sound proofing and new studio

What's Hot
hi all,

im having a loft extension built. one of the rooms will be an office type set up, but I also want it as a creative space for recording guitars, tracks, even writing my own stuff.

I don't want to go over board with the budget either. my thoughts are:

sound proofing room ideas (I have some small tube amps that i'd like to play through) room has not been built yet so maybe a good time to sound proof.

i will be using a PC or Mac Laptop maybe?

Interface: i have an onyx blackjack, wondering if that's still ok to use

software ( i don't want anything complicated, i just want to plug and play)

speakers: PreSonus Eris E3.5 has come up a few times, 

I've got experience with guitar rig 5 i been using for a few years

I've got an old ipad with positive grid bias on there that I've not really explored

i welcome any thoughts and ideas

thanks

0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom

Comments

  • WhistlerWhistler Frets: 322
    Sound isolation (aka soundproofing) is achieved with mass, mass, more mass, and some very clever maths. It is expensive to do. Isolation not on the ground floor is even more expensive, because houses are not normally built to take the extra load, so a structural engineer will be required. If you are on any sort of a budget less than £10,000 I would not recommend serious isolation.

    There are lots of smaller things you can do to help improve sound entering and escaping your place, such as sealing up air leaks around your windows and doors, adding acoustic putty behind light switches and electric wall sockets.

    A new floor (just an area, it doesn't have to be the whole room) where you will risk thumping on the ground either tapping your foot in time or playing dums (the hits and kicks will travel through the kit and through the floor) can be helpful as it can help minimise sounds being heard throughout the house, especially in the room below.

    Once that is done, acoustic treatment - a whole different subject to soundproofing - can be added in one go or piecemeal to help the room sound better, that it, smoothing out the problem frequencies to give the room a flatter frequency response.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 2reaction image Wisdom
  • MusicwolfMusicwolf Frets: 3627
    Whistler said:
    If you are on any sort of a budget less than £10,000 I would not recommend serious isolation.

    +1.  If it’s not done properly then you’ll just be throwing money away.  This is why I went down the Kemper route, although I do have acoustic ‘treatment’ to improve the sound of the room.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • WhistlerWhistler Frets: 322
    Whistler said:
    A new floor (just an area, it doesn't have to be the whole room) where you will risk thumping on the ground either tapping your foot in time or playing dums (the hits and kicks will travel through the kit and through the floor) can be helpful as it can help minimise sounds being heard throughout the house, especially in the room below.
    Sorry, I just read what I wrote and it doesn't seem clear enough to me. Let me try again.

    If you build a raised area that has the sole purpose of reducing impact noise from being able to be transmitted to the room below, that will help give the impression that room is more soundproof than before. A bit like knocking on a wall or a radiator travels through the building, clapping your hands does not travel as far because there is no physical connection with the buiding, whether the floor, walls or ceiling.

    Because we all sit, stand, stamp our feet and hit drums that are on the floor, the floor is a special challenge. If you lay down some mineral wool or fibreglass batts - the solid batts, not the fluffy rolls - and then lay a few sheets of plywood on top, the insulation acts to isolate the sounds on the new raised floor - platform may be a better word - and avoid the noise travelling.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • finest1finest1 Frets: 94
    thanks for the responses.

    let me explain that I will only be using guitars. any drums etc will be coming from software.

    i'm not planning for it to be a full on recording studio. I just want a room where I can turn up the volume a little more than usual, and have a good time hearing my guitars on loud, without disturbing anyone.

    thanks


    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • MusicwolfMusicwolf Frets: 3627
    If it’s guitar only then your best bet will be to;

    De-couple the cab from the floor (something like thick foam).

    Good seal around the doors.

    Be considerate about when you play and check to see how audible your playing is around the (either get somebody else to play or someone else to listen)
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Whistler said:
    Whistler said:
    A new floor (just an area, it doesn't have to be the whole room) where you will risk thumping on the ground either tapping your foot in time or playing dums (the hits and kicks will travel through the kit and through the floor) can be helpful as it can help minimise sounds being heard throughout the house, especially in the room below.
    Sorry, I just read what I wrote and it doesn't seem clear enough to me. Let me try again.

    If you build a raised area that has the sole purpose of reducing impact noise from being able to be transmitted to the room below, that will help give the impression that room is more soundproof than before. A bit like knocking on a wall or a radiator travels through the building, clapping your hands does not travel as far because there is no physical connection with the building, whether the floor, walls or ceiling.

