Converting Attic Into Rec Studio/Control Room. (long winded post)

[goatfarmer03]

ABOUT ME
First off I am a very inexperienced Carpenter, so this whole thread might end up as a step by step walk through for me. Which will be excellent not only for me, but for others that visit this forum. Starting on a clean slate of measurements and building from there will offer up a great picture-led tutorial for anyone with ideas or questions having to do with building home studios.
I have read up a bit on acoustics myself, but would in no way call myself experienced in this field either. I'm basically a Singer/Songwriter with an Acoustic Guitar that has a vision for his attic, and I am ready to upgrade from this spare room nonsense I've been working in for the past year.

THE HOUSE AND RECORDING SITUATION
This house is a brand new construction, me and my wife just moved in Feb '08 and I have had all my recording stuff in this spare bedroom. (It really isn't that much Hardware, because I have an in the box work flow). In our old house and this one I have recorded mainly Acoustic Instruments and Vocals for myself. But I have dabbled a bit recording Electric Instruments, and also doing quick mix jobs for local bands demos (of all kinds of genres). So I will more than likely not be recording drums live, ever.
The houses location is very convenient for a studio though. Here's a Google Satellite link of my neighborhood (pan down just a bit till that dark square is in the center of the screen). This shot was taken before my house was constructed, my house resides on the bottom right corner of the pond (the dark square in the center of the image). As you can see, I live on an "off in the boonies" road, and even then my driveway is 460 ft long (surrounded in trees). Still, if I am sitting up in my attic, and the wind is blowing correctly I can faintly hear the cars on the highway down the street. But currently my attic is nothing but roof and rafters (see picture below) so there is absolutely no insulation from sound at all. That along with noise from downstairs is the only outside sound I have to worry about coming in. Outward sounds are of no concern when it comes to neighbors, my closest neighbor is across the pond from me and every other direction is acres of trees. Sounds within the house, between the attic and the downstairs are of some concern, but I don't mix at ridiculous levels and I rarely record anything that hooks into an Amp. So take that for what it is.

WHAT I HAVE AND WHEN I NEED
My attic is currently a bare space and I need to start from nothing for the building process. I plan to build this over the next year or so, which makes my budget somewhere around $4500 but that could be stretched to $7000 if need be.

THE PLAN

That is the space (click to expand). You can see the pull down attic stairs peeking up at the bottom center of the picture. I plan on putting a door right there and closing off the entire area in front of it. I'm going to keep the space behind it for regular attic space. All the dimensions I gave are according to that plan. That single piece of plywood is pressed up against the left edge of the rafters for an idea of scale. It is also there to show my wall plan. To avoid ridiculous amount of bass build up in those 45 degree floor-to-wall angles, (the attic area is a 45/45/90 triangle) I want to wall off the bottom 4 feet with a single piece of plywood (indicated by the red lines). This will cut my workable space into 9'5"x14'5"x8'5", which seems like a very decent size for a single room home studio. And a lot larger and nicer than what i currently use. I also want to do something to flatten off the ceiling since having a 90 degree angle way up there won't be good at all.
My Question is where do I start? I imagine the floor would be the best place, but what should i plan on doing to it in order to achieve a fair amount of sound isolation from everything below? The floor (as you can see) is just bare joist spans with some cheapo insulation, and the roof is just shingles/plywood/roof planks. Its all yours after that, I am open to any suggestions, ideas, or comments.

Thanks for reading all this
-wes

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

My Question is where do I start?

Here:
http://www.amazon.com/Home-Recording.../dp/1598630342
fitZ

[Chili]

Oh man, you're a whole lot closer to my boat than I am. It's just across the bay at Stingray Point.

Your first step is to make sure your floor can support the additional load. Maybe talk to the builder or hire a structural engineer.

peace.

[goatfarmer03]

Originally Posted by RICK FITZPATRICK

Here:
http://www.amazon.com/Home-Recording.../dp/1598630342
fitZ

Actually a guy i work with let me borrow that book. But everything on flooring seems to be for Concrete Slab foundations. Not a 2nd Story/Attic type foundation. That's why I wanted to get that straight before i began. How should i got about doing some minor sound isolation on this floor type?

Originally Posted by Chili

Oh man, you're a whole lot closer to my boat than I am. It's just across the bay at Stingray Point.

Your first step is to make sure your floor can support the additional load. Maybe talk to the builder or hire a structural engineer.

peace.

Yeah this is a barren land over here. Most people don't even know it exists. I have a Builder guy that is a friend of mine coming over sometime this week to check out the structuring to make sure it can support the load. Hopefully he will give me some good news.
Here is a little image i did in Google Sketchup real fast, to give you guys an idea what I am going for. Of course the front wall will be solid with a door, but I couldn't figure out how to make that happen in Sketchup since I only worked with it for an hour or so.


So I guess my original question still stands. What kind of flooring should i go for? Without raising the floor height much, or at all. Throw in some rockwool and cover it? Or is there any shallow type installs i can do to float/separate it from the Bearing Joists to get a little bit of sound isolation?

Thanks again for any help or comments.
-wes

[CMunch]

The joists need to be 8x2 inch to bear load,even if yours are not you can run new ones along existing,you could lay foam strips along joists then lay 22mm flooring floating on that,glued at all joints but not fixed to joists.