Attic room studio help/advice

[Eu4ric]

Hi folks,
I am a new member and I am looking forward to reading all the threads and discussions etc.
I am in the process of building a new studio in my home, I am not going to be moving any rafters or doing structural work to anything, so effectively my studio space is going to be 1 long triangle. I am sure this is not ideal, so, with that in mind, how can I make it (A) as sound proof as possible, as my neighbours were able to hear the joiner as clear as day on his mobile phone while he was laying the new floor down in the attic & (B) how do I also make it sound as well as it can accousticlly for me when producing my music.
I need it soundproof as much as possible so my neighbour isn't annoyed, it's a must, I also want it to sound as good as it can. Should I use ply board to create walls on the rafters but back them with a pocket of air and then a layer of rock wool behind the ply on the outside area of the studio space, and should I then use acoustic foam to completely cover the inner part of the walls (again, it will be staying in the triangular shape). I will not be making the attic studio shorter, I will be using the entire length.
For context my house is a newly bought new build but of a standard layout (slightly larger in size than the average council or housing executive House, 3 bedroom, living room and kitchen style house. I hope for information that is sure to help, not a guess, folks. I can't afford to fund guess work lol.

 

[Mickster]

Hi....we could use some room dimensions with locations of doors and windows....etc. It's a triangle?? Some details about flooring....walls....ceiling materials is also helpful. As for sound proofing so your neighbor is not annoyed or bothered........well....that won't be easy and is likely to require custom modifications you may not be ok with. Let's get more details. What instruments will you be recording? Have you done any recording previous to now? What speakers / monitors....etc...etc.

Mick

 

[Folkcafe]

A is likely where reality vs expectations is going to bring disappointment. Typical light construction doesn't help with isolation. So it's a numbers game of simply how much noise you going to make vs how much it needs to be attenuated. Big difference between a drummer and acoustic guitar player. How close is the neighbor and so forth. Sound proofing is about isolation and attenuation. How hard the goal depends on frequencies, distance and levels.

B is another issue. I've made my attic studio work for a lot of years but am redoing it now. Best advice I got was that empirical measurements beats theoretical. There are no tools available today that will model anything other than a box shaped room. So learn how to do acoustic measurements. For low bass, ignoring the angled walls will get you close using the modeling tools but the modes sources are often harder to pinpoint down. I took a methodical approach where I measured all the modes with the room empty. I then built as much bass trapping into the short walls as possible. Mostly unusable space anyway. At each step, I compared new measurements to my baseline acoustic measurements. Added a ceiling cloud next and repeat measurements. The measurements will also indicate the size of the problems. Work from the bottom up, meaning low bass first. Mine took a lot of treatment to get a +/-2db in the bass and even then, I have a -4db floor bounce null at 110Hz. I could fix it with a deeper cloud but I am not willing to give up more ceiling height. I used REW software with a cheap omni measurement mic. Great tool but it is often disheartening to see how bad things really are.

Listening position is among one of the challenges. The knee wall before the angled ceiling tends to be right at listening height. Effectively putting the monitor up against one of these walls is like placing it in a corner. It will amplify bass frequencies but not linearly. A lot will depend of front or rear port and port tuning. Moving the monitors out will have exaggerated SBIR (Speaker Boundary Interference Response) due to the ceiling angles. If you can get it to work along one of the end walls, I'd start there. Each way has its issues.

 

[breserlal]

I was reading about RFZ, and I thought I could go by making 4”/6” Rockwool panels (with a 2” air gap), and treat side walls (attached on wall left, and with a stand on the right, or hung on the ceiling), and on top of the mixing position in the ceiling. And see whats changing and move on from there.

 

[breserlal]

I was reading about RFZ, and I thought I could go by making 4”/6” Rockwool panels (with a 2” air gap), and treat side walls (attached on wall left, and with a stand on the right, or hung on the ceiling), and on top of the mixing position in the ceiling. And see whats changing and move on from there. 192.168.100.1 192.168.1.1

Maybe some diffusion on top of the white wall there is on the back, the one that is 130 cm high?

 

[mbsmike]

Soundproofing can be a challenge. I was somewhat fortunate that I was able to "build" the studio when we rebuilt our house after a total loss fire. So, as far as I remember they heavily insulted all walls and then added another layer of drywall with an air gap (room within a room). Definitely cuts down on noise exiting and entering the room but not soundproof by any means. If the neighbor mow his lawn between our houses that will definitely mess up a recording.

Acoustically I took the easy route. I send Sweetwater a drawing of my room and they had the manufacturer whom they sell their acoustic products design what I needed for treatment of my specific room. I've been VERY happy with the results. Hopefully they still provide this service.

 

[Papanate]

I am in the process of building a new studio in my home, I am not going to be moving any rafters or doing structural work to anything, so effectively my studio space is going to be 1 long triangle. I am sure this is not ideal, so, with that in mind, how can I make it (A) as sound proof as possible,

Mass stops sound - as such you’d have to build a room within the room. And you are going to need air in there - you have to build a quiet HVAC System -

Should I use ply board to create walls on the rafters but back them with a pocket of air and then a layer of rock wool behind the ply on the outside area of the studio space, and should I then use acoustic foam to completely cover the inner part of the walls (again, it will be staying in the triangular shape). I will not be making the attic studio shorter, I will be using the entire length.
For context my house is a newly bought new build but of a standard layout (slightly larger in size than the average council or housing executive House, 3 bedroom, living room and kitchen style house. I hope for information that is sure to help, not a guess, folks. I can't afford to fund guess work lol.

Sound Proofing is a huge project - but easy to do - so you build your walls so they offset , nothing parallel - and you’ll have to build at least 2 walls within.