How to build your own studio

SonorKen · 04-02-2005, 10:44 PM

Ok, alot of people have asked how you build a home studio, this is an overview of materials and equipment and how to build one.

Ok, I built mine in my basement so 2 walls were already there and are completely underground, ya can't get any better soundproofing than that. I needed to build 2 soundproof walls and soundproof my ceiling. So, here we go.

First off, you need to figure out the dimensions of your walls and plan accordingly. I built my walls 8" thick. I framed up (2) 2X4's. You measure out your walls, run a chalk line across the floor and ceiling, and mark it. Now you lay your 2X4's on the floor and using a .22 cal. nail driver you nail the 2X4's to the concrete floor. You can rent the guns to do this, I bought the hammer driven ones as it was the same price as the rental (20 bucks) and thought I might use it in the future. Once the boards are attached you need to nail the ceiling 2X4's in. Once this is done now you stud up the first wall.

The trick here is to alternate your 2X4 framing studs. Put one on the outside of the wall, and the next on the inside of the wall. I put mine on 12" centers. If you want to put in any electrical outlets now is the time. Im not going to advise anyone on how to install this, if you want them, go buy a home improvement book and read about it. Repeat the same thing for the other wall. One of the walls is going to have to have a door in it. I suggest buying an outside door as they are usually solid and heavier. You'll need to frame this in as well. These doors are easy to frame in, measure the opening, leave that part open, and frame it in. Frame it in with (2) 2X4's on each side and above.

Once you have the walls done, the door put in, you will need to insulate the walls. Buy the heaviest insulation that you can get. I used R-34. The trick here is to WEAVE the insulation between the studs that you built offset. Wear a long sleeve shirt, wear a breathing mask, and gloves, this stuff will itch you to DEATH! Once you have the walls insulated it is time to drywall. You will need 2 different kinds of drywall, 1" thick regular drywall, and 1" thick sound proofing drywall. Lowes or Home Depot doesnt usually stock the soundproofing drywall, they had to order it for me. This stuff is REALLY expensive and REALLY heavy so have plenty of help when ya carry it.

Put up the regular drywall first, mud it all up and let it dry. Once its dry, sand it smooth, wipe it down with a damp cloth, let it dry again. Now put up the soundproofing drywall. Same thing, mud it, sand it, wipe it down. You will need to primer the drywall then paint it whatever color you want. When you drywall the ceiling I would suggest renting a drywall ceiling installer. I rented mine for 60 bucks a day, its worth it as you get a much better job and you don't wear yourself out. Spend plenty of time on all the corners, ceiling corners as well. The better these look, the better the room will look.

Once you have the walls painted its time to install the ceiling soundproofing. Buy some 1" thick sound re-inforcement insulation. This stuff is kinda like styrofoam but much more dense. Before you put this up you need to put some kinda cloth on it. Spray the SP foam (sound proofing insulation) with 3M 90 series spray glue. Give it about a minute and then put the cloth on it and press it down. I initially made mine smooth but later starting making elongated designs in it cus it looked cool. To put this up I used regular 2" coarse threaded dry wall screws directly into studs. You'll need to use a stud finder to find the studs.

Next is installing the flooring. I put a small area of linoleum in my studio for an office area. This is where I can work write drum tracks and work on stuff for the band. Linoleum is EASY to install. Put some linoleum glue down, trowel it out so its thin, then put the linoleum down and roll it with a linoleum roller. You may have to rent one of these as well (20 bucks or so). If ya want linoleum roll it for a few hours. If you want to install carpet you will need to rent a 7 piece carpet stretcher(25 bucks a day). When you buy carpet buy the best stuff you can afford. I bought some KILLER high density MoHawk carpet. Also, when picking out your carpet pad buy a commercial grade one that is really thick. You will have alot of heavy equipment on it so you will need something heavy duty.

Carpet is easy to install, it just takes time. Put your carpet tack strips down with the .22 cal. nail gun and liquid nails. Put the liquid nails on the tack strip, put it down about 1/4 of an inch from the wall, then nail it down. Give this a day to dry and set up. Now, buy a carpet knife, a regular utility knife will wear you out due to the angle and having to constantly change blades, you change blades enough with a carpet knife. Cut the carpet close to fit somewhere you can lay it out, bring it in and then put it down. Put it against your longest wall and tack it in with a hammer and tuck it with a carpet tool. Once this is done use the carpet stretcher to stretch it to the perfect fit, cut it, tack it then move on. Use the carpet stretcher about every 15" to make sure the carpet is stretched good.

