Bonehead Studio 2.0 Build

unofficial start date 06-15-2007
April 16, 2007 we sold our home of 18 years and moved 20 minutes north into the Log Home of our dreams.  Since we were kids we talked about living in a Log Home but never found the ideal situation.  Drummer and Friend (Thunder) Chris caught wind of our dream and passed it along to his wife Lorrie (Realtor) who immediately put us inside this place. Love at first site meant we were up against selling our home at Christmas time in a very buyers market. Lorrie sold our home in 45 days and the move was on.

The original Bonehead Studios was 18 years in the making.  It was a 3 room facility with an isolation closet and was located in the walk-out basement of our first home.  The entire space was 24' wide by 42' long and included a large bar area as well as a theater space with sofas and chairs.

Although the new space measures smaller (15' x 30') there are opportunities to improve on the sound and feel of Bonehead Studio.

This page will act as a build diary for the new Bonehead Studio.
General floor plans and sketches of the new space 
About the Log Home:
 Built in 1980 from a kit manufactured by New England Log Homes (Great Barrington, Mass - now out of business) the log home is built with milled full-round Red Pine logs in a Butt and Pass type of construction.  The finish on the home is Golden Pine.  the house sits on an 86" foundation. 

An addition was added to the home in 1996 and is not of log construction.  The 2 car garage /the master bedroom suite above the garage is of stick frame construction.  Part of the addition sits on a 5ft tall crawl space foundation which is fully poured and very dry and usable for storage and sound isolation.

The foundation walls are 10" thick poured concrete.

The lot is 2.8 acres with the house situated in the center. The nearest neighbor is approximately 500 ft away.

The home has well and septic system.

200 amp service to the box with plenty of room for more circuits.




(click on images to enlarge them)
Front Porch
Studio Entrance
(Basement Walk-Out)
Basement View from Live Room to Control Room
Basement View from Control Room to Live Room
View from loft
overlooking living room
Living Room and Bosco
Loft
Another view from Loft
First Phase of studio build is the Live Room:
Raw Basement
Acoustical Panels
Concrete Sealer
Framing LR Wall
Positioning LR Wall
Mounting LR Wall
Mounting LR Wall
Mounting LR Wall
1" OSB on LR Wall
Mounting Acoustical Panels to walls of LR
Planning Dricor Sub Floor tiles
Live Room :
The Live Room will be 13.5' x 16' with hard wood floors and no parallel walls. Dividing wall is framed w/ 2x4's, covered with 2 layers of 1/2" OSB, stuffed with Rockwool. A finished layer of 1"x8" TnG pine paneling will complete the barrier for a total of 1 3/4" solid wood wall.  It is anchored to the ceiling using generic muffler hangers to 'float' the wall independent of the ceiling joist.  The Acoustical panels are office cubicle walls.  The composition of these panels is 2 layers of OC 703 rigid insulation separated by a 3/16" hardboard panels sealed in a aluminum extruded frame and covered with gray cloth.  They are 2.5" thick and come in various sizes based around common increments (30", 48", 54"x 4', 6' tall.  The panels have a nice option of running wiring through them.  They are mounted on the concrete wall with 2x4's - with various air gaps between panel and concrete.  Will insulate behind as needed - also may add slat resonators on front side to increase reflections as needed.  Still contemplating moving the oil tank into the crawl space to optimize the area in the live room.
The following pics taken 8/12/07
STUDIO Design Intent:

My design intent is to maximize the space and use some basic studio design concepts to improve the sound of the space as much as possible.  Since this is only a hobby and we've taken on more of an expense with the new place - there is no money budgeted for this project.  I need to capitalize on materials when the time is right (more on 'materials' later).

The new space is broken into a few areas. The main area is a 15' wide x 30' long with an 86" ceiling. There are no columns or obstructions except for some heating ducts that lower the overall height to 78" in those areas.  The main room will be divided into 2 rooms. 
Gear in Live Room:
5pc Tama Imperial Star drum kit with various cymbals and things to hit, Yamaha 01V Digital Mixer, (2x) Mackie SRM450 powered Speakers, Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier, Marshall JCM800 (50 Watt - on loan from guitar legend - Rick Rivets), Fender Twin Reverb (Silver Face), Mesa Boogie Rectifier 2x12 closed back, Marshall 4x12, (2X) Mesa Boogie-Clone 1x12 Theile Port (Snakeskin), SWR 400 Watt Workingman head, Hartke 4x12 Transport cabinet, SWR Bassic Black 150 watt 1-15 combo, Gibson Les Paul Studio, 79 Fender Strat ( S/S/H Pearly Gate), Martin D1R,  02' Fender Highway 66 (USA) Jazz Bass.  
CLICK HERE FOR MICROPHONES
Exhaust Hangers to de-couple ceiling / walls
I temporarily moved some gear into the live room. The idea was to conduct a jam in the unfinished area to get a feel for size and space, sound, bleed, vibrations...etc  I was very satisfied with the size and space. No one felt cramped. We all had freedom to do our thing. the bleed to the rest of the house and the outside area was minimal and the sound was pretty awesome. At 1:30 Am i was able to blast tunes through the PA while Nanc slept soundly upstairs - and that is before i even treated the ceiling, installed the studio glass and treated the stairwell.

 The band plays at loud levels and the kick and vocals were very present through-out. The bass absorption made plenty of room for the drums - the ear fatigue was minor. All 4 players felt the same way.  All is good - now i will remove all of the gear and continue on with the build.
With the large glass in place, the light soffets were built w/ 2x4's and paneled with 1x6 T&G pine. Small 3" Halogen (x8)  light fixtures wired to a dedicated 15A circuit.  I removed the original over hed light from the center of the ceiling and capped it off.  Qty 6 4'x4' panels were framed with 1x3 pine and screwed to the ceiling joist with rubber washers in between. The edge of the panels rest on the soffets.  The 2 panels above the large glass were cut to meet the 6 degree angle of the wall.
Update 09-07-07

So, I moved into the Control Room area, ran some electrical, framed thefront Control Room wall, Stuffed it with pink, installed a second (double pane) window and closed it up with 2 layers of 1/2" OSB. Temporarily i popped up the right Control Room wall with some bar clamps and moved some gear into place for evaluation.  The hallway on the outside of the Control Room that leads to the live room is quite wide and allows easy access to both rooms as well as the stairs and the exit door. This is the advantage to using the large panels.  the finished wall will be solid on the outside, soft on the inside and will turn into a Slot Wall Resonator. The next move is the cieling in the Control Room which will follow the same process as thwe Live Room.  Stay Tuned.
Updates from 9-25-2007
Updates as of 10-08-2007
Updates as of 11-05-2007
Installed flooring in the Control Room / Hallway area
ICompleted the 'right' wall of control room - including large glass panel - soffit mounted the speakers
Updates as of 01-05-2007
Finished enclosing rear ceiling.  Note the Radio Shack Sound Meter in the mix position
Front view
Left Side View
Right Side View
Rear  View
Rear Right  View