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Follow along my process of designing, converting, building and finishing a garage into a personal home studio.

PAGE LAST UPDATED: Monday February 04, 2008 07:44 PAGE 1 PAGE 2 PAGE 3 PAGE 4

The time has come to finally Get'r Done! The new studio will be built within in my garage as a "room within the room" design providing superior isolation and noise control, as well as a comfortable and upbeat vibe! The design calls for a DRUM ROOM, ISO BOOTH and CONTROL ROOM mixing suite which will also serve as my composition location. To see the floor-plan design I came up with, simply click on the picture of the floor-plan for a larger, more detailed view. As time goes along, I'll provide pictures and notes of the progress. Likewise, I'll also talk about how the room is being built and the materials used for the construction. Check out the links to the right (coming soon!) for further information.

CLICK the pictures below for graphic renderings

10/2/07 DAY ONE OF CONSTRUCTION

Well, DAY ONE officially started--unfortunately it was a day that I was home sick having to listen to hammers, saws and other construction tools while trying to sleep! Fortunately, it didn't last long as all that was done was to strip down the far right pegboard, rip out a section of the wall, insert a new door and seal it tight as well as disassemble the automatic garage-door opener. Tonight when I get home, I expect to see garage door side-tracks removed, baseboards and headers for the new walls as well as the walls themselves. But with it raining out, I wonder if that will slow down their construction at all? I expect to have all framing done by this weekend either way, as the electrical team is coming in next Wednesday to run all new wiring. Likewise, they'll be hanging the new light fixtures in both the hallway as well as the track-lighting in the control room. I decided against recessed lighting in the drum and studio rooms, I'd rather have traditional floor-lamps for the decor of things.

10/3/07 DAY TWO

As of 3pm today, the framing is DONE. To my surprise, I was able to get more room behind the Verizon FIOS box than I expected--in other words, I didn't need a "utility door". In addition, the power outlet that was feeding my garage dropped right into place in the control room ceiling. I am having this re-wired when the electrician comes in so it feeds into the studio power instead of the main power to the rest of the house. This power line will be used for the LCD TV's on the main wall. As much as I want to start running my audio lines, I must first wait for the electrical to be run---that is a long week away, Wednesday 10/10/07. After electrical is wired, I have to await the signature of inspection which I'm told won't take long at all.......I am debating about inserting stringers because the fact I'll have a layer of MDF on the wall, that's quite rigid and a lot of mass as it is. Hmmmm then again, it will help with the mineral fibre placement. Due to size and location, I had to make a few concessions in the framing but again--it's not for commercial use, so I'm not concerned about it to be honest.

10/4/07 DAY THREE....the Auralex Mineral Fiber arrives

I picked up (6) of the (8) Boxes of Auralex Mineral Fiber I ordered with plans to snag the last two boxes today on the way home from Sweetwater. I'm going to need another (4) boxes, but all we had in-stock right now were the eight. WHY Mineral Fiber over statndard insulation? That's a simple answer, MASS. While this 2" material might look to be the same, it's heavily compacted one layer after another that provides more insulation in the same amount of space. This is important for absorption of low frequency in the walls, both for sound transmission and the acoustic properties within the room itself. It's not cheap at $149 per box (obviously, I get a large discount) but it really does work and does an amazing job.

I thought I'd touch real quick on the right-front corner of the control room since a few have asked me about it. I have a triangle space that touches the Control Room, Drum Room and the Iso Room. Because I decided against a floating floor, I need a place to layout my 16-channel Monster Snake as I also decdided not to drill through the wall studs. The idea is to drill a whole small enough through my MDF and Drywall to fit the snake through the control room. Twelve of those channels will be a direct wire into a rackmount XLR strip for direct inputs in the drum room while the other four lines are wired into a wall-plate in the vocal room. After the wire is in-place, I'll fill in the cracks with Auralex StopGap acoustical sealant. Because of the triangular shape, there is no direct vent across from any one connection. Each stud will be lined with the Mineral Fibre. Again for the personal use that the studio is intended, it will be just fine while giving me the versatility I need.

As to that section at the ceiling, the power outlet that was already there is being re-wired into the studio power lines from the main house lines. This outlet on the ceiling will provide power to a Monster Pro2000 that will feed my LCD monitors mounted on the walls in the Iso Room and Control Room. This might also feed the power to the LCD display in the drum room but I'm just not exactly sure of placement at this point. I wanted to get started on wiring as I received my 100ft roll of 2-conductor install cable, but I have to wait for electrical first. This wire is being used for playback speakers in the drum room and iso room. I have on-order 100ft of speaker cable that will be wired in the control room for my home theatre system.

10/7/07 Stringers....

Stringers are basically the same material that's used for the truss or flooring to help brace the walls. When you have the wall stud connected at the top and base of the room, the wall itself is technically "free-floating" without any support in the middle. By placing these smaller cuts of 2"x4" wood pieces known as "stringers", at random points in between the studs--it helps to create less "suspension" in the walls and a more solid structure. This is even more important for bass and lower frequencies. These stringers help provide better tuning of the room in the construction phase as opposed to just putting up room treatment. With the combination of 2" Auralex Mineral Fibre and the stringers in the wall, resonance and bleed of low frequency will be reduced significantly.

10/9/07 .....and MORE Stringers....

DONE!!! AND DONE!!! AND MORE DONE!!! I finally finished the process of stringers and just in-time for my electrical contractor to show up in the morning, 7am to be exact! All of the new circuits, electrical wiring and new lighting (track lights and the new hallway lights) are being installed Wednesday morning. There is a good chance that I will have the electrical inspection signed off in the afternoon. When I receive the approved electrical inspection--I'll be able to start running my audio wiring, move to insulation with the Auralex Mineral Fibre and then drywall. Well, I'll have to do a lot of caulking as well but that's a given.

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