Studio construction - looking for advice

[spellcaster]

A friend of mine (singer in the last band I played in) is busy building a home studio. He started out wanting to build a soundproof music room and the plan has expanded to make it a more professional recording studio. He has questions that I can't answer so I'm looking for suggestions.

At this point in time, there's a sand-bedded insulated polished concrete slab floor. It's 2x6 construction, with heavy rock wool insulation, vapour barrier, donacona, resbar and sheet rock over top. The single window is triple paned glass witha canted center pane, and the two doors (one opening in, and one out) are solid cored and cased in metal.

He's anticipating the soundproofing, both inward and outward, being pretty effective but is concerned that the room may be too live and is looking for suggestions on materials that might dampen it down somewhat. My suggestion was some four foot square sections of decorator cork framed in hardwood, and fastened to the walls at intervals around the room.

Any suggestions?

[anfontan]

I'm hoping to convert part of my workshop into a home studio/practice place in the near future. So I am also interested in what will do the job for the minimum price.
You-tube is a good place to look for some opinions and hopefully some good solutions as well. Here are a few links...
Tony

youtube-home recording studio - Yahoo! Search Results

[spellcaster]

Thanks anfontan, I'll take a look through that.

I think this studio, if you want to call it that, will work out well. It's got a dedicated 200 amp electrical service with four-plex boxes every four feet at chest height, each on it's own breaker. The percussion will be a room in a sealed environment in one corner, mixing consoles will be grouped in a central location with all the neccesary cabling and power, and the electronics for a very high quality monitor system.

I'm fairly anxious to see this done so we can get playing. After I quit the last band (which he had also sang in but quit just before I did), he came to me when he heard I was available and asked me to put another band together with him "as soon as the music room's done". I've been waiting three years.....

[spellcaster]

I took a look through the studio a couple of days ago and things are looking good. The resbar's finished and the drywall is on, taped and mudded. Our assessment is that it's still not 100% soundproof though. A commercial acoustics installation guy that my buddy knows came by and suggested an extra layer of drywall, glued on with a special rubberized green glue that's used full-spread. Apparently this glue doesn't cure up solid, so it always provides a shock absorber between the two layers of drywall. It's amazing just how much more lively the interior has become with the drywall on, so my buddy's shopping for acoustic panels that can be strategically placed to damp some of that down.....Some permanently fastened to the upper walls and some free-standing so they can be placed around acoustic instruments. Construction of the percussion booth which will float on rubber pads above the concrete is just beginning. Next time I get a chance I'll try to snap a couple of pictures.

[die Bullen]

I'd like to see those pix...

[Dirt Rich]

I've used professional studio soundproofing foam pads, and I've also used egg crate foam mattress pads. The difference? Basically the mattress pads do the exact same thing, but at a much cheaper price.

[Dirt Rich]

Also, I would like to add that it's the shape of the material that makes it work. No matter how much drywall he adds, sound will always bounce off of a flat surface. The egg crate shape helps to disperse it. That's why his booth sounds so live.

[spellcaster]

Yeah, the extra drywall is intended more as a way of containing the sound so it's quiet outside. My buddy has a neighbour who goes out of his way to make trouble, so as a premptive strike, he's as interested in soundproofing the outside as he is in making it acoustically-friendly inside. He got this special green glue a couple of days ago, and is starting the second layer of drywall now. He's planning to build baffle boards using 3" sound insulation full-spread glued to plywood backers and upholstered in some acoustic cloth he ordered from a guy he knows who builds studios.

[spellcaster]

A bit of an update....The floating floor (built on sleepers) is in for the drum booth, the walls are framed, insulated and double drywalled, and the triple-pane windows are framed. Things are starting to look close to completion.

[die Bullen]

boy I wish I had studio space in the house!

[spellcaster]

I just got an update from my buddy....The painting's finished, flooring done, most of the lighting is in, and the acoustic damping panels are installed in the drum room. I'm going over some time in the next few nights to help him install the playback system (some commercial Bose system that was being torn out of an institutional setting when he was doing other work onsite). There's still the mixers, amps, monitors and PA to be installed, but he's definitely close to ready.