Unfinished basement space for all-in-one studio room

Fab4ever

Fab4ever

Getting better
Greetings all!

I am buying a house that has some unfinished basement space that I intend to use as a tracking-and-mixing recording room. It has concrete floor and currently two brick walls and no ceiling, just the beams from the first floor above.

I will get into the details of the room size, budget, etc. in a future post, but I wanted to start by asking those of you who have done this sort of work:

What are the most important things to do, in your view, to make a good sounding little space? That is, I assume I will be building walls and a ceiling. I have no construction experience, but I have two in-laws who do. But they have no recording or studio experience, so I need to tell them what I have in mind to help the room.

Some ideas I've read about so far:

* non-parallel walls
* making the walls separate from the existing brick walls
* perhaps sticking some of the standard fiberglass isolation (the fluffly pink stuff) in between the walls I build and the existing walls.
* a ceiling that isn't connected to the structure above it, but rather is connected to the walls. But what the ceiling should be made of I have no idea.
* I gather that "floating" the floor is impractical for me, given my lack of knowledge and a limited budget.

So, lemme have it. What should I be thinking about? How do I design or at least rough out my ideas so my brothers-in-law, who have built many standard walls and ceilings, will know what to do?
 
Greetings Fab4ever. Well, you have your work cut out for you. But at least you're smart enough to ask questions first...build later. In fact, there are TONS of questions to ask. I have no time tonight, but I'll return tomorrow to help point you in the right direction.

However, first you mentioned you just want a good sounding room, but you added some things that implied you ALSO want it to be "soundproofed". That is a whole nuther ball game. Acoustical treatment is one thing, but isolation construction is very difficult, detail oriented and many things must be addressed in order to succeed. ESPECIALLY in basements, where you are trying to isolate sound from transmitting to spaces above. Not only is this type of construction expensive, but it requires APPROVAL and permits from your local Building Inspection Department as well. Should you proceed without a permit, you place yourself in jeprody, not only from a law standpoint, but from an insurance standpoint as well.
My first advice is to slow down and really get a grip on the requirements to achieve your goal. That alone is a lesson in reality. In that regard, go here and do some reading.
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=bc4357ba727af838847207bda483a057

This should take at LEAST two weeks. In the meantime, I'll be asking you some questions.

Just to get you in the mood:D take a look at this thread. This will illustrate what I am talking about. BTW, its 90 some odd pages long. Hope you have some time on your hands.

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2921&highlight=garage


If that don't open your eyes to the seriousness of isolation construction in your home, then you have no business trying this in the first place. It is either "do it right" the first time, or don't do it at all as you will waste your time and money.
fitZ
 
I sense a lot of hard-won wisdom in your post Rick. Thanks.

I'm not sure true isolation is that important to me. The space is small - essentially 12 by 9, with a 7.5-foot ceiling. I won't be recording bands and probably will rarely record drums. It's really more a mixing/tracking myself room.

So a "good-sounding" room is much more important to me than isolation.

Having said that, I would like to take any prudent steps I can to muffle or reduce the noise that emanates from the room, and to reduce any obvious problems. Since I"m going to be building three walls and probably a ceiling, I'd like to make sure I'm doing it in ways that make sense for the room.

A couple more details:

I have electricity already in one wall. There are three outlets that currently face into a finished room adjacent to the unfinished studio space, which are divided by an already-drywalled wall. All I'll need to do is turn the outlets around, cutting new holes in the drywall on the studio side. At least, that's what I think - am I ok there?
 
Just a couple thoughts...

Isolation is as much or more about not allowing sound IN to the room so it doesn't contaminate the recording.

In that size room, non-parallel walls aren't a good idea IMO. You'll lose so much space to make it work right that the room will end up tiny. I'll take the larger space.

I'd agree that floating the floor with an already low ceiling is probably not a viable option.

Bryan
 
An update and fresh questions.

I will not attempt non-parallel walls, nor am I going to try to float the floor or decouple the ceiling from the walls.

However, I am going to put insulation between the floor joists above the ceiling. Also, I am going to have an electrician run a new circuit from the wall panel to the room and install several fresh plugs for juice (along with overhead lighting.)

My isses/questions:

1. Should I stuff insulation into the wall frames along with drywall?

2. I'm not going to be able to do funky looking, inside-out walls... wife says we need a regular dry-wall look inside and outside. In short, it needs to look like a spare bedroom or office to perspective buyers whenever we sell the house. But... should I do double drywall? Should I use that green moisture-resistant drywall? (might be gypsum, I'm not sure). Or is there a drywall substitute I should use for its sound absorption properties?

3. I'm going to expand the room to be a little bigger than I had thought, but still pretty tight at around 11 - by - 12.5 or so. Ceilings should be just a hair under 8 feet. Aside from plent o' corner bass trapping, using absorbers at first reflection points and trapping/absorption on the wall behind the mix position, do you have other advice?

4. The floor is concrete. I'm gonna have a throw rug or two available to use if necessary, but is there anything else I should do about it?
 
Any cavity in the room needs to be filled with insulation - floor, ceiling, walls, etc. If you don't, they'll ring like a drum.

Standard drywall will be fine. If you want good isolation, use 2 layers with Green Glue in between them.

Bryan
 
Hey Bryan, I noticed you're in the suburban paradise of Wildwood. I'm buying the house (and building the studio) in Kirkwood. Good to know we're kinda/sorta neighbors!

So I assume you telecommute? Does GIK have an office in in the St. Louis area?
 
No office - just me. Ain't the computer age wonderful :D

Drop me a PM about the Green Glue.

Bryan
 
Thanks Bryan - just did.

The space for the room is pretty small - it's like something like 12 by 14 max, with 8 foot ceilings. It also have a big vertical metal beam, supporting a horizontal beam that sits under the joists.

I'm thinking since my first priority is a good-sounding room, rather than isolation, I should try to make the room as big as I can. I'm also gonna make it a rectangle, not a perfect square.
 
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