Basement build - finally almost done!

[gainstages]

ok, so a little over 2 years ago i embarked on this project... phase 1 is now almost done and i wanted to share it with all of you. what could have been done in a week with proper tools, time, and money took 2 years - many delays due to an unexpected baby who came premature, months of bedrest and recovery for my wife (and almost losing her in the process), changing jobs, and of course - TIME AND MONEY.

My goal - take 1/2 of my unfinished basement and convert it into a 4 room studio. (1) Main control room that could also serve well for tracking, (2) an iso booth for vocal overdubs, guitar amps, etc, (3) a machine room/storage closet, and (4) a multipurpose room that could be my home theater room by day and an extra tracking room by night. Phase one includes the first 3 rooms.

with the building (low ceilings, etc) and budget limitations i figured it would be a battle of compromises, and I made the decision early on to sacrifice some isolation if needed in order to put my efforts into good acoustics as the priority. Thankfully, both have turned out acceptable, and I'm particularly pleased with the acoustics - especially where I took some chances in a few areas and didn't follow "traditional logic". the isolation is not "ideal" but is more than enough for my needs.

I did 100% of the labor myself other than the electrical outlets. I had minimal tools - no table saw, no power drywall saw. my tape measure died after 15 yrs of service and I completed the last half of the studio with a tape measure that one of my kids bought me for christmas a few years back - at the dollar store!

I still have 2 doors to install, window sills to build out, trim and molding to put up, light switch and outlet covers, and a bit more soldering, but it's now at a useable point.

So - I'm going to post several posts with photos and details, and I hope you enjoy. Don't criticize me too much on all the flaws!!!

[gainstages]

here is a before photo of the main room. The house was purchased with AC, lights, and framing already done in the basement.

I had to frame out one wall a little in order to make it symetrical. note that the builder used 2x6 studs instead of 2x4, so my walls are good and thick.

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i framed the floor with 2x4s and went low profile to save ceiling height. the cavities were stuffed with mineral fiber except for where cabling channels were running. the green tape like stuff is a 1/16" foam with adhesive backing that is meant as a poor mans way of reducing transmission from the subfloor to the frame - it isn't sexy, and it isn't ideal, but it does help.

of course, i'm not showing all the steps, you'll have to fill in some of the blanks...

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hmmm... seem to be having a problem with the website uploading the photos... I will try again in a few minutes.

[gainstages]

ok, here are the subfloor photos...

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RC8 being installed on the walls.... by the way, i only put this on the long side walls, not on the front and back. a little strange perhaps....

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I angled the top front/center part of my studio for several reasons. One of which was that this thing is a giant bass trap - over a foot thick of mineral fiber in it and the rest stuffed with r19.... it ain't pretty but it turned out to be extremely effective. more details on that later though. I should mention that in addition to normal insulation, the whole front wall is stuffed chuck full with mineral fiber also.

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i wired in another light to brighten the place up.

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here is a close up of the ceiling in the iso booth - packed that baby with lots of mineral fiber, then covered it up with 5/8 drywall. later, i put 1/2" acoustic tile over that, plus some bass trapping. The exterior wall is packed full with mineral fiber also...

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2 layers of drywall. 1 horizontal, 1 vertical. Quiet Glue in between layers...

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if there is something grossly wrong, time to fix it now. I fired up my speakers and subwoofer and let it rip. Remember that bass trap in the front of the room - it works amazingly well - at this point the bass response was basically flat other than a 5-6 db bump centered at around 32hz. with the sub cranked, the poor mans isolation on the subfloor seems to do the trick - it is tight. I have a sub isolation riser that i use anyway though.

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oops, here is the photo. I moved the mic around to test several spots in the room, but of course focused my attention on the monitoring area

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first coat of paint. I actually did a venetian plaster. 2 coats of a tuscan/burnt orange, and then a very thin coat of metallic copper topcoat. all done with a 4" puddy knife...

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1/4" thick cedar paneling going up. I also did this to one wall in the iso booth... looks and smells great! diffusor added and front wall is done other than trim and molding work.

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floors done. I thought it would be one of the easiest steps, turned out to be harder than I thought! I don't have pix of the ceiling treatments going up, but they are up at this point also - as is the track lighting. So, again I do some baseline acoustics testing before I start placing my room treatments from GIK.

the ceiling treatments are a combination of sonnex and auralex metrofusors, along with 1 skyline from RPG. Thank heavens I got a good deal on this stuff - it adds up fast...
The cloud is made of 2 GIK242 panels. I was going to do the thicker panel originally, but calculated that I could get the bass response i was after by giving an extra inch of airgap. it works great.

check out the closeup shot of the wall - its a very interesting finish that changes significantly depending on the lighting and the angle you look at it - it's hard to photograph.