    Because we all sit, stand, stamp our feet and hit drums that are on the floor, the floor is a special challenge. If you lay down some mineral wool or fibreglass batts - the solid batts, not the fluffy rolls - and then lay a few sheets of plywood on top, the insulation acts to isolate the sounds on the new raised floor - platform may be a better word - and avoid the noise travelling.
    Just to back up what whistler said and to add some ruminations on this sort of scenario: I have some very good experience of building music studios. My website is https://www.herwin.co.uk/  I am a member of the Institute of Acoustics and also have an MSc in Acoustics. I also have nearly 30 years experience of playing and recording experience. Unlike many qualified acoustics people I also have practical hands on experience of building studios.

    Of course I am goign to say always pay for the advice from someone like me. The phrase 'it doesn't have to be a full on studio' can mean a lot of things and when the person saying it isn't spending a lot of money specifically on sound isolation, or don't mind takign a punt, that is perfectly OK. The problem is when people say that and then still spend something like £10k, £20k or even £50k upwards on a build and then find it doesn't do what they thought it would. When this is a commercial facility it can be a disaster. I have had two of my own friends ask for advice and then just ignore it and then wondered why there projects floundered.

    My own personal problem is that I am totally honest with potential customers as to what they can achieve and unfortunately they often then go with some other company that promises the world - I fear some of them also end up convincing themselves that what they ended up with is good, as to admit the otherwise is too embarrassing for them. There are a lot of sharks out there in the acoustics world and I am ashamed to say that, especially when it comes to educational facilities, some of them are from my own industry body. This is a reflection of consultancy practices in all industries where if a question isn't asked it isn't answered e.g. a commercial music faculty building I worked on in the past few years that had problems with sound isolation had perfectly designed in-situ cast floating floors on springs that could isolate by about 20dB down to 20Hz - pretty good at that level. The walls and doors however were completely sub-standard and, because there was no lead-designer for the studio spaces, the acoustic consultants had just worked out what was needed for the floor and left it to that; that is all they were asked to do. The air-handling systems were noisy and enabled sound transfer room to room. This supposedly flagship building cost millions of pounds and is almost unusable to the extent it should be used for; students have been complaining and asking for money back. I see this all the time in new-build educational facilities, offices and loads of other projects. The project lead for this particular building , I am told, didn't believe in experts. Bit of a Gove then! (sorry </politics>)

    Needless to say, quite effective sound control can be had for fairly minimal cost if it is integrated at the design stage. A loft room like this could have a resilient floor and the side walls could have high density plasterboard with constrained layer damping (Green Glue). You still have problems with sealing doors, hatches and windows and the ever present problems that arise when you treat rooms in this way: firstly, the more you keep the sound inside the room the worse the internal acoustics get (so even more space is taken up by acoustic control systems); secondly, the more you seal and isolate the room the hotter it gets in there in warm weather, so then you sometimes need ventilation and usually air-conditioning as well which bring their own noise isolation challenges. 

    The best thing I can recommend to anyone is to look at the F Alton Everest books and Philip Newell's Recording Studio Design Book, the latter is extremely detailed. Together those books will teach you a lot. Everest's studios on a budget book is good. Loads of good web resources too of course.

    I do a lot of different acoustics work but I am thinking of diversifying my business to focus on home studios and help people do their own directed DIY with my knowledge to help them achieve what they want, I can help them with wiring and equipment/DAW setup too.

    Anyway, sorry for the long post - if the OP wants an informal chat for a bit of help I am welcome to help out but soem of the suggestiosn here are good as well - I have learned some good things on this forum so good to give back. I guess I could sum my advice for home studios up by saying: learn it yourself OR don't spend much at all without advice as chances are you will spend too much for little result. Even with advice people do silly things. I once advised an evangelical church that had noise problems. They told me they only sang at low level there. I turned up to find a 3k PA system, bass, drums, guitars, keys etc. I gave lots of advice on boarding up the flimsy faux stained glass windows with multi-layered sound reducing panels. I returned there a year later when they still had problems to find that they had taken my advice but only boarded up the bottom half of the windows! I often use the analogy of leaky boats for studios. You build an expensive boat but leave several holes in the bottom which leads to the whole thing sinking

    Happy isolation everyone...

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 7reaction image Wisdom
  • finest1finest1 Frets: 94
    thanks for taking the time to contribute your response
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • ricorico Frets: 1220
    You could try an isocab?
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
Sign In or Register to comment.