Studio in Garage

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chili
  • Start date Start date
Okaaaaay. got some more pics for ya.

Fisrt one is after drywall was hung, taped and mudded.
IMG_2085web.webp

2nd is a/c in drywall. The drywall guys did a good job fitting around the a/c.
IMG_2087web.webp

3rd, we're taking a bit of a time leap. Walls are textured and painted. Door is hung. Note: I hate doing doors and this one was no exception. I put Great Stuff expanding foam between the casing and the wall studs. It, of course, expanded and pushed the door jambs out of shape. Duh!!! I had to cut the door down to fit, then the door knob didn't install properly because I trimmed the door on the door knob side. What an idiot I can be sometimes!! When you trim a door, do it on the hinge side!!!! Okay. All inspections are done, inspector loved the room. Electrical turned on. I also built a workbench and moved my crap (and my Harley) over there.
IMG_2179web.webp

4th, Yes Kinetic, I am telling you that light outlet is for a Recording lamp. It was a last minute decision to put one in. I didn't need it, I thought maybe it was a little over the top. But I had all the stuff, took me a minute to run the electrical, etc., so, what the hey. I picked up one of those CFL style lights and...
...it's a little nostalgic, a little funky. I LIKE IT!!! :D
IMG_2185web.webp
 
Last edited:
On to room treatment.

I laid carpet the other day. A berber with a pad. Put some extra pad in the middle just so it's comfy when I'm jammin'. :D yeah, it's a little lumpy, but that's what happens in your old age anyways.... ;)

I had some 703 panels from before. They are actually Johns Manville equivalent, more on that later. When I moved from Virginia last year, I brought some of the panels with me. I used three for a cloud. I fixed them directly to the ceiling which I guess is not the correct way to do it, but it was easier. I used painted lattice wood (1/8" x 1") with a toggle bolt. The toggle bolt goes through a plastic trim piece with a cap, through a hole in the lattice, through the panel and into the ceiling. Tighten down, holds good. I put three up on the ceiling.

IMG_2186web.webp

Before moving, I had cut some panels into triangles for corners in my last studio. Never got to use them, so I decided to put them here. Covered in fabric, I put them in the middle wall-ceiling corner on the back wall. I used carpet tack strips to hold them in place... more on that in a minute.

IMG_2189web.webp

Here's a panel in the corner held in with tack strips also.

IMG_2190web.webp

Here's a close up of the tack strip. It has nails to go into the floor and little tacks sticking up to hold the carpet. They work great for acoustic panels!!. A little Liquid Nails and nail them into place on the walls, press teh panel onto the tacks and presto!!! Very easy and very fast and fairly secure.

IMG_2193web.webp

Installed on the wall.

IMG_2192web.webp

For the corner pieces, I beveled the back edges to 45°. It's hard to see in this pic, but the edges are at a 45°. This way they fit on perpendicular walls. The fabric is held on with a spray-on adhesive. Do Not Breathe this stuff. You'll be coughing for days.... :mad:

IMG_2191web.webp


In Virginia, I could only find Johns Manville equivalent to OC703. They are the same size and density and do the same thing. Here in Austin, I found a local SPI and bought 703. I gotta say, I like the JM much better. It's a significant difference. The JM stuff is... I won't say coated, but treated so the fibers are bonded completely. The 703 is kind of crumbly and flaky. The JM stuff isn't. It looks like the 703 can break down easily, where as the JM stuff seems more durable, pliable and robust. I think I paid about $12 a panel for the JM and $10 for the 703. With the 703, I can understand people's concern for loose fibers floating around and I will completely seal teh panels in fabric to contain them. Don't have to worry about that with the JM panels.

Hard to see the difference in this pic. 703 on the left, JM on the right.
IMG_2196web.webp

I have to finish hanging the panels and then I will build a baffle plate/ monitor mount plate. You'll understand once I get started and post pics. The baffle plate will help lower the noise from the a/c unit and also provide shelves to hold my studio monitors as well as mounting my computer monitors. That will be in a few weeks after a business trip. See ya then!!!
 
Last edited:
Most excellent ChiliDude!

Yer doin a fine job. If I wore hats, I'd tip it to you.
But since I drink beer, I'll tip one in your direction instead. :D

now get back to work. We want more pics. :mad:


:p
 
Hi, Chili, nice to know the things are goin´ok.:)

Just remembering (again and again):D
4" with 4" gap (walls - "closed frame", that´s what I´m using) works much better than 2".

Ciro
 
CIRO said:
Hi, Chili, nice to know the things are goin´ok.:)

Just remembering (again and again):D
4" with 4" gap (walls - "closed frame", that´s what I´m using) works much better than 2".

Ciro
Click to expand...

I know, I know.... part of my reasoning for 2" (besides budget and space) is I don't plan to be loud in the room. I do my mixing at comfortable levels or lower. I don't think I will have as much energy to attenuate as a normal studio might.

The other reasoning is I will be using a B&K analyzer to measure the room response. I might be able to make changes and experiment a little. One of the first changes I would make will be suspending the cloud from the ceiling and providing a gap as you suggested. Witha 10 ft ceiling, I have plenty of room to lower it. I'm probably going to do that later on anyways, but for now I want to leave it as is.
 
thanks for putting this stuff up chilli. i'm learning alot about how to go about making a nice recording space with limited space. It's good info to know for maybe future endevours.
 
greyharmonix said:
thanks for putting this stuff up chilli. i'm learning alot about how to go about making a nice recording space with limited space. It's good info to know for maybe future endevours.
Click to expand...

You're welcome. No guarantees I'm doing any of this right, but the ideas are there for discussion.

peace.
 
Okay... I'm back from my business trip and have finished the studio and moved in. yeahhhh.

