Studio Construction Guide

Studio Construction Guide
Table of Contents 1 Preparation .................................................................................................. 3 1.1 Existing HVAC ....................................................................................... 3 1.2 Existing Plumbing .................................................................................. 3 1.3 Existing Electric ..................................................................................... 4 1.4 Existing Ceiling ...................................................................................... 4 1.5 Existing Windows.................................................................................. 5 1.6 Existing Doors ....................................................................................... 5 1.7 Existing Walls ........................................................................................ 6 1.8 Insulation ............................................................................................... 6 1.9 Existing Floor......................................................................................... 6 1.10 General............................................................................................... 7 2 Layout ......................................................................................................... 7 2.1 HVAC..................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Control Room ........................................................................................ 7 2.3 Live Room ............................................................................................. 8 3 Overhead Insulation .................................................................................... 8 4 New HVAC System ..................................................................................... 8 5 Overhead HVAC Duct.................................................................................. 9 6 Wall Framing ............................................................................................... 9 7 Electric ...................................................................................................... 12 7.1 Control Room ...................................................................................... 13 7.2 Live Room ........................................................................................... 14 8 Other Wiring.............................................................................................. 14 8.1 Control Room ...................................................................................... 15 8.2 Live Room ........................................................................................... 15 9 Wall Insulation ........................................................................................... 15 10 Ceiling Framing ....................................................................................... 15 10.1 Control Room ................................................................................... 16 10.2 Live Room ........................................................................................ 16 11 HVAC Silencers ...................................................................................... 16 11.1 Control Room ................................................................................... 17 11.2 Live Room ........................................................................................ 17 12 Insulation ................................................................................................ 17 13 Drywall ................................................................................................... 17 14 Control Room Soffit ................................................................................ 18 15 Doors & Windows .................................................................................. 20
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Copyright 2011 Glenn Stanton. All Rights Reserved. No duplication without written permission.
Studio Construction Guide 15.1 Control Room ................................................................................... 21 15.2 Live Room ........................................................................................ 21 16 Acoustic Treatments .............................................................................. 21 16.1 Control Room ................................................................................... 23 16.2 Live Room ........................................................................................ 25 17 Damped Membrane Floor ...................................................................... 25 18 Wiring Termination ................................................................................. 26 19 Paint & Stain ........................................................................................... 27 20 Flooring ................................................................................................... 27 21 Trim ........................................................................................................ 27 22 Equipment .............................................................................................. 27 23 Acoustic Measurements ........................................................................ 28 24 THEORY ................................................................................................. 29
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Studio Construction Guide Get plenty of non-hardening caulk. 1 Preparation The preparation steps ensure the proposed space has been correctly configured to ensure that maintenance or emergency access to infrastructure components is retained, potential impact or infrasonic noise, and vibration sources are reduced, and potential isolation reduction points are treated. Additional steps include clean up and finishes that would be difficult or messy to perform later. IMPORTANT: All work should be done in accordance with building codes, community by-laws, and common sense. When in doubt, have a licensed expert review and/or assist in the alterations and construction. Ensure all work is done under building permits as necessary to avoid fines and potential insurance coverage loss. 1.1 Existing HVAC Mechanical equipment (such as HVAC blowers, laundry machines, pumps, dehumidifiers, etc) should have isolation mounts installed to decouple them from the existing floor, walls, or framing. Silencer techniques such as damping or filtering should be used to reduced encasement noises or noise generated by air movement (such as an HVAC room air supply through a wall or door), if the noises are potentially intrusive in the studio space. Existing duct work should have proper isolation mounts and decoupling segments added to reduce noise transfer. Existing ducts which are intruding in the live room and control room space should be re-routed to ensure enough clearance with the new isolation ceilings and walls. 1.2 Existing Plumbing Existing plumbing that may require access to valves, meters, building penetration, clean outs, etc should be re-routed where possible to ensure that new construction does not impede maintenance or emergency access. Pipes should be properly suspended on isolating hangers to reduce structure borne noise and vibration. Plumbing without air absorbers should be corrected to avoid banging in the supply pipes. Drain pipes should have damping material wrapped on them to reduce ringing or general noise levels. The current pipes in the vestibule space should have the clean-out turned to allow future access. The construction sump pump hole should be closed up.
