Room build

[GTR GUY]

I currently have an unfinished smallish room in my basement that I want to convert into my home recording studio.

My guess is it is about 20' X 12'. I don't really think I have the space for a separate control room and probably could get by without. At this point it would be for recording only myself.

Mainly guitars, bass and vocals. I have an electronic drum kit but am unsure what kind of sound quality I would get out of that. I will probably just use software for the drums.

To get to the point I just am not sure what materials to start with for sound insulation for the walls and ceiling. I was thinking of just carpeting the floor or coating the concrete.

Can I just go down to the local Home Depot or do I have to shop for more specialized materials? I want to contain the sound as much as possible in this room so that if I get inspired in the wee hours of the morning I won't wake the house.


Any good reference manuals you guys recommend? Please share your own construction experience. Let me know what worked and didn't.

Sorry to be long winded. So many questions.

Thanks,

Brett

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by GTR GUY

I don't really think I have the space for a separate control room and probably could get by without. At this point it would be for recording only myself.

If you record yourself mainly, one room is actually better than two rooms.

Any good reference manuals you guys recommend?

Sound isolation is not easy to achieve, but the advice in this book will help you a lot:

Home Recording Studio: Build it Like the Pros

--Ethan

[GTR GUY]

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

If you record yourself mainly, one room is actually better than two rooms.



Sound isolation is not easy to achieve, but the advice in this book will help you a lot:

Home Recording Studio: Build it Like the Pros

--Ethan

Thanks for the info Ethan, It looks like a good book to start with.


Brett

[Barryw]

Reflection control/damping will help you make better sounding recordings in the room.

Soundproofing/Leakage control will help keep the sound from disturbing others in the building.

These are related, but different topics. Obviously good studios address both subjects.

Lets be real, you are not making a major studio, and you don't have the budget to do so. With that in mind, adding some absorption will help most rooms. I'd consider doing some or all of the following: Carpet the floor, bring in a few nice big pieces of fluffy furniture, hang heavy curtains about 6 inches away from the walls covering all the hard surfaces. If you want real control and don't mind a bit of construction, instead of the curtains attach 1x6 boards to the wall making a 6" deep wall-frame. Fill these cavities with fiberglass (get the 8" thick rolls without any backing paper) and staple burlap or other acoustically transparent fabric in front. Cover at least two of the walls like this, and you'll notice a major difference in the control and quietness of the room.

The shape and size of the room also has a big impact, but I'm assuming this is probably not too adjustable.

Soundproofing is achieved by making the room essentially airtight, and decoupling all the wall/floor/ceiling surfaces from the rest of the building so that vibrations are not transmitted. This is usually NOT easy nor inexpensive. Even if you knock down the sound transmission 100:1, you'll still hear it. I would not make soundproofing a goal - unless you are willing to spend a lot of time & money, or unless you are embarking upon new construction - at which point it can be designed in (still expensive), rather than "retrofitted".

[MetalDave]

For isolation from upstairs, really the best thing to do is tear out the sheetrock or tiles in the whole ceiling and insulate the whole thing. then put up sound channel and hang sheetrock from this. You could do more but how much work/money do you want to spend?

[GTR GUY]

Reflection control/damping will help you make better sounding recordings in the room.

Soundproofing/Leakage control will help keep the sound from disturbing others in the building.

These are related, but different topics. Obviously good studios address both subjects.

Ideally, I would like to address both as best as I can.

If you want real control and don't mind a bit of construction, instead of the curtains attach 1x6 boards to the wall making a 6" deep wall-frame. Fill these cavities with fiberglass (get the 8" thick rolls without any backing paper) and staple burlap or other acoustically transparent fabric in front. Cover at least two of the walls like this, and you'll notice a major difference in the control and quietness of the room.

The room is unfinished at this point so I am planning on some construction. At this point I have one outside wall that is insulated but no drywall. I have one other wall(currently open 2X 4 frame with drywall on the outside of the frame).This wall is between this room and my home theater. The third wall is the doorway. The last wall separating this room from the furnace etc is still to be framed and isulated. The ceiling is open and unfinished. So the good thing is I don't have to tear any existing walls out.

The shape and size of the room also has a big impact, but I'm assuming this is probably not too adjustable.

The is one curved section from a stairway that intrudes into the room. I am wondering how a curved wall will affect the quality of the sound. I will try to scetch a simple drawing and upload it.

Soundproofing is achieved by making the room essentially airtight, and decoupling all the wall/floor/ceiling surfaces from the rest of the building so that vibrations are not transmitted.

Ideally if one could build a room within a room that would probably be best but I don't think I have a big enough room for that. Your suggestion about 2X 6 framed wall may be the best solution and is definitely possible in this case.

[GTR GUY]

Originally Posted by MetalDave

For isolation from upstairs, really the best thing to do is tear out the sheetrock or tiles in the whole ceiling and insulate the whole thing. then put up sound channel and hang sheetrock from this. You could do more but how much work/money do you want to spend?

The ceiling is unfinished so I am lucky that I don't have to tear out any existing ceiling or walls.

What is sound channel?

I had used some tiles in a previous residence that worked quite well for containing the sound in a home theater. Of course we are dealing with the possibility of a lot more volume for a home studio. Do you not recommend these and prefer the sheetrock?

I didn't really have a set budget but assumed a few thousand to frame, insulate and drywall. If it is more then that is OK. I would rather do it right the first time.

[Vulconizer]

Having an asymmetrical ( curved ) wall should help with reflections in your room. I think Ethan could shed more light upon this than I can though. *Thanks for the help here, Ethan, by the way*

Sounds like you are going about this in the right way: Asking first and being open to suggestions. Take your time and get it the best you can from the first.

[GTR GUY]

I attached a jpg sketch of my room. Like I mentioned all the walls and ceiling in this room are unfinished.

I am wondering what effect the curved wall will have on acoustics. I could build it out to a square corner if I had to but that would cut into the size of the room. Any comments?

I am also concerned about having to put the 2 addtional doors to access the storage area and how this will affect sound isolation. I could always hang some curtains over the doors to help. I thought maybe some kind of hidden door in a bookcase would be better for sound isolation, asthetics and be kind of cool as well. Sounds like more work too.

[Barryw]

Originally Posted by GTR GUY

I am wondering what effect the curved wall will have on acoustics.

Generally I like irregular shapes. The lengths of the walls will determine the wavelengths (frequency) that the room will want to ring at. Worse case would be a cube, where all walls reinforce a particular frequency - or a room where the walls are a harmonic multiple - for example a room with 10' ceiling, 10' wall and a 20' wall. Ideally the wall lengths are not harmonically related, look up GOLDEN RATIOs.

Same principle applies when building speaker cabinets.

-Barry