Hello! OK, so I'm almost done with the "spare room" in the basement, which is what I will be using as my temporary studio for however long it takes to build the actual studio. I would like to invest a little bit of time and money into making it sound at least halfway decent, so I've been researching treatments/absorption panels/gobos. Here's what I would like:
1. To have whatever treatments I build be usable in the actual studio once it's built
2. To have a halfway decent area for mixing
3. To have a halfway decent area for tracking vocals
After looking around a bunch, I think my best bet would be to build two large gobos and six broadband panels. I apologize if this is confusing but I'm going to do my best to describe what I'm thinking.
For the actual/future studio, I think I would like the re-purpose the gobos as the second set of angled walls that will comprise the mix position. I haven't done the actual mix position planning in Sketchup, but in the first pic, you can hopefully see where I intend to build it once I have it figured out. The part that is just laid out will be permanently built to house speaker soffits, and I will do some refinements with the idea that it will be RFZ. Is this feasible? I like the idea because I could move the gobos to other locations when I'm not mixing, even just as out of the way as possible to make the room more comfortable for writing and tracking vocals. I am also thinking I could put them behind the singer when tracking vocals and try to figure out how to make that sound decent and not boxy. The absorbers are pretty straightforward, and please excuse the placement in the drawings, it's just to get an idea.
The second picture shows the temporary studio, where I would put the gobos behind the mix position to hopefully improve the overall sound quality. I know this won't be great but I'm hoping it's worth doing.
The other questions I have:
1. I'm going down an insulation rabbit hole again, and having trouble finding clear answers, especially given what I have available to me at a reasonably convenient distance. So my questions are a) is Safe N Sound OK to use in the gobos, and zooming out, b) is it ok to use basically everywhere else (in the walls of the rest of the studio build)? I know this has been covered a bit but I see the density is not as good as some other options. But it's always in stock at the Home Depot that is five minutes from my house. If it's significantly better to use something else, any suggestions on what would be in stock at a typical Home Depot or Lowe's? I've called around to try to find OC-703 or other rigid fiberglass, and the specialty stores so far are not open on weekends, so it's not ideal for me. I will order a case of OC-703 for the absorbers.
2. For my purposes, should I put plywood, drywall, or MDF on the rear side of the gobos? I may theoretically use them to try to get separation when tracking a band in the future, but that's not the main goal. But I don't mind adding it now if it makes sense. Seems like there's plenty of info on the construction elsewhere on the site so I'll try not to bother y'all for that
The third picture is the whole basement so you can get an idea of how it all fits together. Any help would as always be very much appreciated!