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Studio Construction Guide 1.3 Existing Electric
Existing electrical boxes, access panels, lighting, outlets, and safety devices should be re-routed or removed in preparation for the new construction. In the wall outlet boxes which will be retained should be covered with putty pads (inside the wall) to seal them air tight. Conduits which cross room boundaries should be split and re-connected with a soft decoupling connector. Lighting boxes should be sealed where air leakage represents a path where isolation would be reduced. Ensure wiring is in good and operating condition and is wired to code. Ensure the wiring will not vibrate by adding additional wire fasteners as needed. 1.4 Existing Ceiling Existing ceilings over the new studio space should be enhanced (when isolation requirements dictate it) to include increased mass and/or damping, or upper floor corrections (such as carpet and padding to reduce impact noise). Mass can be added to existing ceiling structures when the addition of the load is safe (verified by a licensed structural engineer). The addition of 2 or more layers of gypsum wall board (GWB) will add mass. MDF (medium density fiberboard) can also be used if it is cost effective compared to GWB. The GWB or MDF strips are added in between the joists and pressed flush to the sub-floor. If nails or staples prevent this, add a layer of R3 type foam insulation (Blue) sheets and then add the GWB/MDF. Stagger the seams, and use wood cleats or metal angles to hold in place. Seal with backing rod and generous amounts of caulk. Replace any cross-bracing or blocking that was removed during this process. If only using 2 layers of GWB/MDF, consider using a constrained layer damping product such as Green Glue (which is not an adhesive) or mass loaded vinyl (MLV). If using isolation supports from the existing ceiling, identify the location for isolation mounts and ensure the locations are structurally able to support the new ceiling. Check for damage or rot which could impair the strength of the mounts.
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Example of enhancement to the mass of the upper floor. Seal any and all air gaps between rooms and floors. Ensure any fire stops or other safety assemblies are restored or installed as required by building codes. The fireplace metal plating should be tested to determine if it gets hot or not. This area should have fire code drywall mass added or using concrete panels to achieve sufficient mass. 1.5 Existing Windows Remove extraneous window treatments and other items which could vibrate. Ensure the windows seal correctly. Ensure any egress windows are fully functional. Seal any gaps around the windows to ensure they are air tight. 1.6 Existing Doors Seal any gaps around the door frames to ensure they are air tight. Add additional wall studs on each side to ensure good structure support for the added weight of the new doors.
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Studio Construction Guide 1.7 Existing Walls
Block and concrete walls should be inspected to ensure structural soundness, sealed, and prepared as needed to support the new construction. For existing framed walls, additional layers (2 or preferably 3) of mass (GWB/MDF) should be added between studs to increase the overall mass of the wall. This is accomplished in the same way the ceilings are enhanced remove any blocking, add mass, cleat in and seal, restore blocking. NOTE: for existing walls without any existing drywall, either install drywall on the existing walls, or tack up packing straps (about every 2) to hold this in place pending the addition of new drywall for the storage space walls. For block walls, ensure they are sealed and in good shape. Ensure any framing is properly attached and does not vibrate or shake. Identify locations for the isolation mounts (angle brackets attached to the existing walls) to ensure they are structurally sound enough to stabilize the new walls. Seal any and all air gaps between rooms and floors. Ensure any fire stops or other safety assemblies are restored or installed as required by building codes. 1.8 Insulation Insulation on the existing walls and ceiling can be added at this point. Use the correct depth insulation (R19 for 2x6 or deeper), do not over pack as it will be less effective. 1.9 Existing Floor Ideally, the concrete floor surface should be prepared to ensure it is in good shape including staining and sealing as well as offering an option to retain the concrete floor until the damped membrane floor is added. If you are planning on using acid wash, stains, and sealant to finish a concrete floor, then ensure the floor is reasonable level and smooth, cracks are filled and sealed, old paint and glue are removed and the floor is clean. Seal up the construction sump pump hole. For this type of treatment, it can get messy so doing the staining is best done before other work. http://www.concretenetwork.com/staining-concrete/ has a decent set of articles on staining concrete floors.
