Hello all --- building my studio... need help / advice

[Royce]

Hello all,

I am in the process of finishing my basement to become my recording/music room. (attached is rough pic) and could use all the advice I can get for the best way to set it up. Here's the room dimentions and some of the decisions I've made so far.

Room is approximately 15 feet by 18 feet. Ceiling is just under 8 feet.

Floor -- planning on ether an engineered wood flooring or laminate.
Ceiling -- I am planning on drywalling about 2-3 feet in around the perimeter of the room. Primarily this for appearance. It would be easier to drywall around the air ducts at the lower end of the room than any other solution, and drywalling the other sides would provide some symmetry. Also, on the long walls, the floor joists (for some reason) are not the same width near the outer edges as they are though the center of the room.

For the center 5 sections, the floor joists are an even 2 feet apart. For this portion, I was planning on 10 or 12 inch insulation covered with burlap. to cover the seams, I am planning on 1x2" strips of wood running the length of the joist (or something similar. One question was, since the joists are 11" deep, which would be better? 10" insulation or 12" slightly compacted --- or does it really matter?

A second question for the ceiling was that I have some regular drop ceiling tiles that I could cut and lay between the joists (the tiles were free left by the previous owner). Would using them here defeat the purpose? or would I be better off using the burlap covering.... Any other potential uses for this free resource?

Walls for the wall treatment, I am still trying to decide. I was thinking of bass traps in the top left and bottom right corners (stairs and fuse box prevent the other 2 corners) and probably slat resonators along the walls (maybe absorbers too?)

What confuses me is How much treatment I will need, how do I need to tune the treatment, and how to accomplsh all of this to obtain the best sounding room I can get (as cheaply as possible )

At this time, I do not think I will have space for a separate control room, so the whole room will be used for everything.... any suggestions on layout of stuff after completion?


Anything you could suggest on any of this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Ethan Winer]

Royce,

> planning on ether an engineered wood flooring or laminate. <

Yes, a reflective floor is good.

> I am planning on drywalling about 2-3 feet in around the perimeter of the room. Primarily this for appearance. <

Unless you need sound isolation to the rest of the house you'll be better off leaving the entire ceiling bare. Then you can fill the space between the joists with fiberglass - as thick as you can fit - to help absorb bass and avoid echoes between the floor and ceiling.

> For this portion, I was planning on 10 or 12 inch insulation covered with burlap. <

Yes, and this is a good idea for the entire ceiling.

> How much treatment I will need, how do I need to tune the treatment <

Tuning the room is a misnomer. What you want is enough broadband absorption to tame the reverb time, including enough bass trapping to flatten the low frequency response. You can definitely have too much mid/high absorption, but I don't think it's possible to have too much bass trapping.

> the whole room will be used for everything <

Nothing wrong with that, and this is exactly what I have too. One large room is almost always better than two small rooms.

--Ethan

[Royce]

Thanks Ethan!

A couple more questions.

Unless you need sound isolation to the rest of the house you'll be better off leaving the entire ceiling bare. Then you can fill the space between the joists with fiberglass - as thick as you can fit - to help absorb bass and avoid echoes between the floor and ceiling.

Only part of the reason was for appearance. On the wall with the windows (as well as the bulkhead) there are air ducts occupying one of the spaces between the joists (the one closest to the wall). Therefore, I cannot fit insulation in these areas. Also, the window side and the opposite side have joists that do not follow the 2' spacing that the rest do, so it would be easier to drywall over the First 2 joists (approx 2-3' on ether side) and over the bulkhead. The only part I was undecided over was the 3 feet on the wall by the stairs. I could leave this area open, but purly for appearance sake, I was thinking of drywalling this area as well (it would provide symmetry and good corners for the drywall.)

You can definitely have too much mid/high absorption

ok... how much is too much? I certainly could have no mid/high and just put in plenty of bass traps and some diffusers... What would you suggest? I don't want to "Overproduce" my studio -- so to speak.

[John Sayers]

Royce -one question.

I presume the stairs exit out of drawing to the top of the picture?? so the passage next to the stair is the entrance??

cheers
john

[Royce]

Hi John!

The stiars decend from my living room above... the bottom of the stair is at the top of the picture. in the room itself is just the triangular storage space under the stairs (access at bottom of pic) I plan to put some kind of door to cover the storage access.

The area above the room in the pic is a laundry room. Eventually, I plan to put a bathroom in that area as well.
There is a short (about 4-5') hallway from the music room (top of pic)... then left to Laundry or right to stairs

[John Sayers]

OK - the main design problem is the Fuse box placement because it obviously can't be shifted. I've tried to get the drawing to scale which your drawing isn't so I suggest this idea. The front left speaker is actually set in under the stairs and you could repeat the angle for the right speaker for symmetry.

The windows still work OK, the fuse box is accessible and the couch sits under the lower ceiling area.

cheers
john

[Royce]

Thanks again...

I got home and took some measurements and heres things in a little more detail. The pic isn't the best (still working in Paint), but the numbers should be right.

