I need help and advice on building my Recording studio. Please help.

A

AngryWildMAngo

New member
Hi, I am an Electronic Music Producer (and Graphic Designer) with a lot a friends who are in bands or just play instruments, A week ago I started thinking about building a recording studio for my own use and for others in my small town to use because this would be the only real recording studio within at least 50 miles form where I live. Now here I am a week later and I have the room planned out, with the walls purchased and about to be put up. But I am here to ask acoustic absorbing and panels/traps/diffusers

The room I built is 6ft high with a 14x8ft floor/ceiling. Long walls that are 14ft long and short walls that are 8ft long. The walls ceiling and Floor are all made from Plywood that is 1/2" thick. The room is in the upper corner of a extremely large two door aluminum panel garage.

Now I am getting ready to order bass traps, acoustic tiles, and other sound adsorbents. By the way I read this for help Home Recording Studio Solutions for Everyday Musicians

I was planning on putting corner bass traps in the 8 corners and then doing a checkerboard style placement with the acoustic panels. As in, one wall has a 1x1ft panel every other foot like a checkerboard and the wall across from it will have the opposite pattern.

Not that is a total of 168 foam panels which if I buy these panels Amazon.com: Mybecca 12 Pack Acoustic Wedge Studio Soundproofing Foam Wall Tiles 12" X 12" X 1" (12 Square Feet) Made in USA: Musical Instruments thats $230, not including the bass traps.

What I am asking is a few questions.
1. How thick should my panels be? The ones I chose are pretty damn thin and some reviews say they are worthless.
2. I want good quality, but I want to spend as little as possible. What panels/bass traps do you recommenced?
3. Do I need to cover my whole wall? if not, how much should I cover and/or how should I cover it/what is the best way for me to cover this room. Wall dementions again are long walls: 6x14ft short walls: 6x8ft My speakers/setup/computer will have its back to one of the short walls with the speakers aiming toward the other short wall across the room.
4. I am also painting the room. Should/could I use a certain paint or are there paints I should not use?
4. Could you tell me any setups/products/anything I can do to help me make this room great for recording/producing?
5. Any other tips for this room would also be amazing.

The main question is. What is the best way for me to make this room into a proper recording studio?


Please help me with this, I want this room to be extremely nice for producing and recording vocals/instruments.
If you are interested in my music here is my Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/angrywildmango
Thanks for reading and Thank you for any help you can give.
 
1) Your room is SMALL. 6ft ceiling means you've got no room for ceiling cloud traps at all (people will hit their heads). It's going to sound boxy and/or dead even with a ton of bass traps.
2) Forget the foam squares. For now anyway. 4" thick (minimum) x 2' wide rockwool panels in each corner (floor to ceiling) - or superchunks (rockwool cut into triangles) in each corner.
3) So you are tracking and mixing in this room? For mixing, you'll need 2" thick (minimum) traps at points of first reflection plus a ceiling cloud over your mixing spot.
 
People in the room will be sitting almost all of the time.
I am mostly producing electronic music in the room. So I am Producing, mixing, and mastering. I use my monitor speakers and monitor headphones. But obviously this is with the speakers in mind.

So pretty much cover the corners floor to ceiling, first reflection points, and ceiling over the mixing spot with rockwool panels at the sizes you recommended.

Would this be sufficient? (not size wise, but material) Amazon.com: ATS Acoustic Panel 24x48x2 Inches in Ivory: Musical Instruments
 
AngryWildMAngo said:
People in the room will be sitting almost all of the time.
I am mostly producing electronic music in the room. So I am Producing, mixing, and mastering. I use my monitor speakers and monitor headphones. But obviously this is with the speakers in mind.

So pretty much cover the corners floor to ceiling, first reflection points, and ceiling over the mixing spot with rockwool panels at the sizes you recommended.

Would this be sufficient? (not size wise, but material) Amazon.com: ATS Acoustic Panel 24x48x2 Inches in Ivory: Musical Instruments
Click to expand...

Yes, from my experience (not with those panels specifically) they would be sufficient for 'first reflection points' absorption to hinder the upper frequency range reflections from your monitors above and on the sides of your listening position. I did not investigate much but it seems these are foam absorbers from ATS. Though as you will find with a bit of Google searches, foam is not the best choice for bass traps. In fact less expensive products do much better, but you will have to do a bit of DIY framing to make it happen.

Make sure you know the difference between reflections and room modes and what is recommended to help with those issues.
 
Thanks for the info. Stopping here (on the site) definitely helped. Could you or anyone reading this, direct me to some articles/forum threads or even good products. I will and already have done my own research, but help is always great.

Thanks guys.
 
AngryWildMAngo said:
Thanks for the info. Stopping here (on the site) definitely helped. Could you or anyone reading this, direct me to some articles/forum threads or even good products. I will and already have done my own research, but help is always great.

Thanks guys.
Click to expand...

Anytime Angry! lol.. Sorry.

Anyway, there are 'stickies' at the top of this forum on HR that discuss much about what you are asking.

Just go HERE and read them. :)
 
Also look at Acoustimac. Several of us here used them. I bought $1500 worth of kits and mounting hardware (assembly required, but quite easy [screwdriver, pliers and staple gun]) to do my room. 24 2x2x2" absorbers, corner bass traps (not kits), 2'x4'x4" ceiling clouds + spacers, hangers and green glue (important). Money well spent.
You can also order premade stuff here.
Otherwise, if you have more time than money, you can do a lot of DIY and save quite a bit of money. But recommend OC703/705 for traps (or Roxul 60)

A quick guide to things you'll want to look at (if you'd like to make your own).
1x4 timber for frames.
Green Glue.
OC703 or Rockboard 60.
ZClips (mounting if you want them removeable) and/or lengths of 2x2 to space away from walls. (You can glue the 2x2 to the frame and use the zclips up on the wall and down on the 2x2s to mount.
Burlap or some other highly audibly transparent cloth (see your local $1 bins at craft/big box stores).

Too bad about the 6' ceiling. That'll make things tough (especially if you get a 6'3" musician...
 
I am building my own traps, it comes to about 35 bucks per panel. using rockwool 60, 4 inches in the corners and 2 inches for the wall traps. :D
 

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