Old masonry to recording room

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 6:15 am

Groff wrote:

Tiff, seriously, I hope you know you're always welcome into my thread for any reason you've got, I really mean that, and I will always help you as much as I can, but the process of building a studio has so many potential disaster black holes at every stage. Sometimes, just one stupid nail or screw can turn your world up side down. That's the reason why I'm pushing you to start your own thread. If you keep everything for yourself until the end it could be – too late. Here we have guardian angels like Rod, Ethan, Andre ... watching and saving us from our ignorance and mistakes. One reason more, I'm one step to the finish, hardly would anyone check 8th page of this topic about the wall construction. Save your money, time, effort and dream, start the damn thread. What can you lose my friend?

Thanks! Truly appreciated!

I have many photos ready, and descriptions are being written, and all will be posted shortly, in a new thread, as you suggest.

I have done much research into studio designs and theories, helped a friend "tune" his garage conversion, and witnessed his results. It is truly a "poke and pray" experiment, with an educated guess aspect. I am quite anxious to get mine finished and HEAR the results.

Thanks again for your help, insight, and documenting your project here for all to learn from! I'm a fan, and will continue to monitor your progress. Wink

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:33 am

tifftunes wrote:

I have many photos ready, and descriptions are being written, and all will be posted shortly, in a new thread

I'm glad to hear that, Tiff. I know, Max, me and the rest of RO community will support you. I hope our diaries here will put few extra luxes into the light of the room acoustic importance.

Ah, nothing much new at my place. All those holidays, family stuff, food ... drinks, and ... more drinks ... somehow waked up my lazy side. The border slats were stained twice, but not dried enough Twisted Evil

to be attached (the weather just sux here, it's pretty cold after snowing). Two steel ropes were pulled tightly between L/R walls (on those bigger black brackets) for hanging the cloud on it.

Here's the cloud plan ... or something like that, but we will see...

No new evidence pics, just few old stitched together, for wider view.

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 10:02 pm

Hey Eduardo, I finally posted my studio construction photos (http://recording.org/ftopict-45321.html). Though it isn't as fancy or complete as yours, I am as excited as can be! Though the hollerdays have certainly slowed my progress as well. Wish I had a drawing program to post my plans. I'll work on that.

Thanks again for your help!! It gives me (and I'm sure others as well) good information and confidence that it can indeed be accomplished.

Cheers!

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:44 pm

wow this is a really great project! i like lots of photos and great details.

i wish i had some advice for you, but i dont know much about it. i'm trying to learn a thing or two here...

keep the posts coming!

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:56 pm

Thanks fellows, I'm trying to do the best I can.

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:31 pm

Long time no update. As usual. Mr. Green

Shame on me. Since I've finished my live room and started to record I haven't found enough free time to collect and post the pics here. In the meantime:

The stained wooden slats were added on the edges, it looks much better now.

Two steel ropes stretched between the brackets, 4'' under the ceiling.

The attaching test. The same clamps were used on the ropes, only without the plates.

Two more wall/ceiling corner absorbers.

The hangers.

The cloud. Although it's not made of the wool, according to my plan, the 3'' foam seems to work just fine, so it stays for a while.

All in all folks.... that's my place.

Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 12:01 pm

Beautiful! How does it sound???

Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 4:40 pm

G,

Hey man... sorry I missed the latest pix!

Looks GREAT!... and yeah... how does it sound in there now?

Is that LF rumble now tamed to a tolerable level???

Got any pix now that she's stuff to the gills with gear????

Inquiring minds GOTTA know!!! Thumbs Up

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:44 am

Ha! After more than 900 visits since the last update you are the first person who put here a word, question, comment, critics ... whatever.

Thanks Dan!

And of course to you Max, my brother in arms.

It's good to know somebody is interesting in, after all.

The room sounds OK, but it can be treated and tweaked even more. I was on the fire with decision on how much to treat this live room. I have found plenty of theories and examples how to treat the control room but very little about the recording room (mostly bigger rooms than mine). As written, control room should be flat in response and live room should sounds good. What good means ... that's another story ... good for what?

My room is small - small/medium in size (2585 cf) with thick hard walls and untreated it rings like a hell with strong bass build up in corners.... kind of „barrel sound“.

I would add something interesting here as digression. I have been believer in theory that hard surface is a hard surface so regardless of material (glass vs. stone vs. wood vs. linoleum ....) the sound should reflect pretty much the same. After laying laminate down on the concrete floor, and before any acoustic treatments, I was very surprised how the sound was changed. Noticeably and far more than i.e. switching from 44.1 to 96. I couldn't say that was better or worse (maybe a slightly damped) just the overall timber/color of the room sound was significantly different to my ears. I can't explain why, only I can say – it matters more than I expected.

Speaking of the room sound, I was looking for something dry, focused, but breathable and not „completely“ anechoic. Something that sounds bigger with more air, but still intimate and tight. I decided to go along the broadband absorption concept. With every absorber added inside the room the sound becomes more and more focused. It was funny to walk around after hanging each after each, screaming and handclapping like mad. It was also interesting how, when the walls were already treated, the cloud has strong influence on axial ringing. My initial fear of over treating with absorption was causeless. Moreover, with all this absorptive surfaces I expected stronger dried ambiance. The room still has noticeable live footprint, mostly because the back wall is untreated. Although that liveliness can be interesting on the drums and acoustic guitar, I don't like it on vocals at all, so as a first aid, I'm using a few old mattresses (improvised gobos) to enclose part of the room for more focused sound.

The LF rumble after treating isn’t significantly better, maybe slightly damped but still present. That’s the limitation and compromise of design I have to live with. I’m avoiding to record when the traffic is in the peak (hour and half per day … good for the pause) and all critical stuff can be done later at the evening. The LF rumble isn’t catastrophic by any means …though …I wouldn’t complain to get a few more dB of attenuation.

The future plan of improvements:

- Another wall/ceiling absorber above the entrance door
- At least three bigger gobos (to replace the mattress and tune the rear wall)
- Replacing the cloud foam with mineral wool
- Better gaskets, more mass and insulation on both doors to control room (this is the weakest link now)

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 5:55 am

As far as adding mass to your doors...

I think we discussed this previously, but can you locate lead (pb) sheets? If so, that is a LOT of mass for the space it takes up.

Another alternative might be, what we here in the states, call MDF or medium density fiberboard.

I suspect that LF rumble from traffic is going to be cost prohibitive to eliminate even 2-3 more db. At least you found a traffic pattern that you can work around!

Oh... and where's those pictures!?!? (HAHAHA!)

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:23 am

I didn't locate any lead dealer here, only heard some rumors from local metal workers about chili prices ... a big step out of my budget. Sure, MDF is available and acceptable option. My plan is to laminate MDF and gypsum boards:

door / 2 x gypsum / MDF / insulation / burlap.

That should help. Increased load will be supported by the wheel at the bottom of the door.

Hehehe .... I doubt it will be full of gear ever ... suddenly it doesn't fill so small... Laughing

It's easier to clean up when it's empty, and really impress clients more. Cool

I'll see what can be captured in the next session.

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