My New Studio Build (perhaps overly detailed)

[silky smoove]

Here the building codes do not mandate mechanical ventilation in homes, but the common practice seems to be more around 4-6 changes per day.

Where do you live where there’s no building code dictating mechanical ventilation? It’s addressed in the IBC.

I have a co2 sensor here and it stays green all the time, so I don't know, 4-6 changes per hour seems useless ?

By “here” do you mean in your home where there are doors and windows that are frequently opened and cycle the air, or are you talking about a sealed up, air tight recording studio where the exchange has to be done with a fan of some sort and the number of bodies per square foot can be quite a bit higher than in a home typically?

And would also lead to a crazy heating bill, wouldn't it ?

Ventilation has nothing to do with heating (or cooling). The V in HVAC is very nearly mutually exclusive from the H and the AC.

 

[seanm]

Here is what is required by the Ontario building code:

(3) Where a room or space is not provided with natural ventilation as described in Sentence (1), mechanical ventilation shall be provided to exhaust inside air from or to introduce outside air to that room or space at the rate of one-half air change per hour if the room or space is mechanically cooled in summer, and one air change per hour if it is not.

 

[Basslice]

We use VAV systems in my laboratory. 6 turn-overs/hr is standard, but pretty serious stuff. It will suck a klenex up if you drop it in front of the fume hood. If you had that in a regular house you'd have a wind tunnel.

 

[silky smoove]

We use VAV systems in my laboratory. 6 turn-overs/hr is standard, but pretty serious stuff. It will suck a klenex up if you drop it in front of the fume hood. If you had that in a regular house you'd have a wind tunnel.

View attachment 4308331

Mine is spec’d to do 2 changes per hour on low and a little better than 4 on high. This is aided by the mini split which isn’t adding much air but is increasing room pressurization. Even on high with the mini split assisting in my ~2,347cf main room it’s quite comfortable without any appreciable vent noise or uncomfortable supply or exhaust forces. The difference between 4 changes and 6 per hour, while technically only a 50% increase, requires quite a bit more energy and force to achieve it due to mechanical losses (I suspect). I’m not surprised by the Kleenex

 

[ThisYouCanTrust]

Where do you live where there’s no building code dictating mechanical ventilation? It’s addressed in the IBC.

France, and for new buildings there are all kinds of restrictive rules you have to conform to of course, but when renovating yourself there's nothing, and also nobody who's going to come and check : it's your place, you're free to do whatever you want.
As long as it's reasonable of course - if you start drilling for oil in your garden you might get a phone call or two

By “here” do you mean in your home where there are doors and windows that are frequently opened and cycle the air, or are you talking about a sealed up, air tight recording studio where the exchange has to be done with a fan of some sort and the number of bodies per square foot can be quite a bit higher than in a home typically?

In my case it means a part of the basement which I'm turning into a home studio, so a bit between both.
No frequent openings of doors or windows, not fully sealed either.

Ventilation has nothing to do with heating (or cooling). The V in HVAC is very nearly mutually exclusive from the H and the AC.

I don't follow you here.
If you extract the inside air you have to let in some air from the outside, which is most of the time either colder or warmer than your target temperature, so you'll have to either cool it down or heat it up ?

 

[silky smoove]

France, and for new buildings there are all kinds of restrictive rules you have to conform to of course, but when renovating yourself there's nothing, and also nobody who's going to come and check : it's your place, you're free to do whatever you want.
As long as it's reasonable of course - if you start drilling for oil in your garden you might get a phone call or two

That’s the same as here in the US. Both the US and France apply the IBC but its enforcement is always a variable.

In my case it means a part of the basement which I'm turning into a home studio, so a bit between both.
No frequent openings of doors or windows, not fully sealed either.

If it’s not fully sealed you can certainly reduce the 4-6 changes per hour rule of thumb. You’ll sacrifice isolation but if that’s not a concern it’ll certainly simplify things.

I don't follow you here.
If you extract the inside air you have to let in some air from the outside, which is most of the time either colder or warmer than your target temperature, so you'll have to either cool it down or heat it up ?

This is why the use of HRVs and ERVs for ventilation makes so much sense. It’s not a 1:1 savings but the heat exchange, if properly implemented relative to the heating/cooling source can do a lot for system efficiency. HRVs make sense in relatively dry climates like I have here in Seattle, and ERVs make sense in humid climates.

 

[Basslice]

BTW, I am blown away by your studio and your sharing!

 

[silky smoove]

BTW, I am blown away by your studio and your sharing!

Thanks! Too much work over too much time for too much money, but I sure do enjoy it Maybe I’ll even get to use it more than few times in 2021 as the pandemic (hopefully) chills out.

EDIT: “blown away,” “chills out.” These are some fine HVAC puns

 

[BAG]

Waiting for it to download and then it’ll be time to flat a third in the chord to make it minor.

