Can this space be recordable?

[travelin travis]

I'm trying to figure out how to make my apartment usable for tracking and mixing. It's a single apartment above a business. The space downstairs isn't used very frequently and I don't have any close neighbors so I can get loud as hell here. I don't have to worry about letting sound out but my problem is traffic noise getting in. If I could just reduce it enough to make this place usable for recording, that would be great. I'm not looking for a miracle (may need one though).

I'm a bachelor and all space is wide open for rearranging. I don't care if my living room is setup in a bedroom, my bedroom is setup in the dining room, whatever. About the only other people that visit here are musicians and I'm sure they won't mind a disfunctional apartment.

My apartment is upstairs, overseeing a fairly busy street. I'm thinking that maybe I could build some 2 x 4 frames stuffed with insulation and covered with plywood or something to seal off the windows. I do rent so I would have to figure out a temporary solution without causing serious damage to the walls. I could fill in any holes when I move and the place will be in need of painting anyway for the next tenant. I have been here a couple of years and plan to stay for awhile because the place is so damn cheap. I would talk to my landlord before installing anything over the windows.

If some how I could cut down some of the traffic noise, the next problem would be to deaden some space for tracking and mixing. These old plaster walls seem to be pretty reflective. The ceiling is 8 ft. high. The bedrooms, living room, and hall spaces are carpeted and the rest is resilient flooring.

Is this space completely hopeless? I attatched a drawing of the place with any major objects that might have to be rearranged. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.

Oh, I will be recording guitar, bass, acoustic guitar, vocals, and if at all possible, drums.

 

[Deluks]

I reckon you could 2x4 every wall in the spare bedroom, and bung a couple sheets of plasterboard on there, will give you a basic recording space for the drums at least and should be pretty cheap. If you build carefully, the 4 inner walls could be freestanding, so wouldn't need fixing to the walls or floor, so could be easily taken down when you move out. Make sure the frame is up on all sides though before adding the plasterboard.

Insulation between the frames is strongly recommended, this will probably double the cost though, stick with 50mm rockwool/semi-rigid fibreglass or similar and it shouldn't break the bank.

Also, I wouldn't totally seal the windows, leave a gap in the studwork and make a seperate rockwool/plasterboard 'plug' that can be taken out when you need to open the windows, which you will need to do after a decent drum session!

 

[mshilarious]

How quiet is it in the bedroom with the bed? Maybe swap bedrooms so you record further from the street.

 

[apl]

Ethan's studio is all one room.

 

[travelin travis]

The bedroom which I use, is the quitest room besides the bathroom. It's not that quiet though and it has a window A/C unit, so it might be hard to kill the noise that is getting in. I'm sure any solution I come up with for this place is gonna be ghetto-ized.

For some isolation from the traffic, I'm thinking of building some panels to cover the windows in the living room, the entrance, and the kitchen. I'll have to figure up the cost and see if it is worth risking. The window in the living room is pretty big, 4 x 9. The one in the entrance is 3 x 4 and the one in the kitchen is 3 x 3. I was thinking of building frames out of 2 x 4's that would go around the window trim, filling them with rockwool, and covering with drywall. I'm not sure how effective this would be though and I would be risking the material cost.

The living room and dining area make up the biggest part of the apartment so I figure it would be the best area to use. I'm not sure with all the corners in this area though. Would I be better off using one or both of the bedrooms? If I built some free standing walls in one of the bedrooms, like Deluks suggested, the room would be reduced to roughly 8 1/2 by 10 1/2 ft, if a 4" airgap was left between the free standing walls and the existing walls. How effective would freestanding walls be for traffic isolation? Would I be able to treat a room this small for recording drums, without spending a fortune?

This stuff can get to be a bit of a nightmare.......

 

[travelin travis]

btw, ethan's studio is one room, but a big room with angled walls and ceiling.