John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi everyone! So I'm wanting to finish a small storage room in the already finished basement. The room is 10'x7'x8' (LxWxH).

The rooms main use will be as a live music streaming room! I will spend upwards of 3 hours at a time streaming music. I plan on taking breaks every hour or so or when needed. Tiny budget alert. Only working with about $2,000 at the moment. I will be doing all of the work myself.

The room will also be used to record vocals and acoustic guitar from time to time.

The room has two concrete walls (foundation) and two studded walls that face the finished basement.
I plan on using Roxul safe and sound insulation and resilient channel + drywall to help with sound dampening. Also, green glue where needed.

I have a central HVAC unit but there are no registers currently in this room as it was originally for storage.
Proper HVAC in regards to removing stale air and bringing in fresh air is my main concern at the moment but with my budget I'm not sure what could be possible.If need be I can leave the door open (crazy I know since I will be putting in so much work in regards to dampening sound).

My goals:

• Sound dampening so that the noise from the rest of the house doesn't disrupt the live stream.

• Proper ventilation to remove stale air and bring fresh air in.

• Whatever other ideas you guys have!

To summarize: I need a space for live streaming music and also for recording vocals and acoustic guitar from time to time.
I'm going to have to make concessions because of the budget which I can live with as the main goal is having a dedicated space for streaming whether it has amazing sound dampening or minimal sound dampening. The current streaming set up is not ideal.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this and for your help and suggestions. I will try to get a sketchup design here soon if it's needed. Look forward to your replies.

Hope everyone is doing well out there.

Hi there "HammeringScrews". Welcome!

The room has two concrete walls (foundation) and two studded walls that face the finished basement.
I plan on using Roxul safe and sound insulation and resilient channel + drywall to help with sound dampening. Also, green glue where needed.

I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to do. Building an isolation wall does not damp sound. On the contrary, isolating a room makes it more live. What you describe is an isolation wall, and wont' do anything at all for acoustic damping inside the room.

I have a central HVAC unit but there are no registers currently in this room as it was originally for storage.
Proper HVAC in regards to removing stale air and bringing in fresh air is my main concern at the moment but with my budget I'm not sure what could be possible

The cheapest would be to tap into the existing HVAC system, and bleed off enough air form that to handle your room. However, that assumes that the system has enough capacity to do that: Check with your HVAC contractor to make sure that you would not be overloading the system like that.

If you can do that, then it would just be a matter of building a couple of silencer boxes and running the ducts.

If need be I can leave the door open

That won't work. Air needs a reason to move. There needs to be a complete path, and a difference in pressure. Opening the door does not create a complete path:it only provides one end of the path And it does not create a difference in pressure. Nothing would happen if you just open the door. The stale dead warm humid air will just sit there, not moving....

Sound dampening so that the noise from the rest of the house doesn't disrupt the live stream.

Still not understanding you. Acoustic damping is treatment. It goes inside the room to deal with things like modal issues, SBIR issues, reflections, flutter echo, comb filtering, etc. Damping is usually accomplished with porous absorption, such as fiberglass or mineral wool insulation, acoustic foam, etc. And those materials simply do not do much to isolate a room. They do not stop sound getting in or out.

To summarize: I need a space for live streaming music and also for recording vocals and acoustic guitar from time to time.

So, you first need to isolate the room, by building a complete set of walls and a ceiling around you, fully decoupled from the existing walls and ceiling, then you need to place acoustic treatment inside that room, to create the acoustic conditions that you need in order to record. Those are two entirely separate and completely different aspects of acoustics, and of studio design. Different materials, different techniques, different purposes.

Hope everyone is doing well out there.

Very well, thanks.


- Stuart -