have a 12 x24 space and want imput

sheppard

New member
i have been reading a lot of things about soundproofing and acoustics and have come up with some ideas that i would like some feedback on.i will atempt to lay out my plan for this space and if anyone sees where i am making a mistake ,please let me know.
the space is unfinished(no sheet rock on interior walls, studs are exposed)and i want to have a good live room but also want enough space for a control room with good listening /mixing capabilities.i would also like one isolation booth.
the plan:
insullate existing walls with standard r- 13 with paper toward exteior wall(gotta have it im in alabama and need mya/c)then i will take 90 pound roll roofing (which is a very heavy and dense)and run it perpindicular across my wall ,using a combination of srcews and adhiesive to hold it in place.(i have seen some very costly products out on the net for sound absorbtion and would like to tell every one about 2 products that will do the same job cheaper and better: shower pan material, available at any plumbing supply house, and roll roofing available at home dept and the like) i will then frame walls immediately in front of these walls, and also enclose with 90 lb roll roofing. Then one layer of 3/8 sheetrock and resiliant channells perpendicular acroos sheetrock with one layer of half inch sheet rock screwed and adhered to the resiliant channel.
this is my basic plan for keeping sound in. i want everyones ideas on how to lay out the enterior and all the other stuff please help
 
I have the same size room. I was lucky and scored for free 9 large office partitions and a full size Rack for my hardware.

I mounted 3 of the panels to the unfinished ceiling with long screws and washers. I mounted 3 of the panels, one to each of 3 walls, 2 of which covered windows...and one of which was behind the drummer. The other 3 panels are moved around according to need to isolate instruments when serious recording...
This small amount of coverage on each wall very substantially knocked down the levels outside of the studio.

To situate the live band of 4 guys confortably...and after many re-designs...I put the drums against the far end 12" wall, facing toward the center of the room. On the opposite wall, I took a 4'x12' area and called it my 'engineering booth'. Next year I plan on actually enclosing this area. The guitar and bass amps line the walls around the front of the drums, and the PA Cabs are on either side of the drums, angled toward the walls in a 45 degree angle.

Inside the 'engineering booth, I situated a computer desk, where I have two monitors on top, a digital mixer in the middle...plus keyboard and Track ball....studio monitors on stands beside that, and on the far right, the enclosed rack with the computer, A/D/A converter, Midi and 1/4" patch bays, UPS, and other equipment.

The PA mixer and amp are facing into the band area opposite the desk and rack. Everything is tied together with many mic cables and 1/4" snakes. Basically, 8 mic channels fed to the PA Mixer...direct outs to the patch bay...into the A/D/A converter...into the PC and back out to the converter into the PA Mixer for monitoring. The next 8 channels are fed to the patch bay, out to the digital mixer, and back to the PA via the A/D/A converter for live monitoring....also into the computer via ADAT lightpipe. FYI, I prevent feedback loops with a Behringer Feedback Destroyer Pro DSP1124p, after a hard learned lesson!

All of my cables are labled and bundled. I wouldn't do this again without my trusty Brother P-Touch Home & Hobby labeler! I swear I must have redesigned this in the past year about 5 times...but this design is going to stick, for sure. We are all comfortable playing live here. Some of us use a headphone amp to listen when we do vocal parts...it helps us to sing our backup in key, thanks to the monitoring setup back to the PA.

Next year I hope to build the wall in front of the 'engineering booth'. I also plan on taking care of some standing waves in the corners by placing some foam up there. It's not bad, though...we sound decent in this room, and the recordings are incredibly clean.

I can't speak much for your design thoughts, but I did want to show you that you can accomplish alot with that small room...with a little inginuity. Good lock with it. You can see some pics of what it looked like before the desk and the enclosed rack...basically with a table and an open rack, if you can get to my FTP from where you are at. Go to ftp://www.tntkemp.com. Select Family Pics, then Virginia, then studio and check them out. I'll be updated those pics soon, as I'm just finishing up with the upgraded computer.
 
Coupla' thoughts. As it's a rehearsal studio, depending on your neihbor-proximity--you may need good isolation. The room-in-a-room approach is good for this, but your low frequencies are the biggest problem. For these you need mass. I'm not sure about the mass-loading of the roofing material you've proposed, but you might be better off finishing your existing room with 5/8-in sheet rock, then building your next walls inside-out (see John Sayer's SAE site and the wall plan for Left Bank Studios). This will conserve the space you have available and leave that interior stud area open for acoustic treatment.

As regards the wall construction, attaching sheet rock to the studs and then resilient channel to that layer (presumably also attached through to the studs), will short-circuit the isolation provided by that first layer. You'd be better off attaching your channel to the studs, and then gluing the second layer to the first. If you follow the inside-out design, the walls are constructed on the floor. In this case, two layers of sheet rock might make them a little heavy to lift into place. A friend of mine is constructing walls in this fashion but using sound board for the base layer as opposed to sheetrock. In any case, just make sure the layers are attached only to the channel and not the studs and you'll get good isolation, provided all seams are filled with caulk to make it all air tight.

And yeah, better think about ventillation or plan on opening the door a lot so you don't all suffocate.

Alex
 
Yeah, on that note, I didn't mention that my studio is 1/2 underground, which helped my cause alot. As for ventilation, that is one more thing I will have to take care of. My vents run right through the studio. If the heat or AC is running, I have a noise issue. At a minimum I have to close off the vents. I also keep a fan handy.
 
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