the beam, to join the verticals. Then put your clips on those, and add the drywall or plywood. That gives you the necessary depth of air gap, which you then fill with insulation (making sure not to pack it in too tightly!).

How do I figure out what the necessary depth of air gap between the I-beam and the new frame should be?

Thanks,

Gilles

[Soundman2020]

How do I figure out what the necessary depth of air gap between the I-beam and the new frame should be?

Assume that the mass of the I-beam is infinite, and use the normal 2-leaf MSM equations to find out out how big the gap needs to be to isolate the lowest frequency that you are concerned about.


- Stuart -