Building home studio

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evaporateddwarf

New member
I'm in the process of building a studio in my garage (or rather, my parents are paying for it, and me and my dad are building it). We're putting up heavy cotton insulation, which is supposed to be a lot better than rock insulation, sound clips and the metal sheets that go across the wall, then putting tape on those, then we're putting a sheet of foam glued to soundboard, then vinyl and finally sheetrock. We're adding all the minor things like sound caulking and lead tape along the way.

My real question is acoustics. My dad's a contractor so he's good with building, and has read up a lot and talked to people about soundproofing, but we haven't gotten much into working out the acoustics. I was wondering what types of foam and soundboards etc. and stuff that you guys recomend. The studio is for my band and myself. I've already bought enough for decent quality recordings, and am slowly gonna add on as money permits, because I pay for all of my equipment. It's mainly going to be a practice room, but then when the band records, or i record my own stuff and record other people a couple times a month.
 
703 rigid fiberglass for sound treatment. isolating the place would call for double sheetrocking and floating floors and a bunch of other stuff that i have no idea about.
 
Don't forget the celing. A lot of sound gets in and out through that often neglected overhead space. Sound transmission through garage doors is impossible to stop, all you can do is block them off.
 
What is the room shaped like? how big is it?
How tall are the ceilings?
What is the floor going to be?
Too much we dont know to make reasonable suggestions.

Tom
 
RICK FITZPATRICK said:
Do yourself a BIG favor and read this in its ENTIRETY. You'll be glad you did. I don't care if your dad has been a contractor for 100 years, your PROPOSED wall assembly is a waste of time and money. Not to mention failure if HIGH SPL sound is to be generated in this space.


http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2921&sid=105678429c029188b869b39b2d2b2c13
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Evaporate,

Listen to what Fitz is telling you - I have over 2 billion dollars in construction under my belt - I don't know who your dad has spoken with - but they obviously do not have a clue what they are talking about.

Isolating wall assemblies are created using decoupling and mass. The system you're talking about is a waste of money and will not work in the end.

Have your dad give me a call or buy some books on acoustic isolation if he wants to really understand.

Sincerely,

Rod
 
Have your dad give me a call or buy some books on acoustic isolation if he wants to really understand.
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Buy RODS book. It is the "bible". He is THE professional studio builder/engineer. :D You can get it through Amazon.com I believe. :)
 
I'll read that link.

We are doing everything that i said we're doing to the walls to the ceiling as well. The room is 24'x24' with 8'9" (I believe) ceilings. We are planning on floating the floors as well. I know you're supposed to put atleast two layers of sheetrock in the inner shell of the room, but the foam glued to the soundpanel was supposed to be as good as three as far as STC ratings are concerned. We're closing off the garage door, creating an inner panel disconnected from the door. I can tell you guys the exact materials given instead of the obviously loose descriptions I gave, but we've talked to a few sound technicians and companies, and with all we're doing, we're supposed to have a STC rating of almost 100. Obviously we know it's not going to be 100% soundproof, but from everything we've been told by the various people we've talked to, it should be soundproofed pretty well.
 
evaporateddwarf said:
I can tell you guys the exact materials given instead of the obviously loose descriptions I gave, but we've talked to a few sound technicians and companies, and with all we're doing, we're supposed to have a STC rating of almost 100. Obviously we know it's not going to be 100% soundproof, but from everything we've been told by the various people we've talked to, it should be soundproofed pretty well.
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That is friggen insane -

First of all - STC ratings have nothing to do with sound isolation for music. They are a weighted average designed to indicate the ability of a wall to stop the passage of human speech - and therefor deal specifically with the frequency range of the average human voice...... (trust me - that means bass guitars and drums (bass and toms) aren't covered).

So anyone telling you that you will acheive that rating is blowing smoke up your arse - because otherwise you wouldn't be spouting things like that here.

Second - perhaps you should explain exactly what your entire construction assemblies are - because what you have explained so far would not come anywhere near an STC rating of 100.

listen kid - I am not attacking your dad - he sounds like a great guy to be helping you out and all - but something is either wrong with your understanding of what he is really doing or with everything that people have told him would work - because believe me when I tell you that what you have described so far is impossible - you wouldn't even begin to isolate a studio with that construction.

And as far as a floating floor goes - if you can't get it's center frequency down to around 10 Hz - then all your doing is building a drum head that will not only not isolate effectively - but will also amplify whatever tone is at it's center frequency.

Yes - I did say amplify - the same way a drum does...........

So please fill me in on exactly what you are doing step by step - better even woiuld be to have your dad do it so nothing could possibly get lost in the translation. Seeing as he's experienced in construction I should be able to communicate with him.

UNderstand this - 99% of the people in construction today do not have a single clue when it comes to isolation - that includes architects - drywall installers - framers - fill in the rest of the list any way you want........