The fact that this works as well as it does should be criminal. In one move I invisibly changed a C#m7 to a C#7 and it sounds perfect.

View attachment 4295682

How the hell is that even possible? I'm astounded!

 

[silky smoove]

How the hell is that even possible? I'm astounded!

They call it DNA, or Direct Note Access. Essentially the Melodyne algorithm in the Editor and Studio tiers of the software can separate out individual notes when analyzing polyphonic material. I was skeptical but I was recently given a very nice upgrade offer from Melodyne and I decided to give it a shot rather than trying to recall everything from that session and have the guitar player come back to punch-in a single chord. I’m shocked by how well it works, as was the guitar player. If you tried to do a massive change to every interval separately I’m sure it would fall apart sonically. For things like this, or if, for instance, a chord was played and an interval within the chord was bent a little sharp from the others it works brilliantly.

 

[ThisYouCanTrust]

If it’s not fully sealed you can certainly reduce the 4-6 changes per hour rule of thumb. You’ll sacrifice isolation but if that’s not a concern it’ll certainly simplify things.

I did small rehearsals with drums and bass in that place, you can hear some of it in the house but not enough that it disturbs anyone.
And this room would be for mixing mostly, not for tracking much, so the target loudness is lower than what we had then.
Which is good all in all because I wouldn't have had the space for proper isolation anyway

So yeah it won't be sealed but there is no real air movement in that basement, except for what the mechanical ventilation provides, so that doesn't change the problem much.

 

[DirtDog]

Thanks! Too much work over too much time for too much money, but I sure do enjoy it Maybe I’ll even get to use it more than few times in 2021 as the pandemic (hopefully) chills out.

EDIT: “blown away,” “chills out.” These are some fine HVAC puns

I’m sure there’s a few more puns we could spin up before we exhaust the subject.

 

[silky smoove]

So yeah it won't be sealed but there is no real air movement in that basement, except for what the mechanical ventilation provides, so that doesn't change the problem much.

You'd be surprised how little force is required to get the air to change over once. It's when you start getting up to higher levels of change that it gets difficult. I'm guessing that since you're not isolating it will be relatively easy to achieve a sufficient rate of air change in the space to not have CO2 or mold issues unless you're in a very humid climate in which case I would then put a greater emphasis on both air changes and dehumidification. Also, the 4-6 rule of thumb assumes multiple people in the space frequently. If you're primarily mixing out of that space it will predominantly just be one person so the need can likely be reduced a bit without issue.

 

[ThisYouCanTrust]

That's why I asked if there was a guideline or something, because the recommendations (and the practical examples which I have seen work) all seem to vary wildly

 

[silky smoove]

That's why I asked if there was a guideline or something, because the recommendations (and the practical examples which I have seen work) all seem to vary wildly

Your best bet is to ask this question of people that design and build studios for a living. The John Sayers forum is the go-to place for this where these types of professionals will provide answers to your questions. I got a lot of insight from that forum when I was in the build phase, including some items that I wish I had caught during the design phase but didn't, resulting in construction complications or outcomes that I wanted to go a different way. Definitely worth your time to create a profile and ask a question over there. Warning: Fill out your profile COMPLETELY or all you'll get is flack for not having details in it and won't get any advice until it's resolved. They're sticklers for that.

 

[ThisYouCanTrust]

Ok interesting. I started a thread on GS some time ago but the sluts didn't get that motivated to answer apparently.

 

[silky smoove]

We just finished a record-breaking heatwave here in Seattle. The temperatures here aren't anything crazy compared to what routinely happens in other parts of the country and even the other side of the same state. The difference is that the vast majority of homes here do not have air conditioning. Mine falls into this category. After having a miserable night's sleep on Sunday night into Monday morning I opted to put our camping air mattress in my studio where there is AC. Today my wife decided that the studio was suddenly the greatest place on the planet.

 

[silky smoove]

In more legitimately studio-related news; I just picked up a Shure Green Bullet. This is a harmonica microphone with an omni polar pattern. I rarely have a need to record harmonica but if you want to record anything with a crunchy sound this thing just kills. Most notably drums sound great through one of these as a sort of secondary mono overhead. It also makes an excellent alternate vocal mic. You can see Cody Fry using one here: which I really dig. It’s an odd duck because it uses a 1/4” TS cable rather than an XLR because it’s meant to plug into an amp. This means it’s a mic that requires a DI box. It also has a volume knob and is meant to be handheld. Ammo Clip makes a mic stand clip for it but they’re all sold out. As soon as one is available I’ll grab it.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Well worth the price. They can be rewired for an XLR connector.

Link Removed

 

[beans-on-toast]

Check out the use of the telephone handset as a mic.