Soundproofing a room

[anne]

Hi - I have a 10x16 shed that we are moving all of my music / video gear to as a small workspace. I was planning on just insulating the walls with an "acoustic" insulation and sheetrocking. The biggest challenge we face is wind noise - it is very very windy where I live. Otherwise, there is an occasional truck or two - otherwise its pretty quiet and I should be able to adequately keep the neighborhood noise out easily enough. Without going absolutely nuts and spending tons of money, is there anything that I should keep in mind? I had read about using mineral fiber or cotton batting insulation to increase the sound blocking properties of the walls, but other than that everything else is out of my budget. I have read that I could insulate, then put furring strips across the studs, and attach the sheetrock to the furring strips and that would keep the outside noises down - Does anybody have any experience with this, and is it worth the extra work?Thanks in advance -

[mazz]

Anne,From everything I've read over the years, it's pretty expensive to make a room impervious to outside sound. Typically double walled construction with some dense acoustic insulation and some air space is what's done, although I've read about walls filled with sand and other types of strategies.You might think about what types of acoustic recording you're going to be doing because you may just need to construct or buy an isolation booth for things like voice and acoustic guitar recording. Then you could do some light isolation in the walls and use some of your budget for acoustic treatments inside the room, which, IMO, given your budget is more important than isolation. I'm sure Stick and Aub could give more specific advice.Good luck!!Mazz

[nickbatzdorf]

http://www.quietsolution.com/html/quietrock.htmlYou might want to look into Quietrock. A single layer of that will give you a lot of soundproofing, and it's much easier than the room-within-room technique.

[sgs4u]

Hi Anne, your thread is perfect timing for me as well. My wife needs to get a home rig going for voiceover work. So we're just getting started gathering info & stuff. We want to carve an iso booth, out of my big room ( basement rec room size)Mazz, didn't you have a site you sent measurements to, or something? for sound/bass trap stuff?And I'm stoked to see what Aub will add here, 'cause I think radio production is also one of his specialties.Nick - thank you for that link. We'll be checking it out for sure..

[anne]

Quietrock! I had heard about this and then forgot. I like the iso booth idea as well - my house is an old 2x4 house with regular insulation, tons of windows, and nothing special - if the shed (with only 2 skylights and no windows on the walls) is at least as quiet as the house is with the addition of better insulation and maybe the quietrock, that should meet or exceed 90% of the needs I have. Then I can make a guitar / vocal booth for the acoustic work we hope to do with the funds I have. Excellent advice! I had been thinking about it so hard, I'd forgotten to "keep it simple".

[aubreyz]

Well... since I've been called out by name, I'll offer some input here as I have my lovely slimfast shake for lunch Of course a room within a room is best, but it's expensive and sometimes difficult. The enemy is air gaps and physical coupling of surfaces, so you have to "float" the inner room with either springs (read pricey) or rubber fittings of which there are a few flavors on the market. Also, with a small space, you can lose up to a foot of real estate all around once you have a 6 to 8 inch air gap and the inner structure.The quietrock that Nick mentioned has very good specs for this kind of thing, and it's not all the expensive for the benefits. Another thing you might look at is sheetblock from Auralex:http://www.auralex.com/sound_isolation_ ... ok.aspThis site will keep you busy with info as well:http://www.acoustics101.com/On a budget, here's what I would do. Insulate the outside walls as well as possible between the studs. (mineral fiber is best, but even fiberglass will work.) Next, install either 3/4 ply, quietrock, or sheetrock. Seal every joint, nook, cranny, nailhole etc. Air gaps are the enemy. Next install sheetblock, sealing again, then sandwich another layer of either quietrock or sheetrock.If you can afford to float the floor or build a second inner wall do it! These things aren't that expensive so it's mostly the time and wood required:http://www.auralex.com/sound_isolation_ ... boat.aspIf you have windows and don't need them, I would seal them up and cover. If you want a view, that's another animal -- double glass, sealed, floated, etc...Also, you will be amazed at how much leakage will come through a doorway. Don't skimp there. Solid door, well sealed, sealing threshold--- and TWO doors if at all possible.And now here's the kicker... If you do even minimal soundproofing, I would bet that outside noise getting in won't be the biggest issue. Small, square spaces sound awful. You have all kinds of standing waves, ect to deal with that you can't totally predict with calculations. Plan for bass traps (the more the merrier), and 60 to 70% total room coverage with acoustic material on the internal walls. You're not going to hear some slight wind noise in a drum overdub, but you will hear a room that sounds like a cave For a VO booth, the isolation won't be as big of an issue as a small booth sounding like a tub. I have a 6x8 room for VO's. It's a room within a room, floated floor, two doors, etc. I have corner bass traps, diffusers, 80% coverage, and I STILL use gobos around the mic to kill room sound. You get resonance from the strangest places. My biggest issue in that room is the air duct. It's damped for "wind noise" but still resonates at certain frequencies. For my own vox work, I stand in the control room Bottom line, there are some basic principles that sites like the above will help to learn. One can be creative with materials at hand. Carpet remnants, etc can be used in a lot of places. One studio I built a few years back I used 3/4 ply to build an extra wall and found a foam manufacturer who sold me a block of egg crate cut foam for dirt cheap comparatively. I didn't like the looks of it, so a trip to Walmart, some cotton fabric in primary colors and a staple gun fixed that Read all you can, set a budget and be creative, but my biggest advice is worry most about what it SOUNDS like inside rather than outside sound getting in.Aub

