soundproofing and studio design help...

[wpod]

Well my gal and I have decided to put our house on the market with plans to build a new dwelling a bit further from town on several wooded acres...which gives me the option of modifying/designing/implementing my home office work space into a studio/home_office !!!

Planning on 250-300 sq ft of 'office space' to be located on a slab floor at grade level with the living space on the uppper floor- so any hints on sound proofing? Any do's or don'ts to consider while designing? Options I should consider? Mistakes to avoid...etc

This hopefully will allow for low to mid volume playing with drum kit without blowing my gal out of the house ...Looking for a winter design with spring/summer ground breaking!!!

 

[VSpaceBoy]

You have no choice, you must read through this link

http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html


then take a look through this board

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

Without question, some of the best information you can find in the subject.

SpaceBoy

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Quit while your ahead!!

Any do's or don'ts to consider while designing? Options I should consider? Mistakes to avoid...etc

(just kiddin with ya) Seriously, VSpaceBoy is right. Look at Knightflys forum at John Sayers site too for the real stuff on construction. Great stuff. Johns studio design insight is fabulous. And then there is Alton Everests books on acoustics. And Yahoo's acoustic group. And the Owens Corning website. And Ethan Winers site on bass traps. How much time you got?
You can find the links by searching here on the forum(I havn't got them handy but I'll come back)
And here too! Read the last 3 years of this forum and you will really be pretty well informed. Ha! Welcome to the wonderful world of homerecording.(those should cover a good portion of the best stuff I've seen though)
fitZ

 

[Todzilla]

Wpod,

Congratulations on your cool step up!

I had the very same challenge a couple years ago - 3 acres, home for family, studio lust. I spoke with many designers, architects, builders trying to get the ideal designs for studio/house combo.

The builder we ultimately went with advised me to make a separate structure for the studio. His logic was, the effort needed to sonically decouple the studio from the rest of the house would ultimately cost more than any savings normally realized by putting them under the same roof.

He was absolutely right. If you put studio and house in same structure, you will inevitably invest a lot into decoupling, significant mass, separate HVAC (or at least funky ducting schemes) etc...

Of course, one issue I had was that I didn't want my studio so separate that I'd be "leaving the family" when I went to play. Ultimately, my builder built me a 16' X 23' X 10'/14' cathedral season structure out of cinder blocks. It is 50 feet from the house, with a nice visual connection between the mix position and the kitchen/family room.

http://www.toddejones.com/hugebuilding.html shows some of it.

Because he built it when he was building the rest of the house, it was very affordable. I have done all the interior work, but that's been kind of fun anyway.

John Sayers is a great resource. Also, but the Everest books. They're an invaluable resource.