About to finish out basement, would like to include a studio, need advice

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Sabicas

New member
We are about to start framing out our basement and we'll have a room dedicated to being an office and recording studio. It's not commercial, but I'd like it to be better than acceptable without breaking the bank. It'll be used for recording various acoustic instruments (no drum kits) and podcasts. All electric instruments will be direct-in with modelers and plugins so will not be a factor. The nature of the music I make means I'm not at all concerned about sound escaping from the room or disturbing neighbors or even anyone in our house. My primary concern is the quality of the recording.

The room will be approximately 11' by 14'. There'll be one door, no closet, one small 2' x 2' window and typical low basement ceiling with no room to spare for a drop ceiling. The plan is to have all walls and ceiling insulated with Rockwool and then sheetrock. The floor will be stained concrete with an area rug. One corner will be at 45 degrees to allow for access to plumbing and sewer access behind a built-in bookshelf.

Is any of this a mistake? Should I be looking at something besides sheetrock/drywall? I often see studios with bare wood walls but would think that would be more reflective and problematic.

Please advise.

Thanks!
 
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My basement music room is similar but a bit bigger at 15x20. I finished 2 rooms that are about the same size and used 2x4 studs for the walls and covered with 1/4" paneling. the difference between the two is that I used r19 pink insulation for the ceiling and walls in the music room to cut down some of the sound coming and going which definitely did help. Before I finished the basement I could hear every footstep and conversation from upstairs but now I hear almost nothing. The interesting thing that I did not expect is how much more dead the music room is compared to the other room. When I tap the walls in the non-insulated room the paneling makes a certain sound that's hard to explain but the music room is a muted thud which somehow translates to much less reverberation that was a bonus that I did not expect. Once I got the room filled with stuff and a couple bass traps the room is not perfect but I get very acceptable recordings. For my ceilings I used this stuff that they sell at Home Depot. I only lost about an inch of height.

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With smaller spaces, my projects over the years have one common theme. The walls are never parallel. If you build a room within a room, even with less deep framing to maximise internal space, pul the panels out from the square. My favourite is to have 8 separate angles. Pulling the centre of each wall out, by about 5 degrees as a minimum, really makes the space sound bigger and less boxy. Two or three inches on a twelve foot wall works really well. If the twelve foot length is three 4ft sheets, then pull out at the four foot mark. There was no science discovering this. I built one in the late 90s where to seal the ceiling, I built it in sections and sat it on top of the walls, avoiding all that complicated angle stuff at the edges you normally get. The walls were just loosely bolted together from the outside, so I experimented kicking them in and out, just playing music and tracks off the Alan parsons test CD on a hifi inside. As soon as you move from parallel, even by a little bit, the difference was obvious. Even just a little was so worth it. Every studio since then I have done the same thing.
 
Consider NOT putting up sheetrock, leave the rockwool exposed, use a porous cloth covering instead. If you sheetrock the walls, you will need to add trapping.
 
rob aylestone said:
. . . Pulling the centre of each wall out, by about 5 degrees as a minimum, really makes the space sound bigger and less boxy. Two or three inches on a twelve foot wall works really well. If the twelve foot length is three 4ft sheets, then pull out at the four foot mark . . . .
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That's an elegant solution I had never thought of before. Could even construct a large hinged "wall" - similar to room divider screens - which could be moved around as needed.
 
I've looked into these suggestions and I can't leave the walls bare down to studs and rockwool, nor can I make un-parallel walls. Nor is there enough headroom for any type of drop-ceiling. Apparently, building codes don't account for recording studios.

Looks like sheetrock and absorption is what I have to do. Dang.
 
Sabicas said:
I often see studios with bare wood walls but would think that would be more reflective and problematic.
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From my (short) experience in the matter, wood walls are good for large rooms, where (at least in some cases) you might want an acoustic. In a small place, they are probably the worst thing you can possibly have! Small places ideally have irregular walls (limit parallels, as suggested by @rob aylestone) and/or max out the dampening. So, yeah, unfortunately, looks like this
Sabicas said:
I've looked into these suggestions and I can't leave the walls bare down to studs and rockwool, nor can I make un-parallel walls. Nor is there enough headroom for any type of drop-ceiling. Apparently, building codes don't account for recording studios.

Looks like sheetrock and absorption is what I have to do. Dang.
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is what will work best for you.

Do keep us posted on your building project! Would love to see your progress on this!
 
