John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I finally bought a house and I'm looking to create an RFZ mix space. The space I have available is in the basement so I am dodging some mechanicals (HVAC and washer/dryer). I'm certainly willing to reconfigure some walls but would like to avoid moving plumbing and the radon system. There's a support pole that's been concealed in a wall (red dot in the floorplan). I didn't get the ceiling height but it's typical basement.

I'm looking for layout ideas. I understand the limitations of the space and my expectations are realistic but I just want to maximize the usage and make it sound as good as it can.
That support pole frustrates me to no end.

How wide is the room where the gym equipment is? Also, can you grab the height of the joists above the dropped ceiling? Is there anything hanging below the joists in the gym/couch area?

Due to the main support beam running that length, and having the 17' length, I'd really put some thought into using that area. Have the back of your control room face the bathroom. However, the laundry room door will be in the way of bass trapping possibilities, plus you'd maybe have to have your control room entry door there. I'd maybe suggest investigating moving the laundry room door as close to the bottom of the stairs as possible. You'd have to run the room dimensions in a room mode calc, but it might work out that you'd have to shorten the room some anyway, at which point moving the laundry room door towards your stairs only a few feet would alleviate that issue. You could then have your CR entry door on the side of the room (coming in from where the bed is). You could easily fix treatment to the bathroom door.

For example, if you framed out a wall 2 feet from your bathroom wall to give you 15' of length, assuming the room is roughly 11' wide and 8' tall, that still gives you a pass on all 3 dimension tests. It passes with 17' as well. Fails at 16'.

Greg

The gym side is 11' wide.
There's ducts in the joists on the bedroom side.
I think it's fairly clear on the gym side.
I don't think that's an actual beam.
I think they built a box to drop the ceiling to the duct level on the bedroom side.
I'm thinking I could remove the laundry room walls altogether.
I close on Sep 20 so I'll have more details then.

That pole though...

The gym side is 11' wide.

And what about height?

There's ducts in the joists on the bedroom side.
I think it's fairly clear on the gym side.

That's good news! Are you okay with sound going out of and into your mixing room? What I'm getting at is, are you cool to just build a normal type room with poor isolation and treat it acoustically so it sounds great? Or are you wanting to build a very isolated room?

I don't think that's an actual beam.
I think they built a box to drop the ceiling to the duct level on the bedroom side.

By looking at where your jack post is, the wood that beam is made out of, and the layout of your basement, I'd put money on it that that is the main support beam for your home. It's not going anywhere unless your replace that entire beam with a steel I beam that will hang just as low. The advantage to the I beam is that you will get rid of the jack post. This will cost thousands of dollars though.

I'm thinking I could remove the laundry room walls altogether.

I'm starting to get the picture regarding how important this mixing room is to you.

I close on Sep 20 so I'll have more details then.

Exciting!

That pole though...

You really need to assess how great you want the room to sound while realizing how an 8 ft ceiling (if that's how high it is) will limit you both visually and acoustically. If you want an amazing control room, you'll want amazing HVAC and isolation. With that comes a lot of space. As much as you'd love that big control room that you drew over your basement layout, you'd have to check the actual room dimensions on the room mode calculator websites to see if the L W H measurements will land you in a good spot acoustically speaking. As much as room dimensions aren't the MOST important aspect to a great sounding room, it is pretty important. It must pass the 3 tests (you can check those on Bob Gold's site). If you are building from scratch, you should try to get evenly spaced modal distribution.

Greg

That's good news! Are you okay with sound going out of and into your mixing room? What I'm getting at is, are you cool to just build a normal type room with poor isolation and treat it acoustically so it sounds great? Or are you wanting to build a very isolated room?

I think with the architectural limitations I'll realistically be limited to acoustic treatment only. I don't expect isolation but I'll need to do something to contain the hvac. I'll definitely do soffit monitor mounts with trapping.

I think with the architectural limitations I'll realistically be limited to acoustic treatment only.

Totally. This will alleviate the headaches caused by the HVAC trunk and trying to support ceiling joists.

I don't expect isolation but I'll need to do something to contain the hvac.

Do you mean you want to visually hide the HVAC trunk? Or do you want to obtain some sort of isolation by boxing them in?

Have you seen how many ducts and how large of ducts supply air to that section of the basement? I'm just curious whether or not you need to run a designated system for your room (remember, your room will have an enormous amount of insulation so even though your room isn't going to be air tight, it will perform extremely well thermally).

I'll definitely do soffit monitor mounts with trapping.

Good idea!


The first thing you can do is download SketchUp Make: help.sketchup.com/en/downloading-older-versions
Draw up that half of your basement (remember to use components and layers!!!). Figure out the footprint you'll use for your room. You can find the best dimensions by using Bob Gold's or the Amroc Room Mode Calculators online. Remember, your ceiling height will be the subfloor of your main floor. Just pull off the dropped ceiling tile on that half of the basement and measure how high that is. Take precise measurements of where those floor joists are and draw them in as well. Include any other components such as duct work or plumbing in your drawing. Be as accurate as possible.

You'll need to figure out what you're doing about HVAC. That could mean just sizing, adding, or re-routing duct work or it could mean adding a mini split and some ventilation. Draw that in. Design your soffits, other acoustic treatment, and electrical. Get a building permit. After that, yank out the carpet where necessary (your room's footprint), the T-bar framing and start building!

Share your design with everyone here on your thread so we can either learn from you or advise you to make changes. We're here to help!

Greg