Need help/advice on turning basement into studio

[thill]

Hey,
I'm interested in turning my basment into a studio where my band can play and eventually record our material. As of right now I am not so much concerned with hardware and recording as I am with acoustics. I want to get the best sound possible in my basement while at the same time not annoying my neighbors. They live about 20 yards away and my neighborhood is quiet due to a high elderly population.
Ok, let me try to explain what I have to work with. I'm in a two story house and I want to set up in my basement. Sound travels very well through my house because of lack of carpet. Its mostly wood and tile flooring.
And on to the basement. Right now its divided up into two rooms. The room I want to use is 29ft. X 23.5ft. It has a cement floor with cement brick walls. Now running through the middle of the room are five poles. They partition off a section that I think would be ideal. I think it would be pretty easy to install a wall where the poles are making the room 29ft. X 14.5ft. Now, what materials to use and how to go about constructing the wall is what I need to know. The ceiling is made up of the foam-like tiles that you can push up on and see the stud work. There are two small vent windows on the 29ft. cement wall.
I need advice on what to do with the floor,walls and ceiling and any other tips or suggestions you think i should know.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Hello Chris and welcome to the board. Ok, this is what you need to do. Go here.


http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php
http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html


Everything you need to know is on those 2 sites. You just need to read and search "basements" on the construction forum at John Sayers site. Did I mention READ. If you have a drawing program, accurately measure EVERYTHING relative to this space, and then draw a simple plan view and post it here. The more information people have, the better they can help you. There are many things to consider before planning, and mucho planning before demo work, and lots of prep before building. Do it step by step, and it will come out right. Here are some things we need to know for now.

Do you own the home or rent.(makes a difference in what you can and cannot do)
What do you intend on doing in your studio? Live recording?Midi? Vocals? Instruments(type)
Type of music?(Rock is much louder than a classical quartet )
Location(country, residential, city?

Interior of the basement:
List the type of material that each of the existing walls are built of(walls that are going to be boundarys of your space)
Depth from bottom of joists to the floor above?(
Height from concrete floor to acoustical tile above?
Is this basement fully
Exposed water heaters? HVAC? Ducting etc?
Does the basement have it's OWN HVAC register to heat and cool the basement?
Is the basement fully below grade or is this a partial basement/1st floor.
If part of basement is above grade, any windows in this space? Vents?
Anything unusual? Like boilers, radiator heat, drain pipes, washer/drier etc....
Any water leaks into the walls or floor?
Distance to neighbors on either side. (20 yrds is 60 ft. That is good)
Type of neighborhood-street-Residential/country/city?
Existing noise floor(any trains, trucks,aircraft, guns, dogs, etc)? Loud? Normal? Quiet?
Does a stairway enter this basement space you are planning on enclosing
What rooms are above this space.

Ok, that will do for now. There are no cut and dried answers for HR studios. Each one has its own set of problems and solutions. But no one can offer you PRECISE answers untill they know what your set of existing conditions are.
There are many ways to isolate sound, depending on these conditions. There are also many ways to acoustically treat a room, but again, untill more info is given, it is useless to offer any more than I have at this point. Also, budget constraints more than anything will define solutions from the outset. Then it is simply a set of compromises. The trick is to maximize these compromises for best bang for the buck solutions.

fitZ

 

[Ethan Winer]

Chris,

> I'm interested in turning my basment into a studio ... I want to get the best sound possible ... The room I want to use is 29ft. X 23.5ft <

The current (September) issue of EQ magazine has an article meant for people in your exact situation. It details the construction of an acoustically correct studio / control room meant for a space the size you described.

--Ethan