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Studio Construction Guide Remember its concrete it will take a lot of abuse so just protect it from scratching during construction and youll be fine. Moisture control is important on basement floors so ensure the floor actually stays dry by laying a plastic sheet on it overnight to see if any moisture collects. If it does collect moisture you will need to fix that before proceeding. 1.10 General In general, the goal of the preparation phase is to move items out of the way in order to preserve maintenance access, isolate and seal the surrounding walls, ceiling, and floor, and correct noise sources from mechanical equipment. If you can see light, or air can get through it, then its not sealed. 2 Layout So now youre ready to begin. The first step is to take painters tape and layout the floor plan of the new studio, paying attention to spaces between walls, door and window openings, and treatment placement. The goal is to ensure the design drawings are mainly correct and that the layout actually works for you. This is very inexpensive to do (although it does take a few hours) and can eliminate a lot of rework later (when it is expensive) by getting a feel for the new space and how it will work for you. You want to use a wide tape (2) for the walls and treatment frames. Use thin tape (1/2) (preferable another color also) to layout overhead objects such as vents, treatments, lights, and in-room divisions. 2.1 HVAC Run thin tape (different color is helpful) to layout the approximate location of the new studio duct work in all rooms. 2.2 Control Room The control room has a set of side wall treatments, soffits, and the back wall bass traps and diffusers. The room should be symmetrical and have enough space to work comfortably. The right hand (facing the front) wall has two (2) doorways so pay close attention to how it feels in terms of access between the control room and live room and control room and utility room. Mark the location of the overhead vents, treatments (clouds), and lights using the thinner tape.
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Studio Construction Guide 2.3 Live Room
The live room has two (2) new doorways. This room has several slat resonator treatment walls. Mark the location of the overhead vents, treatments (absorbers), and lights using the thinner tape. Run a thin tape line between the control room and live room to mark out the path for the audio and network wire conduit. 3 Overhead Insulation Once the layout is complete, you ready to add any remaining insulation overhead. Ensure the overhead joists have R30 insulation in all available spaces. Do not pack the insulation tightly. It is more effective to have the air space than to cram the space full of insulation. 4 New HVAC System NOTE: Installation of the new HVAC system should be in accordance with professional advice from a licensed HVAC engineer, the manufacturers recommendations, and all applicable building and safety codes. The new HVAC system should be isolated from the ceiling in the utility room through the use of isolation mounts, Kinetics (or equiv), or other commonly used isolation mounts to decouple the new unit from the ceiling, walls, and other structures. One option is to put the concealed duct air handler in the vestibule between the live room and control room to preserve space in the utility which could become the isolation booth. Pipes, ducts, wiring, exhaust vents, etc should all be decoupled as necessary to prevent conduction of vibration to the building structure or the duct system. The HVAC unit and ducting should be configured for the lowest possible air velocity (preferably 100FPM, but up to 350FPM is acceptable) for approximately 800-1000CFM air flow. The new HVAC air handler unit should have cooling, fresh air exchange, pressure relief, etc in accordance with the latent and live loads for the locale, as well as provide correct system pressure, velocity, and dehumidification. If it is possible to move the existing HVAC out of the utility room into the future storage space, this may free up that room to become an isolation booth.
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Studio Construction Guide 5 Overhead HVAC Duct
Install the main HVAC ductwork. The ducts are as large as possible and would be difficult to install after the inner ceiling joists are put in place, and to ensure the joists clear the new duct work, installing it first enables adjustments to be made to the inner wall and ceiling assemblies. The duct should be metal or flexible duct (using duct board or lined duct, or equiv. if using metal) to ensure that sound transfer within the duct is minimal. Ducting should be mounted from the overhead floor joists using isolation mounts to ensure the duct does not contribute to structure borne noise transfer. NOTE: this assumes the structure is capable of support the duct. Openings in the duct can be cut after the inner ceiling joists are in place to ensure proper placement of openings and silencers. Corners in the metal duct should use turning vanes to ensure smooth air flow. Pressure relief valves, zone dampers, and other duct equipment should be installed at this time. 6 Wall Framing Wall framing is all 2x6 construction with studs 24 o.c. and a single bottom plate, and two top plates. Blocking is used between studs to ensure rigidity as the walls are load bearing (supporting the new inner ceiling joists and drywall layers as well as lights, acoustic treatments, etc).
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Example of inner ceiling sitting on new inner framing. All joists will have 1/8 felt tape on their face to help decouple drywall from the framing. Felt tape is adhesive or stapled 24 o.c.
