Drum studio project

Brundlefly · #1 10-18-2009, 11:12 PM

I just started work on a new studio. I've noticed a lot of folks asking questions about how to go about this kind of thing in the past. So, this time, I decided to document the entire thing on a daily basis (or reasonably close to it). Lots of pictures, plan details and problem case coverage. And you can watch it happen stage by stage as it goes up... from planning to move-in day.

Also, if there are questions, you can ask then here and I'll do my best to answer them as we go along. Day 1 coverage is up now with my wall design spec and overall plan here: Studio 2.0 - Day 1

eddiehimself · #2 10-19-2009, 11:27 AM

Has anybody ever told you that you're rich? I'll be keeping a look out for this one.

Pocket-full-of-gold · #3 10-19-2009, 12:20 PM

I've never seen a home studio constructed from start to finish before. I shall follow this with interest.

Great idea mate...thanks for showing.

drumbum11 · #4 10-19-2009, 12:52 PM

do DW members get unlimited use of said recording studio

eddiehimself · #5 10-19-2009, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drumbum11

do DW members get unlimited use of said recording studio

It's unlikely but i'm sure if you bothered to spend the time travelling up to california he might let you have a go.

Brundlefly · #6 10-19-2009, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eddiehimself

Has anybody ever told you that you're rich? I'll be keeping a look out for this one.

Hehe... Ummm, no. Least of all, my wife. Btw, I will be posting all of the costs so that you can get an idea what something like this costs and how you might make different choices to control those costs but still end up with something that works for you. For this one, I'm going a little bit past the point of diminishing returns on some of my material choices. So you might be able to build something with very close to the same performance for significantly less.

Quote:

Originally Posted by drumbum11

do DW members get unlimited use of said recording studio

Perhaps a limited used agreement might be arranged. :)

Also, Day 2 is up. We hit a couple of interesting snags already.

fmeshtar · #7 10-19-2009, 10:09 PM

Great idea, i will follow this one, good luck ;)

drumbum11 · #8 10-19-2009, 10:55 PM

another day closer to completion

Abel · #9 10-19-2009, 11:01 PM

Very neat project! You sound very informed and well understanding of what your getting into. Glad your documenting it and sharing it for our benefit!

Brundlefly · #10 10-21-2009, 06:36 AM

Day 3 is up. This covers electrical strategy, initial HVAC installation and specs for the door.

GRUNTERSDAD · #11 10-21-2009, 04:48 PM

How much noise does the blower in the office or studio make, and could you have gotten a steel pre-hung door in a 36 or 42 inch width?

Brundlefly · #12 10-21-2009, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GRUNTERSDAD

How much noise does the blower in the office or studio make, and could you have gotten a steel pre-hung door in a 36 or 42 inch width?

Very little, and it can always be turned off while tracking if it becomes a problem. The one in the office isn't as loud as my Mac Pro which will be in the same room, so I already have that as an issue.

I looked into a steel pre-hung door from local contractor/reseller. I was pushing for something from Overly or Marshfield. But this local "expert" on sound control doors came back 5 days late with a quote on a $2,000.00 door with an STC rating of 21, and that was going to take 4 weeks to deliver. I probably don't have to spell out what is wrong with that. The last door I built had a performance that is consistent with a door rated at STC ~50. I'm confident that we can beat that this time around.

As it stands, I've spent $200.00 on a pre-hung, solid core door, which is almost nothing when it comes to sound rated doors. If that doesn't work out, I can always upgrade later. Besides, this allows me to cover the path that other people are most likely to take.

thtst · #13 10-21-2009, 06:45 PM

Nice! Are you going to 'float' the floor or use the concrete? i prefer floated/decoupled floors.

Brundlefly · #14 10-22-2009, 08:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thtst

Nice! Are you going to 'float' the floor or use the concrete? i prefer floated/decoupled floors.

Nope. Two reasons:

The room height is already severely limited by being in the garage and the fact that we need to use 2x10s for the ceiling joists. Altogether, I'm losing a foot off the already low 9 foot garage and I just can't stand to lose any more.
The concrete slab is already well isolated from the rest of the house's foundation. And I'm going to add some MLV and closed cell foam to the mix.

