Steve's new Recording Studio from the start

[stevep]

After reading and following Dangerous Dave's studio build thread I decided to post my progress as I go......

Just now finishing the ceiling soundproofing with the second layer of drywall.
42 sheets pr. layer.... Man i am tired

[SiliconAudioLab]

Well yer works not even remotely done 'till the pictures are posted

[stevep]

Trying to post the pics.. my brain is fried

[stevep]

Ichey......

[stevep]

Skylight sealed up. Starting the first layer of drywall.

[stevep]

First layer is up! 42 sheets man I cant wait to be done with the ceiling, tonight I am working on finishing the second layer. slow going.......

steve

[GPl]

42 sheets...man my arms are hurting just reading this

Are you doing this yourself? Of course you would need help with the drywall, but I mean are you doing the construction?

[superburtm]

Is this the tracking room we are looking at? Or is it the whole facility? Looks like a great drum room!

[stevep]

Its almost 4am and time to stop. I could have got more done but I ran out of drywall. I broke two sheets, one when the drywall lift fell over.... extended to 13 ft.
it least it didn’t fall on me.

superburtm Is this the tracking room we are looking at? Or is it the whole facility? Looks like a great drum room!

Yep its the drum room

no ...... this is looking at what will be the control room and the tracking room with a large drum booth in the back.
control 27' X 23', studio 35' X 23' with 13ft ceiling. and offices and break room in front. (behind where I am standing taking these pics)

GPl 42 sheets...man my arms are hurting just reading this

Are you doing this yourself? Of course you would need help with the drywall, but I mean are you doing the construction?

So far I have done all the work myself but the drywall lift makes life easy.
Saturday I will have 2 pallets of rock delivered 96 sheets, and 90 2x4x16s for my side walls. all this work is for soundproofing and is not very glamorous.
3 of the side walls are 8" concrete and dont require much soundproofing, the one side wall is just a sheetrock partition wall with a business on the other side.
All the soundproof walls will be double 12" wall construction with 3 layers of 5/8" sheetrock. im getting tired just thinking about it.

After reading Dangerous Dave’s thread it makes me wish I had a contractor working for me ,..... naaa I couldn’t afford that and some day this will all be done and there will be music blasting in here instead of hammers pounding!

more pics. as I make Progress

steve

[djui5]

Lookin great! I like the dimensions. That drum room should sound sweet :)

[not_so_new]

Cool man...

So I hope this is not too personal a question....



How much does that room cost per month? How many SQ feet? What kind of place is that, looks like a warehouse of some kind?

I would like to find a place around here to do the same thing but I am not sure I can cover the cost so I am bouncing ideas around.

Thanks man.

[stevep]

not_so_new How much does that room cost per month? How many SQ feet? What kind of place is that, looks like a warehouse of some kind?

The building is 2000 SQ ft. The cost in OC for commercial buildings is around $1.30 SQft. I got a better price with a long term lease, I looked at over 50 buildings before i decided on this one.

My plan is to have the studio take up most all the space and not waste to much room on offices or break room. However later I may add a small B room for PT. work and rent it out at a much lower price. If anybody has Input on the small room please let me know what you think.

not_so_new I would like to find a place around here to do the same thing but I am not sure I can cover the cost so I am bouncing ideas around.

where are you?

I think the only way a pro studio can make it now days is to offer something that the small bedroom studios cant ........ Good sounding live room, Isolation, Creative working environment and working with the small studios not trying to compete with them. I am still racking whats left of my brain on these questions.

Sheetrock and Lumber wont be delivered until tuesday so im going to do the cuts and finish tapeing as much as i can.

steve

[songisking]

I hate to bring this up now but you may want to consider staggering your end seems on the next round of sheetrocking.
HTH

[idylldon]

Originally Posted by songisking

I hate to bring this up now but you may want to consider staggering your end seems on the next round of sheetrocking.
HTH

Running the drywall in the opposite direction (90 degrees to existing) is another way to do it.

