John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi All,

I think I filled out the listed criteria to be able to post but please let me know if I've missed anything.

So I'm designing a vocal booth for my modest basement studio and I'm looking for some advice.

The main use will be Vocals and Voice overs. Perhaps an amp if needed but this is not a priority.

Things I'm stuck with:
-As you'll see in the pictures, This is where I want the booth to go so I'm limited on total space.
-There's a window on the left side, I'll get to this later.
-There's a furnace on the right. It runs at 65dB SPL-A at 1m when running. That's the max for heating or cooling. There is a switch and I can turn if off when recording if I have to.
-The space used to be a shower so I've removed the plumbing and I'm going to seal off the drain and level the floor.

What I'd like:
-As much isolation as possible. There's the furnace plus a fairly major road on the other side of my backyard out the window.
-Enough room for a person to comfortably stand in, so 6'5"H x 35+"W.

My current attempt at a plan:
-The Sketch up I've attached is the inner room that will fit inside the already framed space. making it a room within a room.
-I'm going to build a removable hatch for the inner room that covers the whole window space. It will essentially be a section of the wall that comes out and seals when in.
-I'm plane to insulate the outer frame with Rockwool Safe and Sound. Then Insulate the inner frame. Then a layer of 5/8 Plywood, Then 1/2 Drywall. Then treat the room inside with acoustic tiles.
-I'm going to build a baffles venting system that's not tied into the HVAC. It'll just vent into the control room.

Questions:
-I've angled the ceiling due to physical limitations, I'm thinking about angling one of the walls as well? Would a small angle help at all?
-Does the plywood help at all or should I just use two layers of drywall? Can they be the same thickness?
-I've thought about drywalling the outer frame before building the inner one. Good idea?
-There's the smaller space at the back of the room. I'm thinking of using it for a bass trap. What's the best way to do this? Just fill the whole thing with insulation then cover with cloth? I could build a panel absorber, I'm just not sure It'll be more effective than the insulation.
-Any general advice on treating the inside of the room?

Google Drive Link with Photos and Sketch-up:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

The Sky is the limit on this. No idea too outlandish. I want to make this as best as I can with the limitation given.

Any Insight and Help will be greatly appreciated.


Thanks,
Kyle

Welcome!

Hi All,

I think I filled out the listed criteria to be able to post but please let me know if I've missed anything.

Looks good!

The main use will be Vocals and Voice overs

This means you need low background noise. That means good isolation from exterior sounds and low velocity ventilation.

-As much isolation as possible. There's the furnace plus a fairly major road on the other side of my backyard out the window.

For the most isolation, you'd want to build a room in that room, but that would eat up your space like crazy. You already don't even have 3 feet of width (ps, your drawing includes 3" wide lumber. That doesn't exist here in Canada. It's typically 3.5" for a 2x4 piece of dimensional lumber.
Having said that, since you're going to need isolation mostly in the vocal range (as you'll high pass filter sub frequencies), you could maybe get away with isolation clips and hat channel. Two or three layers of 5/8" drywall.

-I've angled the ceiling due to physical limitations, I'm thinking about angling one of the walls as well? Would a small angle help at all?

Angles are not necessary. In such a small room, room size is priority number 1. Get it as big as you can.

-Does the plywood help at all or should I just use two layers of drywall? Can they be the same thickness?

You'll be relying on mass law. So, heavier material = better. Drywall is your cheapest bet. If you could do the whole thing in MDF, it would save you fractions of an inch, but would cost a lot more.

-I've thought about drywalling the outer frame before building the inner one. Good idea?

It's always a good idea to seal your outer leaf, but in your case, you wouldn't have a truly decoupled outer and inner leaf system. What you should do is try to determine your outer leaf boundaries and seal those. If that means adding drywall to your furnace side, then yes, do that, and seal it.

-There's the smaller space at the back of the room. I'm thinking of using it for a bass trap. What's the best way to do this? Just fill the whole thing with insulation then cover with cloth? I could build a panel absorber, I'm just not sure It'll be more effective than the insulation.

