Still at it, believe it or not! I'm due for another update. Just wanted to mention I have almost half a roll of that duct liner up on the Classifieds. Some of you know how hard this stuff can be to get.

Knauf Atmosphere Duct Liner 1in

Just saw this thread and it's very impressive to see what you've been doing! I have absolutely no experience or capabilities in architecture or construction, so things like this always blow my mind. You're also located in my favorite part of the country, generally speaking (I have family in Salem, OR) and it's a bit of a pipe-dream of mine to one day have a lovely composer's studio somewhere on the Oregon coast. Best of luck, I look forward to seeing how things come together!

Obviously I'm not very good at keeping this thread up to date. But I put in another 6 months of work. It's getting harder and harder not to dwell on how long this has been going on. Depending on when I consider the actual studio work to have started, we're going on 5 years now.

But I do what I can to minimize distractions and keep pushing on. Unfortunately this includes making music, that thing this is supposedly all for. But I can almost say I see a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm just not sure if it's the kind of light you're supposed to run towards or run away from.

So with the obligatory emojis in place, I'll recap where I'm at in ̶2̶0̶2̶2̶ 2023 .

Walls -- I finally got that last wall done. I was a little reluctant to close everything up as there is so much stuff in there I'll never be able to access again. I had to the same issue closing up the HVAC wall.

Here is some detail of the inner and outer silencer being connected. I waffled a lot about what kind of flex duct to use but ultimately settled on plain old big box duct. I figure the runs are very short and I can't see any weather or rodents ever getting into this wall. It's basically hermetically sealed. The flex duct is the only thing touching between the two walls. I filled the studs with insulation, of course.


I also ran Romex for 4 circuits and the control wire for the ERV, making a hole in the wall for each one and filling it with caulk. I carefully bent the wire back and attached it to a zip tie anchor. From that point on, the wiring will be on the surface. I'll show more pics once I start wiring up the permanent outlets. Of course I needed some temporary power so I had to wire up a few of the outlets, which I'll have to take apart later.

Here's another fun wall thing. I decided early on that the PC will live in the equipment room. So I had to plan on the various cables passing through the wall and think ahead to any future expansion. This ended up being pretty involved -- including things like MIDI, USB, Ethernet, Toslink, Firewire (currently used by my RME gear), MADI (future), Word Clock, Thunderbolt, display (several flavors) and just for giggles, a stereo pair so I can run mics outside if I get the urge. Oh, and a couple speaker level wires to pump tunes in there while I'm working and perhaps some day vice versa. It was a lot...

I ended up making 3 holes in each wall, tidying them up using PVC. I tried to group things to avoid interference with the analog cabling. Then ran each one through both walls and sealed up the holes with putty. This was another thing I was reluctant to cover up...

This is what the equipment room side looks like. Basically spaghetti -- but there is some organization there. Everything is held up with velcro straps. I'll be able to set a PC here and just plug things in.


Here's the studio side. I have a panel that all this stuff will eventually connect to. My desk will be setting just a few feet from here.



Finally I mudded all the seams of the drywall to make a moderately smooth surface. It looks pretty bad but good enough to cover up. I also threw a coat of primer on the walls as I intend to glue up the paneling. Reluctantly -- but the glue will help minimize any future rattles or resonances from the panels. And the primer will help it stick...

Hey thanks, it's been quite the rabbit hole. I know everything is relative to everything else but, I'd say if you don't have much in the way of soundproofing goals or accurate monitoring or live recording needs, a composer's studio would be fairly easy to pull off if you have the space for it. This kind of thing can start fairly simply and then get parabolic as those requirements pile up.

Ceiling -- I spent a good chunk of time on this. Each Joist bay was about 2ft wide and about 15ft long. So each bay got two modules. The module consisted of a 2x4 frame with a piece of drywall over it, then Green Glue and another piece of drywall. Then a piece of insulation on top.


Then I wrangled them up onto the drywall lift. I made a "sled" thing that allowed them to sit safely on top and ensured a consistent depth. The gap between inner and outer ceiling was a lot smaller than I would have liked. Only a few inches, just enough for the insulation.


Finally I attached the modules with 12 GRK structural screws through the 2x4s. Then caulked all the seams thoroughly. Obviously getting the measurement just right was important. I had a few cases of large 100lb modules not quite fitting and a few other cases of gaps being large, requiring shims and extra backer rod.

Here's a shot of modules in place on either side of a silencer. You can see on the right where I started wiring in the lights. Ten canless LED lights will be installed flush with the ceiling.

Next up, more ceiling... My plan was to fill each bay with 2in of OC703 -- 6in of fluffy over that -- an inch or two of air over that. I went around and around with how to keep everything up there. I tried strapping to the joists but just couldn't get that to work reliably. Since I'm ultimately placing fabric under the joists, I have to be conscious of any sagging that will show.

