Building low cost Home Studio in Garage

[sparkyness]

Auralex foam is fine for taming high/mid band reflections but won't do much below 300hz, where proper bass traps will be much more effective. A combination of both (placed effectively) would work fine. I use Rockwool in my studio for midband absorbers and bass traps, and Auralex foam in the vocal booth.

Of note, Sound on Sound has a decent article on acoustic treatment for home studios in their current issue.

 

[nwright]

here's a dumb question that I've always had and no one has answered...Where do you buy rigid fiberglass insulation or mineral wool to make an absorber like this?

I've been to Lowe's, Home Depot and Menard's (USA/midwest location) and I have never found it. I've never asked for it, either, as I was just casually wanting to check prices.

 

[dreamcatcher]

here's a dumb question that I've always had and no one has answered...Where do you buy rigid fiberglass insulation or mineral wool to make an absorber like this?

I've been to Lowe's, Home Depot and Menard's (USA/midwest location) and I have never found it. I've never asked for it, either, as I was just casually wanting to check prices.

Those big stores (at least in the Midwest) do not have it, and (in my experience asking at several) do not know what it is.

After learning that Certainteeed made mineral fiber SAFB, I found a franchised chain building supply store that carried Certainteed insulation and had them special order it. They didn't know what it was, either, but they at least had the patience to work with me and their supplier to figure it out.

I did find a place in the middle of Minnesota that does sound stuff and sells trap bags and these special insulations, but it's hella expensive.

The OP fuckin pwns with the Craigslist score, though. Lucky bastard

 

[MetalWorks]

here's a dumb question that I've always had and no one has answered...Where do you buy rigid fiberglass insulation or mineral wool to make an absorber like this?

I've been to Lowe's, Home Depot and Menard's (USA/midwest location) and I have never found it. I've never asked for it, either, as I was just casually wanting to check prices.

I ran across this place and saved the link.

They sell 2x4 bundles of Mineral Wool and I think its not too pricey.

http://www.insulationworld.com/

 

[MetalJonesy]

Auralex foam is fine for taming high/mid band reflections but won't do much below 300hz, where proper bass traps will be much more effective. A combination of both (placed effectively) would work fine. I use Rockwool in my studio for midband absorbers and bass traps, and Auralex foam in the vocal booth.

Of note, Sound on Sound has a decent article on acoustic treatment for home studios in their current issue.

yea it is a gud article, and playing that sound file they have really highlights a good few problems in my setup, but unfortunately i cant change it much due to the room layout, size and whats in it

 

[MetalWorks]

The OP fuckin pwns with the Craigslist score, though. Lucky bastard

Yeah, I got a bit lucky on that find.

I never did find the actual price of my Thermafiber.

The closest thing I found was 4" 2'x4' Thermafiber Safing at this site for $49 each: Even at that price I got 32 bags and that would be about $1600 for $375.

http://www.whitecapdirect.com/products/336TAF42448?from=drilldown

On the Thermafiber site, Safing is under the Fire Containment Safing Insulation Category where as mine is under the Sound Control section Called Sound Attenuation Fire Blanket.

Perhaps the White Cap Fire Safing would work as well as any other Mineral Wool, Im not sure.

But I know in my area, there is a White Cap Contracters store.

Looks like it is a Country Wide store in the USA. Perhaps they can order if its not in stock.

 

[unsilpauly]

you can also try:

http://www.spi-co.com/

i have had good luck with them in the past. they sell it all.

 

[unsilpauly]

Auralex foam is fine for taming high/mid band reflections but won't do much below 300hz, where proper bass traps will be much more effective. A combination of both (placed effectively) would work fine. I use Rockwool in my studio for midband absorbers and bass traps, and Auralex foam in the vocal booth.

2 inch rockwool or rigid fiberglass will work way better and probably work out to the same or cheaper than auralex. i have some auralex and will be replacing it soon with mineral wool. the mineral wool bass traps i made work really well.

 

[MetalWorks]

So Tuesday I sanded the joint compound and sprayed on the texture. Sanding sucked. Seemed like someone is just standing there with a bag of flour throwing it in my face. Spraying the texture on was much easier. I borrowed my brothers spray gun and hopper which I hooked up to my little Porter Cable Pancake air compressor.

Then tonight (WED) I primered the inside and outside walls. I got the inside walls about 75% painted with a dark Grey. I ran out of paint so I will have to pick up more and start again tomorrow. I was hoping to get started on the floors tomorrow but it looks like that might wait until Friday.

I will get pictures of the room up once it is completely painted tomorrow night.

 

[MetalWorks]

Been a while but the main control room is painted and the maple floors are in.

I got some black leather couches for $400, another craigslist steal.

Here is the painted room as you walk in:

The empty space is where my my desk will go.

Here's a shot of the floor and baseboard:

Its weird how the paint comes off almost dark purple but its definately dark grey.

