How did YOUR self-built studio turn out???

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Rhinohorn

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Hello.
I am sure that many people (well ... err .... at least I would) would be interested in hearing some first hand comments from those that have actually attempted/succeeded in building or modifying a room from an external isolation point of view (internal acoustics would be a subjective opinion etc).
What I mean is that aside from the technical measurements etc (no disrespect to the HUGE IMPORTANCE of understanding such technical detail), it would be pretty cool to hear that "so and so" had an existing wall, added two layers of "this or that" and can now generate sound at "x" volume without waking up Gran, the newborn upstairs, Mr Grumpy next door or the annoying old twat across the road etc .... also worth finding out what they are managing to isolate as such ... ie. nearfields at normal mixing/monitoring levels or perhaps the occassional visit from Korn or Sepultura etc??
As I said, I am COMPLETELY aware of the impossibility of sidestepping CRITICAL issues etc, but I am sure that most DIY wanna-build-a-studio types (like myself) will inevitably miss a few CRUCIAL spots with the caulking or whatever .... (yes I know that this would negate the whole point etc) ... but surely everyone will have a different degree of success with door and window seals and so on .... so like I said, it would be interesting to get some REAL WORLD results as inspiration.
Cheers and have a good weekend.
Steven
 
My studio (single basement room) use pretty simple soundproofing. It's offset stud construction (2x4 studs on 2x6 plate), insulation filled, drywall both sides, rigid fiberglass on walls in studio, insulated exterior door to basement. The other half of the basement is the family room, which is further separated from the studio by closet/stairs/laundry room. It is very quiet in the family room, if you have the TV on, and somebody is banging on drums in the studio, you can't hear the drums at all. So what is that, maybe 35dB reduction? Haven't precisely measured.

In the laundry room, which is directly outside the studio, the reduction is still pretty good. As for sound leaking into the studio, the furnace is generally not a problem, except for condensers on quiet instruments. I'll turn off the furnace for that. The sump pump on the laundry sink is a little annoying, so scheduling studio time around laundry is critical. I am looking to improve the soundproofing this winter when I install ventilation into the studio--I still have a few holes from the laundry room ceiling to the studio to plug up.

Upstairs is not as good. Unfortunately, the studio ceiling (drop ceiling, 12" of insulation above) has all of the wiring for the house running through it, so I didn't want to close it up with a hard ceiling. Because of that, drums are audible in the bedroom directly above. Somewhat less than 20dB reduction.

Outside you can't hear hardly anything, as the basement is well surrounded with earth! There is a small window in the studio, but along with its two sets of curtains, it doesn't seem to leak much. I have no neighbors within 500', no low-flying aircraft, etc., so no worries there.
 
Rhinohorn said:
How did YOUR self-built studio turn out???
Click to expand...
"self-built"? I dialed the numbers for both the studio designer AND the builders myself.... does that count??? :p

:D :D
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
"self-built"? I dialed the numbers for both the studio designer AND the builders myself.... does that count??? :p

:D :D
Click to expand...

Did you use your fingers, or a dialing wand? :cool:
 
When I did it the first time (15 years ago), it would've been a LOT better if I'd of had a resource like this BBS and I could've done better research on everything. And when I was trying to make the transition into computer recording, it was in its infancy and there was practicly NO ONE who you could get a straight answer from on computers and interfaces. I wasted most of the cash that I consider "squandered" there. And the myth of acoustic foam. Had I known. :o Oh well. Other than that it's been extremely positive and rewarding. But it's still very much a work in progress because like any labor of love I'm always trying to make it mo' betta.
 
last year after reading this and the john sayers site I was all ready to jump in and convert my garage. I hung off and used this years earnings building a top spec computer (P4 3.0Ghz, 2Gig DDR 400, Asus P4p800-E Deluxe, Zalman silent cooling , rackmount case, Delta 1010 soundcard, 2x Delta 410 soundcards, DVDRW) spent a fair what on outboard effects, got a really cheap 2nd hand large frame analog console (A&H Saber 24/16/16/2)...... result: I'm doing everything I was before in the bedroom 100 times better. Next years wages soundproof the garage and we're on to LIVE DRUMS!!!!!

no point jumping in with studio space if you don't have the equipment or the experience using it before you set up shop.

