Basement 'control room' project
Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 12:03 am
Hello,
Like most of the newcomers here, I have been lurking around for a while. It helped me decide a couple of things that are really important and has raised even more questions! Next to this forum I have read Rod Gervais excellent book. Again: lots of questions answered yet many new questions popped up. This is the reason why I'm willing to plunge and hopefully be able to make those final planning and design decisions.
At this moment I am stripping the basement bare (lots of cupboards, workbench, ...). I just need to put the washer, dryer and freezer in the adjacent storage room and a plumber needs to come over to remove a water pump that's broken. Maybe he will need to fit in some pipes to be able to put the washing machine elsewhere but that's a question I hope will get resolved with your help!
I live next to a busy road, which means I get about 45dBC at my (planned) listening position and just above there's the living room. I produce bass heavy music (techno, drone, industrial) so the living room gets a lot of low frequencies to handle. Especially the chimney and walls vibrate. I hope to compensate this by decoupling walls, ceiling and perhaps the floor of the basement.
I have no neighbors to really deal with. On one side there's a corridor and garage in between the studio and the neighboring wall and on no neighbor on the other side. Back and front aren't an issue either. Upstairs and traffic noise is the main concern.
This project should be considered as a control room. I barely use a mic and it's not in the same manner as, for instance, a pop or rock recording. I want to work towards a room in which I can produce and mix everything (perhaps even tempt to master).
I have doodled something in SketchUp. First experience so go gentle on me.
On the left the vent. At present, this gives out onto a grid and the outside world. I have yet to figure out how I will let air circulate but I think I will remove the grid and put a silencer on top.
You can see that the stud wall next to the vent is not a double wall at the moment. I've read that people use a bay window as a bass kick the door open just to put or take away, but maybe this is a myth? Would be even cheaper if I could leave that door. But what about flanking?
In the studio you can see that the chimney wall is still part of the room and I did not put a double wall in front of it. But perhaps this is not a good idea as I keep the sound transmission in the living room in mind? Only to lose 20cm here would give me a space of 3m10 wide. Too narrow, right?
The fact that I put a 'washing room' behind the studio is due to room ratios. If I use the entire room, I end up to close to 2 cubes stuck together. Something to avoid, I have read. Or would you advice to forget about that and just use the entire space at hand? I can always place the washing machine in the storage room...
I do foresee problems concerning the doors. As in, there is one too many. I would rather work purely symmetrical (control room design).
Currently, there is a tile floor in the basement. Is it a good idea (cf. transmission of bass through construction) to impose a floor here consisting of acoustic OSB plates with laminate? If so, how do I build my wall? Does it need to rest on the tile floor or directly on the OSB plates (with acoustic stripping in between wall and floor in both cases)?
Like most of the newcomers here, I have been lurking around for a while. It helped me decide a couple of things that are really important and has raised even more questions! Next to this forum I have read Rod Gervais excellent book. Again: lots of questions answered yet many new questions popped up. This is the reason why I'm willing to plunge and hopefully be able to make those final planning and design decisions.
At this moment I am stripping the basement bare (lots of cupboards, workbench, ...). I just need to put the washer, dryer and freezer in the adjacent storage room and a plumber needs to come over to remove a water pump that's broken. Maybe he will need to fit in some pipes to be able to put the washing machine elsewhere but that's a question I hope will get resolved with your help!
I live next to a busy road, which means I get about 45dBC at my (planned) listening position and just above there's the living room. I produce bass heavy music (techno, drone, industrial) so the living room gets a lot of low frequencies to handle. Especially the chimney and walls vibrate. I hope to compensate this by decoupling walls, ceiling and perhaps the floor of the basement.
I have no neighbors to really deal with. On one side there's a corridor and garage in between the studio and the neighboring wall and on no neighbor on the other side. Back and front aren't an issue either. Upstairs and traffic noise is the main concern.
This project should be considered as a control room. I barely use a mic and it's not in the same manner as, for instance, a pop or rock recording. I want to work towards a room in which I can produce and mix everything (perhaps even tempt to master).
I have doodled something in SketchUp. First experience so go gentle on me.
On the left the vent. At present, this gives out onto a grid and the outside world. I have yet to figure out how I will let air circulate but I think I will remove the grid and put a silencer on top.
You can see that the stud wall next to the vent is not a double wall at the moment. I've read that people use a bay window as a bass kick the door open just to put or take away, but maybe this is a myth? Would be even cheaper if I could leave that door. But what about flanking?
In the studio you can see that the chimney wall is still part of the room and I did not put a double wall in front of it. But perhaps this is not a good idea as I keep the sound transmission in the living room in mind? Only to lose 20cm here would give me a space of 3m10 wide. Too narrow, right?
The fact that I put a 'washing room' behind the studio is due to room ratios. If I use the entire room, I end up to close to 2 cubes stuck together. Something to avoid, I have read. Or would you advice to forget about that and just use the entire space at hand? I can always place the washing machine in the storage room...
I do foresee problems concerning the doors. As in, there is one too many. I would rather work purely symmetrical (control room design).
Currently, there is a tile floor in the basement. Is it a good idea (cf. transmission of bass through construction) to impose a floor here consisting of acoustic OSB plates with laminate? If so, how do I build my wall? Does it need to rest on the tile floor or directly on the OSB plates (with acoustic stripping in between wall and floor in both cases)?
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