Help me vent (fresh air, not anger)

Recording Techniques, People Skills, Gear, Recording Spaces, Computers, and DIY

Moderators: drumsound, tomb

Post Reply
User avatar
losthighway
resurrected
Posts: 2347
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:02 pm
Contact:

Help me vent (fresh air, not anger)

Post by losthighway » Mon May 11, 2015 3:09 pm

Hey yall. I'm at the beginning of a build. We just scraped an old garage and are prepped for foundation. It's crazy. I'll start a thread and post pictures.

As for my question:

I'm going to be keeping things warm/cool with a mini split system. The only thing left to figure out is getting air vented into the control room and live room. I know enough to run separate ducts to separate rooms to keep the isolation.

How much effort must I put into keeping sound from leaving the building and bothering the neighbors via vents?

I have a design for a baffle box I found over at Sayers', should I be sure to build something like that for all of the air venting out? Is it also relevant to air coming in? What have you done for your studio, and how has that worked for you?

norton
buyin' a studio
Posts: 839
Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2003 4:42 pm
Location: minneapolis

Post by norton » Tue May 12, 2015 5:43 am

I didn't have the space, in a most recent build, to do anything other than undulate insulated ducting lines for both supplies and returns. Granted I was able to place quite a few undulations in those lines...but the end performance has been fantastic. Both from an isolation and an airflow standpoint.

If you follow the generally accepted practices for studio venting you should be golden.

So any perforations to your structure should be sealed up and anything feeding those perforations, from a venting standpoint, should be insulated and should NOT be a straight line direct path. Twists and turns etc...

User avatar
A.David.MacKinnon
ears didn't survive the freeze
Posts: 3819
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 5:57 am
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Tue May 12, 2015 6:33 am

One day I will work in a studio with proper heat and ac and ventilation.....maybe even a window and natural light.
I feel like I've spent my adult life in a series of windowless, cinderblock bunkers.

User avatar
losthighway
resurrected
Posts: 2347
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:02 pm
Contact:

Post by losthighway » Tue May 12, 2015 6:35 am

norton wrote:I didn't have the space, in a most recent build, to do anything other than undulate insulated ducting lines for both supplies and returns. Granted I was able to place quite a few undulations in those lines...but the end performance has been fantastic. Both from an isolation and an airflow standpoint.

If you follow the generally accepted practices for studio venting you should be golden.

So any perforations to your structure should be sealed up and anything feeding those perforations, from a venting standpoint, should be insulated and should NOT be a straight line direct path. Twists and turns etc...
Cool, so no silencer boxes, just twists and turns?

I take it you used flexible ducting?

Fan on the intake but not exhaust?

norton
buyin' a studio
Posts: 839
Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2003 4:42 pm
Location: minneapolis

Post by norton » Wed May 13, 2015 5:50 am

No silencer boxes. I did use 4" flexible insulated ducting and forced as many twists and turns as practically possible into each run.

The flexible ducting does limit the in/out wall vents that make off the shelf connections to the ducting. For this project we used adjustable 4" round mini diffusers for the supply lines and a large fixed open round diffuser for the return. Airflow and heat/ac performance is good.

There is no appreciable noise when air is pushing through these diffusers at any point in their adjustable throw. They seal off to zero fairly well and are quiet at high fan speeds. The round 4" diffusers are designed for a high pressure air system, and THOSE systems are loud at the ducts. But when hooked up to a standard air pressure system they are far far quieter than any "silent" computer fan.

Each run, two supply and one return connected to the main house forced air furnace/ac at points that were outside the envelope of the isolated space.

The project did have the normal basement "studio" issues, not ideal acoustics, limited ceiling height etc.... However, decoupled steel studs, r channel and green glue sandwiched rock were used on walls and ceilings. So the isolation envelope is fairly robust.

The ducting is definitely not the weakest link. The newer split systems are really nice and have great adjustable and quiet fans....I think you'll be really happy with it.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 48 guests