Dub Train Studio, Mark II

Construction of Dub Train Studio Mark II photo gallery - updated weekly.

The project: convert a 20'x30' RV-sized garage into a 2-room recording studio.

PHASE 1

PHASE 1: OCT-DEC 2005
(48 photos)
PHASE 2: JAN-MAR 2006
(66 photos)
PHASE 3: APR-JUN 2006
(54 photos)
PHASE 4: JUL-SEP 2006
(104 photos)
ACOUSTIC TREATMENT
(in progress)

October 2005
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
November 2005
5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
December 2005
11 - 12 - 13

Visit Dub Train Records on MySpace for more info!


A Little House...	A Big Garage!	Full Of Stuff	And Things
1))) I moved into the little house with the great big garage in West Seattle's Highland Park neighborhood in September 2005. After a bit of house remodelling that needed some immediate attention, the plans for the garage conversion project began to take shape. First order of business: consolidate the shelves full of junk into one corner of the garage so demolition can begin.


Shop Bench	Classroom Door	Bandroom Door	Silence
2))) Once the back portion of the garage was clear, Rob and I spent a day tearing the 10' high contractor-grade shelving out with the help of Mr. Vaughan's Superbar. We built a work bench from some of the left-over shelving materials. A trip to Second Use revealed a surprise: the 3" thick soundproofed door from a high school band practice room! I think Cleveland High School is currently undergoing a remodel; this door was their loss and our gain...


Framing Begins	Live Room View	Control Room View	Mushrooms of Fall
3))) The wall which separates the control room from the live room is actually two walls built more or less parallel to each other, and separated by a 4-inch gap. This double-wall construction will support the gigantic soundproof door and a pair of laminated safety glass windows, installed off-angle from vertical to redirect sound reflections.

Hurricane!!!	Sleeper Grid	With Underlayment	InsulFoam
4))) Now that the framing is complete, it's time to install the floor so the sheathing (soundboard & drywall) can rest upon it. Rob suggested that I install hurricane washers on all the subsill lag bolts. Then I cut and laid out sleepers for the flooring. Once the grid was all cut, I laid 4mm plastic sheeting underneath on the concrete pad to act as a moisture barrier, then replaced all the sleepers. Once these are impact nailed to the concrete, we'll install the foam pads and plywood flooring panels. Then it's on to electrical!

Foamy Core	Smooth Side Up	Mystery Can	Official Permit
5))) The 1-1/2" Insulfoam pads were cut down to size to fit snugly between the 2x4 sleepers, then I went over the frame with cardboard shims to even out any rough transitions. The CDX plywood was screwed into the sleepers, and shimmed for spacing in case of expansion.

Southern Exposure	Glass Blocks	In-Wall Cabling	Nordic Quality
6))) The garage features a "clerestory" of translucent plastic which allows in the southern sunlight. Rob had the good idea of retaining some of that natural light with a couple of custom-built glass block enclosures. Brilliant! We also decided to install power and speaker connectors up above the control room window for powered monitors on both sides of the wall.

OK To Cover	Torpedo Tubes	Pink Panther	Last Light
7))) After passing the electrical inspection, a couple of other details (like the PVC patchbay) were taken care of, then a vanload of pink insulation was purchased at Eagle Hardware. We started on the ceiling, and closed up the space in the trusses with some 9-1/2" R-30 insulation. I initially wanted to use the 12" R-45 stuff, but it was about twice as much. Ironically, had I bought it, I probably would have qualified for the $75 Off promotion...

Lunarscape	Ceiling Bats	It's Wall Time	Morlock Message
8))) Sure looks soft up there! Once we had all the ceiling pieces stapled into place, we began installing the R-13 wall insulation. Of course, Rob's rock star cell phone never stopped ringing. Eventually, he stopped taking off the mask altogether.

Southern Exposure	Double-Thick Goodness	North Side	Flange Effect
9))) With the insulation almost done, we took a brief moment to fix in place the glass block modules we had built earlier. Rob built a custom flange for the electrical junction box, too.

Celotex Soundboard	Studio Cutouts	Insert Openings
10))) Now that the walls are wired & insulated, it's time to begin the sheathing. After much discussion, we decided to line the walls with soundboard before bringing in the drywall crew. Soundboard is made of compressed wood fibers, formed into 4'x8' panels. It's soft and dense, and cuts easily into shape, but it makes a metric assload of dust while you're doing it.

"Z"- Channel	5/8" Sheetrock	Pros At Work	Wall System
11))) After wrapping up the soundboard hang, it was time to call in the pros. Working with sheetrock is a nasty, messy, heavy job, especially with the 10' lengths of 5/8" (extra thick) panels I wanted hung. In the words of Homer Simpson: "Can't someone ELSE do it?"

Scaffolding	Giant Heater	Smooth Wall	In-wall PVC
12))) The resilient channel and drywall was hung in a day and a half by the pros, then the rest of the week was spent mudding and taping the walls for continuity and smoothness. It was mostly a simple job with a few exceptions like the PVC pipes...

Danger! Peligro!	Paint Buckets	Corner Shot
13))) In just under a week the job was done and the control room's walls were complete. I rolled a coat of flat white latex wall paint over the soft primer coat to seal the job. Looks pretty good!