[ernstinen]

I'm on my fourth "soundproof" booth, and besides a solid-core door (or two), double glass w/one pane at a slight angle (if you want to see in & out), it's pretty darn hard to COMPLETELY keep low frequency outside noises from leaking through (like garbage trucks, jets etc.).One thing I've used is staggered studs. The foot and top of the walls are 2x6's, and the wall studs are 2x4's, staggered so that the wall materials don't touch. That helps when you're on a budget and can't afford 2 feet of sand, floating floors, concrete block construction etc. Even with a well-designed budget booth, you MAY have to stop recording sensitive tracks like vocals and acoustic guitar when a DC-10 flies overhead! I'm like Aub --- I do my own vocals in the control room and deal with outside noises when they arise.Good luck!Ern

[nickbatzdorf]

Just don't do what Auralex says and put absorbent materials on the sides. They're a good company and they make some good stuff, but contrary to the conventional wisdom you want to soak up excess reverb at the front of the room and leave the sides reflective.That's for a "control room," not for tracking, which is quite different.

[anne]

Great thoughts - thanks. I have been reading everything I can for the last week or two, leaving me a bit overwhelmed. The buiding is a barn shape rather than square, which is nice. It will be about 13' at the peak and is a gambrel roof, so there is plenty of headroom and less 90 degree angles to contend with. There will be a small loft for storage on the far end, with a small window up there for venting and light. They said they can't attach the exterior sheathing staggering the studs its attached to (code), so I'm opting for dampening when I attach the 'rock to the walls by using a firring stip across the studs and neoprene padding (I have 2 lb / ft neoprene mats that I can cut and adhere to the firring strips, as well as the bottom of the rock where it meets the floor.) That should help a bit without a bunch of extra work and money. We are installing a vapor barrier that will be sealed across the studs (over the insulation, under the firring strips) so the firring strips and the padding will actually form an airspace of about 1 1/2 " between the vapor barrier and the sheet rock, which will also help.Of course, there will be plenty of sealing of any joints prior to installing the insullation, and plenty of caulking inside. I'm not so worried about the acoustcal treatment inside yet - I'm really just trying to improve the construction initially to keep out the wind noise as much as possible - if its quieter than my house is, than I'm miles ahead! Now, I just have to keep improving at this whole music writing thing and I'll be all set .... : )

[rcase]

Thanks to anne for starting this thread, and to all of you for sharing the knowledge.I too have a nice-sized shed in my backyard that I will be moving the music stuff into next Spring. When we purchased our house a few months back, I was thrilled to discover the 'shed' was actually on its way to becoming somebody's very nice workshop. It's already wired and insulated, and has some of that 'peg board' stuff nailed up over the studs. BTW, I think a good site for studio construction info is this: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.phpThat may have been the 'Mazz' site Steve is referring to.Thanks again Anne!