Ventilation

When I got home from work yesterday, I had two nice boxes on the veranda. The fan for the computer box, ventliation silencer and the actual ventilation outlets in the room had arrived! Nice! But when I opened the boxes I found out that instead of getting a 600 mm long ventilation silencer, I got a 1200 mm one! This is fine by me as long as I only have to pay for the 600 mm one. I haven't received an invoice yet, so we'll see what happens...

Tomorrow night I hope to apply the second layer of paint to the computer box and start to install the ventilation.

Status pics

Floor and paint

Last sunday I picked a nice laminated maple floor at Byggmax here in Luleå. The price was right and it looked really nice. it is now 2/3 from ready, I saved the last third since I want to paint the computer box ready before I have the floor tiles right next to the box. Regarding the box, I always assumed that the box and the table I would like to build should be black but after applying the first layer of white foundation paint, I sort of noticed that it might be nice to have white furniture instead of black. I mean, the room is small as it is so anything that will make the box look smaller and the room feel bigger is welcome. It also gives a nice feel, just being surrounded by white walls, a white roof and white furniture. So white it is!

New piece of equipment

When thinking about how the final studio will look like I noticed that it would be real nice to have a separate controller keyboard, 88 keys with a lot of assignable buttons and sliders. Although I have an excellent keyboard (Yamaha P-250) it is a bit weak as a controller. when browsing the ebay-like "blocket" I found a guy in Kalix, 70 km from here who sold an almost brand new M-audio keystation pro 88. After a brief phone call, I got it for a good price and picked it up yesterday. Although it hasn't as good keys as the P-250, it feels real nice and I think I made a real bargain!

Some pics

Things that have happened since the last time...

I am really sorry about the poor updates of this blog but my laptop crashed 10 days ago and I have had a mess trying to get it to work again. But now I am up and running again and will post more often.

Things have moved along just fine with the studio build. I have all three layers of gypsum glued in place both in the roof and in the walls, the first layer of paint is in place and the computer box is about half-ready. I have ordered the remaining parts for the ventilation (more on that later) and will start installing the wiring, sockets and switches during the weekend. I am still hoping to have it ready by christmas but it will be a challenge.

Major progress!

This weekend I managed to get the roof done! I had my father in law help me to screw and glue all three layers of gypsum in the roof. The guy that sold me all the expensive glue (Ardex S48) told me that I only needed to screw the first layer real tight, then the next layer would be held only by the glue. While this is true when the glue has dried (say 30-60 minutes), it is not true when you first put the gypsum board in place. In order to make progress, I decided to use screws (and glue) also for the second and third layer. After 8 hours of hard work, the roof was done and when I checked it today, it really felt massive! Glueing layers together really makes a world of difference compared to just using screws. Next stop; the walls!

The glue was quite messy. Not being used to use it in a nice and tidy way, I had to sacrifice a sweater.

Gypsum

First pile in place. Now it's just to get them up into the roof!

Stud work done!

This weekend I have been able to finalize all the stud work. Everything is in place and nailed/screwed together. I have also been to the store and bought 20 sheets of gypsum. I'll start with all three layers in the roof before the walls. By doing that I think I have found out a way of putting gypsum boards in the roof studs just by my self using a piece of wood and four clamps. I'll post a picture tomorrow!

Ventilation

Now I really need to decide on how to do the ventilation. Since the old inlet is in the wrong place (see pic) I need at least two new inlets and I need to decide where they will be. I also don't now if I need a dedicated outlet from the computer box. I have gotten a tip about a guy here in Luleå which had a similar problem when he did his studio. I must call him.

Some progress on the walls!

I have really made some progress now on the wall stud frames. Three out of four frames are now in place and I will try to finish the last one and arrange the roof studs during the weeks to come.

Floor done!

I have just finished glueing the second layer of floor chip board. The floor is now done and I can start with the wall studs, really nice! I was really curious how the floor would feel in terms of stability (how "massive" it would feel) and it seemed to have worked out quite well. It feels really solid and heavy. Wall stud framing next!

