The Final Finishes... Hiding, Hiding, Hiding!
At this point, the studio as a working room had, by all intents and purposes, been built. But there were still a few of those final steps to make the finish look plush. First of all, the ventilation and access points needed to be hidden/cupboarded away. This involved attaching some soundproof plasterboard to the upper wings of the side walls, again, using acoustic sealant to seal the gaps and make sure the ventilation ducts were soundproofed. The cupboard doors to hide the fuse-box and electricity meter were just made out of MDF, some hinges, and attached with the same magnetic latches I used for the removable panels on the front wall.
Both of these were then covered in the acoustical transparent fabric to give a clean, and coherent finish to the walls.
Once all the fabric had been stapled into place, it was time to go around and trim the joins with some pine strips. For one, it would hide the staples, but also frames the walls and ceiling nicely. I planned in advance where the joins in the fabric would be, so I had a nice symmetrical trim around the studio. Here we can see the other side of the studio, with wall light and intake valve, being trimmed.
Some more pine trimmed being attached to the back wall, around the diffuser, ceiling, and skirting.
The Move
Finally, it was move-in day! A really exciting moment, to get all my equipment in and for it to feel like a studio. The layout had all been prepared in advance, so I didn't have too much jigging and shaking to do, apart from the desk and broadband absorber placements for the best acoustics. I'll cover this in detail in a later post when I talk about the acoustic results of the room.
Although the equipment was in... something was missing... The studio needed a bit of life, a bit of colour! And as much as I would have liked real plants - a basement with no natural light probably isn't going to lead to colourful looking plants. So I purchased a range of artificial plants to add that finishing touch. And now, the studio is done (minus the door... I'll get back to that at some point).
And here we have the face of a relieved/exhausted man.
Here you can see some final pictures of the finished (for now) studio basement.
Next time we'll look at the acoustic measurements of the studio... did I improve it at all?
Frank Leonard Walker