The room on the left is the studio --- right is laundry. Right side faces the street. Top and bottom face townhouses on either side

also
Floor to ceiling is 93"
under bulkhead is 81"
Windows are 69" up from floor and continue up to ceiling --- are about 2'x2'8 and are about three feet from either corner.

joists in ceiling run
first 9 1/2" from wall
second 23" from first
3-7 are all 2 feet apart
8 is 15" from 7
and 9 is 22" from 8

this is why I was considering drywalling over the first 2 joist spaces on either side (also duct runs through 1st joist so can't insulate that one).

I hope all this makes a little bit of sense.

Thanks again for all your help

[Royce]

I attached the new pic late last night, and it occured to me this morning that it may not have been clear. The picture should be rotated 90 degrees to match my original drawing.

Hope this wasn't too confusing.

thanks

[Ethan Winer]

Royce,

> there are air ducts occupying one of the spaces between the joists <

You can cover that with two inch thick rigid fiberglass.

> it would be easier to drywall <

Again, adding drywall helps isolation but hurts the sound within the room. You need to decide whether to drywall or not based on which is more important, not which is easier or which looks better! You can always dress up the look. And I assume you're going to live with this room for a while, so don't be kicking yourself in the butt next month because you didn't go the extra mile when building.

> how much is too much? <

It depends on how live you want the sound and what else is in the room. In general 20-50 percent coverage gives good results. But that's for mid/high absorption. You probably can't have too much bass trapping.

--Ethan

[knightfly]

Royce, if you've not seen this, you'll definitely want to -

http://www.buildingscience.com/resource ... ystems.pdf

Sorry 'bout that, but why should I be the only one inundated with 'way too much information? ... Steve

[Royce]

Knightfly,

I read the article with interest. Unfortunatly, now I'm paranoid about having a wet basement (even though I haven't had a problem with this).

Anyway, Im kinda comitted now (the walls are up, insulated and drywalled -- house is 17 years old -- I am just finishing the basement)

Any help on the accoustics would be appreciated.

Ehan--

So I want mid/high absorbstion on approximatly 1/3 of the wall and bass traps eveywhere else I can fit them?

[Ethan Winer]

Royce,

> So I want mid/high absorbstion on approximatly 1/3 of the wall and bass traps eveywhere else I can fit them? <

Yes. When advising customers I usually tell them to start with enough broadband traps in the room corners, and then add a few more on the walls and ceiling if more mid/high absorption is needed. The bass traps I sell absorb mid and high frequencies too, so those are often enough depending on where they're mounted. You can see a description of this on my company's site www.realtraps.com. See the pages Placing MiniTraps and RFZ.

--Ethan

[John Sayers]

Any help on the accoustics would be appreciated

Royce - you can either take your rectangular room and just treat the surfaces (aka Ethan's suggestion) or you can build a full soffit mount front projection rear absorption style room.

Here is my suggestion to scale - The elevation is looking at the speakers so you understand how it fits under the stairs (it is reversed naturally)

cheers
john

[Royce]

Thanks John!!!

Really kind of you to go to all the trouble of laying out not one, but TWO potential floor plans for me.... I'll investigate the feasability of them in my particular circumstance and post some pics once I finish.

The latest twist in my little saga came from outside. Someone kicked in one of the basement windows and broke into my house.... TWICE!!!!

Friday, while at work, someone kicked in the basement window and gained entry to my house. The walked up the stairs, walked right past my stereo, guitars, amps, tv etc., and stole nothing but one coffee can full of pocket change that I keep next to the door (there were three cans, but only one was taken.

Yesterday, Tuesday, they apparently came back to steal the other two coffee cans they had left last time... This time I was ready .... I screwed a sheet of plywood over the frame of the window they kicked out. In addition, the door at the top of the stairs has a little latch lock on it (sort of looks like a door hinge) that I latched that prevents the door from being opened.

This little door latch works really really well. The person came back and broke back in via the window I had boarded up.... Then he went up the stairs and got stuck... the door wouldn't open... He then went back down stairs and grabbed some of the tools I was using to finish the basement (hammer, screwdriver, razor knife) and went back up the stairs and managed to remove the doorknob --- still couldn't get in. My little latch (which is in no way connected to the doorknob) prevented him from entering the upstairs.

Unfortunately, the thief does get an "A" grade for ingenuity and persistance. Since he couldn't get through my little door latch, the thief then made a right turn and proceeded to go directly through the wall.... Yep... Broke through 2 layers of drywall and crawled up between the studs to the upstairs and proceeded on to his prize of 2 coffee tins full of change once again ignoring all my expensive equipment and instruments.

must be a kid

So, now I have to replace my window and the wall upstairs. I guess the only good news is that it got me thinking about security for the thousands of dollars in gear that I will have in the basement studio once its finished. Maybe some bars for the windows and an alarm systme.

Live and learn... all in all, I was VERY lucky that all I lost was the damage to the house and less than $100 in change.