Stoping sound

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track pusha

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Hey everybody
I'm going to be building a 5 by 8 vocal booth,and I need to know what kind of material or insulation I need to use to stop sound from entering the booth. I read at another site that you should use R-13 insulation is this correct.
 
Not even CLOSE - the only thing that will stop sound is MASS - stuff like MDF, particle board, gypsum wallboard - for decent isolation, you want two separate leaves of mass (2 layers of drywall on one side of a frame = one leaf - 1 layer of drywall on EACH side of a frame = 2 leaves. 2 layers of drywall on EACH side of a frame = 2 leaves, each of which is 2 layers. This level is starting to actually REDUCE the sound enough to work with; even better - staggered stud frames, with two layers of drywall each side of the frame. Even better than that - two SEPARATE frames, each with 2 layers of drywall on only ONE side of each frame, with a wide air gap that's filled with insulation.

Just insulation by itself won't keep ANY sound from getting in or out - it only SOUNDS like it because it cuts the high frequencies a bit, so it sounds "muffled". But insulation DOES help a mass-air-mass partition (described above) get better isolation.

Hope that helps - BTW, if you want your booth to sound better inside after it's built, you should use INSIDE dimensions that are odd #'s of feet; for example, 3,5,7 are better dim's than 4,6,8; and 5,7,9 are better dimensions than 6,8,10. The odd numbers just make the room modes interleave better, so there's less treatment necessary for the room to sound good... Steve
 
ok, Thanks you for the reply, I just have one more question, when you say add a layer of leaves you mean mdf right?
 
track pusha said:
ok, Thanks you for the reply, I just have one more question, when you say add a layer of leaves you mean mdf right?
Click to expand...
Exactly what the leaf is made of (MDF, gypusm Board, concrete board) is not as important as its mass. (Presuming of course it is well sealed and one leaf is disconnected.
 
A few definitions, in the interest of communication -

Wall - an entire assembly placed between two areas to be isolated from each other.
Frame - a stud frame, either metal or wood, on which some type of cladding will be fastened such as gypsum wallboard, MDF, plywood...
Layer - one thickness of a particular cladding material; 5/8 sheet rock on a stud frame is a single layer; two x 5/8 sheet rock on the same side of a frame, one on top of the other, is two layers.
Leaf - a leaf is all the mass in one location that is NOT separated by any breathable or non-solid materials - the two layers above would be one leaf.
Air gap - this can actually be air, or anything that you can blow through - any spun or compressed fiberglass or rockwool or mineral wool or slag wool insulation is considered "air", for purposes of counting leaves and air gaps. EPS or other foam insulation can NOT be blown through because it is closed cell; these are NOT worth anything in an acoustic construct because they can't be "air", and they have very little mass.
m-a-m construction - this is what you get when you use two leaves(any number of layers per leaf) with a single air space between them. Stands for Mass-Air-Mass, also known as Mass-Spring-Mass because air is a fairly stiff spring.

Hope this helps... Steve
 
my 2 cents

before i set out o build a new studio/rehearsal space/ whatever
the first thing i ask is how permanent is it going to be
if the answer is yes for a 5 x8 room
I would build it starting with a layer 3/4 plywood(not osb or particle board)
2x6 studs and 3/4 ply then screw the living bejesus out of it before i put a roof on it i fill the walls with playground sand keeps everything well insulated nice and cool in the booth
and i finish off the lid with aplywood box with about an 1 to 2 in. of sand
interior walls i use carpet padding ( a roll or 2 is very inexpensive comparitavly) you staple it to the wall lay what ever want as a finish layer

we had a vocal booth with a window 18"x24" we had went to a glass shop and got several 18x24 peices and siliconed and clamped them together until we got about an inch thick
hope this helps
other then the plywood the actual cost is fairly inexpensive.

almost forgot we use the same method to build the doorbut out of 2x4 instead of 2x6 we used heavy duty gate hinge and roller on bottom of the door make it easy to open and leaves and airgap
a 2x2 goes around the inside of the door opening to which we glued foam strips about an inch thich i seal the room except for the bottom inch
ok this turn into babble sorry
 
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