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Example of inner wall on floor. All walls rest on 1/4-3/8 Neoprene rubber (or Sorbethane, Sylomer, or equiv) to decouple the walls from the floor. The top plates of the walls have a layer of rubber as well to decouple the ceiling joists from the wall. All inner walls are stabilized with isolation clips (such as Mason Industries WIC or Pac-International isolation mounts). There should be a clip used every 8, or minimally 2 per wall. Check with the manufacturer instructions. This includes the wall-to-wall mounting between the live and control rooms. Mounting can be stud-to-stud, or in the case of block wall, use an L angle bracket attached to the block or concrete wall to provide attachment for clip.
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Example of Mason Industries isolation mount WIC installed between existing and new stud walls. Doors and windows use 2x8 headers. Doors have 3 studs on each side to ensure support for extra heavy doors. Effectively all wall framing is standard construction except that the door and window framing is strong than typical. All wall assemblies are designed to be isolation walls and will support multiple layers of drywall, insulation, and be sealed airtight. 7 Electric Electrical wiring is important to ensure easy access to power, with clean grounds and placement conducive to room usage. A new sub panel should be installed. 50 amp or better such as D-Square. All wiring will be 3 conductors #12 AWG Romex or BX with an additional ground wire run for star grounding at the sub panel and existing ground stake.
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Studio Construction Guide If there is an option to turn the existing electrical panels to open the current utility room up, the utility room may eventually become an isolation booth. Star ground should terminate in a separate (small) panel to ensure single ground point before being attached to main panel and earth ground (not technical ground).
Electrical panel and star ground arrangement. Outlets and wall penetrations should be staggered to avoid direct paths between openings. All penetrations (outlet, switch, and other boxes) should be encased with putty pads to ensure airtight seal. 7.1 Control Room The control room has wall switches which will be placed on the face of the entry wall accessible when entering the room. Each switch controls a set of
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Studio Construction Guide track lights to enable a change in the lighting level without using dimmers. On each side wall are quad outlets and by the rear treatment wall, are dual quad outlets. This allows for in-room instruments and equipment. Overhead are track lights to avoid significant penetration in the ceiling drywall. 7.2 Live Room The live room as wall switches placed just inside the entry door. Each switch controls a set of track lights to enable a change in the lighting level without using dimmers. On the flat wall next to the glass door into the control room is a quad power outlet. Overhead are track lights to avoid significant penetration in the ceiling drywall. 8 Other Wiring Other wiring includes audio cabling (snakes, discrete cables), coaxial cable (television and video), network cables (CAT6E), fiber optic cables, USB and IEEE1394, video monitor or keyboard extensions, speaker wires, and wiring for smoke and CO detectors, safety and monitoring equipment, etc. Audio cables (snake cables) should be run through conduit if future expansion is planned. High impedance audio cables must be separated from electrical and other wiring by 2 or more and should not run in parallel (crossing at right-angles is OK). When running conduit, a cable pull line should be run to ensure new cables can be pulled through. Quality cabling is important for sound quality. Using twisted pair digital wire snakes is preferable for low impedance audio lines because of its lower capacitance. Any penetration of the drywall will need to be sealed thoroughly. Conduit should have rubber joint sections which decouple the conduit between rooms to ensure that noise and vibration is minimized. Conduit above the rooms should be suspended with isolation mounts. Any speaker wire should be in conduit and fully separate from audio cables. All audio and other cable terminate to panels in each room. Good quality termination (XLR, TS, TRS, RJ-45, etc) should be used. Excellent guide to doing the wiring: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16575980/Audio-Wiring-Guide
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Studio Construction Guide 8.1 Control Room
The control room needs a panel near the mix desk and racks. The center soffit (treatment soffit) can have the panels mounted on it. Conduit from the control room into the live room can be over the ceiling. 8.2 Live Room The live room panel should be located in a position convenient to allow cables to be connected from anywhere in the room while minimizing cables that lay across the floor (either on the slant wall, or the treatment wall opposite the location of the panel in the control room). 9 Wall Insulation The wall insulation can be installed after (or before) the wiring is completed (depending on how the electrician prefers to work) but by installing the insulation after, the wiring is easier to inspect and clean up (drill scraps etc), and there will be less disruption to the insulation. R19 insulation should be used all round. Unfaced insulation batts should be used. The important point is to ensure the insulation will be in contact with the drywall layers. 10 Ceiling Framing The ceiling framing is 2x8 joists, 24 o.c. No. 1 or better wood in the live and control rooms. Any blocking is 1x3 cross bracing or 2x8 straight blocking. Rim joists are 2x8 to facilitate adding the fire stop. The rim joist in the live room is inset on the right and top (from plan view) to allow space for the existing drain pipe, otherwise the rim joist can extend to the edge of the isolation wall frame or inset 5/8 to accommodate the fire stop drywall. The fire stop consists of 2 panels of 5/8 GWB fire rated with 1 3pcf rigid insulation (fire rated) lightly compressed to about 7/8 and sealed with fire caulk. This ensures proper safety and is flexible to ensure proper decoupling between existing and new walls. All framing members in contact with the drywall will have 1mm felt tape on their face to help decouple drywall from the framing. Felt tape is adhesive backed.
