Studio build-out thread

[chugheshc]

Hey folks,
I am finishing out my second studio space, thought I would post the progress from bare ground, so to speak.
It's a utility room in the front of my basement; 14' X 14' X 8'.
Three walls are concrete with fiberglass batt blanket over them (it has a polyethelene finish). One wall is standard 1/2" drywall with pretty decent solid interior door.
While a square room is of course, not ideal, it is larger than the last square room I had to work with (10.5' X 11' X 6.5').
So, if you're bored, you can follow along and live vicariously through my exploits.
Cheers
C.
Here are pictures from day of house closing

 

[chugheshc]

It's ROXSUL time.
So there is a branch of SP&I here, (Specialty Products and Insulation).
I can get 8# density 4" thick ROXSUL for $1.20 @ sq ft.
I am really fortunate, the house is built with engineered lumber, so the ceiling joists are actually wooden i-beams.
I cut the ROXSUL to fit inside the space between the webs, and let it rest on the flanges. You have to angle one side of it to allow it to fit in at an angle and then fall down horizontal.
I'll be covering it with cloth, pushed in between the insulation and the flange.

 

[Re-tox_stl]

Looks great so far! Im excited to see how this ends up! But just a newb question. Is the roxul mainly for soundproofing, or acoustic treatment?

 

[Weasel9992]

Looks great so far! Im excited to see how this ends up! But just a newb question. Is the roxul mainly for soundproofing, or acoustic treatment?

Both. It all depends on how you employ it.

Frank

 

[chugheshc]

Thanks Re-tox, I sure hope it turns out as good as I hope.
Like Weasel said, the Roxsul can perform either function -

Acoustic Absorption - When the roxsul is exposed to the interior space of the studio (like it is in between the joists in my space) it will absorb the sound energy directly - taking out highs and lows.

Acoustic Isolation - When the roxsul is trapped in between surfaces (as in a wall cavity) it will help to dampen/absorb any sound energy that are getting through the drywall (Or other wall material). Necessarily, these will likely be lower pitch frequencies - these are what travel through solid materials.

If you are shooting for soundproof, you need to be airtight and then you need a great deal of mass. If you are really going to make an effort, you want to decouple the interior and exterior surfaces of the room from each other (isolation pads, room within a room, hat channel to hang your sheetrock on etc)

In this installation I gave up on the soundproofing aspect. ( the last space I had room within a room, double doors etc, it's a lot of work and I probably only got 12-15 db drop out of it).

In addition to the roxsul in the ceiling, I have about 140 sq ft of rigid fiberglass panels to hang (they came from my last space).

Here is what it is supposed to look like when done -

Here is the latest update -
Black paint on the bottom flanges of the joists and little par lights in the four bulb fixtures.

Here is the immense pile of crap I will have to unpack when I get the room finished -

 

[chugheshc]

Craigslist to the rescue again - after shopping for curtains to cover the walls, I realized I needed about $400 worth.
Ouch.
So, relentlessly cruised CL for the next 5 days and found this - 32 yards of 60" wide fabric in a pretty decent shade of orangeish/red.
$25

CL really kicks ass.
I picked up a pair of Advent (actually made by beyerdynamics) microphones two months ago for $40. No idea how they sound, but at that price it's stupid not to give it a try.

 

[chugheshc]

Ok, it's been busy the last week at Casa de Aromaticsquid.
I haven't mentioned it, but let's discuss safety.
Always read the instructions for any material or tool you are going to use, and always try to think of the possible consequences of your actions.
You've only got one set of ears and eyes, I'd suggest protecting them.
For instance, I"m working with rock wool (suggested an osha respirator, and eye protection, and long sleeves- check!). Damn good thing too, because the fibers from it are super fine and super irritating; since I was working overhead, the possibility of eye injury was there as well.
Yes, wearing an eye shield and a respirator is uncomfortable, but going to the emergency room with eye or breathing problems is much worse and possibly forever.
Touching on safety again - I am spraying fire retardant on the cloth that is covering most of the surfaces in my little space. -

Yeah, I'm not planning on having a fire, or allowing smoking, but you need to plan for this stuff and allow for the possibility that this could happen.
Since the space is pretty well covered in cloth (cotton/polyester) I am making sure I don't have an issue.
On to the fun stuff-
the 32 yards of craigslist fabric went up on the walls -

Then it was 30 odd yards of black fabric to cover up the Roxsul in the ceiling -

Then the fun really starts - hanging my panels from my previous space -
Another shout-out for safety - there is good sized safety factor in hanging these. Any single attachment point will carry the full weight of the panel, and the big one has 6.

Whoops! - there was one unfinished wall -

Ok, enough of this, on to the good stuff.
Here is console land (and PC land, and monitor amp land and A/D land, and storage).

that's all for this installment.
Next episode - Cut a hole in the wall of my new house for the air conditioning exhaust duct! (You know you can't wait).
C>

 

[chugheshc]

Ok, what a pain in the ass the AC turned out to be.
I got good results but it took longer than I anticipated, like most things related to studios/music.
I had an opening a little larger than my head (like, 1/4" larger), 8' feet off the ground to work on the duct from the inside.
Outside was a different matter, it was way convenient for me.
Looking up at the insulation/gas heater vent-

Outside cutting hole in pretty wall (glad wife at work to not see this) -

Decent looking by the time I was done -

Finished! -

Next installment - gear porn! (Ok, it's vintage gear porn, but some folks like the old school action)

 

[chugheshc]

It's time to see if anything died during the packing/storage/unpacking.
All this gear was running for 3 1/2 years straight, so I was kind of worried about what would happen after it sat in a warehouse for 3 months.
Turns out not too much.
My cello popped a couple of strings loose (but it does that if you just don;t pay attention to it anyway) and that seems to be the damage so far.
Here's everything you need for a pretty decent project studio from 1996! -

I have the output side & A/D hooked up, just need to get the input stuff done.
Room sounds pretty good to me, I won't really have a feel for it until I start tracking and mixing, but my initial perception is not too bad.

