Building a Home Recording Studio
Posted: Friday, October 27, 2006
by Random Writers
"How do I soundproof my garage, basement, or a bedroom in my single family house or condo so my 4 piece rock band can practice and record and not bother the neighbors?" If I had a dollar for every time I was asked this question, I would be in the Bahamas right now, instead of writing this article. Many factors need to be considered prior to beginning your studio or practice room-soundproofing project. Some of the questions you should be asking yourself are: What type of amplification will the band be using, are the drums going to be acoustic and miked or are they digital. Are you going to be recording live late at night or are we going to be doing "line in" recording only? These questions and many more need to be considered before the actual construction begins. If live recording and rehearsal are the plan, then maximum soundproofing will be needed.
The
most effective way to soundproof a garage, basement, or bedroom is to
actually construct a room within a room (go to www.auralex.com)
and download the free booklet "Acoustics 101", this is a
wonderful resource for the home studio builder. Their ideas are solid
and applicable to any studio soundproofing project. The room within a
room concept utilizes the sealed dead air space that is captured
between the inner walls and the outer walls to help greatly with the
soundproofing endeavor. It is probably easiest to frame the walls on
the floor and then tilt them up into place thus making dry walling
the outside of the walls much easier. It is also highly recommended
that another ceiling be joisted out for the room within a room,
however, this is often times not possible due to space constraints.
In
this case, the existing ceiling and ceiling joists may be used as the
ultimate ceiling for the studio, provided that it is adequately
soundproofed with materials such as the mass loaded vinyl or a
combination of closed cell foam mat and MLV. I will elaborate on
these materials, as we get further into this article. Once the walls
are framed out and the right amount of "Dead air space" is
determined, then it is time to install the soundproofing. The first
order of business is to consider what needs to be done to the wall
cavities prior to installing a barrier and finally the wallboard. I
like to line the inside cavities with a closed cell vinyl nitrile
foam mat such as American Mat. This mat (generally 1/4"
thickness) is adhered to the inside cavity walls as well as the studs
and joists using a contact cement to adhere the mat. Keep in mind
that the American Mat is used to line the cavities only, not to fill
the cavity.
If
thermal insulation is needed, use products such as rock wool, mineral
wool, cut wool fibers, or my favorite, Roxul. Roxul is a great
thermal rock wool based batt type insulation that has great
soundproofing qualities. If thermal insulation is a requirement for
the practice room or studio, then Roxul is the way to go.
Now
we come to a crossroads, it is time to determine if decoupling the
walls using resilient channels or American Sound clips is a
necessity. De coupling is used when impact transmission or low
frequency noise is a factor. Impact would come primarily from the
drums (acoustic type) or the bass amplifier.
However,
if the band is using Marshall high powered amps (50 watt amps with 4
X 12 cabinets for example) along with miked acoustic drums and an
Ampeg bass system, then decoupling will most likely be necessary.
These methods and procedures will be explained in later articles. If
decoupling were determined to be unnecessary, then the next step
would be to find a good barrier material such as American mass loaded
vinyl (which is a high grade mass loaded vinyl barrier). This barrier
could be stapled directly to the studwork on a wall assembly or
directly to the joists. This is a method that is used if cost or
space constraints are factors. If the barrier material is to be
stapled directly to the stud or joist framing then it is best that
the seams be over lapped, caulked (using OSI acoustical caulking
compound) and then taped with either a lead tape or a heavy-duty PVC
seam tape. Once the Mass Loaded vinyl (MLV) is installed and
sealed, it is time to install the final layer of drywall. I always
recommend using 5/8" drywall as the final layer because of its mass
and its sound blocking abilities. . It is always advisable to butter
the edges of the last layer of drywall with acoustical caulk. You
want to grab every STC (sound transmission class) point you can when
trying to make your new studio as soundproof as possible. Finally you
will tape mud and paint your final layer of drywall. Now you have a
great soundproof home recording studio.
We
will discuss acoustical treatments for your studio in subsequent
articles, but for now you are well on your way to having a
professional grade recording studio in your home.
To learn more about Soundproofing and
soundproofing materials visit our site
http://www.soundproofingamerica.com/
To order Mass Loaded Vinyl see our site
http://www.soundproofingamerica.com/mass-loaded-vinyl.asp
You can read more articles on
soundproofing on our blog http://massloadedvinyl.blogspot.com/