Mixing Room

S

sonolink

New member
Hi,
I would like to build a mixing room in my basement. The space I have available is roughly H2.5, W4.5, L6.0 (meters). This is WITHOUT any treatment, just bare walls. I think it would do a better unique Mixing Room than a Control + Live Room setup, but I could be wrong of course.

I'd love some ideas and advices on DIY soundproofing and studio plan/design/placement. I've had a look at John Sayers page Variplans but unfortunately the plans don't have any measures/proportions. Great plans though :D

Thanks for your input
Sono
 
Unfortunately, dimensions alone do not tell us enough to offer correct advice, especially on the subject of "soundproofing". You need to tell us everything you can about the space, its existing construction...floor, ceiling and walls and what material they are, location of doors/windows/stairs, what is above and adjacent to the room and exterior soundproofing targets..like neighbors, any HVAC issues like ducting, pipes, moisture problems, or anything at all that would have a bearing. Also, what type music will you be mixing and average mixing levels, type of monitors, and your recording/mixing setup...ie...ITB, console mixer, racks/furniture?

Treatment is not that big of an issue if we know what is there. However, soundproofing is very UN-intuitive, and requires very detailed information not to mention the construction itself. Also, where are you located(country) and do you own this building, or rent?
 
I was afraid of making my first post too long... :)
Ok, here we go then:

I am located in Spain, in the country side. I just bought a house. It's completely detached and there is very little noise around. It's a modern house, built in 2008. The room is in the basement, next to the garage.
Here you can find the original floorplan.
https://img195.imageshack.us/img195/8516/basement1.jpg
And some photos inside the room:
https://img195.imageshack.us/img195/2371/room1wb.jpg
https://img291.imageshack.us/img291/3723/room2i.jpg
https://img401.imageshack.us/img401/4597/room3q.jpg

It's the room on the right of the toilets. The external wall (thicker) is reinforced concrete. The inside walls are 1/2 foot brick. The floor, at present is covered with tiles. There is a cavity that goes underneath the stairs and is about 70cm high. The stairs go across the three stories of the house. Right above the room is the kitchen and the entrance hall. Next to it is the garage and the stairs.

As the room like this is H2.5m x W4.5m x L4.5m (very bad ratio) my idea is to eliminate the toilets and move the access door, like this:

https://img694.imageshack.us/img694/9279/basement2z.jpg

The cavity side would be the front of the room.
I have also thought of taking out the tiles to gain some height. I took one off (more like broke it) and underneath there is tile glue + cement before reaching the reinforced concrete layer. That's about 5-6 cm in height.

Soundproofing targets are basically the other people living in the house. I get to mix quite different material from a classical string quartet to a hardcore band. I would like to avoid disturbing the rest of the house and be able to mix undisturbed. I usually mix at very different levels from very quiet to loud (seldom VERY loud). I use Avantone Mix Cubes, Yamaha HS80s and crappy computer speaker sometimes. I mainly mix using a SmartAV Tango, some plugins, and lots of outboard.

I would like to install Air Conditioning with an external compressor in the near future. The furniture, I have not decided yet. I need to fit a cupboard for my guitars, mics, cables, and all sorts of stuff, but I haven't designed that part yet. After seeing John Sayers designs I'm kinda not knowing where to go (they look really great and must sound even better), so ideas, suggestions and all kind of input is VERY welcome. I hope I have given enough info :)
 
Regarding the tiles, I would leave them there, my control room had tiles when I bought the building and I just left them. I placed a rug just behind where I sit but the tiles are quite good for the wheels of my chair to roll around on.

To counter act the tiles and the low ceiling height acoustically I suspended panels from the ceiling with acoustic polyester in it. This worked really well. You can see it on my photos on my studio web site.

Sound proofing wise, if the only problem is the occupants of the house, I would not do too much at this stage except solid core door with good seals and see how much you actually disturb the others.

Acoustically you need the usual bass traps, broadband absorbers, defusers, this is covered a million times on this site and many other sites so do a search. The room ratio is not the best but it's that same ceiling height that I was stuck with and with the panels I mentioned before neutralising the ceiling t some degree it sound fine. The width and length needs looking into and if you really want to take the toilet out that would help, however the toilet may be handy if you are working with clients so they don't have to walk through your house. You could reduce one dimension by installing the storage cupboard you were talking about but it would need to be quite heavy construction to work as bass tends to travel through lightweight material as if it's not there.

Cheers
Alan.
 
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