 

[Weasel9992]

Yeah...punching through an exterior wall is always a little hairy. Nice job so far...post some pics with everything in place.

Frank

 

[Re-tox_stl]

Please post more updates soon! Im getting very impatient ha ha

 

[chugheshc]

Taa... Daa...
Finally pretty much finished.

Now for the vintage gear porn -

And the closer -

Christ, it's been over three years since I had last set this stuff up - it took me almost two weeks to figure out how to get it all working again.
pro-tip #1 - if you plug a mono 1/4" plug into the inserts and the 1/4" TRS into the A/D, you donna get nothin out of of it. This stopped me for like 5 days.
I have not set levels yet but all the input channels seem to be operational, hopefully I can dial everything in this weekend, get back to work.
In other news, I had a second audition and seems like I will be playing bass in band.

 

[Weasel9992]

Right on. How does it sound in there?

Frank

 

[chugheshc]

It sounds good.
I had a fellow over for some singer songwriter stuff and we tracked a little bit.
I am greatly encouraged. Once again, room treatment makes a huge difference, especially in these tiny spaces I ham using.
Once I get something totally recorded in here I will post it for critique.
Cheers
C>

 

[moresound]

It sounds good.
I had a fellow over for some singer songwriter stuff and we tracked a little bit.
I am greatly encouraged. Once again, room treatment makes a huge difference, especially in these tiny spaces I ham using.
Once I get something totally recorded in here I will post it for critique.
Cheers
C>

Hey chugheshc ....I noticed your mixer and the strangest thing...
I was just given to me a Soundcraft series 200 (24x4x2) and it sounds so good!
I was going to post about it but thought I'd talk to you about it first.
Stuff like ..do you like it,how much do you think it's worth etc.?

 

[chugheshc]

I like it a lot - my professional sound buddy recommended it to me.
It's pretty quiet, and you can pull channel strips individually if you need to repair them.
There are also quite a few of them floating around, so parts are still accessible.
I have had very good luck with it - <fingers crossed> - no problems in the five years I've owned it.
This particular mixer had been used to mix a "real" record. It has also traveled all over the united states as a monitor console.
If you get a fancy headphone amp, you can use the subs and send individual headphone mixes (I don't do this, since that costs money, and I have a tiny room to boot).
I use the direct outs to feed my Motus (TRS > mono), and the mix buss on the console to feed the headphones; dicking with the headphones/faders has no effect on the motu inputs, and I just have to turn off the input if I want to listen to the mix out loud.
Seems pretty efficient and sounds good.
These were serious pieces of equipment back in the day, and since they were made to be serviced, you can get a lot of life out of them.
As to worth - If everything is operating and it looks nice, somewhere between $500 - $750 for the 24 channel.
got to remember, folks that need a 24 channel board, usually want something with warranty and support, and people that want a 24 channel board usually can;t really afford a nice one.
cheers
C>

 

[moresound]

I like it a lot - my professional sound buddy recommended it to me.
It's pretty quiet, and you can pull channel strips individually if you need to repair them.
There are also quite a few of them floating around, so parts are still accessible.
I have had very good luck with it - <fingers crossed> - no problems in the five years I've owned it.
This particular mixer had been used to mix a "real" record. It has also traveled all over the united states as a monitor console.
If you get a fancy headphone amp, you can use the subs and send individual headphone mixes (I don't do this, since that costs money, and I have a tiny room to boot).
I use the direct outs to feed my Motus (TRS > mono), and the mix buss on the console to feed the headphones; dicking with the headphones/faders has no effect on the motu inputs, and I just have to turn off the input if I want to listen to the mix out loud.
Seems pretty efficient and sounds good.
These were serious pieces of equipment back in the day, and since they were made to be serviced, you can get a lot of life out of them.
cheers
C>

Thanks chugheshc yeah this is a nice mixer and the one thing that stood right out was...
The warm silky tone of this console unlike the harsh sounding behringer or makie etc. boards.
And the EQ section...when you move a pod a little it makes a big difference.

Now all of this was done by....
just going out of the Soundcraft into an amp then to a speaker. No EQ or any other processing.
I think that this is a keeper.

Have you seen any prices on these around? Or a rough guess?

 

[chugheshc]

I'd pay US $600 - $800 for a 200b 24 X 4 X 2 depending on the condition, how many power supplies, did it come with the case, what was the provenance, etc.
I paid around $600 for this three years ago, with a case, and I knew where it was coming from (guy was an actual sound engineer, and board was in very good repair).
C>

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

So, if you're bored, you can follow along and live vicariously through my exploits

Yea, but we wouldn't face death or loss of life/home should something happen.


With all due respect chugheshc, I hope all those fabrics have "flame retardant" applied to them. That room would almost explode should a fire erupt for ANY reason.
fitZ

 

[Chili]

With all due respect chugheshc, I hope all those fabrics have "flame retardant" applied to them. That room would almost explode should a fire erupt for ANY reason.
fitZ

yeah, he mentioned it in post #7. It's something I need to do for my room also.

peace,