sjoko2
New member
First of all, thanks John for putting up the pictures, and thanks for the inspiration. I think your latest project looks stunning. What I really hope to achieve with the pictures on your website is to inspire others, to make them realize that, if you set your mind and hands to work, and listen to expert advise on forums like this one, most people are capable of building superb places themselves, at reasonable cost. Thus far I have done everything myself, apart from fitting the soundboard to the tracking room ceiling. And I am NOT a builder. I have designed studios, worked as a troubleshooter for acoustics, but never physically got stuck into it.
I was getting fed-up of recording in places all over the globe, thought it was time to have a base, a place where I felt I could be creative with all the tools I preferred on hand.
So, For those of you who have seen the control room pictures, here is an explanation of the ?why and what-for?s?, as it has some unusual and interesting features:
Design parameters:
1) To create a comfortable, inspiring environment with superb acoustic performance, suitable for all format recording / mixing.
2) Wherever possible, to use natural materials at reasonable cost. There is a tale to this one. Over the years I found I felt most comfortable in rooms without a predominance of treatment consisting of materials made with a chemical process, like foams etc. Long hours / weeks in foam and fiber panel treated rooms always gave me a headache, apart from that it just doesn?t sound right, it feels the sound gets ?sucked out?.
3) A very good air circulation / conditioning system ? again a prerequisite to ?feeling good?.
4) A ?silent? environment. I hate locking people up in little booths, I wanted a control room that was acoustically suitable for tracking things like vocals etc. if I wanted to. So no computers, tape machines, hard drives etc. in the control room.
Control room treatment:
A. Soundproofing
1) Roof, front and rear walls made of ¾? siding outer skin on a 2 x 6 frame. Filled 6? cavity with blown-in cellulose Cocoon insulation. Applied ½? soundboard. Glued thick bitumen felt (AST30) to one side of ¾? ply, screwed plywood over the soundboard onto the frame, felt facing soundboard.
2) Side (outer) wall, and wall to tracking room. Outer wall was ¾? siding on 2 x 4 frame. Build 2nd 2 x 4 frame, connected to outer wall with galvanized steel strips to eliminate vibration, standing on neoprene strips. Wall between control and tracking rooms created with ridged 2 x 4 frame on tracking room side, floating 2 x 4 frame on control room side.
3) Floor. Existing floor 2 x 6 beams covered with ¾? ply, cavity filled with glass wool. Applied one layer of thick bitumen felt, one layer of heavy plastic sheet, covered with another layer of bitumen felt. Covered that with one layer of ½? soundboard. On top a frame of 2 x 3 timber on neoprene strips. Filled cavity with rockwool insulation, closed with glued-and-screwed ¾? medium density particleboard. Front wall area, separate raised floating platform, independent from the rest of the floor, to accommodate monitors.
Acoustic treatment:
Measurements taken indicated that the room, with its angled front & rear walls and roof, had very distinct characteristics. Very predictable build-up of frequencies in the corners and from corner to corner. Measurements taken by playing music first, then playing tones. Measured with an Audio Technica contact mic, results on a Urei Graph writer.
1) Roof. Divided roof in 6 sections front to back, 4 sections side to side (in line with frequency predominance?s indicated by measurements). Screwed and glued 3 x ¾? beach strips on the plywood ceiling to create the sections. Stapled 2 rows of welding rod onto the frames, set ½? from the outside of each strip. Cut pieces of ½? ply to fit each section, applied a layer of acoustic paint (mix of latex paint, rubber granules and glasswool fiber) on one side of each panel. Screwed panels onto sections (acoustically treated side up) with multiple screws, driver on low torque setting. Applied contact mic to each section and torqued screws slowly until each panel resonated at the predominant frequency in that area. The welding rod, over which the ply was tightened, works as the rim of a drum. More measurements, build diffusion panels from baled straw batt (hey John! Had to import those fro Oz!!!) Strips of straw above front monitor section, smaller strip above rear section, 4 x 6 straw diffusion panel (with insulation above) 1/3 over the center, 2/3 towards the rear of the roof, small insulation backed strips in the peak towards the sides to eliminate the last remaining frequency build-up.