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Studio Construction Guide 10.1 Control Room
The control room has very long spans (13+) which require a good quality 2x8 joist to support the multiple layers of drywall etc. No. 1 or better Southern Pine will meet this requirement. 10.2 11 Live Room HVAC Silencers The live room has all joists are 2x8 No. 1 or better Southern Pine. It is important to the isolation of the space that the HVAC penetration into the rooms is indirect to prevent sound transfer, is decoupled, to avoid structure borne vibration and noise, and preserve most of the duct area to ensure low velocity air flow. NOTE: if you cannot achieve complete silence, then opt for balanced HVAC noise (i.e. a good quality noise rather than inconsistent or rumbling etc noise). Commercial products are recommended when possible. It is also possible to build silencers using MDF (for mass), duct liner (for insulation), and building them to fit in-between the new ceiling joists so they can be properly sealed. The silencer is attached to the main ducts. If using commercial silencer tubes, remember the penetration into the room must be encased in a mass enclosure to preserve isolation.
Example Baffle Box
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Studio Construction Guide All registers should be diffusive and quiet. When choosing between diffusive or quiet, choose quiet. 11.1 Control Room The control room has 1 supply and 1 return vents. The supply vent is symmetrically placed on either side of the couch position. The return vent is symmetrically placed approximately where the console desk would be and facing forward. 11.2 Live Room The live room has 1 supply vent and 1 return vent. The supply vent is approximately in line with the entry door. The return vent is on ceiling near the vestibule door. It is important to pay attention to the impact of the treatment walls when placing the vents. 12 Insulation With the duct, framing, wiring, and silencers in place, its time to put in the insulation. R19 is used all around for the ceiling. There should be air space. Air space is good Insulation can be FSK or un-faced insulation batts. Insulation should be installed to ensure it will contact the inner drywall. 13 Drywall The drywall is the isolation mass. It is multiple layers of 5/8 drywall. Each layer is added: ceiling first, then walls. Leave about 1/4 of space to allow for sealing components. Add backing rod and caulk to seal between edges. Repeat per layer. Stagger each layer to ensure seams do not line up. Seal each layer with spackling mud. Perform finishing steps on last layer only.
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Example of staggering the drywall layers. It is important to have the layers staggered to ensure the walls and ceiling remain as decoupled as possible while sealing airtight and not leaving gaps where the mass would be significantly reduce (thus losing isolation value). The drywall mud can be smoothed by using a damp fine scrubber brush (with a handle) and a bucket of water. This speeds up smoothing out the mud by feather and significantly reduces dust. 14 Control Room Soffit Once the drywall layers are all up and sealed, the control room soffit is added. This is a 2x4 frame assembled on a 30 angle. The assembly is flush top and bottom in the room, and using rubber isolation on top and bottom to decouple it. Electrical wiring is routed for the switches. The frame is painted to match the cloth. Cloth is stretched over the frame. Slats are screwed or nailed on the cloth covered frame. The inside of the soffit space will have broadband absorbers added later.
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Control room soffit view. The following diagram depicts the hanging broadband absorber construction. Using Homasote 440 Soundboard and 1 Dacron insulation wrapped around it and held in place with nylon straps, packing straps, or duct tape. Hung using rope attach to eye bolts on furring strips or framing.
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Hanger broadband absorbers 15 Doors & Windows Doors and windows are holes in the isolation that has so far been built. To reduce the impact of doors and windows on the isolation, the doors and windows must have approximate the same mass as the walls, and be fully sealed to ensure no air passes through. Doors may be Overly STC-50 commercial acoustic doors or constructed. All doors will be solid core with additional MDF panels, or if the door has glass, the glass will be heavy, panes. Doors with glass should be set back to back with other glass doors to ensure effective isolation. NOTE: professional grade acoustic isolation doors with windows are available from companies like Overly. The door should have seals which ensure a positive seal when closed. This can be achieved by layering the seals, using magnetic or spring loaded seals, and cam hinges to raise and lower the door onto the seals. All glass should be the laminated type.
