My New Studio Build (perhaps overly detailed)

[Robb Fesig]

Like @beans-on-toast suggested, app controlled lighting might get you even closer to your original idea.
I've had one of these systems for years and have never noticed any hum or noise, even when changing scenes.

https://www.amazon.com/Philips-4644...&qid=1507553291&sr=8-1&keywords=phillips+hues

 

[silky smoove]

Like @beans-on-toast suggested, app controlled lighting might get you even closer to your original idea.
I've had one of these systems for years and have never noticed any hum or noise, even when changing scenes.

https://www.amazon.com/Philips-4644...&qid=1507553291&sr=8-1&keywords=phillips+hues

I would only consider app controlled lighting for simple on/off switching. The color changes could be cool, but not totally necessary for this application. The dimming functions are off the table regardless with these. They all function via a triac or rheostat that just happen to be electronically controlled. Both of these dimming methods are known for the potential to introduce noise. Some folks, like yourself evidently, get lucky in terms of not having noise when the light is operating at less than full brightness, but I'm in way too deep financially on this project to roll the dice.

 

[silky smoove]

Just finished a punchlist of items for my electrician needed to finish out the electrical work. He's off-site on a larger job that was booked ahead of mine all this week, but I'm hoping he'll be able to knock things out next week.

 

[silky smoove]

Did some more research. Realized I misunderstood the ideal circuiting method for a studio and am going to need my electrician to rearrange some stuff in the panel. Glad I caught it now while things are still open and can be easily tweaked.

My electrician will be back to work next week. There's only a small amount of items left on the studio punch list to finish, so hopefully he's all wrapped up next week and I can press on with non-electrical matters.

 

[beans-on-toast]

ideal circuiting method for a studio and am going to need my electrician to rearrange some stuff in the panel.

Does this have to do with potential ground loops?

 

[silky smoove]

Does this have to do with potential ground loops?

Nope. Ground loops are eliminated in this design by using a single path to ground common for all circuits as opposed to individual ones. This was done per Rod Gervais' book.

The issue has to do with the split of the panel coming from the power feed in the street. I interpreted it as needing to have individual circuits for musical equipment and non-musical equipment, but it's actually more strict than that. You want to have all of your musical equipment on the same side of the panel (i.e. being served from the same leg from the street), and all of your non-musical equipment on the other side of the panel. The individual circuits are nice, but the bigger deal is having musical equipment on all odd, or all even numbered circuits, and non-musical equipment being on the opposite side.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Studio wiring is complicated and confusing.

Balanced power is quiet. Here is one explanation: Invalid Link Removed

Smaller sized balanced isolation transformers can be nice, but they are pretty expensive: Invalid Link Removed.

 

[silky smoove]

With the revised configuration I should have no need for iso transformers. I'll know more soon enough I suppose, haha.

 

[beans-on-toast]

There’s no end to the measures that can be taken. The right balance has to be found.

I used to pick up hockey games through an amp during very cold winter nights. The signal originated far away and was skipping off the ionosphere. Having a faraday cage around the room would have been nice but you can only go so far. The solution was to change the tubes and better shield the amp.

 

[Microbass]

Have just spent the last week catching up on this thread from start to finish. Epic read.

 

[silky smoove]

Have just spent the last week catching up on this thread from start to finish. Epic read.

Never thought I’d start a thread that would take a week to read

Electrician will be out on Friday to wrap things up in the studio, minus the final hookup to the mini split and HRV. Once that’s done I’ll be stuffing all of the insulation back in the bays and getting the framing for the upper triangle of the vestibule wall finished. Soon... SOON!

 

[silky smoove]

More delays. No shocker there I suppose. Electrician was out on Wednesday, and will be back tomorrow. The expectation is that tomorrow all electrical work aside from connecting the lights, HRV and mini split will be completed. Fingers crossed!

 

[Microbass]

More delays. No shocker there I suppose. Electrician was out on Wednesday, and will be back tomorrow. The expectation is that tomorrow all electrical work aside from connecting the lights, HRV and mini split will be completed. Fingers crossed!