Now is the time to put your trim in. Put your trim about 1/8th of an inch above the carpet and when you get to a corner cope it in. Do this all the way around the room. If you put trim on a concrete wall you will need to use Tapcon screws to attach it along with liquid nails. Next you put the toe molding trim in. My door is made of Ipswich pine so I stained my trim to match the door. Now that you have this in you need to put your 2nd door in. I bought a steel door, drilled 4 holes in it, and filled it up with blow in insulation. Frame this door inside the pre-hung door frame and hang it like you would an internal door. This ensures the door to be sound proof.

I ran a ventilation shaft directly off my main heating AC unit to give the room heat and AC. This is easy to do as well, I made mine out of some tin ducting material, a pair of tin snips, a vent, and some patience gets this done rather nicely. Since it is the first vent off your heat/ac unit it will put out a TON of air so your studio will be plenty cool and warm.

If you put your studio in a basement I would suggest investing in a good de-humidifier to keep touch with possible moisture in the basement. My basement is bone dry but I still have one.

Your pretty much done now, a few little things I did to customize my studio is I ran conduit all through the walls with openings at different places in the walls. I have all my XLR and 1/4" cables running through one and all my power cables running through another one. These come out where the drum station, guitar station, vox station, and bass station are. This keeps the floor from being covered in cables. I put stand up lights in my studio as overhead lights will rattle and make it a mess for recording.

Well, your pretty much done! If I have forgot something I'll post it up. If you need additional help feel free to let me know. Here are some pics!

The kit in the pics is my Mapex kit I bought off Ebay for 75 bucks. This is how I plan to set up the 3005's when they come in next month.

zfmt · 04-02-2005, 10:56 PM

great, good job. i think this might have been better in the lessons and artiles forum but good information

abandonthetruth · 04-02-2005, 11:41 PM

Amazing sonorken .. and i love the room .. wish i had one like that.

LostInMusic464 · 04-02-2005, 11:54 PM

Great stuff man! You sure are one lucky dood.

CrazyDrummer4562 · 04-03-2005, 12:08 AM

wow I love the whiteboards, they would help a lot with my band.

SonorKen · 04-03-2005, 12:18 AM

Yea, the dry erase boards are great for any band. You can buy actual 4X8 dry erase boards for 100 bucks or you can buy a sheet of 4X8 shower wall board for 9 bucks!

The Haunt Of · 04-03-2005, 12:54 AM

its alright

undeclaredpunker · 04-03-2005, 12:59 AM

you bought that kit for $75????!!!! oh and greta instructinal description there

Music rockS · 04-03-2005, 01:36 AM

This man deserves somethign great. Great job Ken. Its nice to see you did it the proper way, it looks great. One day Id love to have a studio, but I need to find a use for it first

.

NAD OH MY GOD YOU GOT THAT KIT FOR 75 DOLLARS I WISH I WAS YOU!!!!!!!!

RichHunt · 04-03-2005, 05:06 AM

Nice stuff man.. I wish I had a jam place like that.. there's just no room in my house.

HEEEL · 04-03-2005, 07:20 AM

Awesome, any chance you could give a rundown of all the individual pricings??

Chippy569 · 04-03-2005, 07:49 AM

hmmm, kinda messy

thanks for the guide ken, this will come in handy soon no doubt!

GabeSHL · 04-03-2005, 11:58 AM

wow thats sweet.

jajara1 · 04-03-2005, 03:03 PM

hahaha cool white boards!

((HaZZaH)) · 04-03-2005, 03:07 PM

Cosy place you got there ken

Loving your purple throne too

-Funky monk- · 04-03-2005, 03:13 PM

That was great, i need to do that but i dont have the cash.

pearl.master.brx.punkster · 04-03-2005, 03:22 PM

awesome ken i just saw your blueprint on the pearl forums and lol thats complicated man you area a pimp!

XvintagefadeX · 04-03-2005, 03:29 PM

very nice, when i get a house i might look into that also

Voodoo · 04-03-2005, 04:29 PM

Thats cool man, You're going to have to do something to clean up those concrete walls if you're going to be recording. Concrete is a killer when it comes to acoustics, but some acoustic foam or a similiar product will help knock out that problem if used correctly.

groomits · 04-03-2005, 04:38 PM

can we ear some stuff you recorded in the studio?