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Studio Construction Guide Solid core doors (assuming theyre commercial or residential type) should be enhanced with the addition of lead sheet (if possible) and 3/4 MDF to increase the mass. Door frames should be sealed tightly to the wall frame to ensure no air can pass through in the event of gaps in the trim or drywall edges. 15.1 Control Room The control room has three (3) doors. The side entry door is a window door. The storage room door is solid core door. The utility room door is a solid core door. All solid core doors have an absorber on them. 15.2 Live Room The live room has two (3) doors. The main entry door is a solid core door. The vestibule door into the control room is a window door. 16 Acoustic Treatments The acoustic treatments are the second key component in the studio assembly process. Isolation blocks sound, acoustic treatment controls the sound to create a balance in the frequency response and to control time domain related artifacts (reflections, echoes, etc). The treatments consist of porous absorbers which act upon the velocity of the sound wave to attenuate a given set of frequencies. Typically, porous absorbers work on 100hz and up, with high frequencies often being absorbed in excessive of low frequencies (care must be taken to balance the amount of high frequency absorption in contrast to low frequency absorption). Porous absorption is often called broadband or bass trap absorption. Clouds, Gobo, Wall Absorber, and Bass Trap are all types of porous absorbers. Slats on these devices (in this design) are far enough apart to add diffraction and some reflection, but no Helmholtz function. The next type of absorption is performed by devices using the Helmholtz principle to neutralize certain frequencies. A slat resonator is such a device. The slat resonator in this design uses varying depths of the cavity space, different sizes of slats and slots (gaps), and different depths of slots (gaps) to vary the range of frequencies affected. Slat resonators have a number of properties such as low to high (90hz-6Khz) frequency absorption, reflection, diffusion, and some people consider wood slats to be an attractive finish. Slats should be attached with screws or hidden fasteners to enable adjustments later. Otherwise finishing nails are suitable.
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Studio Construction Guide By creating angled slat resonators, we also break up the steep 90 angles of the room into 60 angles (which still consumes less space than the equivalent amount of absorption when a treatment straddles the corner at 45, such as a porous absorption trap would).
Example of a slat resonator. There are devices such as membrane or panel traps that work by building a panel and sealed cavity which resonates at a very narrow set of frequencies (often low frequency). This is typically used when you have problem frequencies which are very low and cannot readily be fixed any other way. There are poly-cylindrical diffusers polys which are elliptical panels which both diffuse sound and absorb. These can be quite effective on flat walls as well as corners (although they consume a lot of space across corners). Slat resonators and panel traps must have their cavities sealed to ensure they work correctly. Slat resonators have cavity dividers on the corners to create two cavity sections. This ensures higher efficiency than a single cavity.
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Studio Construction Guide There are Schroeder diffusers which are based on mathematical principles to create diffusion through phase attenuation. These devices can be quite effective and often very cool looking. Quadratic Residue Diffusers (QRD), Skyline, and other types are available. RPG is an excellent source of these types of products. Using their Fractal boards (small QRD diffuser pattern on boards) can be used for slat resonator slats with the added benefit of additional high frequency diffusion (at additional cost over regular lumber). Finally, the room itself has acoustical properties based on its size, dimensional ratios, materials, etc. By defining a good set of room ratios, building materials, and construction techniques, its possible to have a decent sounding room before any additional treatments are added. NOTE: dont let the treatments contact more than one of the decoupled assemblies (such as slats put Neoprene rubber top and bottom on the frame, seal the edges with backing bead and caulk, and dont let the top and bottom slats touch the ceiling or floor. NOTE: when constructing acoustic treatments with frames that will be covered with cloth, its a good idea to paint the frames the same (or close) color as the cloth to hide the frame as much as possible. NOTE: all cloth should be flame retardant or treated with flame retardant. 16.1 Control Room The control room uses a good set of ratios, framed construction with drywall and insulation. The front of the control room is a set of soffits which contains the hanging broadband absorbers, slat resonators on either side act to diffuse and redirect the sound. The rear wall has a set of diffuser-absorbers on an absorption wall. The solid doors each have an absorber on them. On the side wall opposite the entry door is a set of diffuser-absorbers on a frame. This ensures a decent live space in the control room. A 4 thick cloth cover absorber wraps around the ceiling above the storage room door and the entry and utility room doors. This ensures enough absorption in the room. Overhead are clouds which are a type of large porous absorbers with solid backing hung on chains or rope, at an angle to the rear of the room. These provide bass absorption as well as high frequency absorption on ceiling first reflection points.