I was just about to send you some abuse for updates...

 

[Passinwind]

More delays. No shocker there I suppose. Electrician was out on Wednesday, and will be back tomorrow. The expectation is that tomorrow all electrical work aside from connecting the lights, HRV and mini split will be completed. Fingers crossed!

1400 plus posts. War and Peace, except the peace part still hasn't come yet.

 

[silky smoove]

1400 plus posts. War and Peace, except the peace part still hasn't come yet.

Them's fightin' words!

Now that we've got the war part covered... haha... I got a little bit of peace yesterday when I confirmed with my electrician that the building wiring is all done except for the connections to the mini split, HRV and lights. To be clear, the lighting circuit is finished, I just don't have lights to physically wire into the system just yet.

This coming weekend I'm planning on stuffing the insulation back into the bays (thanks City of Seattle permitting department... ugh...). After that I need to finish framing the upper triangle of the vestibule wall and add some blocking to the building corners to accommodate the future drywall installation. I need to confirm quantities and order all of the Whisper Clips and hat channel so that they're here and ready for installation when I get the above items finished.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I wonder if there will be any black friday deals on the materials. I recall the prices varied on the Whisper Clips but there were also quantity discounts if you were buying 100, 200 or more.

 

[silky smoove]

I wonder if there will be any black friday deals on the materials. I recall the prices varied on the Whisper Clips but there were also quantity discounts if you were buying 100, 200 or more.

No idea. There are a few retailers that sell Whisper Clips based on quantity discounts. I was planning on using one of them, and will likely be ordering the Green Glue and Green Glue Sealant at the same time to save on shipping costs.

Looks like rain on Sunday here in Seattle. Sounds like a good excuse to head out to the studio and stuff insulation back in the bays. I don't know if I'll get to the next pieces of framing, but at least I'll have some forward progress now that the electrical is wrapped for the time being.

 

[silky smoove]

My morning and a good chunk of my afternoon got screwed up by a number of “life” things that popped up unexpectedly. I was still able to carve out some time to work on the insulation. I’ve got the east wall finished. It’s one of the two long walls, so it was a significant portion of the work. I’m hoping to knock out the rest tomorrow.

I made sure to take the time, split the batts of insulation and stuff half of it behind the newly installed electrical wiring. I’ve read reports of people just stuffing the batts on top of the wire and thereby leaving an air gap between the exterior sheathing and the insulation. That’s just dumb and lazy. I didn’t want to be either of those things, so thus we have...

 

[silky smoove]

All of the insulation I can install for now has been placed. I need to grab some lumber to frame in some ledgers in the corners where the building framers didn’t account for spanning drywall into the corner. No big deal, but enough of a hassle that I won’t get to it today. The real complication is that until those are done I don’t have room to install the ceiling insulation as all building materials for this project have to live inside the structure. I have nowhere else to store them in the interim. That means that every step has to be carefully sequenced. I’ve got a short vacation starting next week where I’ll be marching forward on the rest of this. Tomorrow I’m going to be ordering a lot of the remaining materials, or more specifically the ones that space will allow me to have on-hand for now.

 

[dmt]

Welp, i just read this whole dang thread [pins medal on own chest]. I have space for a similar practice room/studio such as I’ve been thinking about for years, and my wife is loosely on board, but you’ve sufficiently scared the crap out of me! I just couldn’t do what you’ve done nor do I really want to — its all a bit much, it seems. To me. Congrats on all the hard work and progress though. Kudos, even! You’ll have something really cool when you’re all done, something a lot of guys would love to have for their own.

Oh well, the spare bedroom is always still there for me! My vDrums live on, I guess...

I may have a non-soundproofed structure put up someday such as the locals regularly knock out around here, and then try building a room-within-a-room inside it. Might not be perfect, but it would at least be better than the bedroom I’m using now in terms of sound dampening. The big question is, could I get it quiet enough for drumming? However, the HVAC, mold (humid as heck around here), bugs, wiring — all that stuff gets a bit scary for me. Drainage. Insurance. Security... [passes out]

Anyway, I look forward to following your progress. Good luck with the next steps!