Pics

New floor:

















Ventilation idea:

Ventilation

Something that (I guess) is a quite common issue among home studio builders is ventilation. If you want a soundproof room, the physics require that room to be as airtight as possible. That doesn't fly very well with good ventilation. In my case, I need to find a good compromise between good sound proofing and good ventilation. Although most of the time i'll be alone in the studio, there will (hopefully!) be occasions where I rehearse and record a small band.

In order to achieve this, my idea is to have two ventilation ducts letting air in from the outside and have one air outlet from the room. The outlet will have a really quite, big, slow moving cylindrical fan which can be turned off when really sensitive recordings are to be done. I'll also have some fans in a computer box where the computers will be.

(Still no pics function, I'll update as soon as possible...)

First layer of floor done!

The first layer of the chip board floor is now in place! After the floor stud adjustment nightmare, the first layer is now in place and looks really nice. It turns out that the overall height difference over 4.50 meters is about 7 mm which is ok (and pretty good in this garage!). My nice father in law did an effort the other day and finalized the first layer. The second layer is coming up soon! I'll try to buy it so that I can put it in place during the weekend. I have two choir concerts coming up on sunday so it is only saturday that is available for building.

Right now it seems like there is some blogger error so that I cannot upload any pics. I'll update as soon as possible.

Tilting floors are not nice!

I have now spent a lot (read 2 full days) of rearranging the floor studs in order to get the floor completly even. Imagine that you have the drain in the middle of the floor with the floor tilting everywhere towards the drain roughly one centimeter per meter. It was really a nightmare! I am now at last approaching a flat, even floor with only some final adjustments to be done. Yesterday, I bought some floor isolation (mineral wool) as well as floor chip boards. I have also gotten hold of a laser to use for measurement.

Since I will use two layer floor chip boards I need to glue them together with some proper glue. There are all sorts of glue available but I would like to have glue which not only holds the boards together but also act as an acoustic dampener. Unfortunately, that kind of glue is not cheap. One particular brand, Ardex S48, would probably cost me about 6000 SEK for the floor, walls and the ceilling. I'd love to find a cheaper alternative! Any suggestions?

Some floor progess

I have managed to do some work on the floor this weekend. Yesterday, I went and bought so-called "platonmatta" (I have absolutely no idea what the english word for that is). The purpose is to create some ventilation between the concrete slab and the minerall wool isoloation. I cut it into suitable pieces and laid it on the floor. Actually, the first real piece of material that actually belongs to the studio! Nice! After I got that into place, I started cutting the floor studs. 45x70 mm with 600 mm c/c.



After a day work I noticed that the concrete slab is anything but flat. This is actually no surprise since the original garage floor was constructed so that water would flow into the drain, now in the toolshop. It turned out that the tilt was roughly 1o mm per metre, giving about 45 mm difference between the two corners on the far side. Since I need to adjust for this everywhere where the studs will rest on the u-boats, there will be significant stud-height-adjustment-work ahead!

U-boat issue

I tried for the first time to see how my u-boats fit on the floor studs I will use. Although my test stud was only 45x45 mm (the floor studs will be 70x45) they did not quite fit as you can see on the picture. You can make them fit just next to the stud but the sides will then flex outwards somewhat. I don't think that this will be an issue but it does bother me a bit.

Toolshop

Some of you might have wondered where I have put all the stuff from the garage before the construction began! Well, the first part of the garage (roughly 1/3 of the total area) is now a small toolshop with all our tools, paint buckets, electrical wiring stuff etc. Actually, we have never had such good order of the tools, screws, nails, brushes etc. as now. To be completly honest, I also put a lot of stuff to the garbage dump...

Window closed

Today I finished the work with closing the window. It was really nice weather this weekend so it fit perfectly to close the window and do the woodwork and final painting outside. Now I am not relying on good weather to do work anymore.

