I'm sure there are countless numbers of similar posts, but as this will likely drag on for a few months as my project comes together, I'd like to give some background information so you know what I'm working with and why I'm doing it.. Skip to the last few paragraphs for my actual question about double/triple leaf construction.
I am a dance music producer working on commercial projects; that is, like many people here, I make music for a living. A few years ago I decided that I could no longer work at home due to the noise I make, and eventually found a city centre office in the middle of various bars and clubs, meaning I can make as much noise as I like. Rent has now got very expensive and I decided that instead of spending lots of money every month, I could spend one big chunk of money and end up with a much nicer, more professional studio environment.
I'm not rich, but after buying a new property I have about £6000 (~$10,000) to invest in the new studio, which will be spent entirely on sound reduction, acoustic treatment and general building. Despite having a limited budget I have the distinct advantage of patience and a willingness to get my hands as dirty as necessary. I have a colleague willing to help me, but unfortunately he hates DIY so I'll be doing the bulk of the thinking and donkey work. I have read through these forums (and many others) back-to-back. I've visited pretty much every related site I could find, including the excellent SAE guides and various generic DIY sites. I also bought a big fat book on advanced DIY topics so I can be confident about getting the basics right. I'm now about 50% confident that I will be able to design and implement the project so that a good degree of sound reduction will be achieved and the whole place won't fall down on me. I know it's going to be damn hard work but I don't care; all I can see is the end result.
The building is in a semi-commercial area; the ground floor (US 1st) is a shop in active use but separated from the upper two floors. The first (US 2nd) floor I intend to use as office space, storage and reception area, so some degree of sound leaking down here won't be a problem. Any noticeable sound leaking down to the shop will be unacceptable and get me kicked out (read: BAD NEWS). The second (US 3rd) floor has two rooms and will hold a main studio with isolated vocal room, plus a smaller project studio. For now I will be concentrating on the larger main studio.
After doing all that reading, having a few good cups of tea (I do have to fulfil my British stereotypes, after all) and thinking I was awfully clever, I drafted up initial plans for the large studio. In the early stages, after learning about all that mass-air-mass business, my idea was to create two isolated floating rooms, one for the control room and the other a vocal booth. The new walls were to be constructed six inches from the existing wall with an insulated 2x4 frame, carefully sealed layer of wallboard, resilient channel, another layer of wallboard then plaster. Being awfully, awfully clever, I thought, 'ooh, if I do that again, won't it increase the sound reduction?', and proceeded to add another six inch gap/frame/wallboard/channel/wallboard construction to the plans. I then read about the whole double/triple leaf thing, resonance and all that jazz, and proceeded to feel awfully stupid. I'm now confused.. help!
a) will I really get better sound reduction out of my floating room construction with just one additional wall, thereby creating a single air gap between the existing walls (all plastered; one outer, two adjoining, one inner)? If properly done, will this give a reduction of, say, 60db, which would be sufficient considering that we normally whack out around 100db in the control room? Should I attach additional sealed layers of plaster to the first leaf (i.e. existing walls) rather than build a second set of walls within the floating room construction (my guess: the latter is stupid)?
b) should a resilient channel be considered in the whole 2/3 leaf situation? Does an extra wallboard layer attached in such a manner count as an extra leaf?
Thanks everyone! I promise that as construction gets underway I'll take lots of pictures and try to keep up to date with problems/successes that may help anyone else considering something similar.
I am a dance music producer working on commercial projects; that is, like many people here, I make music for a living. A few years ago I decided that I could no longer work at home due to the noise I make, and eventually found a city centre office in the middle of various bars and clubs, meaning I can make as much noise as I like. Rent has now got very expensive and I decided that instead of spending lots of money every month, I could spend one big chunk of money and end up with a much nicer, more professional studio environment.
I'm not rich, but after buying a new property I have about £6000 (~$10,000) to invest in the new studio, which will be spent entirely on sound reduction, acoustic treatment and general building. Despite having a limited budget I have the distinct advantage of patience and a willingness to get my hands as dirty as necessary. I have a colleague willing to help me, but unfortunately he hates DIY so I'll be doing the bulk of the thinking and donkey work. I have read through these forums (and many others) back-to-back. I've visited pretty much every related site I could find, including the excellent SAE guides and various generic DIY sites. I also bought a big fat book on advanced DIY topics so I can be confident about getting the basics right. I'm now about 50% confident that I will be able to design and implement the project so that a good degree of sound reduction will be achieved and the whole place won't fall down on me. I know it's going to be damn hard work but I don't care; all I can see is the end result.
The building is in a semi-commercial area; the ground floor (US 1st) is a shop in active use but separated from the upper two floors. The first (US 2nd) floor I intend to use as office space, storage and reception area, so some degree of sound leaking down here won't be a problem. Any noticeable sound leaking down to the shop will be unacceptable and get me kicked out (read: BAD NEWS). The second (US 3rd) floor has two rooms and will hold a main studio with isolated vocal room, plus a smaller project studio. For now I will be concentrating on the larger main studio.
After doing all that reading, having a few good cups of tea (I do have to fulfil my British stereotypes, after all) and thinking I was awfully clever, I drafted up initial plans for the large studio. In the early stages, after learning about all that mass-air-mass business, my idea was to create two isolated floating rooms, one for the control room and the other a vocal booth. The new walls were to be constructed six inches from the existing wall with an insulated 2x4 frame, carefully sealed layer of wallboard, resilient channel, another layer of wallboard then plaster. Being awfully, awfully clever, I thought, 'ooh, if I do that again, won't it increase the sound reduction?', and proceeded to add another six inch gap/frame/wallboard/channel/wallboard construction to the plans. I then read about the whole double/triple leaf thing, resonance and all that jazz, and proceeded to feel awfully stupid. I'm now confused.. help!
a) will I really get better sound reduction out of my floating room construction with just one additional wall, thereby creating a single air gap between the existing walls (all plastered; one outer, two adjoining, one inner)? If properly done, will this give a reduction of, say, 60db, which would be sufficient considering that we normally whack out around 100db in the control room? Should I attach additional sealed layers of plaster to the first leaf (i.e. existing walls) rather than build a second set of walls within the floating room construction (my guess: the latter is stupid)?
b) should a resilient channel be considered in the whole 2/3 leaf situation? Does an extra wallboard layer attached in such a manner count as an extra leaf?
Thanks everyone! I promise that as construction gets underway I'll take lots of pictures and try to keep up to date with problems/successes that may help anyone else considering something similar.
