Inexpensive ways to soundproof a studio

[TheGreek]

Organisation I work for (supported housing for Substance misusers/ care leavers/vulnerable people) have funding for a studio - not thousands of pounds but a decent budget (we think).

We looked at those acoustic tiles - prices vary considerably.

Does anybody have any suggestions (please, not egg crates) for an inexpensive alternative??

[DoubleOhStephan]

Yoga mats? 

[DanOwens]

I bet there's lots who are much better at this than I, but sound-proof usually means a room built within a room where the inner room is mechanically decoupled from the outer room. There are lots of steps in between that, but fully soundproofed is a monumental task (especially when you take into account airflow etc).

Acoustically treated, however, is easy. Just put baffles everywhere!

[Cuzzie]

It depends how loud you plan on being as to some extent low sound waves we play will travel through most things

what you really need is some form of air break to stop the sound waves - you could do this with building a second skin out from the existing wall, you can get plasterboard panels with pads/foam and leave an air gap and that will help, and can be done quite cheaply

[tedmanzie]

18 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Organisation I work for (supported housing for Substance misusers/ care leavers/vulnerable people) have funding for a studio - not thousands of pounds but a decent budget (we think).

We looked at those acoustic tiles - prices vary considerably.

Does anybody have any suggestions (please, not egg crates) for an inexpensive alternative??

Acoustic tiles / bass traps / rockwool panels etc are not for soundproofing, they are for treating the acoustics to improve the listening conditions inside the studio. They may have some effect on transmission to the exterior, but very little I would have thought. Soundproofing is a totally different thing  (and one which I don't know much about other than seal all the air gaps!)

[Reggaebass]

Celotex thermal board is very good , and there is a few companies about doing a similar and cheaper alternative board , which do the same job 🙂

[Dad3353]

I'd suggest that the most inexpensive, and very effective, method is to have everyone, singer and drummer included, using headphones. It doesn't sound too 'rock'n'roll', maybe, but needs must etc.

The physics of it are simple enough; sound is changing air pressures. If no air can leave the room (and none enter, so problem..!), that's a start. Next is the floor, wall and ceiling themselves vibrating, transmitting the air pressure changes inside to sound outside. To stop this, one needs to absorb the energy inside, and that means mass. An extreme would be to play inside a WWII bunker; that's the 'logic' one is looking at. It can be done fairly cheaply (all is relative, isn't it..?), but becomes very quickly industrial, with inner 'Russian doll' rooms of breeze blocks. Complete phonic isolation from the outside world is a Big Deal, so limits would have to be set on what's achievable with whatever budget is available. Headphones then become rather more attractive (to those paying, at least...)
Hope this helps; Good Luck with the very worthy project. 

Edited October 15, 2019 by Dad3353

[BigRedX]

You should also post this in the "DIY Electronics & Studio Design" section of the SOS forums.

However as has been said here already there is a difference between sound proofing and acoustic treatment. If you need to stop sounds getting out of the studio (as well as preventing unwanted external noises getting in) you need mass and isolation. This generally means building a room within the existing structure and physically isolating from the walls ceiling and floor as far as possible. You also need to seal all the air gaps but still have some way of ventilating the space. Generally it's a whole set of compromises.

Start by telling us exactly what the studio is going to be used for. Recording? Rehearsing? Full bands with drum kits? Electronic sources only?

How noisy is the outside environment around this studio building/space?

[caitlin]

I spent AGES looking into this for my drums since I bought a house. The solution I ultimately went for was a pretty high end electric kit and headphones.

As others have said this is wave physics and the only solutions are either decoupling with a low transmissive medium, or MASS.

Ultimately one form of energy needs to be converted into another to make it go away.

This is compression waves in air turned into heat.

Room in a room is SUPER heavy (mass) so you can only do it on ground floors, few buildings would be constructed to support a sound proof room without significant reinforcement.

The usual 'cheap' way to do it is room in room supported on dense foam rubber pucks with a dual layer of plasterboard panels 'glued together' with green glue on each surface of the cube and a mixed density rubber floor.

The Green Glue is stuff that's sticky but never actually goes off and solidify so it allows the gummed together panels to flex converting the sound into friction and therefore heat.

Treatment, much simpler (and harder, lol) figure out where your listening points are in the room and run frequency sweeps to find the room resonances and put traps around the place till the resonances go away.

[TheGreek]

Thank you people - please keep the suggestions coming.

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 4, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[Beedster]

4 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said:

Is it actual sound proofing you need, to stop noise getting out of the room, or sound treatment, to make the room sound good for music?

That's my question also, two completely different needs. One simple and doable on a low budget, the other very much not so

[Jakester]

"Relatively" inexpensive is battening the inner walls and ceiling, adding resilient bars, and then doubling up with acoustic plasterboard sheets. Seal up any gaps with caulk and at least you've got more mass which is at least partially decoupled. By no means perfect, but a relatively easy solution which would reduce the sound transmission to outside the room. 