Outside and inside

As you can see on the picture here, there is a small window in the original garage which I need to remove and close the wall. The basic reason is estethic but I guess it will also improve the sound isolation to/from the outside as well. So for now, it is painting time!

A tribute to the nerds

Just came back from my trip to the US. Jet lag is not too bad, got a decent nights sleep. On the plane back it just came to me that this whole project would not have been possible without the net. I have no training in acoustics, I have never studied proper studio design. I would never have gotten the idea of re-building my garage into a studio without the net. Guys like Paul Woodlock (see his building diary here) or web sites such as the Studio Design forum and even the swedish Studio forum, really help and inspire to do things like this. And who are contributing to the forums? The nerds. Those who like reading manuals and really want to know how things work. I would say I am a proud member of that community, at least in some areas. Think about it; can you name a computer support department which can in 2 seconds give you the answers that you'll find on some appropriate forum on the web? If the currency in future sociteties is knowledge, I know who the future belongs to. And nowadays, glasses can look really nice!

Delivered!

Hi!

I just picked up my U-boats from the hotel reception to a total cost of 180 USD. That is more than 2000 SEK less than the corresponding swedish price. It seems like a lot of colleagues here at the meeting I am at have done the same thing; order stuff on the web with delivery to the hotel. You can make some very nice bargins that way!

Week in between

This past week it hasn't been much done in terms of the studio work. I am just now waiting for my plane to Seattle on the airport and I will not return until Sep 10 but then I'll have my U-boats! So, next week will not mean any progress at all. Too bad. I have found a possible buyer though for my old music stuff! That's nice. Although it will not mean so much money, I will at least get rid of the stuff, clear the room and start the construction on the actual studio. That will be really nice. See you!

First phase done!

Hi all,

As you probably already have seen, a part of the garage is supposed to be a small room do be used as a small tool-shop. Well, that has now been done. Yesterday, I moved the final paint buckets and screwdrivers in there and it turned out really nice!
Now it is time to clean up the inner room where the studio is supposed to be. Btw. does anybody want two computer tables? Or a 19" rack cradle, perfect for your audio equipment. It is much more fun to build something new than to tear out and get rid of old stuff...

/Daniel

Price difference

I have decided to use U-boats from Auralex as the "spring" in my floating room construction. They seem to fit my needs perfectly (see pic). After doing some calculations I found out that I need about 100 pcs. They come in 50 pcs boxes and two boxes would cost me 3000 SEK (~450 USD) in Sweden. The price in the US is 100 USD per box! Luckily, I am going to Seattle first week of September so I have arranged for audiomidi.com to send me two boxes to my hotel. 250 USD saved. Nice!

First sketch

This is a first sketch I have done to get a feeling of how the room will look like. As you can see, the first part of the converted garage will be a mini (tool-shop?) and the second part will be the studio. The total area for the studio will be around 15 sqm. The room will be built as a floating room, the only connection to the main building through so-called u-boats resting on the concrete floor of the garage.

What I want to achieve

The goal of the studio is to enable three different things (in priority order).

1. To provide a room to play, compose, mix and master with good acoustics, primarily for listening but also for recording.
2. To provide a room to record small bands (i.e. small settings) with good enough acoustics not getting a dull/dead sound.
3. To provide a room to rehearse for live gigs, with small bands.
Now, the room will not be big so I have no illusions about #2 and #3 above. I just want to achieve #1 while still paying attention to #2 and #3. Everything is a bonus to what I have now!

This is me

For those of you who doesn't know me, I am a 37 years old, married with three children, live in Gammelstad outside of Luleå in the northern part of Sweden. Music is not my profession but my second major passion in life. I have been playing since I was a kid and during the last few years, my playing, writing and recording have been re-vitalized. Building a small recording studio feels like the next natural step for me in music. I cannot wait to get started!

First post!

Hi all!

This blog will be about the construction of my new studio. the idea is to share the process with anybody who wants to take part and show progress, pictures, problems, solutions, failures and successes! I will try to update it regularly starting from now.

See you!

/Daniel