This site is a gold mine! search and search more and always listen to the bear ;)

ALEC
 
I'll give u the short version. I never hear the people in the live room :)

And them drums be loud in there. LOL

Oh Yeah and people outside the control room (on the outside of the house) never know I am in here even if I have it cranked and of course when I close that CR door, I never hear the people knocking at the front door.

My Studio was built in the living room and diningroom of my old house.

The front door is 10' from the control room door. :)
 
Hey Bryan ... construction-wise (short and sweet ... ie. no milk with sugar!!) what are we talking about??
Brick walls, sandwich type stud walls etc??
Cheers
 
Michael Jones said:
I'll let you know when its all done. :(
Click to expand...

I'm currently in this boat. Haven't recorded in years, and then it was in a friends basement studio. I started maybe 6 weeks ago building my own studio space in the basement of my house. When I had my house built I had been basically out of music for several years and never planned to be adding a recording/playing space. Otherwise I would have done many things differently in the building process to prepare. Ah well...

I'm hoping to have it done in another month or so.. hopefully less (given the time to work and some help). Amazing though, when I got underway I had 3 friends going on and on about "just call me when you need some help with sheetrock, or building, etc". Well so far not one has been able to show up yet. hehe. Ended up doing the ceiling solo one weekend when a friend stood me up but I had already rented the lift. I did about 900sq.ft of my basement ceiling including 2 layers over my roughly 300sq.ft studio/practice area.

My only real regret is I haven't taken many pics of the process so far. I never think about it or when I do, I can't find the damn camera! I'll work on getting some and maybe post a few.

-Krag
 
Mine's on the thread called "New Studio Construction". I'd link it but I don't know how. It's all self built (well, self and lots of friends), except for the insulation, HVAC and electrical, which was done by pros. All the design and construction was done by my friends and I. Took forever, learned a lot, cost a lot. But it's what I wanted. I know it's more than what the typical home recordist wants or needs, but home recording is where I started and it led me to this. Now, if I could just get some more clients..... :-)
 
Some pretty cool advice around here. I am a newb but will be around a while as my studio takes shape. I am moving into a new place Feb and in the process of designing the ultimate basement studio (within my budget, of course). I am raising the basement a foot for better clearance.

I am going to be building a 35 * 14 studio in the basement (total space).
I am looking for good info on materials and techniques to save money. Also some do's and donts for construction. I am building a custom home so the doors wide open ;)
 
Standard Frame House with internal plaster walls. I built all the interior sound ISO walls As can be viewed at the SAE Studio Construction site. FLoated Floors, etc...

Just stuck to the info already there :)
 
My studio at home works quite well in terms of sound isolation. I added 3/4" plywood caulked at all joints to the walls and ceilings, and covered them with an additional layer of wallboard. I also added special gasketed covers on the windows.

While we were building the internal resonators, I went outside to listen to the air compressor and nail gun. These were oppressively loud inside the room. I could just barely hear them if I was within about a foot of the outside wall - couldn't hear them at all from an arm's length away. Haven't had any problems with traffic noise either.

In my new studio, we had some windows that we needed to still open, so I ended up installing Milgard Quietline windows (have to be special ordered, and not all window dealers know about it). They have worked out very well.

There are some pictures on my website, if you are interested.

-lee-
http://gracesongmusic.com
 
I posted before on this site about mine.

Everything turned out great. Well great except for I spent 3 times as much as expected and it took about 5 times as long as I hoped but otherwise great. One thing to remember when building a studio is not to skimp. I started out that way and quickly realized that it wasn't going to work the way I had envisioned unless I opened my wallet. Well here is the almost finished product. There has been more done since these pictures. Some quick specs.
(2) 5/8 , (1) 1/2 drywall on the ceiling. All seams caulked with acoustic caulk.
The drum room has double walls separated by 9 inches in between walls on two of the walls ; the other two walls are concrete block with 1/2 drywall on them. ISO booth is just 5/8" drywall all around. Everything was caulked heavily and I think that really made a difference. I first bought about 13 tubes and finally ended up buying about 30 altogether in the end. It's quiet upstairs in the living room , a movie can be watched without to much bother. The baby can sleep in her bedroom and I can play at 3:00am so I consider it a success. As far as acoustics I will HAVE to treat the the ISO booth being that it is so small but the other rooms are ok for now.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/maest.../pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/maestro7879/my_photos

