what should i do with my concrete floors?

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freakkguitarist

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i have sealed concrete floors, and im not sure what i should do. id LIKE some carpet, but i hear its bad cuz it absorbs high the freqs.

would it be ok to leave the floors concrete? and just make the walls and ceiling dead

also, 3 of my 4 walls are going to be concrete, i was thinking of just putting some foam suspended about 2" from the walls in certain places, and for the control room, bass traps in the corners.
 
TexRoadkill said:
What are the room dimensions?
Click to expand...


29'4'' long
11'6'' wide
about 7 foot ceilings


it is going to be made into 4 rooms or spaces, control room, vocal/small room and a drum/big room and a small hallway.

im thinking the first control room wall, where the window will be will be about 14 feet into the room, and then devide the rest of the room into 2 rooms somehow, i dont really know what would be best, is there a good free interior design program that i can download to show you guys a floorplan?
 
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download the free trial version of smartdraw
 
freakkguitarist said:
29'4'' long
11'6'' wide
about 7 foot ceilings


it is going to be made into 4 rooms or spaces, control room, vocal/small room and a drum/big room and a small hallway.
Click to expand...

Maybe somebody who has a small room studio will contradict me but I don't see how you could possibly get 3 practical and usable spaces out of that room. My room is only slightly bigger then yours and I can't imagine it being any smaller more less cutting it up into seperate rooms. Sound needs room to develop and if you have really small rooms (anything smaller then what you already have) you are left with crappy sounding rooms that require a lot of expertise to properly tune or you just have to make them completely dead.

I suppose it's possible to make some nice sounding small rooms. Blue Bear's isolation rooms look kinda small but they are huge compared to what you would end up with. I would rethink your plan because cement floors will be the least of your problems.
 
I would divide it into 2 rooms only. Don't cramp your control room or you'll have problems monitoring on mixdown. Placing the wall at 14' is probably the best you can do and still leave some space for the other room. Concrete floors? Think throw rugs to tame the high freqs a little. Build you some 2' x 4' diffusors out of rigid fiberglass (Owens 703 or Knauf) and hang them vertically on one of the 2 walls that face each other. Do this for the other 2 opposing walls too. No need to do both opposing walls unless you really want to kill the room. Space them about 2 feet apart or adjust to taste. If you end up using diffusors on all walls then place diffusors opposite the 2 foot gaps of the opposing wall. Using rigid fiberglass again, cut across the corners in the room 2 foot wide from floor to ceiling. This will help control the bass buildup somewhat. Don't expect steller room performance (especially on a less than steller budget) but you can get it workable.

For recording: Since you'll only have the one main room you can record drums and bass (DI) at the same time, then rhythm guitar, then lead guitar, then vocals. You could do it all live if you don't mind the bleedover and everyone gets it right on the same take.

I'd advise you to build a staggered stud wall (don't forget the insulation) between the 2 rooms. A double wall if you can afford a few more bucks. Use resilient channel fastened to the studs (horizontally) to mount your sheetrock. 5/8" sheetrock instead of the normal 1/2" stuff. Mass is your friend here. I'm assuming everyone (including you) will be using headphones during recording. You're still going to hear/feel low freqs (kick, bass) through the wall so using monitor speakers during recording could be a problem. You just can't stop the low freqs without mass or distance.

All in all, your problems are: less than ideal room sizes, very hard reflective parallel surfaces (remember ceiling and floor are parallel) and probably a limited budget like the rest of us!!

Still, it beats using the kitchen (been there). Best of luck to ya.

DD
 
doesnt john say to only use one or the other......double wall or rc
 
I don't really remember on the RC/double wall thing. You're probably right since the purpose of RC is to lessen vibration from sheetrock on one side of the wall, through the stud, to sheetrock on the other side. In a double wall the walls don't touch. Necessary with a staggered stud wall though.

DD
 
I've actually got a design from John Sayers for my rooms (3 rooms in a 20x16 area) that I am hoping will work... if you'd like I can post a drawing of it.

I'm going to start taping off the floor this week so I can see that actual room sized before I construct anything.

I will be dealing with the exact same issues though... concrete floor (basement) and 7 foot walls.

Velvet Elvis
 
Here is what I did with my ~22ft x 12ft space

It has been working out so far and really no complaints. I of course wish I had more space but I did what I could. The drums are in the studio and the guitar in another room outside of the studio and vocals in the iso booth and the bassist DI to the board in the control room. This room was a John S. plan.
Also I have painted concrete floors with throw rugs.
 

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Maestro do you have any treatment in the drum room? Do you have any sound clips of the drums?
 
There is no treatment in the room as of yet ; so far the sound has been best described as live. The walls themselves have some acoustic value from what I understand. Two of the walls are 1/2 on rc channels with rigid fiberglass for insulation and mounted to painted concrete block. The other two remaining walls in the drum room are 2 layers of 5/8 drywall , metal studs , insulation , 3 inch airspace , insulation , metal studs , and then 2 layers of 5/8. I don't have any sound clips right now but will work on that. I just finished up the room and have just wanted to play again so I haven't been doing any recording. I just want to say to anyone that is thinking about building a studio to prepare for alot of work. Studio building as I found has to be done right or it's not worth doing. Be prepared to spend about 10 times what you thought it would cost. Figure in my little space I have about 45 sheets of drywall in there , about 20 tubes of caulk. Plan ahead and do it right the first time and if you can't get the funds then wait until you can buy what you need to do it right. Just wanted to add this. This is from John's site.

Stefan - check out the booth at left Bank - I've recorded drums in there and there is no room sound

http://johnlsayers.com/Studio/index.htm

cheers
john

The booth is about the same size as mine if my math is right. It will still come down to treatment. Be sure to check out all of the pictures ; it is one very nice studio.
 
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