Soundproofing.....

M

Mip

New member
I'm thinking of building a studio. I aim to use it for my own band, and to record other bands. I have a few questions about soundproofing.
I plan to build a studio with a separate control room. Should I soundproof both rooms? Do I need the soundproofing to stop sounds from getting in, sounds from getting out, or both? Is there any easy way to have removable soundproofing, because the area where the studio is going has been flooded before (but is most likely a one-time thing, happened about 50 years ago I think).
Which is the best way to pass leads from the control room to the main room, without letting too much sound through?
I know you can have little holes for cables, etc., but I thought maybe have a little flap of rubber, or carpet hanging over a slot, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, thanks in advance.
 
Thanks...

I've been to your site before, so I visited it again, and now I know where i'm headed. Thanks. Excellent site.
 
Soundproofing is not as difficult as people thing. If you can hang sheetrock, and use nails, you can build a nice console room and a variety of sound booths.

I went extreme, and I'll tell you about it at the end. But for the average home studio, you don't need to go as far as I did.

Ceilings - if its a basement studio, and there are rafters exposed, fill them with insulation. A friend of mine put up recycled pink-panther insulation that was pulled from the rest of his house when he redid the insulation, at no cost. He stapled cardboard strips between the rafters to hold the insulation up, before he sheetrocked over it.

Carpet is a good sound absorbing material, and in your console room, feel free to carpet anything and everything, if you in fact like a "dead" room. I used "corporate" carpet on the floor since its a high wear area (chair wheels), and plus carpet on the walls and ceiling.

If you are worried about sound reflection in any room, whether your console room, sound booths, or drum kit room, make the rooms non-square. This way, and reflections are cancelled out quickly due to the odd shape of the room. Trapazoid rooms seem to work well for me. We're talking a 5 or 10 degree shift from parallel, nothing too extreme.

For my studio, I did all of the above, plus the floor was soundproofed as well. Since mine's in a basement, I placed 1/4" rubber sheets along the floor, gluing it down. Then, pored 2" of concrete on top of that. Then, padded, then carpeted. There are no spots in my studio, regardless of room, that has any noticable reflection. Any reverb must be added by outboard effects (TC Electronics in my case).

For acoustic instruments, like piano, horns, and woodwinds, some people prefer a more acoustic setting, thus wooden walls (pine or other material paneling) might be suitable, depending on your tastes. Me, I like dead rooms for consistancy.

Hope I helped.
 
I put rockwool into the cavitys in my walls which works quite well. For a temporary solution it often helps to hang old curtains or sheets on the wall or stick on foam. This is also removable. If it was me I would go with the first method.
 
Yep, I would agree, rock wool is an excellent insulator. But, on the cheap, almost anything that doesn't have a flat surface and is physically soft, like curtains, blankets, etc, work very well. :) Like you said!
 
carpet??? carpet???

Oh wait wait wait!! Don't go putting carpet on the walls now! That's just about the last thing you want to do. If you want to use carpet as a sound barrier the only place I would use it would be before any layers of drywall or plywood/particle wood go up. If you put carpet on the walls you're going to have a very ringy room. The carpet isn't going to absorb the right frequencies. It won't absorb any bass frequencies, but it will do a decent job on the very high ones. If you read anything from any credible company who has done a good amount of research you can read that every single one of them strongly advise against carpet on the walls and ceilings. For some reason people think that quality studio foam is this untouchable product that they don't deserve, and then they get carpet for the walls, that's probably more expensive than if they just did it right. Get your walls strong enough that they don't vibrate and go crazy when loud music is being played, that's the biggest battle right there. After that you put 75% coverage of studio foam on your walls and you'll be TONS better off than putting carpet on the walls.
I think it should be manditory for everyone who is going to build a recording studio that he reads Acoustics 101 from http://www.auralex.com. And John's site of course :) And you should check out http://www.greysfiles.com/Studio/Index.htm if you don't think I, or John, know what we're talking about.
I'm building a home studio. I'm doing Home Recording. I'm not rich. In fact I don't much money at all because of buying this house, I just do my research and use my resources to the best my ability. Don't make excuses for yourself to cut corners... don't let yourself say, "oh, it's only home recording..."

Later,
-Brian
 
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