04-02-2005, 10:44 PM	#1
SonorKen Out of the dark we came Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: That hissing sound, behind you......... Posts: 20,321	How to build your own studio Ok, alot of people have asked how you build a home studio, this is an overview of materials and equipment and how to build one. Ok, I built mine in my basement so 2 walls were already there and are completely underground, ya can't get any better soundproofing than that. I needed to build 2 soundproof walls and soundproof my ceiling. So, here we go. First off, you need to figure out the dimensions of your walls and plan accordingly. I built my walls 8" thick. I framed up (2) 2X4's. You measure out your walls, run a chalk line across the floor and ceiling, and mark it. Now you lay your 2X4's on the floor and using a .22 cal. nail driver you nail the 2X4's to the concrete floor. You can rent the guns to do this, I bought the hammer driven ones as it was the same price as the rental (20 bucks) and thought I might use it in the future. Once the boards are attached you need to nail the ceiling 2X4's in. Once this is done now you stud up the first wall. The trick here is to alternate your 2X4 framing studs. Put one on the outside of the wall, and the next on the inside of the wall. I put mine on 12" centers. If you want to put in any electrical outlets now is the time. Im not going to advise anyone on how to install this, if you want them, go buy a home improvement book and read about it. Repeat the same thing for the other wall. One of the walls is going to have to have a door in it. I suggest buying an outside door as they are usually solid and heavier. You'll need to frame this in as well. These doors are easy to frame in, measure the opening, leave that part open, and frame it in. Frame it in with (2) 2X4's on each side and above. Once you have the walls done, the door put in, you will need to insulate the walls. Buy the heaviest insulation that you can get. I used R-34. The trick here is to WEAVE the insulation between the studs that you built offset. Wear a long sleeve shirt, wear a breathing mask, and gloves, this stuff will itch you to DEATH! Once you have the walls insulated it is time to drywall. You will need 2 different kinds of drywall, 1" thick regular drywall, and 1" thick sound proofing drywall. Lowes or Home Depot doesnt usually stock the soundproofing drywall, they had to order it for me. This stuff is REALLY expensive and REALLY heavy so have plenty of help when ya carry it. Put up the regular drywall first, mud it all up and let it dry. Once its dry, sand it smooth, wipe it down with a damp cloth, let it dry again. Now put up the soundproofing drywall. Same thing, mud it, sand it, wipe it down. You will need to primer the drywall then paint it whatever color you want. When you drywall the ceiling I would suggest renting a drywall ceiling installer. I rented mine for 60 bucks a day, its worth it as you get a much better job and you don't wear yourself out. Spend plenty of time on all the corners, ceiling corners as well. The better these look, the better the room will look. Once you have the walls painted its time to install the ceiling soundproofing. Buy some 1" thick sound re-inforcement insulation. This stuff is kinda like styrofoam but much more dense. Before you put this up you need to put some kinda cloth on it. Spray the SP foam (sound proofing insulation) with 3M 90 series spray glue. Give it about a minute and then put the cloth on it and press it down. I initially made mine smooth but later starting making elongated designs in it cus it looked cool. To put this up I used regular 2" coarse threaded dry wall screws directly into studs. You'll need to use a stud finder to find the studs. Next is installing the flooring. I put a small area of linoleum in my studio for an office area. This is where I can work write drum tracks and work on stuff for the band. Linoleum is EASY to install. Put some linoleum glue down, trowel it out so its thin, then put the linoleum down and roll it with a linoleum roller. You may have to rent one of these as well (20 bucks or so). If ya want linoleum roll it for a few hours. If you want to install carpet you will need to rent a 7 piece carpet stretcher(25 bucks a day). When you buy carpet buy the best stuff you can afford. I bought some KILLER high density MoHawk carpet. Also, when picking out your carpet pad buy a commercial grade one that is really thick. You will have alot of heavy equipment on it so you will need something heavy duty. Carpet is easy to install, it just takes time. Put your carpet tack strips down with the .22 cal. nail gun and liquid nails. Put the liquid nails on the tack strip, put it down about 1/4 of an inch from the wall, then nail it down. Give this a day to dry and set up. Now, buy a carpet knife, a regular utility knife will wear you out due to the angle and having to constantly change blades, you change blades enough with a carpet knife. Cut the carpet close to fit somewhere you can lay it out, bring it in and then put it down. Put it against your longest wall and tack it in with a hammer and tuck it with a carpet tool. Once this is done use the carpet stretcher to stretch it to the perfect fit, cut it, tack it then move on. Use the carpet stretcher about every 15" to make sure the carpet is stretched good. Now is the time to put your trim in. Put your trim about 1/8th of an inch above the carpet and when you get to a corner cope it in. Do this all the way around the room. If you put trim on a concrete wall you will need to use Tapcon screws to attach it along with liquid nails. Next you put the toe molding trim in. My door is made of Ipswich pine so I stained my trim to match the door. Now that you have this in you need to put your 2nd door in. I bought a steel door, drilled 4 holes in it, and filled it up with blow in insulation. Frame this door inside the pre-hung door frame and hang it like you would an internal door. This ensures the door to be sound proof. I ran a ventilation shaft directly off my main heating AC unit to give the room heat and AC. This is easy to do as well, I made mine out of some tin ducting material, a pair of tin snips, a vent, and some patience gets this done rather nicely. Since it is the first vent off your heat/ac unit it will put out a TON of air so your studio will be plenty cool and warm. If you put your studio in a basement I would suggest investing in a good de-humidifier to keep touch with possible moisture in the basement. My basement is bone dry but I still have one. Your pretty much done now, a few little things I did to customize my studio is I ran conduit all through the walls with openings at different places in the walls. I have all my XLR and 1/4" cables running through one and all my power cables running through another one. These come out where the drum station, guitar station, vox station, and bass station are. This keeps the floor from being covered in cables. I put stand up lights in my studio as overhead lights will rattle and make it a mess for recording. Well, your pretty much done! If I have forgot something I'll post it up. If you need additional help feel free to let me know. Here are some pics! The kit in the pics is my Mapex kit I bought off Ebay for 75 bucks. This is how I plan to set up the 3005's when they come in next month.

