Music room renovation

WiresDreamDisasters

So we moved in to our new house just over a month ago, and I've been doing up my music room. Still lots of work to do. But this is how it started.




This was how the previous owners had it. First thing I did was remove the built in wardrobe and cupboard on the other side, and stripped all the wallpaper.



Then I pulled up the carpet and ditched that.



Then I chased out the walls for four double electric sockets and had an electrician come in and connect them all up.



Then I took all the boards up and filled the floor cavities with Rockwool RWA45, cleaning up the joists as I went and removing all of the old dodgy headless nails.



On the right side of the room (my left in the photo!) there were boards that I cut across the joist in order to get at the cavity. The other side of that the boards are supporting a cinderblock wall, so I decided to leave that part. I reinforced a few of the boards there that were cut by someone else previously.



I then screwed all of the boards back down to the joists, and the floor was MUCH more solid than it was previously. No squeaking or creaking anymore!





Then today part of my acoustic treatment arrived. Sound Reduction Systems acoustilay 15 and acoustilay MDF boards.





So basically you've got 15kg of heavy duty rubber based acoustic slabs that help to reduce impact and airborne noise. Those go on top of the wooden floorboards across the entire room.



Then the MDF boards go across the top of that.



That is as far as I got tonight. Will finish the rest of the MDF boards off tomorrow. After that, put the laminate flooring down and then move on to painting the walls. Skirting after that, at which point I can start setting up all my gear, and putting my broadband absorption panels up!

WiresDreamDisasters

Oh my plan for the alcove on the left hand side (the smaller one) is to put in some heavy duty shelves and have my amps on there, all wired into an amp switcher and then into a loadbox/cab selector. Probably one of the ACS ones, but gotta build that stuff up little by little over the coming year.

Larger alcove will have a 4x12 cab for now, but might switch out to a 2x12. My desk and two sets of monitors in the bay window. Other side of the room I'll have a small table with keyboard-y stuff on it. That's as far as I've imagined it all being.

Jalapeno

Is it a semi or detached ?

WiresDreamDisasters

Jalapeno said:

Is it a semi or detached ?

Semi. But the neighbours are cool and have already told me they're fine with some noise. But I'm still making efforts to minimize it as much as I can. I don't make *huge* amounts of noise, but I do make some.

Winny_Pooh

Rubber acoustic slabs look great. What monitors you putting in? Big couch for some bass trapping on the rear wall?

Cirrus

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Jalapeno said:

Is it a semi or detached ?

Semi. But the neighbours are cool and have already told me they're fine with some noise. But I'm still making efforts to minimize it as much as I can. I don't make *huge* amounts of noise, but I do make some.

It makes sense - I'm always a bit worried that the neighbours can hear me mixing - even though it's quieter than when I'm recording vocals, it goes on for hours and since most people don't understand music production, I guess they'd think I've gone insane and am listening to the same song over and over and over.

I'd seen some pics as you were going along but it's clear you've put a shitload of work into that floor, am genuinely impressed! It's an inspiration to me, a man who hasn't even hung his acoustic panels 4 months after getting them out the garage.

WiresDreamDisasters

Winny_Pooh said:

Rubber acoustic slabs look great. What monitors you putting in? Big couch for some bass trapping on the rear wall?

I don't think I'll have room for a couch unfortunately. Need the room for an electronic drumkit!

Monitors - Focal Alpha 65's and a pair of M-Audio BX5's which are actually surprisingly great!!

Cirrus said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Jalapeno said:

Is it a semi or detached ?

Semi. But the neighbours are cool and have already told me they're fine with some noise. But I'm still making efforts to minimize it as much as I can. I don't make *huge* amounts of noise, but I do make some.

It makes sense - I'm always a bit worried that the neighbours can hear me mixing - even though it's quieter than when I'm recording vocals, it goes on for hours and since most people don't understand music production, I guess they'd think I've gone insane and am listening to the same song over and over and over.

I'd seen some pics as you were going along but it's clear you've put a shitload of work into that floor, am genuinely impressed! It's an inspiration to me, a man who hasn't even hung his acoustic panels 4 months after getting them out the garage.

