Soundman2020 - Studio Design Forum

Hey all, I came across the forum while googling for details about building a recording studio. I was impressed with soundman2020's posts so I figured this was a good community to be a part of

Background:

I have zero experience building studios so I am doing my best to research all the different techniques available and how they should be implemented. Even from my initial endeavor I'm impressed with the amount of detail and engineering that can go into a good studio. I am setting my expectations accordingly as this is a relatively low budget setup.

Initial conditions:

I live in a townhouse condo and have other units on either side of mine. I will be using a room in the basement for the studio which has 3 concrete walls and a standard wall which separates the main room from the laundry room.

I am concerned about flanking noise transferring from my unit to the ones adjacent to mine. Footsteps can be clearly heard between units. Regular speech is muffled but can be heard.

Requirements:

1) Significant sound reduction. I would ideally like to include a drum kit which would be an enormous nuisance to neighbors at regular levels.

2) One room design. Due to space constraints I cannot have separate spaces for control and live rooms.

Design:

Based on the research I've done this is what I'm currently working with:

Top view:



I am aiming to use the following layout for the walls:



Ceiling:

I have seen examples of better designed ceilings but they seem very complicated to me The walls I have some confidence in but this is basically fingers crossed.



Concerns:

1) As shown in the diagram I have to deal with a residential electrical panel. This will interfere with the wall design and I need to accommodate space for when it needs to be accessed / serviced.

2) My current ceiling design seems weak compared to the walls. I fear it will be a weak point and sound will escape through there.

3) I haven't done much research into HVAC yet and everyone inside needs to breathe

4) I am still a bit muddy on the MSM concept. All the examples I see use two drywall walls, but mine is a concrete wall and a drywall wall.

Additional thoughts:

Any feedback is welcome! I am having a difficult time finding a studio design consultant in my area so this forum is the closest I currently have.

As the design progresses on I'll update this post.

Thanks for reading

Hi Goodvibes! Welcome to the forum.

Do you happen to have the measurements of your space? It looks a little tight on paper. I dont know how you would layout a drum kit in there.

Here are some initial comments on your post:

1) As shown in the diagram I have to deal with a residential electrical panel. This will interfere with the wall design and I need to accommodate space for when it needs to be accessed / serviced.

- you have a few options here if you dont want to move the panel. My first option would be create a storage space here and frame around it. Second option would be build an access door.

2) My current ceiling design seems weak compared to the walls. I fear it will be a weak point and sound will escape through there.

You are correct in this assumption. Concrete is already a great insulator, but the ceiling will be the weak spot. You will need to decouple it from the studs above. Look into isolation clips like whisper clips or isoclips. You will likely need to add mass inbetween the studs as well against the upper subflooring. I would seriously consider hiring a structural engineer to make sure that the floor can handle the added weight. In my basement studio I did not add mass to the floor above, but I did use 3 layers of mass on isolation clips with GG between and it was very successful.

3) I haven't done much research into HVAC yet and everyone inside needs to breathe.

YES. You need to plan HVAC carefully. Its not black magic, but it is complicated. Doing anything is better than doing nothing.

4) I am still a bit muddy on the MSM concept. All the examples I see use two drywall walls, but mine is a concrete wall and a drywall wall.

You are in luck, concrete is already a great insulator for sound. Buiding a wall in front of the bricks about 1" or so distance from the concrete is plenty. Then again 2-3 layers of mass on the inside wall with some good insulation in the cavities will be best.

There are others smarter than me on this forum, but this is a good starting point.

concrete is also a great transmission medium for sound as well. so structural transfer is the real enemy in the shared structure of a townhouse/condo/apartment. so impact and sound into the floor (for example) from a kick drum or bass amp, will transmit at ~12x the speed of air and may result in strong vibrations (primary, harmonics, and resonances) in the adjoining living spaces. so if your building is an older one without specific acoustic isolation strategies built in, your efforts will likely not be as successful as you need them to be and avoid complaints.

you'll need to make the inner rooms (walls and ceiling) 3x 5/8" type-x minimum and isolation platforms for the drums and any amps, you're still likely to need to restrict the drumming during hours you can get agreement on with the neighbors. the GG is a viscoelastic damping agent - not an isolation mass - it simply provides some impedance shifts in the overall mass and can help even out coincident frequency penetration, but it's not sufficient to add an equivalent mass layer effect to the isolation that you need.