2) Wall to tracking room. Build heavy angled window frame, fitted inside the wall on neoprene strips, glazed with ¼? laminated glass both sides. Covered cellulose insulated wall (10? thick) with soundboard and ¾? ply. Build large broad band diffusion panel fitted above control room window. Finished wall with tongue and grooved pine timber (the grooves providing diffusion), all timber sides backed by impact absorbing flooring adhesive tape.
3) Side wall. Painted ply with acoustic paint. Screwed and glued 3 x ½? strips of beach in lines leading from octagonal corners of window. Covered strips with impact absorbing flooring adhesive strip, fastened tongue and groove pine onto strips. Resulting pattern providing both broad-band resonance cavities as well as diffusion.
4) Rear wall. As side wall, only t & g planks placed horizontal. half round absorbsion / diffusion panel in center top. Waiting for delivery of monitors in order to decide positioning of rear monitors and rear corner traps.
5) Floor. One layer of Pergo Soundblock underlay foam, with Pergo beach floor.
Monitor soffits.
Again, you might think they look somewhat unusual. The monitor soffits are tilted forward, the front of each soffit rests on a timber strip and a neoprene pad, the rear on a long steel bolt, which is spring loaded. This allows for easy angle adjustment. Each soffit is air-conditioned, as we?re using bi-amped monitors (firm believe of having amps as close to speakers as possible, can?t get them any closer!). A difference from normal, straight walled. rooms we found is that the best place for the sub was bang in the middle, normally it would be better in a corner, unless you use multiple units.
The stands are made from a 2 x 4 frame. This frame is filled with glasswool, closed with pegboard. Inside each stand are hangers designed solely for low frequency, made from mineral loaded vinyl covered with wadded cloth, as well as a flex duct leading to the soffit for cooling.
We have just done some real tests with 2 sets of different monitors (while waiting for the real ones to be delivered). Played tones, and music ranging from CD?s to 24/96 high definition audio. I was to be honest &^%#?ing myself. A friend, who is known to insiders as ?Allen Sides? secret weapon? (Oceanway?s owner) helped me with the measurements (he?s got all the cool gear). Great relief, the room sounds above my wildest expectations and according to him its one of the best, if not the best and most accurate rooms he?s ever heard. Therefore ?. I suppose it was worth almost four months of non-stop hard labor!
Just spend 3 days sanding all the wood, the next 2 days varnishing, and then onto the tracking room. I?ll need some input from you guys on that one, at 31 x 24? with a 22? high roof peak its got the potential of being a great room, and I?m formulating ideas for some variable acoustics in there.
Any questions or comments, please ask.
Happy building!!
I was getting fed-up of recording in places all over the globe, thought it was time to have a base, a place where I felt I could be creative with all the tools I preferred on hand.
So, For those of you who have seen the control room pictures, here is an explanation of the ?why and what-for?s?, as it has some unusual and interesting features:
Design parameters:
1) To create a comfortable, inspiring environment with superb acoustic performance, suitable for all format recording / mixing.
2) Wherever possible, to use natural materials at reasonable cost. There is a tale to this one. Over the years I found I felt most comfortable in rooms without a predominance of treatment consisting of materials made with a chemical process, like foams etc. Long hours / weeks in foam and fiber panel treated rooms always gave me a headache, apart from that it just doesn?t sound right, it feels the sound gets ?sucked out?.
3) A very good air circulation / conditioning system ? again a prerequisite to ?feeling good?.
4) A ?silent? environment. I hate locking people up in little booths, I wanted a control room that was acoustically suitable for tracking things like vocals etc. if I wanted to. So no computers, tape machines, hard drives etc. in the control room.
Control room treatment:
A. Soundproofing
1) Roof, front and rear walls made of ¾? siding outer skin on a 2 x 6 frame. Filled 6? cavity with blown-in cellulose Cocoon insulation. Applied ½? soundboard. Glued thick bitumen felt (AST30) to one side of ¾? ply, screwed plywood over the soundboard onto the frame, felt facing soundboard.
2) Side (outer) wall, and wall to tracking room. Outer wall was ¾? siding on 2 x 4 frame. Build 2nd 2 x 4 frame, connected to outer wall with galvanized steel strips to eliminate vibration, standing on neoprene strips. Wall between control and tracking rooms created with ridged 2 x 4 frame on tracking room side, floating 2 x 4 frame on control room side.