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04-02-2005, 10:56 PM	#2
zfmt Sonor Natural Finish Club Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: smiths falls Posts: 501	great, good job. i think this might have been better in the lessons and artiles forum but good information

04-02-2005, 11:41 PM	#3
abandonthetruth durrrhhh? Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 3,598	Amazing sonorken .. and i love the room .. wish i had one like that.

04-02-2005, 11:54 PM	#4
LostInMusic464 Headbanger #1 Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Northern California Posts: 1,765	Great stuff man! You sure are one lucky dood.

04-03-2005, 12:08 AM	#5
CrazyDrummer4562 mx metalcore crew Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 2,439	wow I love the whiteboards, they would help a lot with my band.

04-03-2005, 12:18 AM	#6
SonorKen Out of the dark we came Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: That hissing sound, behind you......... Posts: 20,321	Yea, the dry erase boards are great for any band. You can buy actual 4X8 dry erase boards for 100 bucks or you can buy a sheet of 4X8 shower wall board for 9 bucks!

04-03-2005, 12:54 AM	#7
The Haunt Of Registered User Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 234	its alright

04-03-2005, 12:59 AM	#8
undeclaredpunker Registered User Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Oxnard California, surf for life Posts: 1,928	you bought that kit for $75????!!!! oh and greta instructinal description there

04-03-2005, 01:36 AM	#9
Music rockS Stone Magnet Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 4,090	This man deserves somethign great. Great job Ken. Its nice to see you did it the proper way, it looks great. One day Id love to have a studio, but I need to find a use for it first . NAD OH MY GOD YOU GOT THAT KIT FOR 75 DOLLARS I WISH I WAS YOU!!!!!!!!

04-03-2005, 05:06 AM	#10
RichHunt Hmm.. Nice brushes. Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Melbourne. Posts: 4,462	Nice stuff man.. I wish I had a jam place like that.. there's just no room in my house.

04-03-2005, 07:20 AM	#11
HEEEL I heart music Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: England Posts: 518	Awesome, any chance you could give a rundown of all the individual pricings??

04-03-2005, 11:58 AM	#13
GabeSHL The Superhero Letdown Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 132	wow thats sweet.

04-03-2005, 07:49 AM	#12
Chippy569 MXDP: The New Pit Join Date: May 2004 Location: Houghton, MI, US Posts: 12,882	hmmm, kinda messy thanks for the guide ken, this will come in handy soon no doubt!

04-03-2005, 03:03 PM	#14
jajara1 Jon Theodore's Apprentice Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 246	hahaha cool white boards!

04-03-2005, 03:07 PM	#15
((HaZZaH)) Hay Dave! Haws teh Salad? Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Haws???/ Posts: 65	Cosy place you got there ken Loving your purple throne too

04-03-2005, 03:13 PM	#16
-Funky monk- Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Montreal Posts: 1,523	That was great, i need to do that but i dont have the cash.

04-03-2005, 03:22 PM	#17
pearl.master.brx.punkster bass beat pro Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: monmouth Posts: 169	awesome ken i just saw your blueprint on the pearl forums and lol thats complicated man you area a pimp!

04-03-2005, 03:29 PM	#18
XvintagefadeX Registered User Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 563	very nice, when i get a house i might look into that also

04-03-2005, 04:29 PM	#19
Voodoo Error In Excellence Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Ohio, USA Posts: 697	Thats cool man, You're going to have to do something to clean up those concrete walls if you're going to be recording. Concrete is a killer when it comes to acoustics, but some acoustic foam or a similiar product will help knock out that problem if used correctly.

04-03-2005, 04:38 PM	#20
groomits for those about to eat... Join Date: May 2004 Location: Somewhere Posts: 1,051	can we ear some stuff you recorded in the studio?