Unfinished Basement Studio

[incursio]

Hi gang - new to this forum - looks great, and am anxious to participate moving forward. I am a bit of a newbie on the engineering side of the console, I figured I would post here ...

I am attaching a small photo of my basement studio. My wife and I just bought a new house, and it has a great unfinished basement (the logical place for me and my "stuff"). Of course, the problem is, it IS an unfinished basement! One of these days, when I finish it, I will tackle the problem of soundproofing, acoustic design, etc. But for now ...

Most of the stuff I record is acoustic (guitar and vocals only). The problem is, this basement is NOISY. What you can't see from the photo is that about 100 feet away, the two furnaces are sitting there - hehe. If they're not running, its not TOO bad, but given the fact that the space is wide open, with concrete floors and 10 foot ceilings, it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of acoustic quality.

Any tips on maybe putting together some inexpensive baffles, enclosures, etc? I was thinking of maybe building a makeshift "booth" out of paneling and 2x4s, possibly lined with carpet or something. Just something to get me by for now. Open to all suggestions! And no, moving out of the basement isn't an option right now ... :-(

Cheers.
Scott

[muzeman]

If you insulate the walls you build,then cover them with 5/8 sheetrock both sides this should give you pretty good soundproofing,also if want a door,you can get a solid core masonite fire door and add a heavy duty door sweep.

Good luck in the new house,
Pete

[sjoko2]

I've got a room next to the control room containing a large airconditioning fan, a gas heater and a water heater.
Noise in the control room - nothing.

The room has double, decoupled 2 x 4 framing, the void insulated with cellulose. Inside its finished with 1/2" sheets of ply, covered with (exposed) rockwool.
On the control room side its got 1/2" ply, 1/2" soundboard, 5/8" ply, 1/8" mineral loaded vinyl and a 1/2" tongue-and-groove wood finish.

You don't have to go to those extremes, building a double frame cupboard with 2 x3's will do, 2 layers if rockwool on the outside and leave the insulation exposed on the inside. Don't forget you wil need airflow to the units, presumably you'll have a vent to the outside.

Floor, concrete is the worse, recycled rubber matting is great. You can get pretty economical rolls of the stuff from a number of suppliers.

Don't forget that currently, with the walls exposed, you will have far better acoustic properties than when you close the walls with drywall, so in your case "unfinished" is good!

If yoyu want to start with building a "booth", I'd do it ON a rubber mat, a 2 x 4 frame, rockwool in the cavities, outside finished in drywall, inside with straw panels.

Hope this gives you some ideas