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/maest.../pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/maestro7879/my_photos
 
maestro7879 said:
Everything turned out great. Well great except for I spent 3 times as much as expected and it took about 5 times as long as I hoped but otherwise great. One thing to remember when building a studio is not to skimp. I started out that way and quickly realized that it wasn't going to work the way I had envisioned unless I opened my wallet. Well here is the almost finished product. There has been more done since these pictures. Some quick specs.
(2) 5/8 , (1) 1/2 drywall on the ceiling. All seams caulked with acoustic caulk.
The drum room has double walls separated by 9 inches in between walls on two of the walls ; the other two walls are concrete block with 1/2 drywall on them. ISO booth is just 5/8" drywall all around. Everything was caulked heavily and I think that really made a difference. I first bought about 13 tubes and finally ended up buying about 30 altogether in the end. It's quiet upstairs in the living room , a movie can be watched without to much bother. The baby can sleep in her bedroom and I can play at 3:00am so I consider it a success. As far as acoustics I will HAVE to treat the the ISO booth being that it is so small but the other rooms are ok for now.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/maest.../pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/maestro7879/my_photos

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/maest.../pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/maestro7879/my_photos
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maestro couldn't be more right. I started building my studio in July with the intent on being done in August. Here we are half way through september and it's just about done. Planning is so critical as I found out the hard way. I did a bunch of research on this thread, and thought I had a good plan........then Acoustech (Jack Percy) came on line and drastically change my plan. Keep in mind I already had paint on the walls at that point. So had to move control room window and build angled bass traps and isometric diffusor. If I would have got a better plan, and not been in such a hurry to begin with I would have saved a bunch of money.........BUT the most important thing in the studio........IS THE LISTENING ENVIROMENT!!!! You can't skimp. Even if it's a small control room, the sound needs to be accurate to get good mixes, no matter what kind of equipment you have. My room sounds unbelievable!!! I'll be posting pictures in the next week. Isometric Diffusor turned out awesome!!!! Moral of the story..........don't try to "get by" using lesser products to build your studio. There is a reason why someone recommends using a certain product! Spend the money to get your rooms right, upgrade equipment later! Just my 2 cents! Don't worry Michael......when your studio is finally done, we will all ooh and ahh at it's magnificence, wishing it was ours!!!! I'm ready for more pics too! I saw the window pics you posted........show more!!!!!!
 
My studio construction kinda halted for the spring/summer/early fall as its car project season! The first coat of mud (spackle) is up and has been sanded, and some spots have two coats, not sanded.

A small group of friends and I did record acoustical instruments using a small subset of my gear in a "pile" on the floor, and even without being finished or treated, the recording came out pretty good I have to say. By far better than I expected. A lot more work to do, and I didn't float the floors or wall or anything, so I'm pleased considering what I've spent.

I haven't used my vocal booth yet, which I imagine will have issues and require 409 slapped all over the place, since its small and rectangular, and the majority of the "floor" flips up, and resides over a stairwell. But.... we'll see.

I've actually decided to outsource the spackling, I found a small crew that can finish what I've done down to the oil paint, and trim work, for a mere $600 including materials. And this crew has recently remodeled a bathroom of ours and did a really fine job, so I'm not afraid of their ridiculously low price.

Once that's done, I'll weld together the steel console table, then drop down the hardwood flooring. I returned all the pergo, and bought tongue and groove 3" wide, 1" thick maple planks. I just like real wood too much to put down the engineered stuff in my studio. Cost much more, and I'll have to put serious effort into fine sanding it and polyurethaning it so its wear resistant. I'll probably throw down a large oriental rug under the console table, console chairs anyway.

The good news is my high back, fully adjustable leather chairs arrived today (three). Got them from a local office furniture store that went out of business last week. Three chairs, $45 plus $5 delivery. I could have picked them up myself, but for $5, why bother lifting anything :)
 
I'm building a house that will have studio space designed in. I've got a lovely 12 foot barrel vault arch over the main recording space, an iso booth planned and still trying to figure out what to do with the control room space.

For those on a budget, an excellent source of building materials can be had from used office cubicle wall sections. If you have a business locally that sells used office furniture, you can often pick these things up there very cheaply. They make excellent panels for creating iso booths, go-bos and in isolating amplifiers. Mounted on walls (and with a little extra soundproofing) they make excellent acoustic treatments.

Best regards from Texas,

Tio Ed
 
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