Re: Remodeling a room for a home recording studio

Shy Picker wrote:

I have had the recording equipment set up in the room and the biggest
problems I have from noise invading the room seems to come from the
road. I live nest to a country road where people drive fast and makes
quite a bit of noise. I also live near an interstate highway that I
can hear when I have the mic on.

The worst problem from noise within the house are the TV which my wife
plays quite loud

Other things like an electric space heater and
noisy air purifier in the bedroom below the music room are also things
I can work around when I need quiet.

When most of us here think about acoustic treatment, we think about controlling
reflections and standing waves so that things sound good when placed in front
of mics, and monitors sound accurate when you're listening and mixing. Your
problems. You may need to do that, but what you're really looking for here is
soundproofing and that's a whole different game (you need to play both).

The room-within-a-room solution can work, but it's not going to be cheap. Adding
another layer of drywall all over and putting in better windows (or another layer
of window) plus turning off the TV, heater, and air purifier, and maybe furnace or
air conditioner as well, will help.

The window is a big problem. It is a double hung, thermolpane window.
I think the best I can do with that is to make sure I insulate around
it the best I can and maybe drape some sort of sound dampening fabric
over the window.

What I did with the windows in my back room which I used as a studio was to
build a 6" deep frame surrounding the window, fitted in a piece of particle board,
caulked it with a rubber caulking compound that I could cut through with a knive, put a
4" layer of rigid Fiberglas insulation over that, and then covered it over with
colored burlap. No more window, but very little sound transmission through it,
plus a handy bass absorber. There's probably about $60 worth of material in it.

I purposely built these ex-windows so that I could take them apart easily. That came
in handy when I took an out-of-town job, got a house sitter, and decided that the best
place for her bedroom was the studio room rather than have to move everything out
of my bedroom. In a few hours, she had windows. Unfortunately, I never put them back
up when I returned to the house. But they served the purpose.

The door is also a big problem and I will replace it. It is not very
tight and does not ever close easily. Perhaps I can even drape some
sort of sond dampening fabric over it too.

I screwed a layer of particle board over the door and put in new weather seals. The
old ones were pretty well sprung. Got a little extra quiet out of it, and less drafty
in the winter, too.

I think trying to get a perfectly quiet recording studio is a pipe
dream for my situation.

It is, but every few dB of sound transmission loss helps as long as you don't
go overboard on the spending. Remember that mass is your friend, and be
prepared to trade some ugly (or at least unconventional - like covering up the
windows) for some quiet.


--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be operated without a passing knowledge of computing, although it seems that it can be operated without a passing knowledge of audio." - John Watkinson
.

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