Test Tube Audio (Austin, TX) Completed!

apexer · Post by **apexer** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 3:20 am

Hello everybody. Thanks to this forum and everybody who has been so helpful, my studio is complete and is a success. My 25 ft. away neighboors can't hear anything ( even when I play LOUD drums at 4:00 am)
here's my orginal post when I started this project in April ('06)
http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic ... highlight=

when I first got the house ( from what is now the control room looking into what is now the live room )

when I first got the house ( from what is now the live room looking into what is now the control room and iso )

designing the mic panel ( sketchup rocks! )

removing the drywall in a way that I could reuse it ( jig saw with a SHORT blade!!)

removed drywall panels

beefing up the outter leaf:
old insulation removed and original drywall glued to siding with silicon caulking ( held it up, but was not rigid, and provided resilience between the two layers of the outter leaf )

control room wall going up, also floor for the iso

3rd layer of drywall attatched to outter leaf ( with silicon caulking in between ) and cleated w/ small pieces of wood ( 12"X.5"X1" appx )

Live floor, 24" centers, fibrex mineral wool, mass loaded vinyl on top for resilience between MDF and floor joists which are on auralex u-boats

framing of iso walls and ceiling going up!

finnished live room! ( more pictures on my other comp of the live room framing, drywall, insulation, RCs )

Iso booth looking into live room

Post by **sharward** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 3:43 am

Looks beautiful!

Man, I sure wish you had kept your thread up to date during your construction... It would have been great. You sort of left us hanging with the removal of your "middle leaf" drywall...

I'm glad you have the results you were aiming for.

What did you do about your windows?

--Keith

apexer · Post by **apexer** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 2:01 pm

Sorry to leave you hangin Keith! I was under HARSH deadline crunch! ( ended up having to do most of the sessions during the construction anyway.) But, I've got some free time now, and want to make it up to you guys.

The removal of the existing drywall was incredibly easy, and the fact that it reduced the amount of waste and the cost of more material so much, I would recommend it to anyone in the same situation. Of course I could never A/B it with if I had left the existing drywall, but according to all the STC charts, it was well worth it.

For the windows, I cut full sheets of 5/8" MDF that fit snug into the window cavity and then used acoustic sealant to seal the edges. Then I glued a sheet of 1/2" drywall with silicone caulking against the MDF ( again, educated experiment! ), sealed the edges with acoustic sealant, and then a 5/8" drywall, w/ silicone again to the 1/2" drywall. and more acoustic sealant.

A lot of you are probably scratching your head about the silicone caulking technique. I decided to do this when trying to think of the best way to attatch the 1st layer of drywall to the siding ( in between the studs ). I figured it was adhesive, but also resilient. ( it bounces when it drys up in little balls!) I knew that I didn't want the layers to be glued so rigidly that they would form 1 (low) fundamental frequency but also not so "airy"that it would result in multiple leafs (leaves?). What do you guys think about this?

I'd like to report to you guys an accurate STC rating. What is a good way to test? I've got a radioshack SPL meter, and the capablilites to produce loud pink/ white noise.

and finally here's my studio site:
http://www.testtubeaudio.com

cheers.
Kevin

BCains · Post by **BCains** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 2:36 pm

that looks great! more importantly how does it sound?

also do you have a floor plan to show?

Post by **sharward** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 2:48 pm

STC is a rather meaningless figure in studio construction, so forget all of that. Low end transmission loss is key. I wouldn't worry about trying to quantify the results. Unless you're willing to literally move your entire house to Riverbank or Orfield for lab testing, it's pointless to even contemplate.

The use of silicone caulk as a part adhesive, part constrained dampening layer is experimental indeed. I certainly would not advise it in the absence of cleats to actually hold the panels in place (and I see you did use them)...

Did you address Rod's concern about the electrical boxes?

--Keith

apexer · Post by **apexer** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 5:59 pm

Well, I had a certified electrician come out, and he basically fixed the insulation, because the wires were fine.....and it was 7 a.m. and I think he'd been out drinking all night.

Post by **sharward** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 10:40 pm

That's good that the wire insulation nicked by your jigsaw got fixed properly... But I was actually referring to Rod's concern about the boxes that were (or are still?

) attached to the "now inaccessible" outer leaf framing...

In your original thread, Rod wrote:And note that this accessible box has to be installed in your new inner wall - it can't be in the outside bay.

You did get that transmission before you went "radio silent" -- didn't you?

--Keith

apexer · Post by **apexer** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 5:05 am

It seems like you guys were talking about the junction box that I would have had to make if the wire wasn't fixable, but it was, so I didn't have to put in the box......right?

Post by **sharward** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 1:13 pm

No. We are referring to the outlet box that was attached to the outer leaf framing. We wanted to make sure you didn't end up with an outlet or a junction box that was made inaccessible by your new inner leaf walls. It really has nothing at all to do with the wire being nicked.

--Keith

apexer · Post by **apexer** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 6:00 pm

Oh okay. I made sure that all outlets became new outlets on the inner leaf. There was only one outlet that I couldn't get enough slack to make an outlet, but I was able to cap the wires and put them into an accesible ( from the inner leaf ) junction box.