 

[caitlin]

14 minutes ago, Jakester said:

"Relatively" inexpensive is battening the inner walls and ceiling, adding resilient bars, and then doubling up with acoustic plasterboard sheets. Seal up any gaps with caulk and at least you've got more mass which is at least partially decoupled. By no means perfect, but a relatively easy solution which would reduce the sound transmission to outside the room. 

 

Yeh, I forgot that one, there are Z shaped metal doodles you can use to hang the drywall on.

A really good book to discourage yourself with is "Home Recording Studio, Build It Like the Pros" by Rod Gervais. It's full of awesome info you can use to crush your dreams or I suppose find something acceptable.

Ultimately my plans died in local zoning meaning that after 8pm or something if any neighbour could hear a cat fart in their lounge then I was antisocial and drums are ideal for creating a full spectrum of annoying noises from sub bass to tinnitus cymbals. Victory.

[Beedster]

33 minutes ago, caitlin said:

Yeh, I forgot that one, there are Z shaped metal doodles you can use to hang the drywall on.

A really good book to discourage yourself with is "Home Recording Studio, Build It Like the Pros" by Rod Gervais. It's full of awesome info you can use to crush your dreams or I suppose find something acceptable.

Ultimately my plans died in local zoning meaning that after 8pm or something if any neighbour could hear a cat fart in their lounge then I was antisocial and drums are ideal for creating a full spectrum of annoying noises from sub bass to tinnitus cymbals. Victory.

Great book, and fair point re it destroying dreams. I looked into soundproofing my garden room, and to do it properly - nothing going out, nothing coming in - was quite simply not possible if I wanted to keep floor space of 6x4m inside and a relatively pleasing log cabin on the outside. Headphone studio with electronic kit is a very good solution for loud sounding rehearsal/recording, and good internal acoustic treatment a very good solution for quiet rehearsal/recording. By hunting around on BC and eBay I did the latter for under £200. 

[caitlin]

Yeh one thing the book's good for is showing how mistakes can invalidate a LOT of effort and expense.

Done right the effects are astonishing, but one slip and you've coupled 40Hz straight into the kitchen

It breaks my heart how loud the bathroom fan is in my music room (glorified third bedroom)

[Beedster]

3 minutes ago, caitlin said:

Yeh one thing the book's good for is showing how mistakes can invalidate a LOT of effort and expense.

That's exactly it, you start to read it and understand it, and you realise that, unless you've got a very big space a long way from people who are going to get whizzed off, it's going to cost you a lot of time and money to do it well. I don't think it's coincidence that most of the great loud albums of the 70s and 80s were recorded at remote locations  

[Stub Mandrel]

Sneak a look in a Pirate Studio - they need to get good results on a budget.

The one I use has foam on the walls, fabric covered, then a layer of plywood or chipboard with holes of many different sizes. Works pretty well.

[Jakester]

44 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Sneak a look in a Pirate Studio - they need to get good results on a budget.

The one I use has foam on the walls, fabric covered, then a layer of plywood or chipboard with holes of many different sizes. Works pretty well.

That’ll be baffles for adjusting frequencies, but won’t do anything to attenuate the volume - I suspect they’ll be basic ‘room in rooms’. 

[caitlin]

You can usually spot a room in room by there being two doors and a weirdly wide door jamb.

[Burns-bass]

I think there are some great ideas here.

Could It be worth chatting with some local studios or acoustic firms who may be able to help you? I’m not suggesting s begging letter, but companies may want to get involved to help.

[BigRedX]

@TheGreek Do you have a space already set aside for this project?

If so what size is it, where in the building is it located and who are your neighbours?

[Stub Mandrel]

11 hours ago, caitlin said:

You can usually spot a room in room by there being two doors and a weirdly wide door jamb.

Yep they are like that. Does it not reduce volume (outside) as well?

[Balcro]

First of all, consider the need for an entrance lobby, if possible with the gap between the sets of doors set as far apart as is practical.

The walls to this lobby should be lined with a suitable sound absorbent plaster board that meets the Fire Officers recommendations for use in a "means of escape route".

Is there another door to act as "means of escape"?

As for the walls it's battens up, probably 2 x 2. Fill the wall gap between the battens with 12mm fibreboard. Across the battens you need sound absorbent plaster board such as this:-
https://www.insulationsuperstore.co.uk/product/british-gypsum-gyproc-soundbloc-with-tapered-edge-24m-x-12m-x-15mm.html

or this https://www.insulationsuperstore.co.uk/product/knauf-soundshield-plus-plasterboard-tapered-edge-24m-x-12m-x-15mm.html

Then seal up the gaps at the edge of walls & ceilings with a sound absorbent sealant.

Windows?

Extract fans? If you want or need a design for a sound absorber to a fan, it's basically an acoustic labyrinth. A long wooden box with a fold inside and lined with acoustic absorbent foam. The longer the better. Good for middle & upper frequencies, less good for bass, but better than a hole in wall.

[caitlin]

This ^ do not overlook ventilation, it's a perforation so a frequency leak, but also with all that mass and the fact that the walls are literally turning sound into heat, and your sweaty human bodies in there they can get unpleasantly hot very quickly without ventilation, commonly the fresh is delivered from the floor line and extracted at the top so convection helps the process along.