Is this for your control room?

-Any general advice on treating the inside of the room?

Keep the floor hard. Your ceiling should probably consist of pure insulation. You don't want your room too dead, but it's so small, you're going to have troubles with hard surfaces. I know how I would approach it if it were my little room, but I should leave it up to one of the veteran members to advise you on this question.

Greg

Thanks for your response Greg!!

My Replies Below:

Quote:
-As much isolation as possible. There's the furnace plus a fairly major road on the other side of my backyard out the window.

For the most isolation, you'd want to build a room in that room, but that would eat up your space like crazy. You already don't even have 3 feet of width (ps, your drawing includes 3" wide lumber. That doesn't exist here in Canada. It's typically 3.5" for a 2x4 piece of dimensional lumber.
Having said that, since you're going to need isolation mostly in the vocal range (as you'll high pass filter sub frequencies), you could maybe get away with isolation clips and hat channel. Two or three layers of 5/8" drywall.

--those are meant to be 2x3 (1.5x2.5). I was hopping to frame it with something smaller that 2x4 to save on space. But after your post I think If I just build the frame out of 2x4 and de-couple from the outer walls I'll gain more space.

Quote:
-I've angled the ceiling due to physical limitations, I'm thinking about angling one of the walls as well? Would a small angle help at all?

Angles are not necessary. In such a small room, room size is priority number 1. Get it as big as you can.

-- Thanks

Quote:
-Does the plywood help at all or should I just use two layers of drywall? Can they be the same thickness?

You'll be relying on mass law. So, heavier material = better. Drywall is your cheapest bet. If you could do the whole thing in MDF, it would save you fractions of an inch, but would cost a lot more.

-- Well its not a large space so I'm not terribly worried about the cost but i'll take a look at MDF vs Drywall.

Quote:
-I've thought about drywalling the outer frame before building the inner one. Good idea?

It's always a good idea to seal your outer leaf, but in your case, you wouldn't have a truly decoupled outer and inner leaf system. What you should do is try to determine your outer leaf boundaries and seal those. If that means adding drywall to your furnace side, then yes, do that, and seal it.

--I'll do this as much as possible.

Quote:
-There's the smaller space at the back of the room. I'm thinking of using it for a bass trap. What's the best way to do this? Just fill the whole thing with insulation then cover with cloth? I could build a panel absorber, I'm just not sure It'll be more effective than the insulation.

Is this for your control room?

-- No sorry. If you look at the sketchup there's a space at the back of the booth with a slightly shorter ceiling height. This is the space I'm talking about. Should I fill it with absorption. it's 12" deep. Would that be over kill?

Quote:
-Any general advice on treating the inside of the room?

Keep the floor hard. Your ceiling should probably consist of pure insulation. You don't want your room too dead, but it's so small, you're going to have troubles with hard surfaces. I know how I would approach it if it were my little room, but I should leave it up to one of the veteran members to advise you on this question.

--I'm going to get treatment for the inner space. For Voice overs do you want to room to be as dead as possible?

Thanks again for your replies. I've decided based of your responses that a full frame with more layers will be the better way to go.

-As much isolation as possible. There's the furnace plus a fairly major road on the other side of my backyard out the window.

"As much as possible" isn't much use. You need to define an actual number, in decibels. There are equations, tables, charts, and rules-of-thumb for designing isolation systems, but for all of those, you need to have an actual number.

I was hopping to frame it with something smaller that 2x4 to save on space

That will reduce the space needed, sure, but it will also reduce the structural integrity...

-- Well its not a large space so I'm not terribly worried about the cost but i'll take a look at MDF vs Drywall.

Look at fiber-cement board too. Same mass for half the thickness... So you could use one layer of MDF as the base layer, for structural strength then a second layer of fiber-cement board over that, for mass. The only problem with fiber-cement (apart from the cost) is that it is somewhat brittle, and will crack from bending or impact.

- Stuart -