Advice on materials for building a studio

[SuperSpry]

I'm having my house built, and one room is going to be my studio. I have a drum set, amplified guitars and basses, violin, and a variety of other instruments, and I intent to record in this room as well.

My goals for the room are twofold: (1) Minimize the amount of sound people here coming out of the room (from both outside the house and other rooms within the house, and (2) Increase the quality of sound within the room. I'm more of a dabbler than a serious musician, so if I had to skimp on one of those two things, it would be the sound quality within the room. But it's very important that people hear as little as possible coming from my studio.

Additional information: The house is one story and has neighbors about 10 feet away on two sides. It's in a subdivision. Also, I'm rolling the costs into my home loan, so I can probably justify putting somewhere around $3-5k into this.

So I've done some research about various products (as well as the differences between sound proofing (isolation) and sound absorbing), but now my head is swimming trying to figure out which combination of things to go with. Keep in mind that since the house is being built, I have the opportunity to change pretty much anything (budget allowing, of course )

Here are my thoughts on the five major components so far, along with questions about them. Any help is greatly appreciated!

1.) Ceiling

No second story, so maybe not critical to add any insulation here?

2.) Floor

As with the ceiling, no bottom floor, so no change needed in terms of insulation? Nice thick carpet would be good, though.

3.) Walls

What type of insulation should I use? What about products like Green Glue? What about curtains vs. pads? Any other advice here?

4.) Door

Solid-core, and maybe one of those automatic door bottoms that seal the gap between the floor and door?

5.) Window

Double-paned window, add some kind of acoustic sealant?

 

[bongoboy]

The only thing that stops sound is mass. Is this room in a basement, or on ground level? If on ground level, then you're looking at basically building a room within a room. Double walls, floor and ceiling, with a dense acoustic barrier on both sides of inner and outer walls, floor and ceiling, one heck of a heavy, solid well sealed door. Forget about windows. Even in a basement, the same would pretty much hold true. I can't see getting the results you want for 5K. Neighbors 10' away will hear drums no matter what you do. Your money may be better spent on an electronic drum kit, appropriate interface to accept the number of DI's (for electric guitars and bass) and mics you may need (I don't think violin and acoustic guitars will bug the neighbors too much) and headphones.

 

[cobaltaudio]

soundproofing is hard.
I know it's not all that helpful but the easiest solution is to start somewhere quiet. If you can choose a room further away from the neighbors that'll help, and actually a basement is a good idea as you have a lot of mass in the earth surrounding the walls.
Otherwise, the "room within a room" solution is the only way to significantly reduce sound leaking in/out, but that's going to be a lot of $$. It's much easier to acoustically treat a horrible sounding room than to isolate a noisy one.

A prime example is the window. Even if you make it airtight (which it probably is already) glass isn't sound absorbent, yes double glazed windows are better but there still isn't much mass to absorb/reflect the sound enough to stop it transferring through the window.

Your construction manager is the person to speak to if you're serious about paying the $.

 

[mjbphotos]

$3-5K is not going to get you a soundproofed room. read all the threads over in the 'studio building' section of these forums.