soundproofing control room

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diablodavo

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hey, I am about to start building a small project studio. I only have one room so I am building a control room as a kind of triangle in the corner with a window on it.

Any advice on soundproofing this room? and also where to get materials cheap I have about £4000 and live in Glasgow, Scotland.

Thanks
 
first off- Triangle- BAD IDEA, that is just like one big bass hole waiting to happen. is there any way you can do it square. If you can go square, make sure none of the walls are paralell to each other.

as for soundproofing...........it really depends on how much you need this soundproofed. Are you trying to get it so that drums wont leak out? just acoustic instruments?..........please explain

There are going to be some important points when you are doing these walls. First, only two leaves, or layers of mass. This will be your drywall on either side. Next, you need as much airspace as possible between your two leaves of mass. this is usually done by making two walls, completley seperate.

assuming you are not going to decouple the entire studio, your best bet would be to go with double wall construction. Two or three layers of sheetrock on each side. Make sure they are different total thicknesses on each side. this will prevent from resonant frequencies getting thru. If you are not going to float the walls, which you probably cant do with only 4000 euros, you are going to want to use resilliant channel, to decouple the drywall from the studs. how much space do you have to work with.....

as you can see, this is a very complicated and expensive process, and I have only explained about 5 percent of what you are going to need to know.. If this sounds like something you are willing to undertake, please respond here, and we will be glad to help you get started and finish.
 
notbradsohner said:
If you can go square, make sure none of the walls are paralell to each other.
Click to expand...

I may just be a dumbass, but isnt that impossible?

As far as i remember the definition of a square is a shape with two sets of parrallel lines that meet at 90 degree angels. or somethin like that.
 
probably should have rephrased that...........

if you can have 4 walls, make sure none of them are paralell
 
OK thanks for the reply...It is not a triangle as such. Imagine a square in the corner of the room...now imagine flattening the outmost corner of the square to put in a window, giving me a kind of diamond shape...still a bass trap?

As for your other descriptions of coupling etc you will have to explain in stupid speak as I am dumb....

My room is about 10m by 8m.

In my live area i will have drums etc so they are a major consideration.

We were going to make two walls all the way round with about 6in inbetween the fill with something or other and float the floor....we were going to use rubber mats on the inside of one of the walls...the floor was going to float on wooded beams with rubber mats and filled with rockwool.

are we going in the right direction?

ps £4000 is just under double e4000
 
the floating floor is a good idea, but think of it this way. You basically want to make a room within a room, so you need to float the entire floor, then build the walls on top of that floated floor.

also, You want to make sure that you are not using the existing wall as another layer of mass, or leaf. If you build a standard wall, you will have drywall, stud, drywall, airspace, existing wall. this will create a three leaf system, and become a problem.

as for coupling.............this is basically unattaching the entire studio from everything else. You need to make sure that nothing is touching the existing structure, becasue that will pass vibrations thru the walls, ceiling, floor, and spread all over the place. you basically want to build a room floating on air inside your existing room. since we can do that everywhere but the floor, neoprene pads are your best bet to hold up the studio and stop vibrations going into the floor.

with me so far?
 
yeah thanks...the material i am buying for lining the inner walls and ceiling has a lead centre it's expensive but looks really good.
I will try my best to make a decoupled room in the centre but I don't know if I can afford to insulate the back two walls till maybe somepoint latter in the year.
The floor will float on rubber door stops, then have a rubber insulating mat on top then carpet.

Thanks for your help....
 
yeah thanks...the material i am buying for lining the inner walls and ceiling has a lead centre it's expensive but looks really good.

What kind of material are you referring too? Quietrock is the only one I know of that has a metal sheet embedded between two layers of gypsum, but its not lead. :confused: If it is this product, what are you paying per sheet? Just curious.


The floor will float on rubber door stops, then have a rubber insulating mat on top then carpet.
Click to expand...
One word to the wise diablodavo. Notbradsohner has the right idea here, but let me elaborate a bit. First off, to "truly" float a floor is not as easy as it sounds. You can waste a lot of time and effort and actually end up with a worse Low frequency transmission then had you done nothing. It is a reality, that whatever product you use to "float" the room MUST be compressed within a certain range. This range can only be determined by calculating the total weight of the room, the equipment, and the occupants. This calculation then must be applied per square inch of material according to the "compression value" of the material. Not an easy process. Nor legal in some areas without approval from the building inspection department. Which brings up other issues.

Any time you add, alter or change habitable spaces in a building, the process is USUALLY, and let me emphasize that, USUALLY governed by building codes. This means that you must get a building permit, which guarantees an inspection. This process is to guarantee your construction meets the minimum requirments set within the codes. This saves LIVES.
Should you proceed without at LEAST checking with your local Building Inspection Department, you set yourself up for possible fines, loss of insurance and loss of your investment as you could possibly be required to
REMOVE all of it.

Second, the weight of a floating room is nothing to laugh about. I personally
started a floating room, which I only achieved the floating floor. Like a dummy, I built this in a rental, which I had to vacate before finishing. Upon removal of the floating floor, much to my suprise, the weight of this floor alone had cracked the concrete slab that supported it. Not only did I have to have it repaired, I was turned into the building inspection department for failure to get a permit. I won't go into detail, but suffice to say, it was not pleasant.

Not only that, weight that is distributed in this manner places point loads on the structure below. If this is on an upper floor, I suggest you get professional structural consultation BEFORE you do this. Otherwise you risk possible collapse of the supporting structure.

IF you don't believe these scenarios, I also suggest you read these. Then read ALL the "stickys" at this site. You might then begin to understand the depth of detail and understanding that is required for this "floating room" to succeed. That is unless you have time and money to waste.
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2921&highlight=
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3528&highlight=
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3392

fitZ :)
 
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