This is pretty close to the same formula that I used on the last practice room and the floor definitely wasn't an issue there. At least not from a sound control perspective.

#15 10-22-2009, 02:09 PM

This blog is great, I am following it with great interest. As a 'bit' of a sound engineer, I find these sorts of resources invaluable. You managed to make your's entertaining. I will be following!

thtst · #16 10-22-2009, 03:27 PM

Ahh, low ceiling... Thanks for posting this project!

wloeb · #17 10-23-2009, 01:00 AM

Hello,

A couple of questions:

1) With the split AC system, how do you get fresh air into the room?
2) I'm in the design stage of a home addition and want to include a soundproof room. What are the good resources to research?

Thanks
Wayne

thtst · #18 10-23-2009, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wloeb

2) I'm in the design stage of a home addition and want to include a soundproof room. What are the good resources to research?
Thanks
Wayne

You may want to check out various book on how to design a recording studio. A CRITICAL issue i don't believe that has been discussed on this thread is the room dimensions and wall designs to reduce standing waves. If you look at the way a concert hall is designed, that gives a small hint. Of course room size and design could also be dependant on the sound you are seeking to achieve, as a pipe organ in a small jazz club makes as much (non)sense as a jazz band in a classic large European church. Same goes for a recording studio as the monitoring room will be different than the room used to record within. If you live in a big city, you might want to contact the AES (Acoustic Engineering Society) and see which members may have the knowledge you are seeking.

#19 10-23-2009, 01:52 PM

Now that is an acoustic space. I've been to see concerts there (classical, my ex-girlfriend and my brother have both played there) and it sounds incredible. The best venue I've been to.

larryace · #20 10-23-2009, 03:30 PM

Brundle, I'm a little late to this party, and I have to ask, why do you need to run conduit for the electrical? Why not Romex? Conduit would transmit noise better, and it's just way more involved to install.. Do local codes forbid Romex in dwelling units in CA? You could run the romex in the space between the studs and the garage wall (If I was seeing your pic correctly) without drilling, easy breezy japanesey....Conduit is way overkill IMO

Brundlefly · #21 10-24-2009, 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by larryace

Brundle, I'm a little late to this party, and I have to ask, why do you need to run conduit for the electrical? Why not Romex? Conduit would transmit noise better, and it's just way more involved to install.. Do local codes forbid Romex in dwelling units in CA? You could run the romex in the space between the studs and the garage wall (If I was seeing your pic correctly) without drilling, easy breezy japanesey....Conduit is way overkill IMO

I'm not an electrician, so I can't answer the Romex question. But I did hire one and explained my goals and design plans. It's really up to him to decide what materials to use. And iI haven't seen anything so far that seems overly involved. I think we're up to about 2.5 hours for everything, including the 220 line for the condenser. The electrical on this has been pretty insignificant, overall.

drumbum11 · #22 10-27-2009, 04:30 AM

Is there going to be an update soon?

Brundlefly · #23 10-27-2009, 05:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drumbum11

Is there going to be an update soon?

Yes! Sorry for the delay. We had a few slow days here so there wasn't much to talk about until today. With that, Day 4 is up!

Skulmoski · #24 10-27-2009, 08:40 AM

Thanks for these updates; I will be following your progress and wish you best of luck with the project.

GJS

wloeb · #25 10-27-2009, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wloeb

Hello,

A couple of questions:

1) With the split AC system, how do you get fresh air into the room?

Thanks
Wayne

So how do you get fresh air in the room?

drumbum11 · #26 10-27-2009, 01:38 PM

so is this studio going to be completely soundproof?

eddiehimself · #27 10-27-2009, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drumbum11

so is this studio going to be completely soundproof?

What do you think?

Day 4 looks good mate. Good that you finally got the door sorted. Also i'm liking very much that you have the 2002 power ride because it's the exact same ride that i have (mine is actually vintage though-1985 XD ) but yeah it's a pretty awesome ride.