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Studio Construction Guide The clouds are hung about 18 from the ceiling on the front, and about 6 from the ceiling on the back. This angle helps ensure any reflections are directed to the rear of the room and acts as a wave guide for lower frequencies.
Example of the ceiling clouds.
Example of wall diffuser-absorbers
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Studio Construction Guide 16.2 Live Room
The live room primarily uses slat resonators on the angled walls to provide a range of absorption from low, mid, and high. The angles of the slat resonators provide a means of breaking up flutter echoes which can occur between parallel surfaces. The live room may have several ceiling mounted absorbers. By leaving space between the absorbers, additional edge absorption is created and the diffraction effect adds diffusion to the space. Additional absorbers can be added if needed. A 4 thick cloth covered absorber is built around the top of the wall by the vestibule door over to the entry door. This ensures enough absorption in the room. A diffuser-absorber is placed between the entry and vestibule door to break up the flat wall there. Gobos can be placed in front of the amps to reduce their volume in the room and thereby helping to prevent bleeding between micd instruments. 17 Damped Membrane Floor The damped membrane floor consists of a layer of 1 (25mm) rigid insulation (3lb/ft3) out to the edges of the isolation walls and which has in-laid, 1 (25mm) neoprene (hardness 20-30) or agglomerated foam strips placed where the treatment walls will rest on the floor. On top of the rigid insulation and neoprene/foam are 2 layers of (12mm) plywood. The plywood is inset from the isolation walls by . The plywood has staggered seams with the panels crisscrossed. Panels are screwed (and optionally glued) together to form a 1 (25mm) subfloor. The air gap between the isolation wall and plywood is sealed with backer rod and caulk.
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On the plywood is a 3/8 (10mm) finish wood, Pergo, etc type of finish. The finish flooring can be applied once the treatment wall frames are in place. Avoid noisy finishes which can squeaks and sticky sounds. The treatment walls will rest over the in-laid neoprene/foam to ensure the weight of the treatment wall does not buckle the floor. Use decoupled bolts to attach the treatment walls to the floor. Ensure the bolts DO NOT penetrate much beyond the plywood layer to ensure no contact with the concrete floor. 18 Wiring Termination With the rooms constructed and the initial treatment completed, its time to put the wiring termination in place. Power outlets are attached to the wires, switches are put in, and the non-electric wiring is terminated to the appropriate panels such as network, telephone, coax, video, fiber optic, USB and IEEE1394, as well as the audio cables. Wire termination often requires the right tools to press fittings on the ends of cables, soldering, and testing. Testing is important to ensure proper performance of the cables as well as ensuring electrical safety. NOTE: If you dont have experience doing this, then this is one of those items where hiring someone with all the tools and experience will improve your chances of successfully having all the wires actually work when you are done. Audio cables typically will be terminated to a patch panel in each room so that you have maximum flexibility in organizing the connections to the mix desk as
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Studio Construction Guide well as staying organized during a recording session where you might have 2030 microphones and audio inputs, as well as capturing MIDI singles or using ReWire devices between synths and rack equipment or older PCs. 19 Paint & Stain Paint the walls and ceilings. Color is important to the overall feel of the space and can help provide the right mood as well as improve visibility of television, monitors, and assist with reducing reflections in windows (dark colors tend to be less intrusive than bright ones). Also, creating a neutral level can be helpful if using video or photo editing where non-neutral colors could impact your interpretation of the colors on the screen. I prefer good quality paints like Benjamin Moore or Dutch Boy, and stain like Minwax, but let your experience guide you. Low VOC is important since the rooms are sealed and the vapors will be coming out of the surface for a while. Use multiple coats to ensure a good finish. Pre-staining the trim and boards can simplify life as well and then just do touch up once you put them into place. 20 Flooring If you want to install hardwood or other type of flooring, be sure the flooring does not touch the isolation or treatment walls. Leave a sealed gap on the edges and plan to hide it with trim. Do not use carpeting. Best bet is to have some 8x6 or 7x5 carpets you can roll out/up as needed. 21 Trim The trim around doors, window, and the floor should be installed to cover gaps, and in the case of non-coupled assemblies (like the floor and walls, or ceiling and walls) ensure the trim is attached to only one or the other of the assemblies and enough to hide the gaps. Caulk is your friend. 22 Equipment Install the equipment and furniture. Get the electronics racked, wired, and connected to the wall panels. Put the monitors on their stands and line them up. Put the couch up on the riser. Tables, lamps etc.