Wood paneling instead of sheet rock (we call it "plasterboard") would be better especially if you can 'stagger' the panel size by adding noggins and uprights on a random basis. Each panel 'takes off' at a different frequency but is damped by the filling and this evens out the LF response.
I won't pretend any knowledge of studio acoustics so will just offer my thoughts on the electrical side. Obviously mains power must adhere to code but worth doing what you can to isolate lighting and heating from studio equipment power i.e. have a separate, dedicated cable back to the 'fuse box' (? Again, known here as the "Consumer Unit")

Now, NO disrespect but most countries other than UK seem to have, shall we say, "less than squeaky clean" electricity? So, if budget allows, make provision for a mains conditioner.

I shall assume you know enough NOT to run audio cables parallel to mains but do put in lots and lots and LOTS of audio cabling and as well as mic twisted pairs, some high current pairs. Might want to run a speaker? Also some CAT6 shielded. Can carry audio, 4 balanced lines or of course data. Trick here? Where space is at a premium as here, arrange to hang mics from the ceiling.

Dave.
 
Sabicas said:
I've looked into these suggestions and I can't leave the walls bare down to studs and rockwool, nor can I make un-parallel walls. Nor is there enough headroom for any type of drop-ceiling. Apparently, building codes don't account for recording studios.

Looks like sheetrock and absorption is what I have to do. Dang.
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Your building codes require fire-retardant wall coverings? Never heard of leaving uncovered (except for cloth) insulated stud walls as an issue.
 
In the theatre and live entertainment world, the sage advice was never to run mains power and audio together - then every single touring show, band and event did exactly that from stage to FOH. Then we got the advice to not squirt DMX down audio multicores - same doom and gloom, and yet, so many people did it. Most times when things went astray, it was rotten grounding, or worse - multiple grounds all at different potentials. I remember the TV versions of the first solid state dimmer packs that had all that extra conditioning stuff and filters - to get rid of the nasty harmonic rich waveforms the theatre people put up with. We now worry about very quiet burblings from data appearing above the noise floor, but in the 70s and 80s, every fade of the lights could be heard through the PAs - leading in the UK to rider terms stipulating lights and sound power must be separate! As the panels around th stage area inevitably take their power from the same source, I was never convinced.
 
You can put data and mains wiring in Dado rails but they must be separated by a physical, plastic barrier. Naturally it would not be a good idea to run audio lines the same but if a good balanced system it is surprising what you can get away with!

You think lighting generates crap Rob? Try running audio in a lift test tower with Triac control of hugely powerful winding motors!



Dave.
 
i have an unfinished basement to use as my music room. The space will be about 12' x 22' {3.7m x 6.7m) The two 12' walls will be framed off similar to this

music room wall idea.jpeg

at least two of the walls would be very easy to make non-parallel. When attaching the stringer 2x4 to the rafter joists, purposely make the walls not plumb. I don't know how much, maybe an inch or two? One leaning forward and the other leaning back? I'm doubtful if I'm going to finish off the ceiling and I don't know what affect that would have on the standing waves. The long side walls will not be perfectly parallel, the inside wall will have an offset of about 2' (.61M). I haven't decided on material yet. Leaning toward sheet rock, or rough saw pine. I love the look of pine. Just don't know if I should leave it untreated or polyurethane it? I will be stuffing pink insulation in the ceiling bays, with kraft backing. There will be doors at either end of the inside long wall.
 
What you don't want is walls parallel to each other, and that would go for a ceiling and floor too.
I suppose you could view that unfinished roof as a diffuser.
 
Before you stuff it I would get some cables in there? You can NEVER have enough cables!

Dave.
 
If you don't stuff that ceiling with insulation, its just more corners/angles to bounce sound waves around - and not in a good way, like a diffusor.
 
It's going to be pretty difficult to keep the ceiling and floor from being parallel to each other. What options do I have? Would area rugs help?
 
bluesfordan said:
It's going to be pretty difficult to keep the ceiling and floor from being parallel to each other. What options do I have? Would area rugs help?
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I would say that if you are going to fill those voids with trapping material, p'lell floor and ceiling won't matter as much, it is the "XY" dimensions that make the difference? Are they 9 inch joists?

You could make the surface sort of out of square by building platforms. If say 20% of the floor area was 1foot higher than the rest that means there would not be one unique frequency standing wave. Drums often sound better raised on a plinth and you can use it to cover cables even fit power strips and XLR mic boxes in the sides.

Dave.
 
mjbphotos said:
If you don't stuff that ceiling with insulation, its just more corners/angles to bounce sound waves around - and not in a good way, like a diffusor.
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Yes, I'd put something soft between the joists.

ecc83 said:
You could make the surface sort of out of square by building platforms. If say 20% of the floor area was 1foot higher than the rest that means there would not be one unique frequency standing wave.
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It'd be better to make all those steps on the ceiling, ecc83.
Maybe acoustic tiles?
 
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