John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Yesterday the construction materials were delivered. It took a buddy and myself 2 solid hours to carry 28 sheets of drywall, 48 2x4s, 4 sheets of plywood, and 350 pounds of cement into my basement studio space. And this is just for a 4.5'x6'x7' isolation booth!!

Last night I built the frame the foundation (the floor is uneven, far from level, and cracked concrete) and poured the concrete pad the isobooth will sit on. (I'll take pictures today).

Today I'm building the frames for the floor and a couple of the walls.

I still need to get my insulation: The recommended place for Roxul is out and won't have any for a couple weeks. I found a place that will sell 703 for a decent price but that is 24"x48" and my studs are 16". I'd like to avoid having to cut so much insulation if I can.

I need to buy the RC as well.

But I have plenty I can get accomplished today.

I'll update you all later and post pictures.

I'm hoping that I will end up with an iso booth that will be sound proof enough to allow me to record electric guitar (35w fender 2x10" combo) and the occasional drumset (It will be just kick and snare cramped in there) We'll see...

I read all the stickys, planned it all out accordingly, am being carefull in my construction and will hope for the best.

When I finish I'll post what I did, what materials I used, and how much sound reduction I accomplished.

If those are your INSIDE dimensions, it's about as good as a booth can get modally - if they are your OUTSIDE dimensions, you'll have a bit of a "hole" acoustically at around 125 hZ band and may need some extra absorption (not a lot of room here) to even the response.

Your worst enemies for containing the amp (and especially drums) will be door/window, but short of an airlock and two doors there's not a lot that can be done - just a solid exterior wood door, maybe beefed up with a layer or two of MDF and extra hinges, and good seals -

There's no good reason for 16" centers, you might be better off going 24" centers where possible to avoid cuts in insulation - don't go any heavier than 3 PCF, and lighter may work better - here's some info on that, don't remember if I posted this with the stickies -

http://www.usg.com/Design_Solutions/2_3 ... onperf.asp

Also, glass needs to be at least 1/3 the total drywall thickness for each leaf - IOW, with a double glass window, the outer pane should be at least 3/8" if using two layers of 5/8 wallboard, and the inner pane should be compared to the inner leaf's total thickness - this is because the mass of glass is roughly 3X that of sheet rock. The two panes in a window should NOT be the SAME thickness as each other, because same resonant frequency means that frequency will get through BOTH layers equally easy.

BTW, I really appreciate your taking the incentive to actually read what's already here, and don't be shy if you have any doubts on anything... Steve

A construction update:

The corner where the isolation box is being built had a cracked and uneven floor. I poured a concrete pad that are the dimensions of the booth. It was a pain (had to mix the concrete by hand in small batches) and the aches and blisters took days to heal but I ended up with a flat, solid concrete pad.

I have the floor built (3/4" MDF and 3/4" plywood on a OC 703 filled 2x4 frame) floating on Neoprene pucks. I used a 2x4 frame for the floor due to height restrictions (7' ceiling).

The back wall, 2 side walls, and ceiling are now in place. From the outside in they are: 1/2"dw, 5/8"dw on 2x4" studs filled with OC 703.

The innerwalls will also be 1/2"dw, 5/8"dw on resiliant channel.

The front wall (the one with the door in it) will be the only true double wall. That is so I can have two door with an airlock in between (although it will only be 3 inches).

So far, everything is going smoothly but taking 4 times as long as I expected. I figured I was being overly optimistic in my timetable. I will post a pic when I get a little closer to completion.

Cool, hope everything is going OK - generally, I estimate how long I thing a project will take, then multiply by 10 and figure I'll only be a few days short... Steve