Yeah that always sits in the back of my mind, especially when tracking vocals, I bet the neighbours are getting really fucking annoys with these 8 bars of music for hours on end!

Get yer panels hung bro

Blaendulais

Amazingly you still found time to post non stop !

WiresDreamDisasters

Blaendulais said:

Amazingly you still found time to post non stop !

I am a man of many talents.

WiresDreamDisasters

Acoustilay MDF boards fully down now. The edges have been sealed. It's not as pretty as what other people do in their videos, but it does the job!!

Tomorrow, it's the damp proof membrane, 5mm underlay, then start on the laminate boards. Wanna get the whole floor finished by the end of the weekend.

octatonic

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Blaendulais said:

Amazingly you still found time to post non stop !

I am a man of many talents.

not forgetting all the murdering...

WiresDreamDisasters

Got the laminate done today.









Tiring day, but made big progress. Ceiling, walls, skirting, doorframe, roughly in that order.

Then it's setting up all my gear.

octatonic

I would have laid it in the other direction myself.
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/joke.

WiresDreamDisasters

ha!!!

brucegill

Great work! Bet your looking forward to it all finished. 

Ignorant question, is all that work on the floor just to stop sound travelling downstairs? Or does it help room acoustics at all? 

Can’t wait to have our own place one day rather than bloody renting a falling down farmhand cottage  

WiresDreamDisasters

brucegill said:

Great work! Bet your looking forward to it all finished. 

Ignorant question, is all that work on the floor just to stop sound travelling downstairs? Or does it help room acoustics at all? 

Can’t wait to have our own place one day rather than bloody renting a falling down farmhand cottage  

A bit of both really. Filling the cavities will stop the floor acting as a resonant chamber, which will mean mixing tracks will be easier because I wont have certain frequencies that bring the room to life by exciting the floor chamber.

The acoustilay has two functions - to control for impact noise (footsteps, dropping things, etc) and it will also help with airborne noise. So I should be able to play a cab to a reasonable volume in the room without it going downstairs to the front room and to the next door neighbour. Obviously there are limitations to this because I haven't treated the walls, but it should be enough to give me some peace of mind.

I'm just aiming to have what I had in our old flat (could basically play at a good level without annoying everyone)

brucegill

WiresDreamDisasters said:

brucegill said:

Great work! Bet your looking forward to it all finished. 

Ignorant question, is all that work on the floor just to stop sound travelling downstairs? Or does it help room acoustics at all? 

Can’t wait to have our own place one day rather than bloody renting a falling down farmhand cottage  

A bit of both really. Filling the cavities will stop the floor acting as a resonant chamber, which will mean mixing tracks will be easier because I wont have certain frequencies that bring the room to life by exciting the floor chamber.

The acoustilay has two functions - to control for impact noise (footsteps, dropping things, etc) and it will also help with airborne noise. So I should be able to play a cab to a reasonable volume in the room without it going downstairs to the front room and to the next door neighbour. Obviously there are limitations to this because I haven't treated the walls, but it should be enough to give me some peace of mind.

I'm just aiming to have what I had in our old flat (could basically play at a good level without annoying everyone)

Thanks! Wish you luck. Looks like it’ll be a great room!

Cirrus

That looks really nice! Obviously I know it was Penny who put the effort in & you just rocked up for the photos 

The RWA45 panels under the boards are the same as I've got in my tie-died monstrosities, right? 120x60x10? They'll definitely be doing something positive for guitar isolation - when I used to record my ac30/mesa amp right next to a drum kit, I could get it cranked up to whatever volume I wanted, and if I made a den by stacking the panels around and on top of the amp. with just a crack in the front for the mic & sofa cushions stuffed in the gaps, then there was *no* practical spill in either direction. You could solo the overheads and only hear the faintest of subs, and in the guitar mic there was no drum spill at all - even with the snare only about 150cm away from the mic!

Different application to be sure, but gives you an idea just how much they absorb.

WiresDreamDisasters

Laying down the primer+undercoat today.



Still haven't decided the final colour, but I'm thinking a dark grey or green or something.

Kebabkid

Looking good and glad you got the floors you wanted.

WiresDreamDisasters

Kebabkid said:

Looking good and glad you got the floors you wanted.

Cheers man!