Arghh Panic building studio panics

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rochey
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Rochey

Rochey

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Hi, I'm a very poor guy at the moment (due to student status) but I'll be graduating this summer...

Consquently, I get to have a GRADUATE loan.. (Whoohoo!)

The plan is to borrow about $6k (or £3500) and set up a small studio. Great.. I can get all the hardware at trade price etc... Thats not my worry.

A friend of mine has offerd part of his farmyard so we can build a studio together. At the moment, there are 3 concrete walls, and thats about it. The dimentions of the walls are 25x40ft (40 foot deep that is..) they are about 10ft high as well.

Here's my plan

- Put a ceiling on... (otherwise the stuff would get wet!!!)
- Add the front wall with a door and a double glazed window!
-Add a control room (straight accross the back 15ft in from the back wall... maybe add a vocal booth in there too...

And here's the fun bit... The walls themselves...
These babies are solid concrete and about 1ft thick each. Sound proofing isnt a worry, as it's on a farm in the middle of nowhere. But, I did a few calculations, and It seems I'm going to get Room modes (I think thats what they are called) as low as 50Hz.... Arghhhhhh....

So... What do I do about the walls? I have a tiny budget of about $4000 including the roof and front wall. (thats what my friend is willing to spend -- I'm buying the kit to go inside!!!)

We were joking about eggboxes, but you lot seem to have made your point clear on that one :)
Is it a case of concrete - rockwool - plasterboard? Can It be done that cheaply... and then put a blanket on top (for high frequencies) and then build a few low-mid bass traps?

PLease please please, I'm in the middle of my finals, and this is all I can think about. I need an answer to quiet my mind :)
 
Just thought I'd throw a spanner in the works...

The studio is to be used for a minimum of 6 months, and then, it's destiny is questioned until I return from a trip in europe.

The family that owns the farm want to use it as a storage facility in the meantime... argghhhh Meaning, no fancy shaped rooms etc....

I've just come off the phone to guy that owns the property...

Hows this for an idea... cut the control room down to 2 rooms,

15x15
15x10
both measurements are in feet

So that the 15x10 can be used as a recording room, while the large space can be used as a live practice/recording space. Just for playing in and getting basic tracks done.

It would mean that the majority of the money could be spent on the vocal recording room (and the room where other insruments could be recorded) and then give the live room (or the live lounge as we've begun to call it) basic finish.

The control room would be done in a nice concrete-rockwool-plasterboard style, with a fake flat roof (so that stuff can be stored above) I'll probably buy some acoustic tiles to try and balance the whole place out too...

The recording booth will be done out with various types of tiles, whatever is needed to balance out the reverb.

In the live room, couches, chairs and all things sound absorbant will be put in... The walls will be concrete - carpet. <--- I know this isnt ideal, but would it work for now? or am i shooting myself in the foot?

Opinions please?

Rochey
 

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Hmmm. Another wild idea:
Maybe you could get big pieces of plywood of somthing, and cut holes in it to make slot resonators, and put them in the corners?

I'm no acoustics expert, the idea just dawned. What do you people with acoustic knowledge say?
 
cool idea

thats sounds like a cool idea to me,

In that case, would it be like a hel-something resonator???
the problem with them is that there are so many different frequencies to kill with a room so big!!!!
I ran a peice of software to work out the modes in the room, and they go up in multiples of 40Hz!!!
Arghhhhh...
The way I figure is, that If I can get tiles that work as low as 200Hz (Acousticheck??) and then build the resonators in 40Hz spacings (5 in total) then I should be okay....

Anyone wililng to invest some money in the youth of today??? :)

regards
Rochey
 
Helmholtz, yes. I have never built any of those, so I wouldnt know, but I had this idea:
If you put it in the corner, the distance from the wall will be both big and small, and it should kill quite a wide range of sounds, and also, by having different widths between the slots, you might get the same thing effect? Right?
Also, since the 90 degree angels of the walls act as reflectors, putting the damper in the corner would quickly kill that a lot of resonance, and only the waves that are aligned along the axis would still be a problem.

Mind you this is all theory based on my understanding of physics and waves, I have never DONE this.

John probably knows if I'm wildly incorrect...
 
John, where art though??

where are yooooo...??/

We need your wisdom :)


d
 
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