Brundlefly · #28 10-28-2009, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wloeb

So how do you get fresh air in the room?

At the moment, I haven't quite decided how I want to tackle this. For the last studio, it was simply the door. The good side of that plan is that the room's performance can't easily be degraded. The down side is potentially passing out in a sound proof room.

Quote:

Originally Posted by drumbum11

so is this studio going to be completely soundproof?

That's not easy to answer since it depends on how you qualify the idea of being "completely sound proof." If you take it literally, it means that if someone is listening on the exact opposite side of the wall, they can't hear anything. That level of sound proof is extremely hard to achieve short of building a room out of lead or multi-foot thick concrete.

However, I'm not shooting for that. I'm shooting for sound proof enough. I would qualify a room as being sound proof enough when you can play drums in it at any hour without disturbing others. That's the level of sound proofing that allows the space to fulfill its intended purpose. And that level of sound proofing will be different for every case. In other words, what makes that possible for an apartment is going to be very different than what makes that possible in a farm house basement.

So, to answer your question, this room should be sound proof enough for my situation, which includes only one neighbor (we're on a corner lot). The room is being built to be as far from that neighbor as possible. From past experience, I'm confident that my neighbors will never hear a thing. Preventing noise from traveling into the house itself will be the real trick. I'm a little less confident about that. We'll have to wait and see.

drumbum11 · #29 10-29-2009, 02:00 AM

o ok, i think it'll be a very cool studio. are you going to paint it in a cool design?

Brundlefly · #30 10-29-2009, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drumbum11

o ok, i think it'll be a very cool studio. are you going to paint it in a cool design?

Not totally sure, but probably leaning toward a warm neutral tone since there will be treatments on the walls. Don't want it to get too busy. Otherwise, I'm open to ideas.

BTW, Day 8 is up and marks the start of the drywall process.

wloeb · #31 11-02-2009, 10:17 PM

I demand an update!

Please?

Brundlefly · #32 11-03-2009, 05:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wloeb

I demand an update!

Please?

As you requested... I'm slowing down on the updates on days without significant progress, but today we really have some interesting stuff to cover. Earlier in the thread, someone asked about ventilation and I didn't quite have an answer then. In today's post, I'll cover our ventilation plans in detail.

So, here it is: Day 10ish... more or less

#33 11-03-2009, 12:50 PM

I like what I see! It looks very professional. I like the way you designed the air ducts, the way the obstructions have no constant distance between them, this will add to the dampening effect due to each part being a resonator and absorbing a specific band. (I graduated for my BSc degree with an assignment on sound absorption and worked with insulating samples that work more or less on this principle).
I can't wait to see the finished project!

Brundlefly · #34 11-06-2009, 05:39 AM

It's Day 13 and we're MLV-complete. Today covers MLV seam treatments and how the hell you go about hanging this stuff on a ceiling.

Moldy · #35 11-07-2009, 02:36 AM

Wicked cool! I'll be following this with great interest, even if I'm years away from owning a place I could do this to.

Brundlefly · #36 11-13-2009, 09:26 AM

Got a little too busy this week with work, but we're back on top of things with Day 18 up. This installment features a discussion and explanation of resilient channels and the specific variant that I'm using. Plus some tips on building a drywall/Green Glue sandwich and a rare cross-section shot of a nearly completed wall.

Togg · #37 11-13-2009, 04:04 PM

Very cool project, thanks for sharing

Brundlefly · #38 11-21-2009, 06:57 AM

Day 25 is up and move-in day is getting close now. In this installment, we finish up on sealing drywall gaps and offer up all of the details on what turned out to be a really wicked door conversion.

eddiehimself · #39 11-21-2009, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brundlefly

Day 25 is up and move-in day is getting close now. In this installment, we finish up on sealing drywall gaps and offer up all of the details on what turned out to be a really wicked door conversion.

The US gold reserve rang up. They want you to build their next front door!

wloeb · #40 12-02-2009, 10:51 PM

How's the project going?