Legionreturns builds a new studio... an epic tale of mishaps and glory

spark240

Legionreturns said:

spark240 said:

Looks Great dude !....A tip for that green led....stick a timber Batten ( about 30mm deep ] on the ceiling about 100mm from the wall all the way round.....it will make the led effect loads better...

I'm aware of the effect and agree it would look great, but finding the damn hat rails to screw them too now would be a nightmare, and as they only run in one direction, the sides would be near impossible. 

Shouldn’t need heavy duty fix, a bit of gripfill and a few dry lining fixes and your sorted !

roberty

Looking great man!

Musicwolf

The build is looking really good - great attention to detail.

Where I feel that you are selling yourself short is with the acoustic treatment.  I'm not sure as to the intended purpose of the room, or whether you intent to fit more treatment in future, but what you have doesn't do justice to the build.

You seem to have some ready built(?) absorbers, these are pretty thin and not spaced very far from the wall.  Then you have some foam.  All you are likely to achieve with this is to tame some of the higher frequencies whilst doing nothing for the lower mids / bass.  The outcome is likely to be a boxy sounding room.

From what I've seen of your build you are very capable of researching and building some broadband absorbers using Rockwool (RW3 is generally the material of choce).  If possible these should be across the corners (ideally floor to ceiling if possible) as first point of attack.  If you are doing any sort of mixing in there then treat the mirror points (walls and ceiling).  Where absorbers are fixed to the walls then space as much as possible to extend the working frequency range.

A really great build, I'm very envious.

Legionreturns

@Musicwolf I've only put the first few bits up as I've not done the floor, moved the furniture in, or done any sound tests. 

I've got two bales of RW3 left over for precisely this purpose, and have yet to do the majority of the treatment. Don't panic! 

Musicwolf

Good to know.  based on the rest of the build I would have been surprised if you hadn't applied the same thoroughness to the acoustics.

Jetfire

@Musicwolf you seem quite knowledgable about music room treatment, is this something you're up to spec with? basically, can I pick your brains if so? 

Musicwolf

Jetfire said:

@Musicwolf you seem quite knowledgable about music room treatment, is this something you're up to spec with? basically, can I pick your brains if so? 

@Jetfire ;

I basically a home recordist with a background, a long time ago, in Physics so I can give basic advice and am happy to help where I can.

hassleham

Looks fantastic! Where did you get the LEDs from? I'm thinking of doing this with mine, or  backlighting some acoustic treatment on the ceiling, but there seems to be so much cheap junk about when it comes to colour changing LEDs!

Jalapeno

Looking great - great work - have you tested the soundproofing yet ?

Legionreturns

Jalapeno said:

Looking great - great work - have you tested the soundproofing yet ?

No, because we're not completely sealed yet. Still have to put the soundproof loft hatch and the flooring in. 

Soon! 

Legionreturns

Today was floor day.

First off, I had to scrape off all the plaster globules and thoroughly sweep the entire studio. Then it was the underlay. 

Only thin, but slightly noise reducing and a water resistant membrane on the back. As mentioned before, I'm not overly concerned about sound escaping via the floor as the building is half buried in concrete and a good 30m from any other buildings. 





The next layer was a 5.5mm layer of hard ply. 

6 full 8 x 4 ft sheets and 2 half boards with tricky cut outs for the pillars and door tunnel connecting the inner and outer doors. 





Finally it was time for the carpet tiles. 

You get a much better aesthetic by starting dead centre and building a cross...





This method does mean you end up having to cut more tiles though, as you are very unlikely to get any edges that fit perfectly. 




Despite putting in a 12 hour shift today, I've still got 25 edge tiles to measure and cut tomorrow, but this really feels like the home stretch now. 

I've instigated a "no shoes" policy until I've swept up outside and installed the door mat, and it no longer feels like a building site as there's no dust and mess flying around. 

Tomorrow the ADT engineer is installing the security system for both the house and studio, and I'll be finishing the floor then putting in my workstation and record gear. 

Exciting times! 

Jetfire

Looking fantastic!!

spark240

Looks proper now dude !

spark240

hassleham said:

Looks fantastic! Where did you get the LEDs from? I'm thinking of doing this with mine, or  backlighting some acoustic treatment on the ceiling, but there seems to be so much cheap junk about when it comes to colour changing LEDs!

Sadly Led packs are all from China now anyway, its the chance you take, Amazon I guess is as good as any.

Legionreturns

spark240 said:

hassleham said:

Looks fantastic! Where did you get the LEDs from? I'm thinking of doing this with mine, or  backlighting some acoustic treatment on the ceiling, but there seems to be so much cheap junk about when it comes to colour changing LEDs!

Sadly Led packs are all from China now anyway, its the chance you take, Amazon I guess is as good as any.

@hassleham sorry Josh, I must have missed this question. 

I went through the reviews on Amazon, and I guess I dropped lucky too. These work perfectly. I'll text you a link to the ones I got mate. 

Legionreturns

Only took one picture today! Must have been too busy! 

Tiles done, workstation in progress! 


Still got to sort out trunking for speaker cables, just wanted to do a sound test. 

Played some RATM, with the bass cranked slightly higher than normal. Tried to get it peaking at around 95db in the studio. 

From immediately outside the doors, it dropped to around 65. 

Walking 5 paces up the garden it drops below 50. Ie, quieter than normal conversation.

From the houses and other buildings, nothing. Can't hear a thing. 

We've still not done the loft hatch or baffle boxes on the air vents either, which will make a significant difference. 

mrkb

Looks like your hard work and attention to detail has paid off. For info, my drums peak at about 105db and that’s playing normally, I’m not a hard hitter.

Legionreturns

mrkb said:

Looks like your hard work and attention to detail has paid off. For info, my drums peak at about 105db and that’s playing normally, I’m not a hard hitter.

Yep, that's around where I was expecting. I'm confident that the hatch and baffle boxes will shave a decent amount more off, as the sound I could hear was very much coming from the direction of the vents and roof, rather than the walls. 

Suffice to say, if I get any complaints from neighbours, it will be because they're actively listening for the sounds from the studio, and not because it's loud. 

Keefy

Legionreturns said:

...

Suffice to say, if I get any complaints from neighbours, it will be because they're actively listening for the sounds from the studio, and not because it's loud. 

And if they get Environmental Health out with a noise meter, it won't register anything above a sparrow's fart!

Legionreturns

Keefy said:

Legionreturns said:

...

Suffice to say, if I get any complaints from neighbours, it will be because they're actively listening for the sounds from the studio, and not because it's loud. 

And if they get Environmental Health out with a noise meter, it won't register anything above a sparrow's fart!

Exactly. 

The neighbours on one side are sound. In fact, the dad has already agreed to multiple man dates playing Xbox on the big screen at full volume with a few beers, and his two girls want to book drumming lessons as soon as I'm ready! 

On the other side, the old curtain twitcher couple have told me every time they've seen me in the last six weeks that they're "really worried" and have spent "30 peaceful years here, and don't want to have to worry about drums at all hours now". Nothing I can say makes them stop repeating the same thing, (along with "Boris is doing a great job" so they're clearly not all that keen on reality!) so i guess we'll just have to see what happens. 

Interestingly, they haven't noticed a thing on any of the sound tests I've done. Even pre soundproofing, with the doors open!