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other than the trim work and doors, you can see it's basically done now. the left side isn't pictured but its the same as the right side other than it has 2 decent sized windows. I really don't have any pictures of the iso booth - it has 1 cedar wall and 1 painted wall, the other two walls are a basically just the doors - 1 door going to the main studio and a door in the back going to the machine room. No pictures of the machine room either - its basically just a closet though that has all my computer wiring running into the wall.

I have a custom made desk that will be installed soon - I did the basic design and then a carpenter made a few tweaks and worked out the framing details. It should be done soon, and should be sweet - black with natural cherry trim to match the floor.

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more upload problems. oh well. here are the front and right side views

[Doublehelix]

Looking GREAT! Wow, I love the walls! Congratulations on a job well-done.

I certainly hope you wife and baby are doing well.

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later this year i'll build the home theater/extra tracking room. all the audio cables are already laid and I actually already have the subfloor done in there as well.

its not perfect, but it has a nice vibe, and sounds good. It's controlled enough for mixing and mastering, but lively enough to add some nice room sound to anything being tracked in there. I can't wait to get my desk in, and I have to go shopping for some other furniture as well. I can tell you this - i learned a heck of a lot doing this, and while there are a few things here and there i would probably change if i could do it all over again, i'm happy with the results, did it without incurring a bunch of debt, and I can live with the weaknesses.

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here are a couple of shots of the iso booth. its very small. perfect for a vocalist or a guitar amp. A person can sit and play acoustic guitar as well, but with mic stands in there, it will be a little cramped. I am going to install a mic boom arm that mounts to the ceiling and can drop down and be positioned in order to help keep as much usable space as possible.

The cedar wall is pretty much solid mineral fiber with concrete behind it. the orange wall is opposite of my future home theater/extra tracking room.

the treatments on the door are custom sized GIK panels and the wall and corners are auralex shockwave audiotile.

also, here is a photo of my floor panel that provides access to all my computer connections (firewire, USB, Ethernet, Audio Out, and Monitor cable) plus all my audio connections to other rooms. I haven't added the XLR connections for the extra tracking room yet - i'll do that as part of phase two.

[Glenn Kuras]

Hey,

Looking really nice and please let us know (just email me) if you have any questions at all.
If you would send me a few pictures of the room when it is totally done. My guys here love to see there work in action.

Glenn

[gainstages]

hey Glenn, thanks for your input over the years, and of course for your products. as you can see, the panels look really great, especially against the orange walls. they really work great too.

I still have the experimental piece you and I talked about and I'll get with you later to talk about that in person.

too bad you didn't have your diffusors out when i bought all of my stuff. I stockpiled all my diffusors and I think about a month or two later is when you announced yours!

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by gainstages

I still have the experimental piece you and I talked about and I'll get with you later to talk about that in person.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Yes in person.

[gainstages]

I've had a couple of questions/comments on a few things:

(1) Why are there no bass traps in the corners?
at this point, I don't really need them - I could probably smooth out my little bump at 32hz by putting some in but at this point i'm pretty satisfied. Because of where my doors and windows are, it would be difficult to put good panels in the corners, so I tried to address this the best way possible during construction. The corners are stuffed with mineral fiber from top to bottom, as are the corners in the floor and ceiling. The entire front wall is stuffed with a thick version of r19 with a 3 inch layer of mineral fiber over that. additionally, the top corners on the front wall have somewhere around 8" thick of mineral fiber over a 3-4 square foot area in each corner. The angled part of my front wall has probably close to a foot of mineral fiber in it, and then the rest of the cavity was stuffed with R19. The foam panels used on the ceiling have the best ratio of bass to treble absorption that I could find without selling a kidney to pay for them, and of course the GIK panels on the walls and that I made my cloud with are great. I gave the cloud an extra inch of airgap and that improved the low end response. if i had normal cheap foam on the walls and ceiling i'd need bass traps to even out the room, but with the way i did it, it works very well. once i have the room furnished and have a couple of people in the room it should even be a bit better. perfect - no, but pretty darn good. I have a wide sweetspot that sounds great, i could tighten things up a bit more but i'm happy at this point.

(2) What did I use to extend my computer connections and how is it working?
works well, no problem with USB or firewire. total run on both is around 22 feet or so. go to sewelldirect.com and you'll find active firewire and usb extension cables. i've pushed my computer pretty hard and my 002 has had no problems.