i am in the process of building a home studio & i have a few questions that hopefully ya’ll experienced folks can help me answer
whats the difference between acoustic caulk & your reg silicon caulk?
any advice on floor and wall designs? right now i have the metal framework up and thats about it, i was gonna proceed with the double layer 5/8 and caulking of course, insulation, possible rc channel etc.
is there any merit to the mass loaded vinyl/ sound barrier stuff?
thanks for the help
jae
Replies
What kind of studio...music? Maybe a rubber room for when the kids get on your nerves?
And how much isolation do you want/need? Rather than double layer of rock, consider double stud walls with the rock only on one side. That wasn't clear. Ok, use 2x6 sill and top plate...use 2x4 studs 24" oc...for side A of the wall, the studs are aligned with the near edge of the sill...for side B of the wall, the studs are aligned with the far edge of the wall...of course the studs are offset sit looks like there is a stud every 12", but actually the rock is only nailed every 24". And weave sound batting between the studs. I think if you really got anal, there would be two parallel sill and top plates so even they didn't touch. And be careful about wall penetyrations like electrical boxes and heating ducts that could allow sound to transmit.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
The craftsman formerly known as elCid
you are right the question was lacking alot of information, i am new to this and i wasn't sure if i was gonna get a response.
so the studio is for music. i have framed off an area within a warehouse type space which is to be designated for the music studio. not to do any rock & roll stuff, live drums or anything like that, just playing/ writing music and tracking vocals. there is a seperate vocal room framed off as well as a control room with a small machine room between the two. the vocal room is sharing a wall with the control room on one side. there will be in 2 months someone living below me, there is no one above me or on any side. how can i stop, slow down or deminish the sound to a mouse sweak for the people below me and going into the vocal room from the control room. is this possible without breaking the bank, which can be broke easily for i am not rich hence, i am doin it myself.
Another take on Ed's split wall is to use narrow - like 1 5/8 steel studs and build two walls totally separated but for the door. Insulation can go between, and no way for vibrations to transmit via the studs to each other. If you look at the USG website you can download and print a volumne of info in a .pdf file that will give you various diagrams of wall designs for acoustical control and a sound transmission rating for each assembly. The floor? If you really want to quiet it down, I'd chew in the idea of laying some kind of sound absorbant material, like homosote, there, and covering it with rubber gym floor material to keep from destroying it in short order. Then you can take it out easily when you move. The ceiling you can use acoustical rated tiles, and USG also carries a number of other "acoustical" products - wall panels for instance. Come to think of it, they might even make some of the baffles you see in studios. Might be a good site to look at."If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." - Mark Twain
The way most commercial recording or braodcast studios are built is room-in-room. An exterior room is framed and sheathed, with rockwool or some similar standard sound insulating material in the stud bays. The floor is laid with anti-vibration grade rubber flooring on the slab, and special blocks of this material are placed to support a separate room framed inside the first one. The interior room does not touch the exterior one except on these rubber blocks. You leave an air space of about a foot (more, if you've got the space) between the two sets of walls, floors, and ceilings. Room penetrations such as doors, windows, etc., have to be done so that minimum contact occurs, and such contact must be with as soft a material as practical.
If done right, you can get sound transmission down to extremely low levels using this system.
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Here's some good reading on the subject.
http://www.usg.com/Design_Solutions/2_3_4_acoustictips.asp
What we did in a triplex remodel was to use 5/8 on one side of the wall and 1/2 on the other with cellulose insulation inbetween. works great everywere, ececpt the two baths next to each other with inwall medicine cabnets. I've read somwhere that if you use two thickness of drywall the sound has a hard time traveling through the wall. Where as if you have a wall with 1/2 and 1/2 or 5/8 and 5/8 the sound travels through easier. My other sugrestion would be to build a reagurar 2x4 wall but on the side that will be the studio before you put the drywall up use 3/4 sheet foam and put the drywall over it.
Jason
Jae,
Run, don't walk or stroll over to http://www.Prorec.com. Go to the discussion board and do a search. Heck read the entire site from top to bottom. This is a site for professional recording engineers and people who know about music studio stuff. I am a regular there and you'll find more help than you could even imagine there. Also check out http://www.ethanwiner.com. Ethan is an expert on room acoustics and once you have your room built it needs to be tuned. Ethan has that figured out and tells you all the secrets on his web site.
Sound PROOF is very difficult and expensive. The real question is a matter of db and how many of those you would like to lower. Isolation of the wall and ceiling membranes from the rest of the structure is critical to lowering db. Isolating the floor is another. How about your duct work and other mechanicals. There is a whole lot to consider. The guys at prorec are more than happy to share. And really, you should read some old posts first. You'll get a lot of information there.
Material selection of your finish surfaces is a big consideration. For instance, many studios have hard surface floors for acoustic work because it gives musicians (like guitar players) better live feedback when they are playing. The ceiling is then treated appropriately to help tune the room.
Two layers of drywall will only do so much unless you have decoupled your wall membrane. The Mooney wall (I think that's what it is... do a search here) or the z-channel would definitely decrease your db greatly. To isolate the vocal booth you need to get it off the floor and dampen the transmission vibration between it and the floor......which is really a big speaker membrane attached to another big speaker membrane (the ceiling) in the apartment below.
Have you calculated your room size to minimize your standing wave frequencies or have you just planned it for the space available?
Stop what you are doing and go to prorec. You'll get some extremely valuable info there. And none of that information is expensive at all. Ethan has even gone so far as to give you all the info you need to build your own base traps so that you can tune your room to near mega bucks studio quality at not nearly the same expense.
Rob Kress
Two separate doors (one opening)with the jambs isolated and cushioned from each other, same with any windows (tip the glass so not in parallel plane.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Also on any glass, use 2 different thicknesses so that the resonant point is different. Sam reason before mentioned for using 5/8pb on one side and 1/2 on other side.