Hand Made Studio

In October of 2014 I embarked on a construction project to convert my small cellar into a fully functional (mini) recording studio. I have collected much of the audio gear over a long period of time and had it living in a more temporary setup in our den.

After a few complaints from the neighbors about the drums and an unsightly visit from the local authorities, I decided it was time to get serious about sound treatment/management.

It all started with me reading this book: Home Recording Studio - Build It Like The Pros, 2nd Edition  It was a quick and fascinating read, teaching me how to go about isolating the maddening levels that drums produce using (mostly) standard building materials.  I highly recommend reading this book if you intend to go down a similar path.

Containing the percussive explosion that is a snare hit is no joke.  While I'm quite content playing keyboards with my headphones, my drummer contingent is a different ball of wax altogether.  In the den, with my son playing the drums, we were seeing around 120db. Outside the room, we were seeing about 110db (as were the neighbors.)

So armed with a lot of new knowledge and a tiny army of family and friends, we embarked on a design and construction of a (room inside of a room) drum booth.

 First Step was to paint

Next came the carpet and a bit of mock-up to make sure things would fit okay

And then came the Framing and Electrical

Then the Drywall and Insulation.

This is where it gets fun.  For a standard room, you frame, insulate (or not,) drywall and you're done.  For a sound isolation booth, you frame, insulate, drywall, sound glue, drywall again, sound glue, and then add foam. The sound glue is not cheap. I did lots of homework and went the the less-expensive option called Quiet Glue Pro. It has worked out really well for me.

Completed Drum Booth. Now in the room (outside of the booth) we are seeing 75db and outside of the cellar 55db.   My son can play full blast in the middle of the night and you barely hear it inside the house. Outside the house it's practically inaudible. 

Then I got to work on the sound panels and desk following (and modifying) this design I found on Pinterest/Gearslutz.

Desk Build

I was inspired by this video for the sound panels 

After many many many hours of work on panels and the desk:

So I'm now busy putting this thing to good use.  I want to thank all of the industrious people that published their studio related work/ideas on the web.  You all definitely helped me see that I could do this.  Obviously Thanks goes out to my wife, children, and friends for all of their sweat and company throughout the build. 

Stay tuned here for the output.