John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hey all

I'm building my first home and my wife has given me one of the larger rooms (second floor) to use as my studio. It's a 12'x16'6" room with a 6'x4' closet attached. Standard height ceilings (8', I believe) I'm not planning to record any live instruments, mostly mixing and the occasional vocal (looking at using the closet as a booth - either that or just building gobos). Typically, I'm playing between 75-85 dB. Current main monitors are Adam Audio T8v, with a pair of NS-10T as my alternates. I've got about a $2500 budget, but would love to spend a lot less if possible. Although I've got a lot of pro experience, I'm doing this more to have a space to work with some artists I am developing, as well as some mix clients. It's less about making a living, but keeping myself busy and happy.

Before the walls are completed, I've been given 'permission' to insulate the room. I plan on using a layer of Rockwool Safe N Sound in each stud bay, as well as the ceiling and floor joists. I'm not sure what the drywall is, but I'm guessing it's 1/2". I reached out to GIK Acoustics to get their thoughts on the room and they provided me with a list of items that could help (bass traps and panels, as well as configuration). Also, they provided me with some design considerations -

Left and Right speakers
• 3’6" from the sidewalls
• 2’3" from the front wall
• 4’ from the floor (if you can adjust the height)

Listening position (facing the window)
• 6’2" from the front wall
• 4’ from the floor

Additionally, they offered the following recommendations -

4-Tri-Trap Corner Bass Trap© with Range Limiter @ $150.00 two stacked in each front corner
2 -Monster Bass Trap w/FRT (Narrow) with Range Limiter @ $84.49 two stacked in the left rear corner next to the bathroom door
1 -Monster Bass Trap w/FRT (rectangle) with Range Limiters @ $142.50 one low and centered on the front wall between the speakers (can sit on the floor on its side)
8 -244 Bass Trap w/FRT (24”x 48” rectangle) Full Range @ $74.99 on the sidewalls next to the desk (two per side butted up against each other) and four on the ceiling over the desk
2 -6A Alpha Series Rectangle with 2D Scattering @ $198.00 on the rear wall between the doors



Now for the questions

- I'm not a fan of aesthetically placing a bunch of panels on the wall. Are there other options for how to design/build the interior of the room that masks them? (I'm a huge fan of Jon Sine's room)
- How should I treat the closet to be useful for vocals?
- I'm considering building a custom desk because I'll also need to use this space for my day job; any suggestions on materials or size (currently I'm using a 6'x4', but it's significant overkill)
- Am I overthinking this?

I've attached the blueprint of the room. Thanks in advance for your help.

ok, checlist:
- SAF - check
- decent size room - check
- not looking for isolation - check
- GIK package sized for your room - check

on the closet, do you still need it as a closet? if you have enough vocal work to do, then i'd add some absorption all around including the ceiling and door. and use a TV and webcam for the "window". if it needs to remain a closet (for most times) then just do vocals in the main room and build up some gobos for masking it a bit.

as far as creating a fully integrated absorption system in your room - it's definitely possible - although i'd probably make it more invisible so it just likes nice walls so when you're video conferencing for work etc it's just a need looking room.

Thanks.

I'm actually ok with converting it, totally. My garage and master bedroom closets will be big enough to manage most things I'd need storage for.

If I were to go with integrated absorption, what would you suggest?

effectively you'd be covering the walls to about 4" deep with cloth to hide the innards. i'll draft up the idea tonight or tomorrow so you have an idea of this approach. we'll hide pressure traps as well as POA (plain old absorption) to target major axial modes, and then ceiling clouds to balance the ceiling-floor modes but these will not be continuous.

rmwilson79 wrote:Hey all

I'm building my first home and my wife has given me one of the larger rooms (second floor) to use as my studio. It's a 12'x16'6" room wi

I've attached the blueprint of the room. Thanks in advance for your help.

I built 8' high frames about 16" wide covered with micro suede from ATS Acoustics.
This covers my Ultratouch panels hanging on the wall.

Problems:
Using 2"x2" furring wood is not straight enough-should have ripped 3x4" plywood into perfect strips for framing.
Micro suede is hard to stretch. You want something east to stretch really tight.

mlbchitown wrote:
I built 8' high frames about 16" wide covered with micro suede from ATS Acoustics.
This covers my Ultratouch panels hanging on the wall.

This is about what I was thinking. I was close to pulling the trigger on designing, but realized that I need to be able to hang some other things on the wall (photos, plaques, etc) and don't know if that'll interfere.

it might depending on what you hang and where. of course that big thing in the middle of the room might also change things... but putting some things on absorber units is not uncommon - guitars, paintings, etc. just avoid critical reflection areas.

gullfo wrote:it might depending on what you hang and where. of course that big thing in the middle of the room might also change things... but putting some things on absorber units is not uncommon - guitars, paintings, etc. just avoid critical reflection areas.

So I'm guessing I'd be using 2x4s to frame the interior of the room, and just hang on those interior 'studs'?

so use 2x4 for just building absorption? i'd go with 2x3 frame set out 1" from the wall. i think 2x4 will be too much for simply doing absorption and then set up from plywood or lumber strips to span the stud and put the instrument hangers on. fill the backside with R11 pressed behind the stud and expanded in-between. then face that with semi-rigid 2", then cloth. or dacron (think upholstery) under the cloth.

Thanks. I've got a few months before we close, so now the hard part is picking colors