single room homestudio

[daytripper]

i have recently bought a nice, big house, which has enough room for me to record, study and make some rehearsals, although i am hoping for a soundproof room, i reckon it is not possible, but still i am willing to give my best. I have been reading and talking to people I know for the past two months about home studio construction, so i can get some advice and perhaps learn something from the errors of others. I will be playing keyboards, acoustic/electric guitar, bass, and some drums. It might sound impossible to have all that instruments inside the small room, but I have plenty of ideas for storage that i am willing to share. It will not serve for loud rehearsals, as in the sense that i have 3 or 4 persons playing heavy metal inside - just two persons at the most, playing mainly acoustical stuff. The drumset will be custom made, with thin and shallow shells, which produce little volume and big tone.
The room is 2,68 x 4,22 x 2,95 meter (8,9 x 13,7 x 9,5 feet), and the height is bigger than the width. I don't have a deadline or a defined timeframe, as i am rebuilding the wiring of the entire house, and then i will do the plumbing, so I have enough time for now for starting to draw the layout of everything.
It seems to me that the entire layout of the studio will be set by the monitors - and it also seems pretty consensual that the monitors should be placed pointing to the farthest wall possible, so I have a problem there...as you can see in the picture, I have a door and a big window in those walls. Can anyone point me in the right direction ?



Thank you

 

[jhbrandt]

Face the window. Have the speakers point at the door wall.

Cheers,
John

 

[daytripper]

Hello, John, and thank you. Since that problem has been solved, I would like to adress my next question...

The main problem is that I have to soundproof the room by 40 dB, give or take. Ignoring the sound inside the room, what should be the recommended thickness of the wall for achieving that number ? I already have the door and window problem solved (in theory). I know that the room will have poor acoustics for recording with that size, and will be very problematic to achieve optimal recordings, but it is the biggest room that i have to spare in the house and i have no other choice. I am willing to sacrifice some real estate to have those 40dB of isolation.

 

[jhbrandt]

Isolation

Day,

Please see attached pages from ir761... There are a few ways to accomplish STC40 but they depend on your existing construction. These pages will give you an idea of what is required. More research is probably required. You can get a copy of the document from my publications page.
Remember that acoustics is counter-intuitive and if one thing is certain about acoustics, it is that if anything seems obvious it is probably wrong...

Cheers,
John