Help with basement studio build!

[catastrophic]

Hello everyone, I've been reading for a while but this is my first topic....here goes...

I have an unfinished basement I've been recording in with my gear in the living room and a snake dropped down. I've treated it some with broadband absorbers and I'm happy with the tones I've been getting, but not with the setup. I'm ready to build out the basement into a dedicated tracking room and control room.

The joists holding up the flooring on the first floor start at only 80 inches from the basement floor. I had originally planned to cram as much insulation as possible in the ceiling, add some recessed lighting and a layer of 5/8" sheetrock to conceal all the wiring running through and be done with it (well, the ceiling anyway!). I'm pretty set on sheetrock as I'd like it to help deaden some of the sound going to the rest of the house and to the outside world. The sound traveling through the house isn't my biggest concern, but the only barrier between the basement and the rest of the house is the hardwood flooring of the first floor. So I figure the insulation and sheetrock will make a fairly decent improvement.

My issue is this...once built, my tracking room will be 13x18, and I will have a really low (6'7") live ceiling...I'm 6'2"... I know it would be better to have a dead ceiling, but losing another 2" or more for rockwool would make the space feel really cramped.

Should I...
a. Stuff the joists with insulation and cover with cloth and deal with the extra noise in the rest of the house?

b. treat the ceiling over the drum area with a thinner material (carpet?) to deaden it?

c. treat the ceiling over the kit with rockwool because it will sound the best?

d. something else that one of you kind folks will tell me about?

Thanks for any advice!
Kevin

[6strings]

Originally Posted by catastrophic

d. something else that one of you kind folks will tell me about?

Home Depot has a drop ceiling system called "Ceiling Max". It's a grid system designed for low ceilings that attached directly to the joists. I used it for my basement and it came out great. (probably not more trouble than hanging normal drop ceiling) A little pricey, but not much choice for low ceilings.

I wish this stuff was around (or maybe I just didn't see it) when I did the studio portion of my basement. I hung 5/8" drywall off resilient channel (along with stuffing mineral fiber insulation in between joists above) for maximum sound proofing. Worked great for that purpose, but an acoustical nightmare otherwise! I ended up building a cloud for the drum room and am trying to figure out a more stealthy solution for the "control" room. If I wasn't burnt out on projects, I might more seriously consider tearing down the control room ceiling and putting in the Ceiling Max w/ acoustical tiles.

[Todd24]

My basment has a pretty dead cieling. I am grateful for it because before all the traps you could hear the bass variance, moving up and down, even more than front to back. I would probably put hte drywall up near the floor and use acoustic materiel at the ceiling higth. Lots of fluffy glass.

[Jonboy79]

I actually went with option A in my last house and it worked very well. My theory was that more of the ceiling was closer to 9 feet, considering that there was only roughly 2 inches of surface area at 8 feet ever 16 inch spans. I still swear I got better sounds out of that room than I do the newer "better" one. I miss my old room.

[Ethan Winer]

Kevin,

Originally Posted by catastrophic

Should I...
a. Stuff the joists with insulation and cover with cloth and deal with the extra noise in the rest of the house?

Yes.

Wow, that was easy!

--Ethan

[catastrophic]

Thanks for the responses guys!

I'm still, unfortunately (for me!), leaning towards the sheetrock, for property value reasons...plus plus I pitched it to the wife and she didn't seem to want to hear it... "Partially finished basement" is a home seller in this area, and we're probably refinancing soon, so...

Ethan...how much more of a "ceiling-less" effect would I achieve with 10-12 inches of r-30 fiberglass covered in cloth, vs 2 inch 705 covered in cloth but just over the drum area? The only thing I'll be putting near the ceiling are drum overheads, so perhaps just over the drum area will be a decent compromise.

Thanks!
Kevin

[popmann]

Question...are there any commercially available "cloth" ceiling tile? Something stretched as 4x2 or 4x4? Something that would be a little more finished looking but still essentialy be cloth attached to the joists?

[Musiclab]

My place is in the basement, I also had the low ceiling issue to deal with. What I did was expensive and was a giant pain but worked pretty well. Essentially I floated the walls with rubber pads and then ran my own ceiling joists between the existing joist that hang off the walls. You can still hear music upstairs if I'm tracking a rock band, but you can also watch TV. There are double layers of 5/8 everywhere. I did alot of room treatment but it sounds good down here I get a real good drums sound

[Ethan Winer]

Kevin,

"Partially finished basement" is a home seller in this area

There's nothing wrong with a fabric ceiling if you do it nicely! Then when you sell it you can claim the space is acoustically treated (not a lie) and ideal for a home theater.

how much more of a "ceiling-less" effect would I achieve with 10-12 inches of r-30 fiberglass covered in cloth, vs 2 inch 705 covered in cloth but just over the drum area?

Two inches of 705 will do a good job. But you'll need to make that look nice too, no?

--Ethan

[catastrophic]

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

There's nothing wrong with a fabric ceiling if you do it nicely! Then when you sell it you can claim the space is acoustically treated (not a lie) and ideal for a home theater.

very true, definitely something to think about.

Two inches of 705 will do a good job. But you'll need to make that look nice too, no?

--Ethan

True again, but 2'x4' panels are easily covered and easily removed if/when we move.

Thanks for all the input. Still not sure of what to do...I guess I just have a lot of thinking to do!

Kevin

[Ozzy]

Heres an idea. Put the 5/8 plasterboard up between the joists under the floorboards and seal it as best as possible with acoustic caulk. You could even add a few layers to increase the mass. Now you can stuff the gaps between joists with rockwool and cover up with material. Now you've got broadband treatment, better isolation and more head room! Just a thought. Oz

[RusRant]

I had this same issue in my first home project studio. I really only did vocals, overdubbing and mixed there, but we did track a few drum sessions. Low ciling in this case meant 6'2". I did the insulation cloth covering thing. Worked great, looked great and wasn't to pricey.

[macr0w]

I had the same problem in my basement. My ceiling is 7'8" to the joist. I stuffed the joist full of pink stuff and put 5/8 sheetrock on that, then covered the sheetrock with carpet pad and the got 2 very large canvas drop cloths and stapled them up and it looks kinda pillowy. Which is what I wanted: a soft ceiling that is not too reflective.

[Musiclab]

Originally Posted by Ozzy

Heres an idea. Put the 5/8 plasterboard up between the joists under the floorboards and seal it as best as possible with acoustic caulk. You could even add a few layers to increase the mass. Now you can stuff the gaps between joists with rockwool and cover up with material. Now you've got broadband treatment, better isolation and more head room! Just a thought. Oz

usually there's all kinds of stuff, like pipes and such that make it impractical. If you want some measure of soundproofing, you gotta hang some rock