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Soundproofing home studio

hi

i have just moved house and the new house has got a spare room that i am going to turn into a studio, the problem is tho its an attic type room with only some wood panneling/tiles that stop the sound leaving the room. As the neighbours are pretty close i want to some how sound proof it and reduce the volume going out...

anyone done this before on the cheap? would like some advice/ideas on how to get cheap/effective sound proofing!

Cheers in advance

You need to build a room within a room, floors,walls, ceiling

"cheap" if you are a good enough carpenter to build a room in a room, as the above post suggests. You can't just throw some shit on the wall and have no sound leak out.

But unless you share an apartment building with a bunch of other people, you would have to turn it up pretty damn loud at late hours to piss people off. Whenever I look for a place to live, I make sure there are no more than two other apartments in the same building.

Re: Soundproofing home studio

quote:

Originally posted by pactdonkey would like some advice/ideas on how to get cheap/effective sound proofing!

Re: Re: Soundproofing home studio

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik

I did this four years long while in college... but wouldn't recommend it. I did my most popular track on a pair of Sony MDR 7506s and a Nord Lead 3... but I always feel like the track would have been a lot better had I used proper monitoring.

I agree with alanzo when it comes to the final mix, but if you're just in music creation mode during hours when the neighbors can't be disturbed, it's a great option. Then, do your final mixdown on your monitors during the day, etc. And, check your mixes on your nice headphones. Much cheaper and easier than building room isolation.

There is no such thing as complete soundproofing. To get the maximum sound isolation you have to build a room within a room as mentioned earlier in the thread.
However, great results can be achieved by just strengthening the inner leaf of the wall/ceiling/floor with a double layer of sheetrock. And then get all the seams air tight using acoustic caulk (Plain latex caulk works too, but has a tendency to crack more easily).

For sound isolation mass and air tightness is important. Alot of people think you can "soundproof" by just throw in some auralex stuff, but that is acoustic treatment and is a completely different thing.

Some of my favorite tracks i've started early creation on headphones, and then mix on monitors when there is no issue with volume, and then back reference with headphones. Also the early creation helps in creating sounds that will sound good in headphones, since everyone seems to have an ipod or some other mp3 player these days. Another thing I do is produce at low volume, which is beneficial in letting me focus more and actually helps in creating sounds that stand out.

thanks for all your replies there all good!

I do try and do as much as possible in my headphones (HD25) and usually end up doing the mix down in them but would really like to do it through monitors.

I have some old thick padded duvets spare, would taking them to the ceiling/wall help prevent the sound leaking out?

Dude, you`re lucky.. to have an actual house.

I live in an apartment building with 6 other people. and i play music LOUD, and OFTEN.. havent got a complaint in 2 years.

But generally you shouldnt, or wouldnt want to have ur music so loud when ur actually just making it.. its in the mixing stage things gotta be pumped up a bit.

i would do what cryophonik said

Surprisingly enough I get away with blasting my PA speakers pretty damn loud with a police officer next door

Edit : +1 with the 'use headphones when your just messing around with ideas' statement. Sound quality isnt particurlarly important at this stage. Unless you have damn good headphones you wanna use proper monitors for the mixing and mastering though.

quote:

Originally posted by pactdonkey thanks for all your replies there all good! I do try and do as much as possible in my headphones (HD25) and usually end up doing the mix down in them but would really like to do it through monitors. I have some old thick padded duvets spare, would taking them to the ceiling/wall help prevent the sound leaking out?

Did you even read my reply? You need MASS and air tightness to stop sound leakage. What you're describing is acoustic treatment (a poor way of doing it as well) and doesn't do anything for sound isolation.

Read my earlier reply again and if you have any questions I'd be glad to help.

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Originally posted by Eldritch Did you even read my reply? You need MASS and air tightness to stop sound leakage. What you're describing is acoustic treatment (a poor way of doing it as well) and doesn't do anything for sound isolation. Read my earlier reply again and if you have any questions I'd be glad to help.

