Studio/Room Help

[buck78]

Basement Studio Help

What a great forum. I am glad I stumbled on to it. I just hope it's not too late. Here's what I have so far. It's a basement studio/practice room. I will be recording acoustic instruments with mics. Complete sound proofing would cost too much. So my primary goal is to reduce the amount of transmissinon as much as possible, focusing mainly on the ceiling. Two of the four walls boarder the existing poared concrete walls. The ceiling started at 81 inches. This immeadiately ruled out two things: a drop ceiling and a solid exterior steel door.

For the ceiling I installed 2x8 hangers between the existing joists, staggered at 2.5 ft intervals. These are pretty tight. I then installed R-19 insulation in the joist cavities. The ceiling also has resilent channel running perpendicular to the joists. The walls are 2x4 studs with R-13 insulation. Both the ceiling and walls have 5/8 inch drywall. The floor is covered with a short cut loop carpet.

So far the drywall is installed and the next step is to tape and mud. There is one beam that runs through the room. This has a soffit around it that is 8 inches wide and 8 inches from the ceiling. The post on the beam is also frammed out at 8x8 inches. All the electric will be run on surface mount conduit. This includes the lighting which will be those bulbs that have the cage around them. I plan on installing a wainscoating around the walls that will be 48 inches high. This will be 1/2 inch MDF with a poly clearcoat finish.

As I mentioned before, I'll be recording and mixing in the same room. As it stands right now the room is pretty live with just the drywall and carpet. A couch, desk and some cabinets will be the only furniture for now. Before the construction sound freely traveled from the basement to the first floor. I could actually hear our baby roll over in his crib from the basement. I am not too concerned with the walls. Our mechanicals are already walled off and should not be a huge problem when the door is installed (solid interior door). I am hoping that the ceiling will be acceptable once it's taped and mudded. What can I do if it's not?

As for treating the room what should I do? The beam soffit may cause some problems, as will the square shape of the room. Any suggestions for placement of monitoring would be great. Also any acoustical treatments (foam) and placement would be welcome also. Lastly, the room will be on it's own electrical circuit. Is it OK to have the lighting on the same circuit. It will be standard incandecesant lighting.

Thanks again.

Charlie

 

[gervis]

I am somewhat in the same position as you are. I have built a room within a room and am skinning everything with 1 1/2" of particle board/ mdf. the walls are 2x6 with 2x4 studs staggered and r13 weaved through. the ceiling is definitely a problem but i had a little more room than you did so i was able to put a lowered ceiling in to help. you might try what i think they call a cloud ceiling- use acoustical tiles but not on a grid- mounted just off of the existing ceiling; floating just below like a bounce chamber or something. unfortunately there are only 2 things that will stop sound- air and mass. you might have to give up some headroom like i did and sacrifice a claustrophobic feeling to get your sound right.
for more infoCLICK HERE

 

[buck78]

Well, I was hoping for a little more help on this. Maybe an update will help spur some replies.

The construction of my studio/room continues, albiet at a slower pace than I care to admit. All the dry wall is up. The ceiling gave me some minor problems with the resilient channel. The screws weren't always bitting in well. But we managed. I got the second coat of mud on the walls and ceiling and ran out of mud. This has given me a chance to test out the room (there's always a bright side to things). It's pretty tight, from a ceiling transmission standpoint. Soundproof, no. Tollerable yes. It won't wake anyone else up. Once the door is in that should only help.

What I did notice is that I now have a very live room. All four walls are parallel and I knew this was going to be a problem from the start. So I have begun looking into how to treat the room. I would like to build some absorption panels to take care of this.

- Do these need to be permanantly mounted on the wall or can they hang? It would be nice to remove them to tune the room.

- Do I also need to look into diffusers? Or will the panels take care of the problem?

Here's an updated picture of the room. The beam and post running through the room is soffited with drywall (blue highlight). The wall running perpendicular to the beam is a half wall (36" high).

Any help would be great. John great plans on the panels. Your input would be very helpful.

Thanks

Charlie

 

[ausrock]

Buck,

By the sound of it you have already been to the following site......
http://home.locall.aunz.com/~johnsay/index.html.
I would think that you will need to use a combination of absorbers and diffusers.............as my understanding is that while the absorbers may reduce low-mid frequncies they will not eliminate the "standing wave" effect of the parallel walls, for this you will need some form of diffuser working in conjunction with the absorbers.
The reference material links on John's site really do give us all the basics. If we follow that advice, then I think an acoustically acceptable room is within the reach of any of us.

 

[buck78]

Actually I was looking at different plans that I assumed were John's. The link you posted answered most of my questions. But, I still have a few.

- How are these mounted to the wall? Can they be hung like a picture?

- Are the dimensions on the plans hard and fast, or can they be altered to suit the space?

- Are these designed to go from floor to ceiling?

- Can masonite/hardboard be used for the top&bottom of the corner units and backs of the side and rear units? That would drastically reduce the weight of these.

- Are the seams of the boxes glued and screwed to achieve an air tight fit?

- Lastly, how is the insulation suspended in the corner units?

I have attached yet another revision of the space. This time with proposed placement of the wall units. Let me know how it looks.

Thanks.

 

[buck78]

I knew a forgot a question. That blue shaded area of the picture is a beam that is soffited. Is this going to cause any problems? It hangs down 8 or 10 inches form the ceiling.

buck

 

[John Sayers]

OK Buck - lets go through the questions

How are these mounted to the wall? Can they be hung like a picture?

The boxes must be sealed so if you have a plywood backing you can hang them, if not you must seal and screw to the wall.

Are the dimensions on the plans hard and fast, or can they be altered to suit the space?

The slots are set to be a broadband low- mid absorber so I wouldn't change those dimensions. The rear wall absorbers can be altered, say make them 6" or 4" deep but you loose out on the lower absorption frequency that the depth off the wall gives.

Are these designed to go from floor to ceiling?

Not necessarily, but preferably.


Can masonite/hardboard be used for the top&bottom of the corner units and backs of the side and rear units? That would drastically reduce the weight of these.

yes.

Are the seams of the boxes glued and screwed to achieve an air tight fit?

yes

Lastly, how is the insulation suspended in the corner units?

The aim is to fill the area with insulation so just toss it in.

As for your beam, just wrap it in insulation and cover with cloth.

cheers
john

 

[buck78]

John,

Thanks for the reply. It might be a while, but I'll keep everyone posted on my progress.

Again, this is a great forum and I am so glad I found it.


buck