John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

Thanks DH.


I corrected that little snafu... LUCKY for me, the wiring was a 15 minute job. BOTH of those offending outlets were the last in the line. So I just ran up the stud, over and down. A snap!


Now I'm about to begin the WORSE part of my build: yes boys & girls, INSULATION

I going to dress up in my space suit and just give it hell until it's done.

You should remove the vapor barrier - and then after you finish all of the insulation - Just before drywall - you should reinstall it inside of the room - (that is the warm side).

ANywhere that has what you have now has it wrong - you will have problem with condensation soaking up in your isolation and rusting out your metal studs..........

Rod

That is what I thought too, until I entered the HELL that is DRYWALL!!! Maybe you are used to it, and that is cool, but the worst part of the job for me so far has been the drywall. I shudder to think about it!!!

Ok - so I changed a couple things. I removed the wrongly place vapor barrier and re-routed the AC line that was only inches from my recording snake. Thanks Rod for pointing that out. Having a 60 cycle hum and finding out the reason was wrongly place wires would have made me totally loose my mind

Also today, I insulated most of the wall surfaces. I have one wall in the control room that I need to rock one side of first, so I can insulate it. But after that, sheet-rocking starts full-bore.

I'm looking forward to it because I actually enjoy it, and also because it means I'm getting closer to the end.

Below are some pix of the corrected snake situation and the insulation progress.

And finally, here's my list of unfinished tasks to be completed. I'll post update-pictures as each task is completed:

1. Sheetrock one side of wall and finish insulating walls.
2. Insulate ceiling.
3. Connect supply & return registers
4. Install Isomax clips on both rooms.
5. Sheetrock backer rod/caulk.
6. Mud & sanding.
7. Painting.
8. Electrician to install outlets & track lighting.
9. Build bass traps & panels.
10. Build console-desk & Move in!!


- Later 4 now...

And here's a couple quick pix of my control room in Sketchup.

Brad,

Arent ya interested in a new cheap priced mint Synery 1000 desk for in your new Studio?? Check out under "Building Products" I am all but giving one away, and you live in PA.

Here is a picture of it (man that would look smokin in your studio)



Its the big center desk,,,,and does not include the Roland end desks.

Let me know
AJ

Andy -

Building one already. I was going to post the pix, but I gotta make some more progress first. Thanks anyway.

Saigon... shit; I'm still only in Saigon... Every time I think I'm gonna wake up in a completed studio. When I was ready to install my first layer, things got worse. I'd wake up ready to work, and there'd be something else. I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said "yes" I'll come up and help you with house work.

When I was down in the studio, I wanted to be playing with my kids; when I was playing with my kids, all I could think of was getting back into the studio.

I'm here 2.5 months now... waiting for the end to be in sight... I'm getting softer; every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Double-Helix paints his control-room, he gets stronger. Each time I looked around, the walls seemed to need something ELSE.

I watched Apocalypse Now the other day, and when Martin Sheen was reciting those words, I laughed out loud. I feel like him!! This studio (even though its small) is sucking the life out of me. I CAN NOT believe all the time it takes, all the roadblocks, and the things I find out I need to do before I can continue, all the mistakes, all the money, the frustration, the loss of family time, Brad time, sleeping time. I want to think about music again. I want to think about gear, recording, flowers, needle-point, cars, sex, anything but friggin sheetrock, double-walls, Isomax clips, air-tight rooms!!!!

My HVAC muffler - the thing that weights like 1000 lbs and nearly killed me trying to install it - this God-forsaken thing is TOO LOW!!!!

How did this happen?

Why? Why me?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Ok, I'm better now. Had to vent. I need sleep and some more time. I'll fix it.

Good night.

Dude... I feel your pain! I am going through the *exact* same thing that you are going through. That is one great thing about this place, we can vent a bit to folks that actually *understand* what we are bitching about!

Not that it makes it any better, but at least we know that we are not alone in our misery!!!

I too have had so many screw-ups, and things that I have had to re-do due to my lack of knowledge/experience/talent. I am now looking at a horrible tape and patch job on my wall in the control room, and wondering how I am going to get the energy to fix it! I just want to leave it as is and move on, but something inside of me keeps telling me that you can't leave it looking like that!

Does this suck or what???

Like you said, all I want to do is to get back to making music. This construction crap is for the birds, especially when you are trying to do it around a full-time job, a wife and kids, and a longing desire to do something creative with your *real* talents.

Keep pushing man, it will be well worth it in the end!


Oh yeah, and one more thing... "My walls are painted and yours are not!!! Neener... neener... neener!!!" Hahaha!!! Just kidding man!

Litterally - LAUGHED OUT LOUD !!!!

Just dropping in to say that this thread has been valuable to me in my research. I'm doing construction on a single basement room right now and found this thread linked or referenced from another thread. ( I think it was based upon a ref of your hat channel use in the ceiling section )

Anyway, looks like you're making progress and I've enjoyed the documentation. Don't feel the need to qualify your questions as newbie questions. I think that in general people understand and I for one, have benefited from it all here.

The points that were of value to me were the high/low wiring, which I knew of, but it's good to get reaffirmed on things like this.
That and hvac concerns.

So thanks and best wishes on this build.

Thanks Cram. I see you're from a very nice state in our union - NH. I vacation there up at Squam lake.

Got some more sheet rocking done, and only two rows of Isomax clips. My God, this stuff takes a long time!

I had a problem with my HVAC duct-muffler being a 1/4" too low. So I went and ripped down all my furring strips I installed to compensate for the sprinkler pipe. So now to add some distance, I decided to cut 2x4 blocks as my furring. I attached them with 3" screws. These will be where I attach my clips to. But what a slow process... Here's some pix.

Just made some more (boring) sheetrock progress.

Now that I've closed in the old doorway and covered up the windows, this place is an abyss!

Dark, lonely, dusty, depressing

There's a picture of some black flex duct that's going to be ripped out, in favor of some hard-metal duct work.

Then within all that duct work, I have to build 3 more "walls" that decend from the ceiling. These "walls" will be for the Isomax clips to attach to. This is a redesign due to the fact that framing a "regular" sofit (with Isomax clips and 2 layers of sheetrock) would have put my finished ceiling below the door header. This was a shocking discovery ...

I'm so sick of these design mistakes and re-builds...

I'll post some pictures of the framed sofit, new duct work and mounted clips once I'm finished. When that happens, I can then put up my first layer of ceiling rock - and be officially DONE with the first-layer in both rooms.

Then it's simply mudding, caulk/backer-rod, and second layer!!

Sanding

Painting

Panel & bass trap building

Gear Installing

(alarm clock sounds...)

It was all a dream

Made some great progress, although it may not look like it.

1. Finished the sofit - had to build 4 separate "walls" from the ceiling that act as "joist-area" so I can install my Isomax-clip mounts.

2. Replaced return "flex" duct with hard duct. (cleaner and more elegant).

3. Installed Isomax clips on the sofit. This required a lot of wood blocks to act as "meat" to screw the clips into. The metal wouldn't isn't enough.

4. Secured registers for supply & return ducts.

Next up:

- Order 6 more Isomax clips (due to sofit changes).
- Install remaining clips in the live room, and hat channel.
- Insulate & sheetrock ceiling.

Here's some pix...