soundproofing existing room

[nostick]

My band has moved into a friend's basement. The room is part of a new remodel, and it's not bad. Nice walls, etc. We've shuttered the windows, and things are quiet outside the house. There's a nice, tight door on the room.

Is there anything we can do with the ducts and the recessed lights? Stuffing something in the ducts certainly won't make any difference. My friend is putting plexiglass covers over the recessed lights, which should help a tiny bit.

I told him we should just put up a new layer of wallboard with sound channels and pull the recessed lights into the room, but that's down the road a little. I assume the two ducts in the room are the biggest problem.

Thanks,

nostick

[nostick]

Oh yeah - was also thinking of making a drum riser and trying to isolate it from the floor a little. Any points for that?

[AlexW]

From what I've read, ducts can be isoloated by building an MDF box and attaching it to the ceiling. You'd basically make a sealed, serpentine enclosure with a new outlet and one end, connected to the existing duct outlet in the basement. Essentially, you want the sound to have to travel around and bounce off some walls on it's way out of the studio. You'd line the walls with absorbent material (insulation) faced to keep out particles.

Hopefully someone else can chime in on this.