I ended up using corner bead, which are like long 90deg brackets made of thin metal. Very cheap. I had to install them slightly above the edge of the joist but it did the job. Then proceeded to have lots of fun putting these things up over my head.


In a few places I ran a wood slat across the joist to minimize the chance of unsupported 703 sagging. Doubtful as that stuff is pretty rigid. I also have some Rockwool (RB40) but because it's so not rigid, I'm saving it for bass traps.

In addition to the insulation and the lighting, I also had to finish off the two ventilation ducts. Each silencer emptied into a joist bay. I decided to turn those two bays into large ducts using duct liner around the interior. Then closing it off with OC703 and a piece of duct liner. I used more corner bead to hold it all up. And as you might guess, this was also no fun at all.


Ultimately I left an opening for the supply side register (just over the mini split) and a pair of smaller openings for the return side.


Around this time I got a wild hair (why?) and thought it would be really cool to make this studio capable of doing immersive sound mixes. Maybe even Atmos. I eventually settled on prewiring for passive speakers that could be added later (9.1.4). It may never happen -- but the investment in speaker wire was minimal. Figuring out placement was a little more involved but I think I'm pretty close to the Atmos requirements.

That said, I realized the ceiling speakers needed to go in now if I wanted to avoid drama in the future. I like to have a couple sets of speakers to check mixes on -- and do computer stuff on. These will fill that role as well as potential Height channels. So I picked out some decent in ceiling speakers and made room for those as well. The ceiling looks packed full of stuff now, but it's ready to cover with fabric!


And here's all that speaker wire meeting up where the PC cables are. Spaghetti city!

HVAC -- The minisplit has been working pretty well. No problem keeping things cool or warm. I will say the Mitsubishi is much louder than I expected. Everyone swears these things are so quiet but, even at the lowest setting, I can definitely hear it. Perhaps a testament to how quiet the room is getting. Fortunately with all the insulation I'll be able to leave it off much of the time when I'm working.

The ventilation system is also doing well, so far. It's generally very quiet although the ERV does generate some very low hum that made its way through the silencers. Low freq and low amplitude, probably structure bourn -- but I can hear it most right inside the duct. I don't expect this to be an issue in most situations.

I figured all the bends made for some pretty high static pressure so I added an inline fan to the return duct in the equipment room to help. It also adds a tiny bit of noise. Down the road I will do some pressure testing to see if the room is positive or negative. I'd like to maintain a slight positive pressure to avoid sucking in dust, etc from the garage every time the doors open and close.

I gave up on finding Rod's recommended Nailor registers. They're unobtanium for most DIYers. Instead I got Industrial grade registers with lots of free area. I figure the air velocity is low enough that the register really isn't going to make a difference, and so far I can't hear any additional noise from them.

That said, I can say the HVAC portion is more or less done. It was a lot of work and the most expensive part of the build!

Oh one thing. During the summer, I've found the ERV and mini split don't do enough to remove humidity. I've been running a dehumidifier (at night) as I was before putting all this in. Not happy about that but I hear it's pretty common with ERV/HRV systems as they do pump outside air into the room. So far during winter, I've not needed the dehum. Humidity levels have been in the mid 40s and 50s.

Floor -- I dithered a lot on this too. Really wanted a nice Marmoleum floor but couldn't feature spending $6k on it. In the end I settled on a concrete dye for 1/4 the price and I promised myself a nice gear purchase down the road.

The guys showed up with a fancy new propane powered grinder. It was massive and got really hot. Later I found they had bashed my door threshold getting it over the hump. I'm not sure what they were thinking. They asked me if they could open the window (which was visible outside but double plugged on the inside). I said it wouldn't open. They were really confused by the window situation...

Minimal dust fortunately as the dust collection rig was on point. Sprayed some dye and some clear coat and that was that.

The floor turned out OK-ish. Apparently the old paint was really well adhered in some places, which left a lot of marks. It looks like an industrial floor. But at least it's not purple. And I can say the floor is now done!

Well done, Chris, on the 6 months of progress. I am particularly impressed by your creative method of keeping the layers of insulation beneath the ceiling.

Much appreciated. Looking up, I have more reflective surface than I originally wanted to. But then again, it's always recommended not to deaden things 100%. So maybe this will be a rough and unscientific equivalent of wood slats. Hopefully not too noticeable at first reflection points overhead. Although I do have a plan for that involving space couplers...

I still have a long way to go in terms of room treatment in the corners and walls, and at some point soon I need to run some tests on the room just to see what kind of anomalies I'm going to be dealing with.

Hope your build is going well -- or maybe you've progressed to enjoying a space you can work in!?