3) Floor. Existing floor 2 x 6 beams covered with ¾? ply, cavity filled with glass wool. Applied one layer of thick bitumen felt, one layer of heavy plastic sheet, covered with another layer of bitumen felt. Covered that with one layer of ½? soundboard. On top a frame of 2 x 3 timber on neoprene strips. Filled cavity with rockwool insulation, closed with glued-and-screwed ¾? medium density particleboard. Front wall area, separate raised floating platform, independent from the rest of the floor, to accommodate monitors.
Acoustic treatment:
Measurements taken indicated that the room, with its angled front & rear walls and roof, had very distinct characteristics. Very predictable build-up of frequencies in the corners and from corner to corner. Measurements taken by playing music first, then playing tones. Measured with an Audio Technica contact mic, results on a Urei Graph writer.
1) Roof. Divided roof in 6 sections front to back, 4 sections side to side (in line with frequency predominance?s indicated by measurements). Screwed and glued 3 x ¾? beach strips on the plywood ceiling to create the sections. Stapled 2 rows of welding rod onto the frames, set ½? from the outside of each strip. Cut pieces of ½? ply to fit each section, applied a layer of acoustic paint (mix of latex paint, rubber granules and glasswool fiber) on one side of each panel. Screwed panels onto sections (acoustically treated side up) with multiple screws, driver on low torque setting. Applied contact mic to each section and torqued screws slowly until each panel resonated at the predominant frequency in that area. The welding rod, over which the ply was tightened, works as the rim of a drum. More measurements, build diffusion panels from baled straw batt (hey John! Had to import those fro Oz!!!) Strips of straw above front monitor section, smaller strip above rear section, 4 x 6 straw diffusion panel (with insulation above) 1/3 over the center, 2/3 towards the rear of the roof, small insulation backed strips in the peak towards the sides to eliminate the last remaining frequency build-up.
2) Wall to tracking room. Build heavy angled window frame, fitted inside the wall on neoprene strips, glazed with ¼? laminated glass both sides. Covered cellulose insulated wall (10? thick) with soundboard and ¾? ply. Build large broad band diffusion panel fitted above control room window. Finished wall with tongue and grooved pine timber (the grooves providing diffusion), all timber sides backed by impact absorbing flooring adhesive tape.
3) Side wall. Painted ply with acoustic paint. Screwed and glued 3 x ½? strips of beach in lines leading from octagonal corners of window. Covered strips with impact absorbing flooring adhesive strip, fastened tongue and groove pine onto strips. Resulting pattern providing both broad-band resonance cavities as well as diffusion.
4) Rear wall. As side wall, only t & g planks placed horizontal. half round absorbsion / diffusion panel in center top. Waiting for delivery of monitors in order to decide positioning of rear monitors and rear corner traps.
5) Floor. One layer of Pergo Soundblock underlay foam, with Pergo beach floor.
Monitor soffits.
Again, you might think they look somewhat unusual. The monitor soffits are tilted forward, the front of each soffit rests on a timber strip and a neoprene pad, the rear on a long steel bolt, which is spring loaded. This allows for easy angle adjustment. Each soffit is air-conditioned, as we?re using bi-amped monitors (firm believe of having amps as close to speakers as possible, can?t get them any closer!). A difference from normal, straight walled. rooms we found is that the best place for the sub was bang in the middle, normally it would be better in a corner, unless you use multiple units.
The stands are made from a 2 x 4 frame. This frame is filled with glasswool, closed with pegboard. Inside each stand are hangers designed solely for low frequency, made from mineral loaded vinyl covered with wadded cloth, as well as a flex duct leading to the soffit for cooling.
We have just done some real tests with 2 sets of different monitors (while waiting for the real ones to be delivered). Played tones, and music ranging from CD?s to 24/96 high definition audio. I was to be honest &^%#?ing myself. A friend, who is known to insiders as ?Allen Sides? secret weapon? (Oceanway?s owner) helped me with the measurements (he?s got all the cool gear). Great relief, the room sounds above my wildest expectations and according to him its one of the best, if not the best and most accurate rooms he?s ever heard. Therefore ?. I suppose it was worth almost four months of non-stop hard labor!
Just spend 3 days sanding all the wood, the next 2 days varnishing, and then onto the tracking room. I?ll need some input from you guys on that one, at 31 x 24? with a 22? high roof peak its got the potential of being a great room, and I?m formulating ideas for some variable acoustics in there.
Any questions or comments, please ask.
Happy building!!
