Constructing my new Studio
Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 12:06 am
HI All!
How’s life? This is my first post here and I’m pretty exited to finally see myself as an active member of this community! I’m really impressed by the quality of the advice, and by the amount of time and effort you put into helping other people out. So thanks a million, and keep up the good work ☺
I am a Producer/dj from the Netherlands. I’m planning to build my new studio in an old high school near my home town.
I’ve done a fair amount of research, or I think so at least: I’ve read Rod’s book, dug through the stickies and other relevant posts here on the forum, been reading all over the internet, asked around, but still I’m not completely sure on how to fulfil the task at hand to the best of my possibilities.
Tbh, it kinda dazzles me on how to do what and how to imply it all on this specific room: because it is an existing room I have to work with quite some anomalies, and i just can't seem to pin it all down.
That's why I'm hoping that if I shared my plans with you, you might be so kind to help me a bit along the way 
I’ve made some drawings to try and make my plans as clear as possible. I’m certainly not a Van Gogh so I’m sorry if it looks horrible, but in a schematic way I hope they clarify what I mean and what I plan on doing.
So basically, i'll use the entire room as a single control room studio, for i primarily (and electronically) produce house music. There might be some occasional recordings of voice and instruments, but in general I’ll just bother my dear neighbours with an endless 4x4 pounding kickdrum.
I’ve done some measurements (in my old studio) and my mixing averages at 85db. It sometimes peaks at 90, sometimes I take it a bit easier at 70. I haven’t been able to fully test my new room yet (I still have to move my gear), but I want to try and achieve 40db max outside of the studio (is 30 even possible??). With the existing structure I’ve gotten readings around 60, when stuff played at 85.
I’ve saved up some cash for this project, right now it’s about €1500 which roughly equals $2000. It ain’t the most, but I’m hoping it’ll get me somewhere.
The room itself is on the groundfloor. It’s a rectangular shaped old storage room 570 cm long, 350 cm wide and 300 cm high.. Check out fig.1 for a partial building plan showing the studio.
Fig.2 is a panoramic picture that might give you an idea of what the room actually looks like.(the room didn’t really fit in one normal picture)
[Fig2.]
The floor is a concrete slab that’s runs through the whole building. I’m not sure what’s normal but I’m guessing it’s around 30 cm thick. The floor of the room itself is covered with linoleum (in fig 2.0 there’s also a laminate floor but I’ve thrown it out) The lino is fixed pretty well, so I’ll have to decide what to do with it.
Then for the walls: the building plan (fig.1) is an ok overview, but doesn’t accurately show the existing materials used for the walls etc. The room’s walls are actually a bit of a weird mixture, for the inner and outer walls of the room aren’t all the same.
The walls are mostly made up of concrete brick of 21 X 10 X 8,2 cm, but for two small reinforced concrete walls that are part of the buildings foundation. I’ve made my own schematic drawing (fig.3) to show the materials used and their size (in cm), as accurately as possible.
In Fig 3, Side ‘A’ is my neighbours, B is outside, C are the toilets/meeting room, and D is the corridor. As you might see there’s already some sort of two-leaf system going on between my room and room A, and me and the exterior wall (B)
In case of room A: at first there was a door connecting the two, but I’ve already taken it out and continued the existing wall with concrete brick, and fixed the other side up with drywall. My neighbour wanted to use the space as a closet, and since I could keep the door to use in my double door system, I’ve granted her that little space
. So now I have my own separated room with just one door opening to the corridor.
So fig.4 is what I came up with in terms of soundproofing the room.
[fig.4]
Materials used:
Outer studs: 300cmX44mmX69mm
Inner studs: 250cmX44mmx69mm
Drywall: 260cmX60cmX95mm
Insulation: 8cm thick nonrigid fiberglass
I’ve used the existing concrete brick wall as my outer wall. With a wooden frame i’ll keep the fiberglass in place directly against the concrete bricks. Then I’ll make a 5 cm air gap, then the insulation again, and a double drywall measuring 1,90 cm total. (so 95mm a piece)
The existing room has quite a number of existing power sockets. Most of them aren’t build in (except for a 5 pin socket), so I think I can relay them quite easily. I was thinking of using the acoustic sockets as shown here, all tough I’m not super keen on opening my newly made walls up with some gaping holes right after building them. So i'm still looking for a good alternative.
