Before I waste my time and money...

[James HE]

I really want to do some kind of treatment in this aluminum box I call a studio. My funds are limited, and I'd like to do some little things, to make some small improvements before I can really afford to do it right.
I have a small control room (that's a whole other story) The "studio" section is about 28' by 22', 12' cielings. Concrete floor, aluminum on steel beams for the walls and cieling. On one side there is the outside wall for the control room and office, particle board, this wall is insulated, it is about 8' high. I have some moveable walls and blankets and curtains that break up the larger space opposite that, making the working space roughly about 22' by 16'. The walls and blankets and stuff do ok in making the room not sound so 'verby. And really the room dosen't sound bad at all, it's kinda like a tent, everthing escapes (including the heat- thank god it's getting warmer!) and knocking back the really ugly high end reflections from the aluminum isn't so hard, really the worst problem is guitar and bass amps making the structure rattle, nasty, nasty, nasty. Not a problem close micing the amps, but doing live stuff, overhead mics really pick that up.

I'm thinking about treating the cieling in someway, hoping that it would do something to tame the rattle, or at least "quiet" down the room a bit... here's my idea.
I'm thinking I'll get some sound board (whatever you want to call it, thatch board... that funky looking stuff) and some insulation. Roll out the insulation on top of the board, then hang the boards on the cieling. I can only really afford to do this over the section over where we play. Would this do anything? I could bolt the boards to the steel beams, or I could suspend them. Which would be better? If I suspended them, I could hang them at different heights, which could be a good thing, plus they'll in no way be permanent.
or should the insulation be facing down? I'd have to really glue the stuff on them and cover them with cloth. I almost don't want to do that cause I'd want to reuse the stuff when I do things the right way (I hope to build a room in a room someday)

Does it sound like a waste of money? I figure I'll get 8 or 10 4 x 8 boards. I think they are about $8 a piece, maybe cheaper, then insulation will run me a bit, depending on the R rating. I think R-11 is about $18 for 40sq. feet, I'd need 8 bags, so that puts me over budget. I'd like do this for under $200...

any ideas? I've posted something similar to this and got no responses I need to do something though. I'm starting to line up some clients, and I don't just want to put them in an aluminum box and say... here it is...

-jhe

 

[OldGrover]

James - I think you need to attach some mass to that aluminum. I think that would tame the rattle better then anything. Essentially, you've got two options as I see it. You can either attempt to prevent sound hitting the aluminum causing it to rattle and prevent the rattle getting back, or you can try to prevent the rattle full stop.

I think if you bolt the soundboard to the ceiling and stuff the gap between the board and the aluminum roof with insulation, you will essentially make them one piece which will definitely cut down the rattling. My only concern is that if the walls are aluminum too - don't they rattle as well?

Comments?

 

[BigKahuna]

I don't think you'll be able to completely solve the problem with what you propose. However, it's a good first step and will probably help reduce rattles from the ceiling. I think what you should do is consider it "step 1" and try to make it nice and airtight. Any insulation you install, though, would be temporary. To really solve this, I think you need to completely isolate from the steel siding ... which means ... room within a room. The plywood would help seal off the exterior bldg ... but your next step should be building a frame for an interior ceiling. Which would be made up of drywall and insulation.
SO, I don't think it would be a complete waste of time or $ ... but it's not a complete solution. Maybe resilient channels might be a good addition to what you already have planned?

Grover brings up a good point ... what do the walls of your place look like? Isn't it bare steel siding there too? If so, any work you may do on the ceiling won't hide the rattles coming from the wall. Also, if that is the case ... you may be better off forgetting about the plywood for now and just putting insulation between the studs on the exterior walls/ceiling to help absorb any rattles or resonance in the siding (as well as the room) and then covering that with fabric. Since you're not concerned with sound leakage at this point ... that may be the most bang for your buck right now. Still not a permanent solution, though.

 

[James HE]

Thanks for the replys guys.
I'm not wanting this to be exactly permanent at all so I may go ahead and try something like this. As far as bolting something into the aluminum in the cieling, I'm scared to try that, I don't want to put holes in the roof for rain to get in. It's a flat cieling otherwise I wouldn't be so worried about it. If I don't stop the rattle, I could live with that, I'll just have to be carefull about tracking.

Instead of hanging something under the beams (thay aren't I beams, they have an odder shape) maybe I can do something like this (see attachment)

As for the walls, they are aluminum siding too, but there is just one beam that goes across. I'll be making tall moveable walls for now, I think that if I can get enough of those, and plus have something on the cieling, I could have a nice tunable room. Maybe... it will still rattle though, but as long as I can control it someway I think it will be a good frst step.

-jhe