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Studio Construction Guide 23 Acoustic Measurements
Once the rooms are finished, its time to take some acoustic measurements to determine if there are any remaining adjustments to be made. Your ears can tell you a lot about the space. Does it sound good? Do mixes youve made previous sound different? Where you might have made other decisions in the mix? Maybe do a quick mix, cut it to CD, and take it to some other systems around the house or in your car. Does the mix translate? If not, there may be some frequencies that need to be tweaked. Some may be due to the room characteristics, some may be due to the equipment needing some EQ, and some may be due to your ears hearing things differently than before. If you have enough ear training to recognize the problem frequencies, thats great! If not, then using a program like ETF or Room EQ Wizard can help to determine what the listener is hearing in terms of frequency, energy, and time. Once the measurements are made, determine if EQ will help, or if the room needs further adjustments. If something is dipping or the RT60 is too long (large bass levels on a certain frequency) then the room is the likely culprit. If something is peaking then it may be the room, or it could be speaker placement (speaker boundary interference SBIR), equipment adjustments (stuff happens), or it may something that can be fixed using a little bit of EQ across the mains (a touch too much 250 Hz for example). Room problems will need additional treatments depending on the problem. Broadband problems need broadband treatment, single or small frequency ranges need point solutions such as a panel trap, a Helmholtz resonator (a tube type), or alterations in the slat configuration (which is why we use screws or hidden fasteners instead of nails to hold the slats to the frames).
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Studio Construction Guide 24 THEORY
# Real sound isolation is achieved with massive construction, an airspace and elimination of any structural connections that may transmit sound. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to properly isolate sound when building a studio in an existing residence; mainly because of the common lightweight, wood frame construction and the presence of windows (it's important to fill windows with materials comparable to the rest of the wall). For new construction, you should specify walls with a high STC. An appropriate STC for a home studio depends on the specific activities taking place within the studio. Most likely, it would require an STC of 60 or more. Although STC is a good rating for speech frequency, it does not consider the low frequency sounds. # Achieving the optimum interior acoustic environment involves protecting the studio from noise (noise within the space and noise transmitted into the space) and controlling the reflections within the space. # Assuming all transmitted noise is controlled, the primary noise concern is from the HVAC system (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning). All mechanical equipment must be controlled to a very quiet level (NC 15-20). # Note: Absorption and diffusion materials only help the interior acoustic environment and do not help with isolation. # It is important to examine the ratios of the room's dimensions in addition to the room's reverberation time and any potential problematic reflection (such as from concave, reflective surfaces or peaked/domed ceilings). Certain room dimension ratios are better suited than others for achieving a rich acoustic environment. The goal is to find ratios that allow even distribution of sound across the frequency spectrum. When this happens, tones are reinforced equally and the least amount of "coloration" occurs. Colorations largely determine the quality of sound in a smaller. These colorations, caused by room resonances (modes), can degrade the quality of music and speech, creating an unnatural and monotonous emphasis at certain frequencies. # Assuming any transmitted noise is controlled, the primary noise concern is from the HVAC system (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning). All mechanical equipment should be controlled to about NC 25-35. Excessive HVAC noise is best addressed in the design phase, as it is difficult to control after construction. A system upgrade might be the only post-construction solution. # Excessive room length should be avoided.
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Studio Construction Guide # It is not necessary to cover every surface in the studio with a sound absorbing material. This would create an acoustically "dead" environment with too much bass sound. To create the optimum acoustic environment, a balance of absorption and diffusion should be considered. There are several commercially manufactured products for both absorption and diffusion. It is recommended to consult an acoustical expert in order to obtain specifics on particular products as well as determine the amount and placement of such products within the specific studio setting.
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