Then, i'm not sure yet how to handle the drywall seams and the screws.
For the inner wall, I was thinking of placing the first layer of drywall horizontally, and the second vertically. Then use acousitcalk for the seams in the corners, and the edges at the floor and ceiling. I want to use normal drywall filler to fill up the seams between the drywall panels and screws for the inner wall. After that i’ll paint the walls.
Also, I’m not really sure about the far exterior walls in room A, and outside at B. With my new box in box construction I’m actually creating a 3-leaf system at those sides. Is that going to be a problem?
Oh and btw, the studs in the drawing aren’t exactly measured out. The drywall I plan on using is 60cm wide, so I was thinking on placing a stud every 60 cm oc.
To sum it up, the questions I have regarding the walls are:
- Is it ok to use the existing concrete brick walls as the outer mass in my M-S-M system?
- Should I change the design regarding the partial 3-leaf system I’m creating at wall A & B?
- How should I handle the drywall seams? Do both layers have to be airtight, or is only handling the inner layer ok?
- Is the ratio 7cm insulation/stud -5cm airgap - 7cm stud/insulation ok, or should I maybe have less insulation and a bigger air gap?
- Regarding acoustic treatment, do you think that straight walls are a good idea?
- Are acoustic sockets the way to go when relaying the existing power sockets?
So that’s my idea of the walls, but for the ceiling things get a bit more complicated again. Check out fig.4a
As you can see, the existing ceiling isn’t the same for the entire room either. For the biggest part it’s a dropped ceiling hanging from another 23cm tick concrete slab, split up by a reinforced concrete beam. The dropped ceiling covers pipes, ducts, electricity stuff and what not. These pipes penetrate the walls on the sides (A & C) and cause a lot of sound leakage, so they’re a major concern. The concrete beam that splits up the dropped ceiling hangs a bit lower than the dropped ceiling (13cm).
Fig 5 is a side view of the room from the corridor
As for soundproofing it up from this point of view, check figure 5a
In it, I’m filling the existing dropped ceiling with insulation and build a whole new ceiling underneath it. That way I’ll try and stop the sound from reaching the pipes above the dropped ceiling. Notice that the newly built ceiling is split up by the concrete beam. I know it’s probably a bad idea because it’ll the make the room connect with the foundation, but I was sort of hoping for the concrete to be so sturdy that it wouldn’t really resonate and create a flanking path. I’m afraid that when I build a completely new decoupled ceiling underneath the beam, I wont keep enough headroom, and not just in the mix .
So to sum up my questions about the ceiling:
-Is splitting my newly built underlying ceiling by the concrete beam de dumbest idea in the world?
-What do you think about filling up the dropped ceiling with insulation to cover the pipes and ducts?
So that covers the main part of my ceiling. Now for the last part stuff gets a bit more tricky. That’s because I’d like to make some windows and an airduct in the ceiling near the wall facing outside. The windows will provide me with some daylight, the duct with some fresh air. First I’ll show you what its like without the studiodesign, check out fig 6
Fig. 6 is the studio as seen from room A. The concrete beam runs through the whole room and even goes trough the exterior wall, passed the windows. Doesn't that just look like your flanking nightmare? Luckily outside there isn't anyone around for a good 300 meters so i think i'm ok on that part.
In fig 7 I’ve drawn in the studio and made two vertical windows near wall B, so daylight can keep coming in. I think I’ll use Rods way of building in windows in a studio, only I’ll just use the inner side of the example, because the second window is already up.
The two vertical windows would also be split up (and thus reinforced) by the concrete beam. So there would be one on either side of the beam, just like the exterior windows.
Then for airflow. This is really pain if you ask me, I don’t have the faintest clue on what’s the best idea
. I didn’t draw it in the fig.6 & 7, but on both sides of the existing windows there’s some old ventilators installed. Check out fig.7a, 7b and c. They’re not the best but at least it something.
The right ventilator (7a & 7c) is connected to a pipe that runs through till the middle of the dropped ceiling. The left vent (7B) is just a vent opening up in the room.
7a: 7b: 7c: I really don’t know what's best here . I was thinking of maybe doing nothing with 7b, and making an air vent somewhere underneath the end of 7A. I could then maybe fill up the pipe with different pieces of foam, just like Arthur Noxon explains in his video. Do you guys have any ideas?