Continuing with the 703 vs. JM discussion:

I covered the 703 with fabric using a spray-on adhesive to hold the fabric in place. After spraying it on, it remains tacky for a while so you can adjust position. Unfortunately with 703, if you lift the fabric off you run the risk of pulling a clump of fiberglass with it. This wasn't too funny as some chunks were big. This wouldn't happen with the JM stuff.

Continuing with the acoustic panel mounting discussion:

I mentioned before that I was using carpet tack strips to hold the panels on the wall. They work well for panels that are not in risk of being moved. I have some that are 44" off the floor and I can bump into them easily. If I do, they might fall off the tack strip. I put a panel on my door and it fell off the first time I closed it. So my solution is to put 2" finishing nails into the tack strips and leave about an inch exposed. I put 3 nails per every 2 ft. It works well. The tack strips still hold the majority of the weight, but the finishing nails keeps them in place.

The Space:

okay, we all know it's a cube, but it's a really small cube, which is why i call it Studio Cubito (Really Small Cube). With the desk against the wall, my chair is almost in the middle of the room. Not ideal, is it? A quick trial with the monitors and I can tell already there are huge peaks and valleys. Just moving my head around a few inches I hear the 300 - 500 hz range sweep. This is just with casual listening.

My company is shipping a B&K analyzer to me and I will graph out the room response. However, I don't believe there is going to be much more I can do to tune the room without spending tons of cash that I don't have.

The A/C:

This a/c unit is louder than I first thought. Just sitting here now, it's driving me crazy. I have ideas on how to baffle it and make it quieter, but that will be a major project and I won't be starting it soon.

Overall, though, it came out nice. I can barely put my stuff in here and I still have some organizing to do (hence no pics yet), but I really love it. I can now get back to work late at night while the family sleeps.

peace.
 
Cool beans ChiliDude! :D

I'd think with the AC unit, you'd just turn it off when tracking, huh? And I seriously doubt it would be loud enough to mess with your mixing. At least not as bad as my 4 dogs all barking and howling at once. (sigh)

It's just cool ya got yourself a "happy place". ;)

As to the room acoustics, any room for more bass trapping stuff?

Either way, I'm thinkin as ya burn some CD's and play em back on different systems, you'll learn the translation.

Anyway, just wantin to give props where props are due.

Peace puddin-head. :p

Kel
 
Chili said:
A quick trial with the monitors and I can tell already there are huge peaks and valleys. Just moving my head around a few inches I hear the 300 - 500 hz range sweep. This is just with casual listening.
Click to expand...

I had problems with this region too ,while response in the lows below is pretty good (Just remembering, my (small) room has 18 traps).

For what I read (and here happened too)some are caused by reflections near the monitoring area (boundaries, vídeo scrim, desk ...).

Putting panels near the monitors to deal with SBIR http://www.gikacoustics.com/education_sbir.html ever helps.

Here, I was crazy with a mid peak that,even with an excellent treatment around monitors NEVER gave up :D.
Well, as my desk has no "gear" , just computer keyboard ,mouse and a Dmp3,I did it...:D : a 703 (similar) in the desk (simple MDF) covered with thick (black)fabric and it "destroyed" an annoying 570 peak (4db or more)

Not exactly a suggestion, just to share what happens when you treat region around/near the speakers.


Ciro
 
Last edited:
CIRO said:
I had problems with this region too ,while response in the lows below is pretty good (Just remembering, my (small) room has 18 traps).

For what I read (and here happened too)some are caused by reflections near the monitoring area (boundaries, vídeo scrim, desk ...).

Putting panels near the monitors to deal with SBIR http://www.gikacoustics.com/education_sbir.html ever helps.

Here, I was crazy with a mid peak that,even with an excellent treatment around monitors NEVER gave up :D.
Well, as my desk has no "gear" , just computer keyboard ,mouse and a Dmp3,I did it...:D : a 703 (similar) in the desk (simple MDF) covered with thick (black)fabric and it "destroyed" an annoying 570 peak (4db or more)

Not exactly a suggestion, just to share what happens when you treat region around/near the speakers.


Ciro
Click to expand...


Cool Ciro, thank you for sharing. I will keep that in mind when I go to fine tune the room. I have been listening to some commercial releases and they don't sound bad. I think I just need to get used to the room. I plan to mount the monitors on a back plate over the desk. I already have 703 panels made to go behind the monitors and some thick closed cell foam to go under the speakers to separate the speaker from the back plate. Not sure how it will turn out yet.

I have panels at the first reflection point. I didn't read your link yet, but I think that's what it was talking about. I will read it later this week. Traveliing on business again... :(

cheers.
 
Dogbreath said:
At least not as bad as my 4 dogs all barking and howling at once. (sigh)....
Kel
Click to expand...

Ya know, I meant to tell you earlier, if your dogs are barking and howling when you're mixing, maybe you should look for another singer. :eek: Just kidding :D :rolleyes:
 
I found a JM distributor 5 miles from my house. Gonna give it a go. :cool:
 
DeshevldMusic said:
so....any pics of the current setup?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I do not have pics after I moved in. Besides, it's really messy and I'm not enthused about showing how much of a slob I am. :laughings: The fact is, the room is small and I do more than music in here, so stuff piles up quickly. Thanks for checking out the thread.
 
I have an idea for the A/C. Build a vented box outside and mount the unit inside the box. Build a small chase up the outside wall to the A/C window, run flexible 4" pipe through it (cheap drainage pipe or even clothes dryer exhaust ducting should be fine) and turn the window space into an intake vent. Just try it to see how it works, whether you can get a remote to work with it, and what the sound is like. If you like the result then you can worry about making it pretty. Most of the A/C I've seen in studios involved remote units of some sort because of the noise.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top