Upgrading / Sound Proofing the Studio

Fuengi

Have spent the past few weekends upgrading the sound insulation in my home office / studio. Finished this afternoon and now enjoying a beer!

Studio sound proofing https://imgur.com/gallery/7NkrB5x

We built the office three years ago when we moved house, at the time we also did loads of work to the house so the budget meant we had to do things as economically as possible, within reason. 

The ceiling finish was PIR insulation between the rafters with space blanket tacked to the underside as an exposed finish.

The upgrades are; resilient bars fixed every 400mm at 90 degrees to the rafters with 25mm of acoustic insulation between the bars with a breather membrane below to act as a vapour barrier and to retain the insulation. 11mm OSB fixed to the resilient bars with hex head roofing screws, these are visible fixings.

The OSB I have alternatively oiled with linseed oil or stained with black / red stain. The coloured boards I have then sanded back to expose the wood strands and oiled again over the top.  

Thermally it was already good as we got 100mm between the rafters plus the space blanket. Acoustically it absorbs a lot more sound which means I'll be able to crank up the Mesa another notch or two. I've tested with the music playing and even with the doors and windows open you can't really hear much until you step into the room. 

I've also managed to squeeze another guitar hanger in which is very handy!

Really please with the results, quite a bit of work but worth the effort. 

spark240

Looks cool ...but you sure have a lot of reflective surfaces in there !

Fuengi

spark240 said:

Looks cool ...but you sure have a lot of reflective surfaces in there !

Yeah, but I've got plenty of options for surface sound absorption too. I don't have curtains in front of the door or the circular window so that would definitely help. Also got a whole wall opposite to put some sound deadening if I want to. 

The room is primarily my office but doubles as the music room. It needs therefore to look like an office first and foremost. 

The resilient bars really help to absorb sound, I'm very impressed. 

WiresDreamDisasters

Taken any measurements? Waterfall graphs?

Fuengi

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Taken any measurements? Waterfall graphs?

Only with my ears! 

Freebird

May I suggest a Philips Hue lighting system, or something similar? I find it has an "instantly in the mood" kind of effect. The coloured bulbs go white too, so you can transform the room at the flick of a switch.

WiresDreamDisasters

Fuengi said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Taken any measurements? Waterfall graphs?

Only with my ears! 

Take some with a measurement microphone. You'd be surprised at the results I reckon.

Here is my right-speaker in my room:

Freebird

WiresDreamDisasters said:
Take some with a measurement microphone. You'd be surprised at the results I reckon.

Have you checked out Sonarworks room correction software?

Fuengi

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Fuengi said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Taken any measurements? Waterfall graphs?

Only with my ears! 

Take some with a measurement microphone. You'd be surprised at the results I reckon.

Here is my right-speaker in my room:

I'm definitely not doing that. 

WiresDreamDisasters

Freebird said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:
Take some with a measurement microphone. You'd be surprised at the results I reckon.

Have you checked out Sonarworks room correction software?

Yes I have actually. I borrowed the reference mic from @guitarfishbay for a while... and ran the demo. It's quite cool, but I'm not sure I'd want to mix through it permanently.

It'll be interested to see where they take that tech.Fuengi said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Fuengi said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Taken any measurements? Waterfall graphs?

Only with my ears! 

Take some with a measurement microphone. You'd be surprised at the results I reckon.

Here is my right-speaker in my room:

I'm definitely not doing that. 

You should give it a go. Buy a cheap reference microphone and see what state your room is in.

I know in my room I need to be aware that those two spikes can lead to a slightly hyped impression of the low end in my room. But it's pretty even otherwise and a great room to mix and record in.

PolarityMan

Ive seen some measurement mics for as low as £30 new are they useable or is there a kind of minimum entry model?

Musicwolf

I am pretty sure that the mic which Sonarworks ship is actually a re-badged Behringer ECM8000.  I have one (the Behringer) and, unless your room is already very well treated, the reference mic isn't likely to be the problem.

guitarfishbay

PolarityMan said:

Ive seen some measurement mics for as low as £30 new are they useable or is there a kind of minimum entry model?

If you are at all interested in using Sonarworks down the line then just get their mic. It’ll work with other software too, and it comes with the necessary correction file for their own software. I tried a Dayton mic with Sonarworks and was less happy with the outcome, especially in the high end IIRC

PolarityMan

Wasbt that enamoured with sonarworks on my phones tbh. Was thinking more about seeing if I should rearrange my room a bit.

Musicwolf

PolarityMan said:

Wasbt that enamoured with sonarworks on my phones tbh. Was thinking more about seeing if I should rearrange my room a bit.

Whether you use Sonarworks or not, getting the room to be as good as you practically achieve should always be the starting point.