Need help with best way to finish my basement for project studio

[madbutcher]

Bought a house recently. Basement walls are 90% framed out, basically one large space, a laundry/utilities room, a bathroom, and a 13'x13' room that isn't framed yet. This will be the "control room" Electric is run to everywhere except the unframed room.

I am not trying to have the perfect studio down here or anything, not going to float a floor or anything big, but my band will definitely be practicing and I will be recording. More of a nice project studio for me. So I'd like to do as much as I can.

Was hoping to get to insulating by next week sometime. Any tips for this and finishing the rest of my basement? Should I spring for the more expensive stone wool, or will the fiberglass be the same soundwise? Anything else I can do?

I am going to just carpet tile the floors, and would like to leave the ceiling unfinished, paint it black and just run lots of foam in between the rafters. Problem is all of the ductwork. Very noisy and echo prone. Would it be ok to somehow finish around the ductwork and leave the rest open? or do I really need to put up an entire ceiling?

Any other tips much appreciated.

 

[RevoltStudios]

My opinion, is to finish the basement as you would if you WEREN'T doing a studio, but use good insulation. Then build bass traps and acoustic treatment to hang on the existing wall. That way, if you need to sell the house, move, or anything related, you'll be able to take all your treatment with you. Kinda hard to take all that fancy rock wool with you if it's behind dry wall...and it doesn't really add home value for the average buyer.

 

[madbutcher]

Yea that's what I was thinking, but if someone said it was like a night and day difference to go with stone wool instead of fiberglass I would consider it. But the ceiling/ductwork stuff I know I have to do something with. I'm hoping that framing off just the ductwork will at least greatly reduce the problems they give because I would really like to have the open ceiling to get more height.

 

[Sloan]

I vote for building the walls all the way to the ceiling. Seems typical to keep space up there and install a drop ceiling, which voids the whole point of having separate rooms in my opinion.

 

[darthjujuu]

if you're framing/building walls, try and make one of them non parallel, if at all possible, so the control room (and ideally the live room as well) isn't just a cube. probably a hefty pain in the ass in most situations if you're building along the pre-existing beams in the ceiling, but if you can make it happen, it'll be very beneficial.

 

[The StabbinCabin]

if you're framing/building walls, try and make one of them non parallel, if at all possible, so the control room (and ideally the live room as well) isn't just a cube. probably a hefty pain in the ass in most situations if you're building along the pre-existing beams in the ceiling, but if you can make it happen, it'll be very beneficial.

Shit dude- where have YOU been?