Building My Studio: Part 9 (Finishing Up)

Did I mention I really wanted a room with a vibe?

The front section of my wall - which is recessed and then angled at the top - was finished from top to bottom with 1/4" cedar planking.


The cedar planking looks, sounds, and smells great. It adds a lot of character to the room.

With the planking done, I finished the front wall by adding a low-profile skyline diffusor.




Lighting was installed, and ceiling tiles were mounted. I used a combination of absorbing and diffusing tiles, all mounted with foam safe adhesives.


The cloud over the monitoring area was created using 2 GIK 2" acoustic panels. Typically, these panels would have been hung 2" down from the ceiling, but by hanging them down an extra inch, I was able to obtain an improved performance in bass absorption.

Next, I turned my attention to the floors. While I would have really liked to have put down a hardwood floor, I ended up going with laminate. The type I used had a 2mm backing pad already attached to the flooring, and this particular type of flooring was specifically designed to have the look and feel of hardwood, but with a little more control on foot and impact noise.


The floors were a little harder to install than I thought. I don't know if it was because the quality of the laminate I was using or if it was me... or maybe a bit of both?










Next... hanging acoustic treatments on the walls. I used 4" GIK panels on the front and rear walls, and 2" GIK panels on the side walls. The placement of these was carefully pre-determined in order to maximize the acoustic performance of the room.









This is the right side wall of the main studio room. You can see in the front right the opening to the iso booth, where you can see 1 wall in there was also done with cedar planking.









The rear wall, shown here with (2) 4" GIK acoustic panels, framing a diffusor array made of (4) RPG Skyline LP (low profile) diffusors.











After a few months of testing and trying my studio, I ended up making a small change to the back wall. Both cosmetically and acoustically, it seems to work a little better with the room.










My iso booth had acoustic ceiling tile added over the drywall. The door in the back goes to my machine room/closet, and has 2 custom sized GIK 2" acoustic panels on it. The walls have auralex sound treatments on them.




Of course, after installing my acoustic treatments, I re-tested my room - Frequency response (once again with special attention to the bass) and RT60. The RT60 came out slightly better than I had expected, but still within the targeted range I had been hoping for. Frequency response was good. Remember the slight boost I had at 34hz prior to finishing the room? After installing my room treatment, the small bump at 34hz was still there, but reduced by almost half - reducing it to a nearly non-existent bump.