Pfoeh. As far as i know and can plan in advance, that’s pretty much it regarding soundproofing the room! Wowie, must have been quite the read. Thanks for sticking with it!
The acoustic treatment of the room, well, I haven’t really thought it through yet. I’ll position my workstation near the outside wall (B), so in those corners I’ll make some built in basstraps that run from floor to ceiling. Then using the mirror trick I’ll make some DIY fiberglass panels hanging to both my sides, and above me as a ceiling cloud. But still, before i start digging to much into room treatment, it would be great to have a room first
So I’m really really really curious as to what you’re thinking of my plans up until now. You reckon i'm heading somewhere in the right direction? Or should i just leave it be and go back to being a paperboy again? I certainly don't hope so! Well anyway, i want to thank you in advance for helping me out. I for one know that just on my own it would probably just become a big mess. Thanks!
Oh and btw, i hope i got the story a bit clear. If not please give me a shout and i'll try to do a better job. in the meantime, I thought it might be useful to sum up the questions i have regarding the plans.
Floor:
- Can I leave the lino in place, or should I remove it and do something completely different with it?
Walls:
- Is it ok to use the existing concrete brick walls as the outer mass in my M-S-M system?
- Should I change the design regarding the partial 3-leaf system I’m creating at wall A & B?
- How should I handle the seams of the drywall? Do both layers have to be airtight, or is only handling the inner layer ok?
- Is the ratio 7cm insulation/stud -5cm air gap - 7cm stud/insulation ok, or should I have less insulation and a bigger air gap?
- Regarding acoustic treatment, do you think that straight walls are a good idea?
- Are acoustic sockets the way to go when relaying the existing power sockets?
Ceiling
- Is splitting my newly built underlying ceiling by the concrete beam de dumbest idea in the world?
- What do you think about filling up the dropped ceiling with insulation to cover the pipes and ducts?
Vent
- Is it possible to make something worthwhile from the right existing vent?
- Does the trick explained by mr Noxon actually work?
That's about it. Hope to here from you, and enjoy your day ☺
Cheerio!
How’s life? This is my first post here and I’m pretty exited to finally see myself as an active member of this community! I’m really impressed by the quality of the advice, and by the amount of time and effort you put into helping other people out. So thanks a million, and keep up the good work ☺
I am a Producer/dj from the Netherlands. I’m planning to build my new studio in an old high school near my home town.
I’ve done a fair amount of research, or I think so at least: I’ve read Rod’s book, dug through the stickies and other relevant posts here on the forum, been reading all over the internet, asked around, but still I’m not completely sure on how to fulfil the task at hand to the best of my possibilities.
Tbh, it kinda dazzles me on how to do what and how to imply it all on this specific room: because it is an existing room I have to work with quite some anomalies, and i just can't seem to pin it all down.
That's why I'm hoping that if I shared my plans with you, you might be so kind to help me a bit along the way I’ve made some drawings to try and make my plans as clear as possible. I’m certainly not a Van Gogh so I’m sorry if it looks horrible, but in a schematic way I hope they clarify what I mean and what I plan on doing. So basically, i'll use the entire room as a single control room studio, for i primarily (and electronically) produce house music. There might be some occasional recordings of voice and instruments, but in general I’ll just bother my dear neighbours with an endless 4x4 pounding kickdrum.
I’ve done some measurements (in my old studio) and my mixing averages at 85db. It sometimes peaks at 90, sometimes I take it a bit easier at 70. I haven’t been able to fully test my new room yet (I still have to move my gear), but I want to try and achieve 40db max outside of the studio (is 30 even possible??). With the existing structure I’ve gotten readings around 60, when stuff played at 85.
I’ve saved up some cash for this project, right now it’s about €1500 which roughly equals $2000. It ain’t the most, but I’m hoping it’ll get me somewhere.
The room itself is on the groundfloor. It’s a rectangular shaped old storage room 570 cm long, 350 cm wide and 300 cm high.. Check out fig.1 for a partial building plan showing the studio.
Fig.2 is a panoramic picture that might give you an idea of what the room actually looks like.(the room didn’t really fit in one normal picture)
[Fig2.]
