Soundproofing a room

[anne]

Rcase - what a nice surprise - Yes, we will be wiring etc. I checked out the johnslayers site - excellent. Once again goes to show that you can really get ingenious about how to customize almost any space with enough thought an will power. I personally like the " refrigerated trailer turned mobile studio" pictures. I was thinking more about this project last night while trying to sleep. I figured out the door sealing issue - I'm going to put a little landing on the outside of the building in front of the doors to keep from tracking in snow and mud in the winter. I can just build a small airspace there easily enough after I finish the inside of the building. In the meantime I'm sure acoustic curtains (soundproofing.org has used sound blocking drapes for about $50) should more than suffice.I'm looking forward to hearing how other people made thier spaces work for them!

[mazz]

Actually Stick turned me on to GIK acoustics but I didn't send them my room dimensions. Instead I went to Ready Acoustics and bought a box of 6 Owens Corning 703 rigid fiberglass panels and 3 of their bass trap bags and made 3 4" thick bass traps and hung 2 of them where the wall and ceiling meet kind of above my speakers and place one on top of the upright piano that is right behind where I sit.Immediately I noticed that my stereo imaging was much much tighter. Things panned to the center are much more "locked" in the center and there is now height as well as depth to the sound. I take this to mean I've tamed some of the reflections that were interferring in the perception of the L/R balance. I think I helped the bass but I need to do a bit more listening and mixing before I make a definitive assessment. I do feel like I'm hearing more of the speakers and less of the room now.My room is about 10X14 and I do almost exclusively composing and mixing in it. I'm envious of Anne's 13' ceilings! That's gonna be a nice sounding room just by virtue of the high ceiling.Mazz

[ernstinen]

Ahh, just thought of one IMPORTANT (and cheap) ingredient to soundproofing:CAULK.If you see light coming in (or going out) of any crack in your project, sound will do the same. Buy a caulking gun and start squirting! It's fun and inexpensive. You'll get hooked in a hurry! Ern

[anne]

Is it at least as much fun as greasing??? If so I can hardly wait to start!!!

[stick]

CAULKING SUCKS! This after 4 or 5 CASES of the big tubes. Be sure to get "Acoustic caulk". It's made to not shrink and harden over time. Anne, your plan sounds pretty decent... have you looked at resilent channel instead of the furring strips? I went with the cheap mass theory, and did separate stud walls with 3 layers of 5/8" sheetrock all around. Quietrock was too expensive, compared to adding another layer of sheetrock. Don't forget that each wall system must include the ceiling. So, I have 2 ceilings, each with 3 layers of sheetrock. And cutting holes in all that sheetrock for HVAC is a drag too... all that stuff needs to be sealed and accounted for as well. Adding the insulation inside the walls does very little for soundproofing other than dampen the wall's resonance a bit. But, I actually built some of the walls in my tracking room "inside out" so that the insulation is on the inside of the room and acts as acoustic absorbtion. The walls are soft, and covered with fabric. Here's the link to the thread I did on the John Sayers site. I learned most of what I know from there and implemented what I could afford in the space I have. And yes, acoustic treatment is a whole different animal than sound proofing. Other than the shape of your room, they have nothing to do with each other. Well, actually, the better your sound proofing the more bass you're going to keep inside your room, and the more bass trapping you'll need inside your room.