sound proofing studio

[Banned]

Any suggestion on sound proofing a studio? I just purchased a new home , a section of the basement is unfinished. I will be starting from block and cement floor? I am more interesed in recording sound quality than noise level. Thanks Deb

[hicksjd9]

If you aren't worried about noise level, put any pink r38 (12 inch thick) insulation in the celiing and cover it with fire treated fabric that is breathable. This is an AWESOME solution. Make bass traps for all corners of your room including where your walls meet each other, your ceiling, and your floor. Do a search for DIY bass traps online. A 4'x8' trap can be had for about 30 bucks (of course you have to buy enough to make 8-10 traps). A cement floor is great. Think hard floor soft ceiling. That's what you want. The r38 in the ceiling will give the illusion of a high cathedral type ceiling, that is what you want. Your walls don't matter so much (reflective surface tamed with acoustic foam is preferred), but you can consider a little bit of acoustic foam. Don't overdo that. If you put too much, the room will sound unnatural. Oh, and don't bother buying egg crate or mattress foam. It only blocks very high frequencies and it will throw off your mastering and the natural acoustics of the instruments you record. Think about 40 square feet of 2" wedge (ebay it).

If you really want to go all out, consider building one false wall at an odd angle. You don't want to record in a square room if you can avoid it. Rectangle rooms also present similar acoustic challenges.

If you are not trying to reduce sound volume coming in or leaving the room, you can really get an AMAZING sounding room for about 6-800 bucks.

[lonewolf]

If you are going to build stud walls, the easiest thing you can do to sound proof:

Insulate the existing ceiling and cover the existing walls & ceiling with Rmax or some other long lasting thin insulating material--waterproof material is better. Build the stud walls & ceiling with a 1 inch air-gap from the Rmaxxed walls & ceiling. Before erecting the stud walls, face the outside with the same Rmax material. This 1" air gap is the soundproofer.

This works best if there is no contact between the new & old walls/ceilings.

If you have a side that is not next to a block wall, you should choose that side for the control room and the performance room entrance (think air-lock). This way, you can soundproof (double-wall) between the control room and the performance area. For a window between the control & performance rooms, you can use 3/16-1/4" plexi and double pane them. The plexi should be attached and sealed to each wall so there is no contact between them. An alternative would be to get two identical quality windows and place them on each wall so that you'd be looking thru both into the performance room. The back side of the control room would not need to be soundproofed, so it could be a regular wall to the rest of the basement.

Once the frame is up, do the wiring, heating, insulation, etc. as you would any new wall. You should seriously consider getting some good quad-neglex mic cable and wiring XLR connectors at various locations in the performance room that go back to the control room. You can get faceplates with bulkhead XLR connectors and a wall box with XLRs for the control room. They can be pricey, but I've seen them on eBay pretty cheap. The alternative is a pair of XLR panels connected by a snake.

Unless you want an echo/reverb chamber, drywall is not a good choice for the wall finish. T-111 makes a half decent, low-cost acoustic finish that you can always add studio foam, etc., later. Get the 3/4" stuff. If its too lively, you can always hang rugs. You should probably get acoustic tiles for the ceiling.

If you plan on spending a fortune right away on studio foam/tiles to create an anechoic environment, you can finish the room with unfinished 1/2-3/4" plywood. This will give you a good solid backdrop for nailing, screwing & stapling the expensive stuff.

[Zupe]

Hi Deb,

Go here:

http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

Ethan Winer is one of the best in the business. His site has an answer for everything. Let us know how it works out.

Zupe

[hicksjd9]

Ethan Winer is GREAT. In fact, all of my suggestions have come from reading his various posts on forums and going to his website.

Make sure you first understand the difference between sound PROOFING and sound CONDITIONING. If you aren't worried about noise getting out or in, you need not be concerned with sound PROOFING. It is soundproofing that is expensive. Sound conditioning is much cheaper and is easier. Even if you sound proof, you will still need to do sound conditioning. So you are looking at mucho bucks.

It's soundproofing that involves building staggered stud or room within a room construction as lone wolf described above. If you can avoid having to sound proof, you will be able to complete your studio on a relatively small budget ie 1-2000 dollars (this, of course, doesn't include recording gear). If your are sound PROOFING consider that you will be spending upwards of 8,000 dollars for an 18 by 20 room. Think of sound like water, if there is a hole anywhere (on a seam, around a junction box, in a wooden floor, etc), or if you scrimp on anything, you have wasted every penny you put in, i.e. soundproofing sucks.