The floor is a concrete slab that’s runs through the whole building. I’m not sure what’s normal but I’m guessing it’s around 30 cm thick. The floor of the room itself is covered with linoleum (in fig 2.0 there’s also a laminate floor but I’ve thrown it out) The lino is fixed pretty well, so I’ll have to decide what to do with it.
Then for the walls: the building plan (fig.1) is an ok overview, but doesn’t accurately show the existing materials used for the walls etc. The room’s walls are actually a bit of a weird mixture, for the inner and outer walls of the room aren’t all the same.
The walls are mostly made up of concrete brick of 21 X 10 X 8,2 cm, but for two small reinforced concrete walls that are part of the buildings foundation. I’ve made my own schematic drawing (fig.3) to show the materials used and their size (in cm), as accurately as possible.
In Fig 3, Side ‘A’ is my neighbours, B is outside, C are the toilets/meeting room, and D is the corridor. As you might see there’s already some sort of two-leaf system going on between my room and room A, and me and the exterior wall (B)
In case of room A: at first there was a door connecting the two, but I’ve already taken it out and continued the existing wall with concrete brick, and fixed the other side up with drywall. My neighbour wanted to use the space as a closet, and since I could keep the door to use in my double door system, I’ve granted her that little space
. So now I have my own separated room with just one door opening to the corridor. So fig.4 is what I came up with in terms of soundproofing the room.
[fig.4]
Materials used:
Outer studs: 300cmX44mmX69mm
Inner studs: 250cmX44mmx69mm
Drywall: 260cmX60cmX95mm
Insulation: 8cm thick nonrigid fiberglass
I’ve used the existing concrete brick wall as my outer wall. With a wooden frame i’ll keep the fiberglass in place directly against the concrete bricks. Then I’ll make a 5 cm air gap, then the insulation again, and a double drywall measuring 1,90 cm total. (so 95mm a piece)
The existing room has quite a number of existing power sockets. Most of them aren’t build in (except for a 5 pin socket), so I think I can relay them quite easily. I was thinking of using the acoustic sockets as shown here, all tough I’m not super keen on opening my newly made walls up with some gaping holes right after building them. So i'm still looking for a good alternative.
Then, i'm not sure yet how to handle the drywall seams and the screws.
For the inner wall, I was thinking of placing the first layer of drywall horizontally, and the second vertically. Then use acousitcalk for the seams in the corners, and the edges at the floor and ceiling. I want to use normal drywall filler to fill up the seams between the drywall panels and screws for the inner wall. After that i’ll paint the walls.
Also, I’m not really sure about the far exterior walls in room A, and outside at B. With my new box in box construction I’m actually creating a 3-leaf system at those sides. Is that going to be a problem?
Oh and btw, the studs in the drawing aren’t exactly measured out. The drywall I plan on using is 60cm wide, so I was thinking on placing a stud every 60 cm oc.
To sum it up, the questions I have regarding the walls are:
- Is it ok to use the existing concrete brick walls as the outer mass in my M-S-M system?
- Should I change the design regarding the partial 3-leaf system I’m creating at wall A & B?
- How should I handle the drywall seams? Do both layers have to be airtight, or is only handling the inner layer ok?
- Is the ratio 7cm insulation/stud -5cm airgap - 7cm stud/insulation ok, or should I maybe have less insulation and a bigger air gap?
- Regarding acoustic treatment, do you think that straight walls are a good idea?
- Are acoustic sockets the way to go when relaying the existing power sockets?
So that’s my idea of the walls, but for the ceiling things get a bit more complicated again. Check out fig.4a
As you can see, the existing ceiling isn’t the same for the entire room either. For the biggest part it’s a dropped ceiling hanging from another 23cm tick concrete slab, split up by a reinforced concrete beam. The dropped ceiling covers pipes, ducts, electricity stuff and what not. These pipes penetrate the walls on the sides (A & C) and cause a lot of sound leakage, so they’re a major concern. The concrete beam that splits up the dropped ceiling hangs a bit lower than the dropped ceiling (13cm).
