New Studio Build Journal

[micah frank]

Building a new studio Gowanus (Brooklyn). I set up day-by-day accounting on my site for anyone that's interested:
http://kamoni.net/category/studio-build/

[bosonHavoc]

cool.. i love these

[djgroovy]

cool.. i love these

+1

[Tarekith]

Thanks for sharing.

[micah frank]

here's an rss feed you can use to follow it day-by-day: http://kamoni.net/category/studio-build/feed/

[gjm]

Nice. What's you plan for fresh air and heat?

I have a similar set up, a room within a room, but it was not as effective at noise isolation as I expected it to be.

Because prior to painting I went around all the dry wall joints where they meet the floor and cieling and filled them with a sound proofing gap filler the room became quite air tight. Its great in the winter from a heating perspective because once up to temp with a simple small oil fin heater the heater then hardly has to work. Problem is that when you get a few bodies in there for a couple of hours you can spike the temp from 18 Dc to 24+ quite quickly.... and then it starts to smell a bit.

What I failed to do was install some sort of air exchange while doing the build. I will have it sorted this summer with a simple home made system using 6" fans and tubes, but it will be a pain after the fact.

[Rave]

Keep us posted Oh and good luck with it

Do you plan to sound proof your bedrooms from the trains too?

[micah frank]

Nice. What's you plan for fresh air and heat?

I have a similar set up, a room within a room, but it was not as effective at noise isolation as I expected it to be.

Yeah, ventilation is one of the most overlooked aspects in sound isolation and I plan to address it more seriously than on the last build. The building is heated and the room will most likely remain heated especially with all of the fiberglass insolation and gear. We are going to try a double duct system that removes hot air from the top of the room and brings fresh air in from the outside. In addition, there is a powerful wall A/C unit in the outer room that we will duct into the studio.

Keep us posted Oh and good luck with it

Do you plan to sound proof your bedrooms from the trains too?

No bedroom here. It's a commercial space.

[micah frank]

doh, double post...

[gjm]

Yeah, ventilation is one of the most overlooked aspects in sound isolation and I plan to address it more seriously than on the last build. The building is heated and the room will most likely remain heated especially with all of the fiberglass insolation and gear. We are going to try a double duct system that removes hot air from the top of the room and brings fresh air in from the outside. In addition, there is a powerful wall A/C unit in the outer room that we will duct into the studio.

You have probably already thought about it, but try and get your fresh air in from the furthermost point from your hot air exit. Ideally opposite walls fresh air in as low as you can and hot air out as high as you can. If the air flow is gentle then you will have a 'sweeping' effect across the room which will eliminate vertical temp differences. In my studio at the moment there can be a 2 deg difference from floor to ceiling.

Also, try to match the air in rate with the air out rate. Don't rely on the air out fan to pull in the fresh air. Try and pump it in at the same rate. This way you can have lower rpm fans and therefore less noise.

I will be using cheap little 6" computer style fans mounted in a box with a few baffles.

In terms of generating heat, you will be surprised what the choice of light bulb will do. In my studio, and it looks like in yours, you have no natural light. To make it simple I just grabbed lamps instead of mounting ceiling pots. However, with 6 light bulbs its still boarder line sometimes reading or seeing things. I really can do with 2-4 more bulbs. It makes for nice ambient mood lighting though. I use the low energy flouro bulbs with the bright white spectrum. Don't be tempted to buy halogens or incandescent units, you will find that in an essentially doubly insulated room they will significantly add to the heat.

Also, I under estimated power sockets. I only installed 3 double outlets, but I could have easily installed 7 (based on my room shape).

[micah frank]

Good tip on the air flow - I will indeed be looking into that. Interesting about the intake fan also. I assumed that physics naturally creates a drag when air is filling a vacuum so the input fan makes sense as well.

I learned in my last studio that track halogens are a "no no". I think I will be opting for multiple lamps this time. There is natural light, although it is limited.

[McQ714]

looks like you aren't too far past the point where this might be helpful although this material may be out of your budget. quietrock 545thx double layered on each side of double studded walls has an stc rating of 80. it's THX-certified for sound isolation. looks like some decent stuff. might help you with the f'ing g train problem. and for floors, the qt scu 4005 is some of the best material i've come across spec'd for construction projects i've worked on. qt sound control also makes a couple products for ceilings i believe.

[Bleep Blop Ima Robot]

looks dope

[logic_user99]

Thanks for sharing, G.

[micah frank]

looks like you aren't too far past the point where this might be helpful although this material may be out of your budget. quietrock 545thx double layered on each side of double studded walls has an stc rating of 80. it's THX-certified for sound isolation. looks like some decent stuff. might help you with the f'ing g train problem. and for floors, the qt scu 4005 is some of the best material i've come across spec'd for construction projects i've worked on. qt sound control also makes a couple products for ceilings i believe.

Yeah, I've looked into that stuff - for the last build as well. It's definitely got an impressive rating. It is a little out of budget for this operation. There is still going to be a certain amount of flanking noise just from being in an industrial area like Gowanus. IMO, at some point the extra treatment becomes counter-productive.