Bare Concrete Basement Walls

[Jody]

Hi Everyone,
I will be starting the construction of a basement recording area. One wall is already drywalled and insulated. The other three walls are poured concrete with no noise issues. I want to drywall the other walls. My question is, will it be okay to just use furring lath and and drywall? If so, should I somehow decouple the drywall from the concrete walls? Or should I still go ahead with some insulation? I'm starting to think that with just furring lath and drywall there is going to be like a drum like effect with that air space in there and cause a lot of vibration.
Thanks.

 

[Jeff_D]

You could leave em bare if you wanted to. I have treatment hanging right in front of painted concrete basement walls in my studio. Someday I'll finish em but, for now its fine. Furring them out with lumber attached directly to the concrete every 16" OR 24" is one common solution. Another is to build a regular stud wall right in front of the concrete wall and drywall that. The later gives you more room to run electric. The former is probably less expensive. I'll assume that most of the concrete wall is below grade since you're in a basement, so sound transmition is not much of an issue. I doubt you'd have any problem with resonance in the wall (but I could be wrong). But, insulation in the wall, even if it doesn't help with resonance, will help keep the space comfortable and warm.

 

[Jody]

Jeff,
I'd rather hang drywall for the clean look. And I need to run some electrical for outlets anyway so I'll need the space. Just worried about the resonating. I know when I tap on the wall with insulation behind it it sounds a hell of a lot better than the walls I just did in a basement that were not insulated. But as far as for listening to music when I'm mixing I want to make sure I start off right.
Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Sky Blue Lou]

What kind of budget are you working with? The one thing about regular room treatment - bass traps and panels - is that they protrude into the space. I've thought it would be pretty cool if they were part of the wall like every other space between studs was fabric over 703. It would require some research and asking questions of the pros at the various sites but it might be worth a look. Nothing looks more built-in than built-in but of course there would be no portability factor if you ever moved.


lou

 

[witzendoz]

Hi,
I my studio I have 1 wall that is concrete with treatment and it sounds fine, I just painted it with sealer and then a colour. It is the red wall in the recording room photos on my site, link below.

Cheers
Alan.