Steve, I feel your pain with all that drywall. I did all of mine myself as well. The lift helped, but my ceiling is so high (and it's a cathedral ceiling with angles) that I had to make an extension for the lift I used. It was pretty scary at times with a tilted sheet of 5/8" drywall that far up in the air! Luckily, I never dropped one, but I came close a few times. Having finished my studio four years ago, I can only say that all the hard work going into building it is now just a distant memory and the music has made it all worthwhile.

Good luck with your new studio. You'll have a sense of pride and satisfaction that one usually doesn't get when you hire the work out.

Cheers,
--
Don

[stevep]

idylldon Running the drywall in the opposite direction (90 degrees to existing) is another way to do it.

On my second layer I did Rotate the panels 90%,, on the walls I will stagger the sheets.
Thanks for your input and the words of encouragement

steve

[stevep]

More lumber and drywall delivered today.



sorry if these pics are kinda boring

Hope it will get more interesting soon

steve

[stevep]

Fire wood ? .......... naaaa

[stevep]

Staggered seams,, Even where it mates up to the ceiling

[theother]

Originally Posted by stevep

sorry if these pics are kinda boring



steve

not at all!

[stevep]

Hope to finish tomorrow.... It got scary hanging those top sheets by myself


I got started on the partition wall, there will be another wall
with two layers of 5/8" drywall set 12" away from this wall, That should give me enough soundproofing for that wall.
I hope to have this wall framed this weekend.

[True North]

Great work Steve,

Do you have a plan of the studio we can see or is it all firmly lodged in your noggin?

Are you going to keep the parallel walls in the live or do you have something else (structurally speaking) that you plan to add to the room.

Thanks for sharing the rental costs with us, is a $1.30 net/net - here in Canada we also have TMI (Taxes, Maintainence and insurance) is that an additional cost for you as well?

Please keep the pics coming they are inspiring, thanks.

[stevep]

"I do use compressors/limiters but not for controlling dynamics, I use EQ for that!" Jp22 (damn I miss him)

that was some funny stuff !

True North
Do you have a plan of the studio we can see or is it all firmly lodged in your noggin?

I will be building some diffusers and traps on the inside of the sound proof walls and ceiling that will minimize the parallel surfaces. also a drum booth and small iso room. that will break up the parallel walls also.
I want to keep the big room as big as I can so the booth will be mid size, big enough for drums but more dead sounding.

I dont have a scanner but I may draw up a quick floor plan on draw or something so you guys can see what I am working towards.
If I get the time......

steve

[True North]

Originally Posted by stevep

I dont have a scanner but I may draw up a quick floor plan on draw or something so you guys can see what I am working towards.
If I get the time......steve

Don't kill yourself, I am sure you have enuf on your plate as it is, let alone looking after our desperate needs to peer into the lives of our peers!

Thanks for the pics, if you get a chance to show us the plan, great, if not, we understand!

Cheers and good luck with your project

[stevep]

Well I got the ceiling done and finished the 2nd layer of drywall on the parti. wall
And starting to frame the 2nd leaf which is set 12' away from the parti. wall.
I should be done with the framing and ready to do more drywall in the next few days. I am getting really tired of this dry wall thing and I cant wait to be done!

steve

[stevep]

I finished the framing on the Parti. Wall Today

Now I need to add the insulation and two more layers of 5/8 drywall
Man! im starting to wonder if this drywall thing will ever be done......

steve

[stevep]

Here's a shot showing the 12" air space in between the two leafs.
That should give me somewhere around 65db. separation.... i hope
I need to be able to record all day. and also don’t want any noise coming in.
next door is mostly storage right now but i never know who will move in the future.

More pics as I make progress.

[Tibbon]

Wow. This reminds me of when I was helping my friend build his studio in Boston here. The only downside is that we were taking over a Laser printer/Toner refilling business, which was caked (like 1cm thick on the walls and several inches think on horizontal surfaces) with that black toner powder. We had gasmasks and all when we were cleaning it out (the lady defaulted on her lease and left the state i think, so it was 'as is' and we got a free month of rent), but i'm still sure that it wasn't healthy at all.

I want to help build another studio soon. Anyone in the Northeast building soon? I've been brushing up on my acoustics design recently.

[Jules]

Lovin the report!