Suggestions for Guitar/Media Room...

[stevan5150]

We officially chose our contractor for our new house we are building. We are clearing the land in December and laying foundation in January. We are pretty stoked and ready to get it done.
So I am finally getting me a Guitar / Media Room. Its 475 sq feet, and will have a projector and screen , tiered seating and a custom made guitar cabinet that will hold all 20 guitars on hangers with sliding glass doors. It was inspired by the picture that 11top posted with his guitar cabinet. I am trying to figure out what colors to put in the room....I want black ceiling , black walls and dark grey carpet. But i keep toying with the idea of Dark Red walls, black carpet and black ceiling. The cabinet being built will be covered with black vinyl. So any suggestions that maybe i haven't thought of lol

 

[wardog]

Building a home is like having a baby!!!!! As for the room, I would go lighter on the walls and floor. The ceiling being black is a good idea, but too much dark colors will cause a lighting issue, unless you want dark and sinister.

 

[BrianC]

Lots of outlets.
Well grounded - no hum.

 

[stevan5150]

Lots of outlets.
Well grounded - no hum.

Yeah the room is spec'd for a crap ton of outlets in the room as you can tell by this pic. My plan is to isolate this room from the rest of the house hopefully.
To give you an idea of the size, the guitar cabinet is 14ft long by 9 ft high

 

[László]

Can't make decor suggestions, but you will have the best result with both media and guitar if you include some good acoustical products in your plans.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

My plan is to isolate this room from the rest of the house hopefully.

Are you talkin' isolated electrically or acoustically, or both?

... you will have the best result with both media and guitar if you include some good acoustical products in your plans.

Agreed! Better yet, hire an acoustician to help out. Since you're only in the planning stage I'd reconsider a layout that is more symmetrical, the early refections you're gonna get off the wall with the guitar cabinet is gonna be different than the other nearest the viewing area. Something to consider if you're building from the ground up.

 

[Gusthebear]

Isolating the room structurally from the rest of the building is great if you want to be able to turn up and not disturb other people in the house. You would need to float the floor, build the walls off the floating floor and isolate the ceiling. Sounds like a lot of work, but a lot easier to do on a new build rather that retrofitting anything later. Can make a huge difference. There are a few books that cover this, but better to employ an acoustician IMO.

Treating the room with some absorptive finishes will make a big difference too.

 

[Duffy]

I would not want to have my music room in the basement. I have no idea if you plan to do this or not.

I like the idea of having it physically isolated from the rest of the house; maybe not even connected.

It sounds like a great idea. I would build it to have a lot of space for the sound to open up into, if possible.

What a great idea to custom build a music room.

 

[stevan5150]

I actually work for a audio video and lighting design company.
My supervisor is an acoustician , so we have been discussing what we need to do in this room.
This room is not in the basement, it's in one far side of the bottom floor of the house. And It will be isolated from the rest of the house. We are using roxul branded insulation which is insulation that is recycled metal and stone. Then we are floating double sheet rock on the walls and ceilings. And the main door will be a "studio" grade door, which means it lets very little sound leakage out.
I am currently second guessing my choice in size for the guitar display cabinet .
14ftwide x9ft tall x12inches deep is a huge cabinet. But it is having to hold 20 guitars. This was designed with the idea in mind that thy would be hung one on top of each other. So two rows of 10, not staggered. It will have black slat board all over the back of the display so I can hang them anywhere. But the reason for second guessing is, I want my amps to all sit in front but right all the amps would be covering up half of cabinet.... So I do t know what to do lol
Going to try to autocad it out today just to double check myself

 

[veinbuster]

I thought the cabinet was small for 20 guitars. It would be a snug fit stacked as you describe. More important, I think staggered guitars are much easier to reach - everything is at a convenient hieght whereas stacked the bottom row has you bending down and the top row is a long reach.

I put my guitar cabinets high enuogh off of the floor that the doors all clear the amps nicely. I like have the walking path clear and I really don't want to have to lean over something to get to a guitar.

 

[stevan5150]

I worked on this last night, everything is measured to scale. even the amps.
The big red thing in the corner is an arcade machine, and the small tv on the floor is for vintage video games.

 

[Duffy]

You might want to allow for that huge storage space area to be instead part of the performance and entertainment area. There is no substitute for having extra open space. Possibly the storage area could be located somewhere else in the house or greatly minimized. In the end you have to do what you want to do.

Maximizing the areas for performance and entertainment might trump the utilitarian storage area idea. Plus travel thru the performance/entertainment area to access the storage area could lead to floor wear and increase the possibility of accidentally breaking expensive things in the amusement area. Having a single purpose amusement area rather than a multipurpose amusement/storage area could be a good thing.

You might want to consider moving the storeage area to another place in the house and maximizing your music room idea. This music room construction is something you are only going to get one shot at. Developing it as a multipurpose entertainment/storage area might dilute its special character.

 

[Michael_DK]

I am thinking: glass doors = rattling!

 

[veinbuster]

I am thinking: glass doors = rattling!

A distinct possibility depending on how heavy the glass is and how snug it is in the sliders.

 

[tabl10s]

We officially chose our contractor for our new house we are building. We are clearing the land in December and laying foundation in January. We are pretty stoked and ready to get it done.
So I am finally getting me a Guitar / Media Room. Its 475 sq feet, and will have a projector and screen , tiered seating and a custom made guitar cabinet that will hold all 20 guitars on hangers with sliding glass doors. It was inspired by the picture that 11top posted with his guitar cabinet. I am trying to figure out what colors to put in the room....I want black ceiling , black walls and dark grey carpet. But i keep toying with the idea of Dark Red walls, black carpet and black ceiling. The cabinet being built will be covered with black vinyl. So any suggestions that maybe i haven't thought of lol

Since I'm an Audiophile, may I suggest contacting Acoustic Sciences Corporation(ASC). if you want good sound, don't get glass doors.

Do get Audiophile outlets and a dedicated line separate from the rest of the home as a minimum. "Audio Asylum" & "Audiogon" can assist with a wealth of information.

 

[Michael_DK]

......What are audiophile outlets?

 

[watelessness]

when i did mine, i did:
- high ceilings
- celings framed on its own and not attached to floor above where possible
- 1 pound rubber between the ceiling framing and sheetrock
- thick sheetrock attached to resilient channel
- double walls that do not touch each other
- theater blanket between the walls
- took pictures of the framing before rocking to aid in finding studs years down the road
- embedded snakes in the walls between the control room, the band room, iso booths, etc. also put a couple of snakes to the rooms outside the studio in case i wanted to record or playback out there
- ran all lights on "light" circuits. ran "clean" power circuit to all rooms so that everything was on the same circuit. also ran "house" power circuit to all rooms

there are probably a few more things i just take for granted now but having a sound resistant room allows me to make as much noise as i want any time of day without disturbing anyone else
your plan looks awesome!
:rock:

 

[tabl10s]

http://www.psaudio.com/product-category/power/

Not a shill for this company, but I don't want you getting any Monster Cable crap. They have everything power related you'd need(your amp would like clean power too).