Ye i did read it, thanks, i was just asking that question to see if i could make any use of the old duvets towards trying to bring the sound leakage down.

quote:

Originally posted by pactdonkey Ye i did read it, thanks, i was just asking that question to see if i could make any use of the old duvets towards trying to bring the sound leakage down.

Do duvets have a high mass? NO
Are they air tight? NO
You need to make the walls (+ceilng and floor) heavy and airtight.

Also keep in mind that any weak points need to dealt with. I'm talking doors, windows and ventilation.
For doors it could help simply to replace it with a massive MDF or wooden door. And add weatherstripping to the cracks to make it as airtight as possible.
For windows you can add an additional thick glass pane, but the best option would be to just cover it up.
Ventilation ducts will probably not be a big problem, and would only need to be adressed if you're going for high sound isolation, i.e. a room within a room design.

Eldritch, since you seem to know what your talking about, what would it take to get enough sound isolation in a room that you could have a lawnmower going outside one wall and not really hear it?

I've got a garage I'm looking at converting into studio/bedroom space, but its built out of single brick and is right alongside my neighbours pool, so I need some powerful sound isolation

I'm thinking about lining the walls then putting in a layer of rockwool, then leaving a gap and then putting a green glue layer on the outside... But I'm not sure if it'll work...

quote:

Originally posted by kitphillips Eldritch, since you seem to know what your talking about, what would it take to get enough sound isolation in a room that you could have a lawnmower going outside one wall and not really hear it? I've got a garage I'm looking at converting into studio/bedroom space, but its built out of single brick and is right alongside my neighbours pool, so I need some powerful sound isolation I'm thinking about lining the walls then putting in a layer of rockwool, then leaving a gap and then putting a green glue layer on the outside... But I'm not sure if it'll work...

A room within a room construction is probably needed. But first, what exactly is the outer wall made of, just bricks? Because you don't want to create a 3-leaf consruction. That will only cause problems. This means you don't want to have two separate air gaps.
I made this crappy paint illustration. The yellow parts are wooden framing filled with insulation. The white is plasterboard. As you can see there is nothing covering the insulation on the outside of the inner wall, that's how it should be.

You can reinforce the brick wall with plasterboard if you want, it will probably help with getting it airtight. But it's important that you don't create another air gap.

If you make both of the walls airtight you should get very good sound isolation. But ventilation is very important in air tight spaces. You would need to build a ventilation system with duct silencers.

Yes thats right its just a single layer of bricks... So from your diagram its not worth using green glue at all?

Also, how would I go about making it airtight? Its an old building, the bricks are probably a bit the worse for wear and its got at least one nasty crack on one side (the side I actually need insulated )

quote:

Originally posted by kitphillips Yes thats right its just a single layer of bricks... So from your diagram its not worth using green glue at all? Also, how would I go about making it airtight? Its an old building, the bricks are probably a bit the worse for wear and its got at least one nasty crack on one side (the side I actually need insulated )

You can use greenglue between the two layers of sheetrock of the inner wall. I don't know about the bricks. Maybe you could use some kind of cement on the bricks to seal the cracks?

Yeah, probably cement will be the way to go I'd guess. I'll just have to worry about doors and windows now... Do you know whether theres any good options for doors and windows you can open but that also isolate sound well? I'm trying to work out the best way to get a big pair of glass doors onto this courtyard bit while also keeping it well isolated...

Windows and sound isolation don't really go hand in hand unfortunately. There are solutions but they are expensive and hard, if not impossible to do by yourself. You need very thick glass panes, that's for sure.

Doors are easy. Any thick, massive wooden door will do. Add woodenstrips to the existing doorframe with rubber weatherstrips inbetween the wood and the door, like in this image.

Thanks for the help dude, now I've just gotta make it happen...

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Originally posted by kitphillips Thanks for the help dude, now I've just gotta make it happen...

No problem, let me know if you have any more questions. I built a vocal booth with great results so I have some practical knowledge on how to solve certain problems etc.

I also recommend you check out this forum.
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

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