Hi, first time caller, long time listener.
I (like everyone else) have a basement space that I would like to turn into a recording area and have been stuck for weeks on what direction to take.
Right now, I have a large open space with all concrete walls, floors, and an unfinished joist ceiling.
Our furnace sits right in the middle of this space, as well as a tall support beam. Both of these sit at a nice dividing point which would give me a rectangular space of about 13' x 20'. I plan on just having one room; I am going to use it for live drums and I do most of my recording alone. I don't sing much so a vocal booth is not necessary.
The problem I have is the presence of some large pipes against the north wall which I'm hesitant to seal off access to, as well as the furnace itself, which is noisy and creates a low ceiling on that half of the space due to ducting.
Here is a crude plan of the room as it currently, and some photos taken from the four corners. The space beyond the furnace and stairwell is open to the other side, which I would like to remain unfinished for storage and furnace access.
I'm not worried about bass trapping or diffusion just yet.... I'm more in need of a plan for what to do with the bare bones of this space before I get to that point.
I do not need this to be 100% soundproof, but significant isolation from both inside sounds and outside sounds would be great if obtainable.
I suppose the standard option would be to do the traditional room in a room box with four framed walls done up in 703 or Roxul and covered with drywall. However it is pretty cost prohibitive for me to do that at this point. Are there any alternatives to drywall?
Some ideas that I had included some temporary walls such as large, oversized gobos (perhaps doubled up) or even discarded office cubicle partitions to create separation from the furnace, but I'm not convinced that would reduce the noise enough. I also thought about those Auralex MAX walls.
Leaving this unfinished brings up another problem, which is that there is only one electrical outlet on the entire lower floor, near the stairwell. I'd be using extension cords and an octo-plug outlet to run everything.
I'm guessing there's more that needs to be involved here than just throwing a bunch of bass traps up right on concrete.
At this point the budget is modest, but could grow over time. I could probably afford to build one wall right now but four might be too much.
I (like everyone else) have a basement space that I would like to turn into a recording area and have been stuck for weeks on what direction to take.
Right now, I have a large open space with all concrete walls, floors, and an unfinished joist ceiling.
Our furnace sits right in the middle of this space, as well as a tall support beam. Both of these sit at a nice dividing point which would give me a rectangular space of about 13' x 20'. I plan on just having one room; I am going to use it for live drums and I do most of my recording alone. I don't sing much so a vocal booth is not necessary.
The problem I have is the presence of some large pipes against the north wall which I'm hesitant to seal off access to, as well as the furnace itself, which is noisy and creates a low ceiling on that half of the space due to ducting.
Here is a crude plan of the room as it currently, and some photos taken from the four corners. The space beyond the furnace and stairwell is open to the other side, which I would like to remain unfinished for storage and furnace access.
I'm not worried about bass trapping or diffusion just yet.... I'm more in need of a plan for what to do with the bare bones of this space before I get to that point.
I do not need this to be 100% soundproof, but significant isolation from both inside sounds and outside sounds would be great if obtainable.
I suppose the standard option would be to do the traditional room in a room box with four framed walls done up in 703 or Roxul and covered with drywall. However it is pretty cost prohibitive for me to do that at this point. Are there any alternatives to drywall?
Some ideas that I had included some temporary walls such as large, oversized gobos (perhaps doubled up) or even discarded office cubicle partitions to create separation from the furnace, but I'm not convinced that would reduce the noise enough. I also thought about those Auralex MAX walls.
Leaving this unfinished brings up another problem, which is that there is only one electrical outlet on the entire lower floor, near the stairwell. I'd be using extension cords and an octo-plug outlet to run everything.
I'm guessing there's more that needs to be involved here than just throwing a bunch of bass traps up right on concrete.
At this point the budget is modest, but could grow over time. I could probably afford to build one wall right now but four might be too much.