Fig 5 is a side view of the room from the corridor
As for soundproofing it up from this point of view, check figure 5a
In it, I’m filling the existing dropped ceiling with insulation and build a whole new ceiling underneath it. That way I’ll try and stop the sound from reaching the pipes above the dropped ceiling. Notice that the newly built ceiling is split up by the concrete beam. I know it’s probably a bad idea because it’ll the make the room connect with the foundation, but I was sort of hoping for the concrete to be so sturdy that it wouldn’t really resonate and create a flanking path. I’m afraid that when I build a completely new decoupled ceiling underneath the beam, I wont keep enough headroom, and not just in the mix
.So to sum up my questions about the ceiling:
-Is splitting my newly built underlying ceiling by the concrete beam de dumbest idea in the world?
-What do you think about filling up the dropped ceiling with insulation to cover the pipes and ducts?
So that covers the main part of my ceiling. Now for the last part stuff gets a bit more tricky. That’s because I’d like to make some windows and an airduct in the ceiling near the wall facing outside. The windows will provide me with some daylight, the duct with some fresh air. First I’ll show you what its like without the studiodesign, check out fig 6
Fig. 6 is the studio as seen from room A. The concrete beam runs through the whole room and even goes trough the exterior wall, passed the windows. Doesn't that just look like your flanking nightmare? Luckily outside there isn't anyone around for a good 300 meters so i think i'm ok on that part.
In fig 7 I’ve drawn in the studio and made two vertical windows near wall B, so daylight can keep coming in. I think I’ll use Rods way of building in windows in a studio, only I’ll just use the inner side of the example, because the second window is already up.
The two vertical windows would also be split up (and thus reinforced) by the concrete beam. So there would be one on either side of the beam, just like the exterior windows.
Then for airflow. This is really pain if you ask me, I don’t have the faintest clue on what’s the best idea
. I didn’t draw it in the fig.6 & 7, but on both sides of the existing windows there’s some old ventilators installed. Check out fig.7a, 7b and c. They’re not the best but at least it something. The right ventilator (7a & 7c) is connected to a pipe that runs through till the middle of the dropped ceiling. The left vent (7B) is just a vent opening up in the room.
7a: 7b: 7c: I really don’t know what's best here
. I was thinking of maybe doing nothing with 7b, and making an air vent somewhere underneath the end of 7A. I could then maybe fill up the pipe with different pieces of foam, just like Arthur Noxon explains in his video. Do you guys have any ideas?Pfoeh. As far as i know and can plan in advance, that’s pretty much it regarding soundproofing the room! Wowie, must have been quite the read. Thanks for sticking with it!
The acoustic treatment of the room, well, I haven’t really thought it through yet. I’ll position my workstation near the outside wall (B), so in those corners I’ll make some built in basstraps that run from floor to ceiling. Then using the mirror trick I’ll make some DIY fiberglass panels hanging to both my sides, and above me as a ceiling cloud. But still, before i start digging to much into room treatment, it would be great to have a room first
So I’m really really really curious as to what you’re thinking of my plans up until now. You reckon i'm heading somewhere in the right direction? Or should i just leave it be and go back to being a paperboy again?
I certainly don't hope so! Well anyway, i want to thank you in advance for helping me out. I for one know that just on my own it would probably just become a big mess. Thanks!Oh and btw, i hope i got the story a bit clear. If not please give me a shout and i'll try to do a better job. in the meantime, I thought it might be useful to sum up the questions i have regarding the plans.
Floor:
- Can I leave the lino in place, or should I remove it and do something completely different with it?
Walls:
- Is it ok to use the existing concrete brick walls as the outer mass in my M-S-M system?
- Should I change the design regarding the partial 3-leaf system I’m creating at wall A & B?
- How should I handle the seams of the drywall? Do both layers have to be airtight, or is only handling the inner layer ok?
- Is the ratio 7cm insulation/stud -5cm air gap - 7cm stud/insulation ok, or should I have less insulation and a bigger air gap?
- Regarding acoustic treatment, do you think that straight walls are a good idea?
- Are acoustic sockets the way to go when relaying the existing power sockets?
Ceiling
- Is splitting my newly built underlying ceiling by the concrete beam de dumbest idea in the world?
- What do you think about filling up the dropped ceiling with insulation to cover the pipes and ducts?
Vent
- Is it possible to make something worthwhile from the right existing vent?
- Does the trick explained by mr Noxon actually work?
That's about it. Hope to here from you, and enjoy your day ☺
Cheerio!