Turning a basement into a workable studio

[CovertPBJunkie]

Hi. My friend and I are in the process of converting his basement into a workable recording environment. Right now, it is an acoustic disaster: the walls, floor, and ceiling are cement, and the room is virtually square, with a low ceiling. When you hold a conversation, it sounds muddy, and when you clap your hands, you can hear the high-frequency reverb splatter itself all over the place. We're definitely looking to completely deaden the acoustics in at least part of the room, for recording vocals and mixing, and maybe we'd consider keeping some of the liveness for acoustic instruments (but even the live area would need some serious taming).

Thus, I'm curious about any commercial/ DIY solutions you have stumbled upon. We're both technical guys, and we're fairly handy, so we're not afraid to do some modding (within reason). However, none of us has ever attempted anything like this before, and we have no idea what we're doing.

The budget on this project is reasonable: about $3000 or so.

Your input is very much appreciated, especially as far as design considerations go!

[LTA]

Concrete everywhere. Good news is, there isn't much you can do to make the room less "usable," so every change should be a noticable improvement.

Keep your floor as a hard surface (preferably a wood floor overlay, plywood works in a pinch), and smother your walls with studiofoam. It may not be pretty, but you can glue the foam straight to the concrete. Auralex has a few packages that might be enough to get you going. Lightly tack the tiles up so you can remove them later.

If you are serious, framing the walls and ceiling are probably desirable. This would be a budget breaker though, even if you did it yourself.

Floor reflections are desirable. They are normal in everyday life. Avoid carpet, or set your drums and acoustic instruments up on plywood sheets.

Finally, if you want to deaden up an area for vocals or whatnot, make some gobos, or simply hang some sound blankets on mic stands. It allows more versatility.

I'm not in a link mode right now, so somebody else can probably put a fairly long list of hyperlinks up for your reading pleasure. Deciding what to do (and how much you want to spend) is the trick. The actual execution is pretty easy.

[StrykeBack]

Moving blankets....lots of moving blankets:bounce:

[gmeister]

A good solution for the ceiling would be to install a drop ceiling. Install 2x4 sheets of 2" rigid fiber glass 703 in the grid. You can glue fabric on the face of the 2x4 panels. I did it in my basement and looks very good. A good resource would be www.realtraps.com. They have a room mode calculator and a FAQ section thats very useful. You will need bass traps you can build them yourself or just buy them.

Hope this helps.

[JeffBarnett]

Get out your tape measure and get all of the dimensions of the room. Then hop on over to Auralex.com, download their acoustic consultation form, and scetch it out, making sure to include details like what the walls are made of, locations of doors, etc.

Fax it to Auralex and have them evaluate your acousic situation for you. They are not armchair acousticians, but real experts who know what they are doing and have solved acoustics problems in hundreds of basements.

Get their advice (it's free), then decide what to do. Usually people who do this free consultation wind up spending a lot less money on acoustic treatment because they know which surfaces really need treatment and which ones can be left alone.

[Dan Shay]

Jeffs advice is good, but spendy.

I'd recommend some owens corning 405 and 403 as bass traps in the corners, and on the walls.

It's rigid fiberboard. It helps absorb bass/middle frequencies which are the real trouble areas. Bass is hard to treat for.

If you still have problems after that with high frequencies, you'll have an easy road ahead of you.

[dpd]

Based on what I've read and experienced, you will need a combination of absorbtion and refraction. Absorbtion will require, IMO, foam-based products for mid-upper frequencies, and rigid fiberglass products in the corners to control bass nodes. Use the refraction stuff to cure 'hot spots' caused by reflections.

IMO, I wouldn't go too dead-sounding.

[sgibbons]

I'm in a similar situation (starting from scratch in a concrete basement), but the ceiling in my basement is wood support beams, not concrete. Crappy 7' ceilings, whoo whoo :-/ Is it wiser to add a fiberglass drop-ceiling or to use drywall? I've been leaning towards drywall primarily because it will look nicer and thus create a better vibe. I've been thinking about using cove moulding too, which wouldn't really make sense with a drop ceiling. Any compelling reasons to go one way or the other?

[lvjazzman]

Here is a site that answers these qestions and more all day....

http://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

Look around the first couple of forums, they have pictures, links, and diagrams out the wazoo.

[dpd]

Originally posted by JeffBarnett
Fax it to Auralex and have them evaluate your acousic situation for you. They are not armchair acousticians, but real experts who know what they are doing and have solved acoustics problems in hundreds of basements.

Been there, done that. As Jeff says, it's a good introduction to the subject. Read the recent EQ where the mag had 6 different companies design acoustic treatments for the same room. Compare the end results and their rationale. Auralex's treatment was a bit different than what they suggested for my room - they used more panels spaced away from the walls in the EQ article (including corners) vice LENRDs in corners and panels attached directly to the walls.

I'm planning acoustic treatment to my basement room (12 x 23 x 7-8) for use in listening and mixing the occasional project. I'm also using CARACAD to assist with speaker/listener placement.

My advice? Read lots and don't be in a hurry to spend your money (unless you have a deadline). The more you learn, the better your sound will be and, likely, you'll spend less, too.