Jeffs 28 footer, New Studio Project

Space is a problem, and to try and get a permit to build a project studio in this town is impossible . so I have gone to plan B which is the purchase and now the outfitting of a retired 28 foot step deck great dane trailer , its in excelent shape , water tight , and clean , nice hardwood floor , I do not know if I will cover it up or not . Anyway  I need help with the right way to do this .I will post some pics and my design ideas. First the trailer dimensions . 28 feet long x 102 Inches wide ( 8.5 Feet ) x inside height of 115.5 Inches . My plan is to have one room 10 feet x 8.5 for recording drums or vocals and the room thats left to have a mix space ,daw based sonar 6 . As far as budget goes I want to do it right this is why I am here.Thank all of you in advance for your help.

Wow! This seems like a cool idea. I'd be happy to help answer any questions that you have. Post those pics! :) John

Hello Jet, That's indeed a cool project which might work. IIRC John (Sayers) has done a truck/container studio before. Check out his studios.

Cool indeed! Here is a link Avare placed somewhere on the forum a few months ago: Acoustic design of Outside Broadcast Vehicles http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/reports/1984-03.pdf

Well , I have started the framing and I think it should shape up quite nicely . I am going to place audio dead stop on all walls before I insulate this stuff is about a 1/4 inch thick and you peal one side and it sticks to the surface , car guys use this stuff in auto stereo applications , so I am going to go with that in order to stop vibration then comes the insulation the pink stuff 6" compressed a little bit. Then I will add wall board 3/8" then one sheet of 1/2 inch sound board . The ceiling will be the same as the walls with tung and groove pine as the finished surface, open beam . The recording room ends up being 7'10 x 7'6 so I may have to change this although the ceiling height is 8'6 ( I still have not placed the wall for the recording room open to sugesstions ) I ordered the main recording door from home depot it is going to take three weeks uhhg . so this will slow my progress . take a look at the pics and I will update as I move forward ... thank all af you in advance for you comments and suggestions . I am still working on sending the pics , I can't seem to get them small enough ... will send as soon as I figure it out .

wait a minute... you already started framing :shock: ? where's your design? You asked for help on that, but where is it? Planning is everything. as per Andre, 90% is planning, 10% is actually building anything. (and I agree!)

Jett98, You may not want to compress the insulation. It would be better to have it in the cavity loosely as insulation's purpose is to absorb mid and higher range frequency. The NRC has stated that insulation in a single stud wall (which is what it looks like you are doing since I see no decoupling mention) really doesn't do much but I always recommend it. You may also want to consider using a damping compound like Green Glue between your 2 panels. You mentioned that you will be using 3/8" DW and 1/2" soundboard as your panels. I would recommend using 1/2" DW as opposed to soundboard due to its mass which will yield better performance. Soundboard is best used in floors as an absorber, and (to a certain extent) floor system decoupler. I don't think anyone can disagree with Andre's 90/10 Law. John

The insulation is most likely in the perimeter of this trailer, so , yay, he's gonna need it :) Not compressed...but gotta have it.

here is a rouigh sketch and some pics , The Recording Room Door is the one on order ond is 1 5/8 " thick solid wood with double pane glass exterior with the seals so that should be nice . I gave the pics to a local airconditioning guy today and he will get back to me on some options . He talked about a couple different systems a dual minisplit with fresh air ducting I .am still in discussion . The side door is Oak and the entry door is an exterior french door set with blinds between the glass . take a look at the pics let me know wht you think ... I still have time to change my design as it is just framed .

Jett98 wrote:

I still have time to change my design as it is just framed .

euh... your design predicts WHERE to frame. so NO you can't. :shock: Tho framing the whole perimeter won't harm the design, indeed. But, I do recommend planning before building. You're gonna get sorry if you don't, unless you know EXACTLY what you're doing. nice project tho!