Basement Build - Mixing/Tracking Room

[Travis Hill]

Hey everyone!

So, I've decided to stop thinking about building out a room in my basement, and just do it. I've been reluctant until now because I'm pretty certain I will sell my house in 2011. HOWEVER, I don't want to wait around another 18 months to record some quality music. This room will be be used mainly for tracking (everything but drums) and mixing as well as full-band pre-production. I've compiled a fairly large number of questions and although I can dig through the forums and google searches for some direction, it will be nice to have direct feedback from the pros (you guys). Also .. keep in mind my budget is between 3k and 5k USD. Alright .. here we go ..

Room Dimensions:

L = 21'2''
W = 12'7''
H = 8'2.25''

1 Window. 2 Interior doors (1 leads to the utility room - water heater, furnace, breaker panel).











HVAC

I would say my main issue with the HVAC is the way the return duct for the upstairs goes through the corner of the room (take a look at the second picture). It's possible to move the duct over a few feet so that it's directly in the corner or I can move it to the corner of the adjacent room. It would be nice to permanently put it up in the ceiling, but that is nearly impossible with everything else running through the joists.

I was wondering if it would make any acoustical sense to simply build around the duct and mirror that in the other corner so that I ended up with essentially 6 walls in the room. I planned on building floor to ceiling bass traps anyways so aesthetically it would be the same. Acoustically, I don't know what's better-floor to ceiling bass traps (made of rigid fiberglass/rockwool) or a solid wall that "blocks" the corners.

A secondary issue, and somewhat unrelated to the expertise on this forum is expandability. All duct routing (and electrical routing) has to go through/over/around this room. When it comes to resale of the home (or if for some reason I decide to finish the rest of the basement), I want this construction to allow easy expansion. I don't really know how concerned I should be about this. I've never sold a home and I've never finished a basement so I don't really know.

Isolation

This is where the greatest amount of variance can occur based on what I decide to do in this room. If you look at the third picture I posted, you can see how close the neighbors are (40-50 ft). My main goal with isolation is to not disturb the neighbors. My secondary goal is to not disturb the rest of the people in the house - this room is directly beneath the master bedroom, so for now all I need to worry about is my girlfriend who can sleep through anything.

I've ruled out the possibility of building a room inside a room b/c I don't want to lose the floor space and ceiling height.

For the walls .. I'm considering a few options.

1. A resilient channel plus two layers of sheet rock.
2. A resilient channel plus two layers of sheet rock with Green Glue in between.
3. No resilient channel. Two layers of sheet rock with green glue in between and green glue on the studs.

I've spent a lot of time reading about isolation properties of these methods on Green Glue's website, but what I really want to hear is everyone's opinion this board about what they think is the best method for what I'm doing. If I go the route of using the RC-8 resilient channel strips, is buying the additional clips to mount the strips worth the money?

For the ceiling, I'm considering the three methods listed above OR using a layer of homasote and a layer of drywall together. I don't want to lose much ceiling height with a resilient channel, so this seems like a fairly good option.

Remember, I have to deal with two doors and a window, so I will have some weak links in the chain.

Doors

Is it worth my time to pursue solid core doors down here or should I just go with conventional interior doors. I did a little research at Lowe's the other day and it looks like I can plan on spending between $150 and $400 per door.

The Window

I'm thinking about fitting a piece of fiberglass over the window that looks nice, but is removable. Or.. do the same thing with a piece of plywood. I'll probably worry about that when I come to it.

Flooring

Either nothing or stained concrete. Stained concrete looks really nice, and I would love to do it, but its hard to find an accurate estimate for how much it would cost.

Acoustic Treatment

Bass traps EVERYWHERE. corners, early reflection points, etc. Nothing too fancy .. I'll probably build some diffusors if I have some money left over at the end.

.... okay. That's enough for now. Please let me know your thoughts and bring me back into reality .. anything and everything is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Travis

[Geoff Firebaugh]

Originally Posted by Travis Hill

Doors

Is it worth my time to pursue solid core doors down here or should I just go with conventional interior doors. I did a little research at Lowe's the other day and it looks like I can plan on spending between $150 and $400 per door.

The Window

I'm thinking about fitting a piece of fiberglass over the window that looks nice, but is removable. Or.. do the same thing with a piece of plywood. I'll probably worry about that when I come to it.

Don't know where you're located, but salvage and thrift stores are your friend. I just bought 2 36X80 commercial grade solid core doors (one of which has a steel plate in the center) at the Habitat for humanity store here in Nashville for 35.00 each. Home Depot also has a solid core door for 54.00. (raw slab, not cut for hinges, or hardware).

The basement project studio I'm building now has one window. I've already sealed the window seams with acoustic sealant, and I'm filling the the frame with one sheet of 5/8 Drywall, and as much OC pink as I can stuff in it, then just walling over it with the RC and 2X5/8 drywall.

also, check craigslist if you can. I got 14, 12 foot sheets of 5/8" moisture resistant green board for 5 bucks a sheet.

building on a budget is a pain in the ass!

-g

[Travis Hill]

Thanks for the reply. I've been searching craigslist daily for materials like that .. haven't thought about Habitat for Humanity or anything like that though. I'll definitely try it out.

[CramRack]

I deleted my post.