Here is a bad blurry shot of the large wall with the large couch:

This is the shorter wall that separates the live room and control room with the smaller couch:

Inside view of door:

I had to setup my gear to finish mixing a demo for a band so here is a temp setup with my new Control 24 (new to me, sold my Mackie 32.8 mixer and scored the Control 24 for $3500 on Ebay) where my desk will be:

Notice that the Control 24 is supported by two yellow metal saw horse's

I am actually building and painting a new desk which will be a cross between the Argosy and Omnirax Desks for the Control 24.

I will put some pictures up of the desk building process and painting etc soon.

I put up some Aurlex foam around the room and am still working on building all of my mineral wool bass traps.

Here's a pile of them already wrapped in fabric:

I still have to finish cutting and painting the frames so I can hang them. I will probably have between 20 and 30 traps along the walls, ceilings and corners by the time I am done.

Im almost complete with the room.

This camera really sucks because of its extended lens and made it really difficult to get nice wide shots of the room.

I will use my own camera and get better shots soon with everything done.

 

[nwright]

Nice!

 

[AdamWathan]

So how's the rest of this coming along? I'm really interested in seeing how it's turning out!

 

[MetalWorks]

Im so slacking....

Mainly because of weather, bands wanting stuff done and being married. :Shedevil:

Basically I have to finish painting my desk which I built to resemble an Argosy/Omnirax for the Control 24.

Its been cold and raining for the last few months so I haven't quite finished that yet.

Same with all of my bass traps.

I have all the frames cut, but they need to be assembled and painted.

But I did just order a new 8 Core Mac Pro and exchanged my PCI HD4 cards for HD2 PCIe Accel.

So its time to get the ball rolling again.

Im trying to get pictures of the desk process.

 

[Anaon]

Great topic!! Really interesting!!

 

[Baron of Norsworthy]

Been a while but the main control room is painted and the maple floors are in.

I got some black leather couches for $400, another craigslist steal.

Here is the painted room as you walk in:

The empty space is where my my desk will go.

Here's a shot of the floor and baseboard:

Its weird how the paint comes off almost dark purple but its definately dark grey.

Here is a bad blurry shot of the large wall with the large couch:

This is the shorter wall that separates the live room and control room with the smaller couch:

Inside view of door:

I had to setup my gear to finish mixing a demo for a band so here is a temp setup with my new Control 24 (new to me, sold my Mackie 32.8 mixer and scored the Control 24 for $3500 on Ebay) where my desk will be:

Notice that the Control 24 is supported by two yellow metal saw horse's

I am actually building and painting a new desk which will be a cross between the Argosy and Omnirax Desks for the Control 24.

I will put some pictures up of the desk building process and painting etc soon.

I put up some Aurlex foam around the room and am still working on building all of my mineral wool bass traps.

Here's a pile of them already wrapped in fabric:

I still have to finish cutting and painting the frames so I can hang them. I will probably have between 20 and 30 traps along the walls, ceilings and corners by the time I am done.

Im almost complete with the room.

This camera really sucks because of its extended lens and made it really difficult to get nice wide shots of the room.

I will use my own camera and get better shots soon with everything done.

I like the protools HD system in your rack are you using any other preamps besides the focusrites in the control 24??

 

[MetalWorks]

I like the protools HD system in your rack are you using any other preamps besides the focusrites in the control 24??

Right now I am using a Focusrite Red1, Presonus ADL600, and Grace Design Model 101. Thats only 7 preamp channels so anything else I need goes into the Control 24 Preamps.

Luckily I am able to get all of the drums and overheads on the good pre's and will throw some of the highhats, rides, scratch guitar tracks etc into the Control 24 preamps.

I aim to have my desk finished being painted this week so I should finally have some more pics up.

Also got my 8 Core Mac Pro last week and the new HD2 Accell cards.

Today I am receiving a new 22" HD LCD Monitor. I already got a desk mount LCD Arm to be able to pull the screen into the mix position etc.

So I need to paint the desk!

Im off tomorrow and the Sun has been shining so no excuses for me!

 

[mr_furious]

First post here, been lurking for while. Great site and great community here. Good job on the build man, you've got my mouth watering. Keep up the good work and keep us updated please!

-Matt

 

[MetalWorks]

I'm almost done with my Control 24 Desk.

I built it in 2 sections, a top half and a bottom half. Otherwise it would never fit through a door without being disassembled.

Its painted black and all that is left is the clear coat.

I did the padded arm rests today.

The arm rests consist of 3 pieces since I wasn't able to get vinyl in one 7 foot piece. I noticed that Argosy also made theirs in 3 pieces:

If I was building mass productions of them I could have bought enough to do a 7 foot armrest like Omnirax does. I would have paid 10x the prices and 90% of it would have gone to waste.

Here are some photos of constructing the arm rests:

Here's the top half of the desk:

Notice the Flat Screen Mount

Side view of Top with middle arm rest set in place:

And all of the arm rest pieces in place:

I am expecting some 8 space rack rails this week.

I am hoping to clear coat the desk before the weekend.

I'll get better pictures in the daylight when I am done.

 

[smy1]

Damn, that's some crafty shit ... very nice!!!

 

[Severed Index]

dude, all this studio construction going on around the place is making me so inspired, yet making me so depressed! keep up the good work man! for only a couple of $k, your doing a great job. Cant wait to see the end product!