John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi there,

I have an enclosed space (3 walls) of 5'8''x3'8''. I'm planning to build a 4th wall (a 5'8'' side) to create a small mic/guitar booth.

It would be easier to draw a picture but I'm using Mac and don't know of any drawing programs for it. So I'll try my best.

It's a concrete floor. The ceiling is 9ft. (the wall I will construct will be 7ft.), however on the other 5'8''-long wall there is a normal air-conditioner close to the ceiling. It's bottom is 6'6'' from the floor and it's edge reaches 2'7'' to the centre of the whole wall. I'm going to slant a ceiling, of half the booth, from the bottom of the a/c to the top of the wall I will construct.

The other half of the ceiling I'm not sure whether to leave at 9ft. and then put in some insulation hangers, or slant it also. What would be best here?

There is also an existing light on this half of the ceiling, so I need to leave a space for it to be able to still be effective as the light in the booth.

Inside the wall I will construct I plan to use Insulco Semi-Rigid Glasswool (the OC 703 equivalent in Australia, I think), and cover it both sides using either:

gypsom panels, plywood, MDF, wallboard......what's the difference with these? Is there a difference? And what would be the easiest/most convenient to buy in OZ?

All I know is that the alternate sides should be different thickness, right? To compensate for the same frequency squeezing thru? What about putting more than one layer on a side? Or should they each be of different material?

Sidenote: I don't know all the right terminology. I hope you understand what I mean.

I read somewhere that staggered stud design is a must. What is this?

And I need to put some sort of Jack Plate in...maybe a link to where I can learn about these. Is there a such thing as a plate for a USB port?

On the 'to-be-constructed' wall, and under the slanted-ceiling on the the a/c side, I want to put in a narrow door just over 1ft. wide (I'm a rake, don't eat much!) and just over 6ft. high. Can I make this the same way as the actual wall- with the glasswool inside and the covering on both sides?

Inside the booth, I'm looking for the same absorption pads/foam that Eric Henry used- he's got a link to pictures of his new booth at

http://www.johnlsayers.com/Studio/index.htm

Any Aussies know a similar product to this that you can buy in OZ? Or anything better?

Lastly, is it worth floating the floor on rubber pucks- covering it with plywood?

Thanking in advance for any suggestions/corrections/answers...

Cheers,
acer

There are a couple of possibilities here for drawing on mac - what OS are you running? If I knew that, I might be able to find something.

Thing is, while descriptions are cool, they don't tell it nearly like a picture, and I'm getting too low on time to try and sort out what you said right now - Check out the possibilities here, and see what you can do -

http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3120-200 ... aw&ca=2003

http://download.com.com/3000-2187-63952 ... egacy=cnet

http://download.com.com/3150-2187-0.html?tag=stbc.gp

If any of these work out, post a drawing so it won't take hours to figure out your situation. Otherwise, I'll try to find some time to sort it out in a day or two... Steve

Hi there,

I got a basic drawing done using CADintosh, but when I tried to attach it it said that 'The Extension cad is not allowed'. Do you know how I can post it another way?

If I just can't, then I'll have a go at another drawing program. But don't waste your time trying to decipher what I originally wrote. I just read it again with fresh eyes and it hardly made sense to me

I'm using OS X 10.2, so if you know of a good program with which I can post a drawing, I'm ready to go...

Try a simple simple program. idraw, you can download it from apples OS X Downloads page.

It's basic, but works. There are better but they cost.

Bryan Giles

Or see if you can save that CAD file as an jpg, gif or tif and then convert it (resixe for speaad) in Graphic Converter

Don't know if this'll work...probably will 'cause it's the most basic that I've done

Nope

Many apologies. If you are using OS X when you go to print that CAD image, save it as a pdf. Under output options in the print dialogue window.

Attach the PDf so we can download it to view it.

That might help

Bryan Giles

Or in CADINTOSH export your image as a PICT file then use Graphic convertor to convert it to a web rready .gif

Not sure if that is what you attempted or not. But it's worth a shot.

Back again. I haven't had any success with the diagrams and I don't have any hair left to pull out

Instead I have some straight questions:

Any Aussies know where to buy the Soundcheck gypsum panels that are mentioned in that SAE thingy?

Would it be alright to build a door as described in the SAE thingy except just a single door, instead of having the prescribed two for isolation?

Would 25mm/1inch thick glasswool (Insulco) be good enough (placed 25mm/1inch away from the wall) to sufficiently absorb sound?

Is it worth mixing up the sound absorption material using glasswool and some Sonex foam(38mm)?

And finally: Would the hanger system described in the SAE thingy be of use inside half of the booth?
(Half the booth will have 6'6'' ceiling, and the other will have 9ft. ceiling)

Cheers...acer

By the way, for any Aussies in the Hunter/Central Coast area looking for the Insulco Semi-Rigid Glasswool that John recommends, there's a place in Cardiff that sells it.

Give Matt a call on 1300 361 230. It's a freecall and he's a friendly bloke.

Maybe i can help, email me the original Cadintosh file and I will see if I can convert it and upload it

keglimited@ameritech.net

Bryan Giles

I've drawn up a diagram of the booth floor plan with Intaglio, saved as a .pdf file. Maybe it'll work...

Well, I hope there's no Intaglio people who see it

The writing under the 'ed' in the word unlicensed reads:

'Ceiling in this half of booth is 9ft.
(not sure whether to slant it, or put
hangers in and lower it)'

Hope this helps.

Would it be alright to build a door as described in the SAE thingy except just a single door, instead of having the prescribed two for isolation?

Would 25mm/1inch thick glasswool (Insulco) be good enough (placed 25mm/1inch away from the wall) to sufficiently absorb sound?

Is it worth mixing up the sound absorption material using glasswool and some Sonex foam(38mm)?

And finally: Would the hanger system described in the SAE thingy be of use inside half of the booth?
(Half the booth will have 6'6'' ceiling, and the other will have 9ft. ceiling)

A single, well-built and sealed door will help noticeably over a standard one, but two is quite a bit better. 1" Insulco is better than nothing, but 2 or 3" will give more even absorption. In any case, space it off the wall by 2-3" if you can.

It's not worth mixing Sonex with anything unless the Sonex is free.

The hangers in the ceiling will help bass absorption, which will be a good thing. The sloped ceiling is also good, eliminates one set of parallel surfaces... Steve

Thanks for the clarification Steve.

I'm pretty sure there won't be enough room to fit the Insulco 3 inches away from the wall, so would it be worth floating the floor?

I remember reading that floating it can deaden a booth too much, but in my case, because I won't be able to set the absorption up to the optimum level, it may be beneficial. What do you think?

Cheers...acer