Sincerely,

Rod
 
Like Rod is trying to tell you, structural integrety, insulation, and the audio properties of a building are very different things. No one is putting you or your dad down, we are trying to help you understand a part of sound transmission that the average builder dosen't. Even most architects seem to equate insulation properties to sound transmission. Four inch thick foam will keep out the heat or cold but it wont even put a damper on a bass guitar.
 
Listen to Rod. Trust me. I didn't. There's basicaly no diffrence from the open basement to what I like to call my studio for the rest of my house (but it doesnt really effect me at all ;) ), although the control room has pretty decent isolation. DON'T NEGLECT THE CELEING. And R-13 does very, very little without serious mass/diffrent mass. Thin metal is not going to have the mass you need, it also could, if not properly secured, resonate with some notes.

Honestly, if you're going to throw a lot of money at this, throw some more and get it designed or rip off another design that has proven to be successful.


-jeffrey
 
True Facts verses personal opinions can be very different.

evaporateddwarf said:
I'll read that link.
from everything we've been told by the various people we've talked to, it should be soundproofed pretty well.
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Listen to the folks here on the forum...........they are up on this stuff.........OR just reply with that old saying that keeps people uninformed, which is........." Don't confuse me with the FACTS, my mind is made up".
 
I'll check the stuff out, and like i said, we are putting everything on the ceiling as well, and every single wall is decoupled from the studs and from the other walls, as well as from the ceiling and floor.

P.S. We're putting up R-19 not R-13.

P.P.S. If my dad were to talk to you Rod, what's your number or whatever for him to contact you.
 
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evaporateddwarf said:
I'll check the stuff out, and like i said, we are putting everything on the ceiling as well, and every single wall is decoupled from the studs and from the other walls, as well as from the ceiling and floor.

P.S. We're putting up R-19 not R-13.

P.P.S. If my dad were to talk to you Rod, what's your number or whatever for him to contact you.
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My phone is 860-564-1975 - call in the evenings after 6:00 EST

R-19 won't really gain you anything over R-13

The foam insulation doesn't have the value of even 1/4" drywall.

Your best bang for the buck is drywall - up to 2 layers - then green glue between 2 layers gives you the value of about 4 layers of drywall -

you won't get anywhere near an STC-100 with 7 layers of 5/8" drywall - with equal mass on the outside. Remember - an STC rating is an averaged decibel reduction in the range of the human voice.

Mass equal to 2 layers of drywall on both wall surfaces (with isolated walls) is only good for about an STC-63.......... and then every doubling of mass is good for roughly a 6db increase in isolation (this is known as Mass Law).

Thus add 2 sheets to each face for STC-69 (although you get a big boost in bass isolation with this)

8 sheets on each face is then STC-75 - and this is one hugh isolating wall.

Remember - the sound of leaves rustling is soft backgroung noise - and that's about 30dB - plus - unless you are directly below bedrooms - if you can stop flanking through the floor itself - you also gain value through existing walls in the house.

16 sheets on each face is then STC-
 
Also, just for clarification, we aren't trying to get this thing so its soundproof in and out. We basically want it so that inside the room you won't hear any average daily noise coming from outside, and from outside the room you'll just hear muffled noise coming from inside that won't be too disturbing to watch tv or be sitting around.
 
evaporateddwarf said:
Also, just for clarification, we aren't trying to get this thing so its soundproof in and out. We basically want it so that inside the room you won't hear any average daily noise coming from outside, and from outside the room you'll just hear muffled noise coming from inside that won't be too disturbing to watch tv or be sitting around.
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Well then everything begins with picking yourself up a sound meter - and then setting up your band and measuring what's making it through upstairs - once you know that we can tell you what you have to get to to make it work.

By the way - explain to us exactly what your existing construction is.

Rod
 
Right now the only thing that is up on the walls is the insulation. We did all the electrical for the entire thing, and we just have the materials (the vinyl, seperation clips, the metal strips and the soundfoam, we haven't purchased the soundboard or sheetrock yet, and obviously none of the acoustical treatment) sitting at our warehouse or in the garage. So in otherwords, the garage is a skeleton and partially insulated and all the caulking to cover up any holes or possible leakage areas.
 
evaporateddwarf said:
Right now the only thing that is up on the walls is the insulation. We did all the electrical for the entire thing, and we just have the materials (the vinyl, seperation clips, the metal strips and the soundfoam, we haven't purchased the soundboard or sheetrock yet, and obviously none of the acoustical treatment) sitting at our warehouse or in the garage. So in otherwords, the garage is a skeleton and partially insulated and all the caulking to cover up any holes or possible leakage areas.
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Nope - not hat I mean - explain to us exactly from the outside to the inside the construction

like this

vinyl siding - sheathing 1/2"osb - 2x4 studs 16" o.c. 1" air space - 2x4 studs 24" o.c.

now replace that with your conditions.

Rod
 
A lot of people think that STCs are additive, that you add a 5 STC material to a 40 STC wall and you get a 45 STC wall. Absolutely not so. You can take the exact same materials and depending on how you construct them get a massive difference in STC, and then blow it entirely by a badly done wall outlet. I think that the guys talking about 100 STCs are trying to sell stuff.
 
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