Building recording space in rental home

I'd like to gather some ideas from y'all... I have just relocated from Detroit to Chicago, but due to the worldwide economic woes I am unable to sell my home back in Michigan and will be renting a place in Chicago. Because of this situation I can not do anything permanent in my new garage space. Thus I was thinking of building something like a giant isolation box, or a room-within-a-room type of thing in my new garage. It is a two-car concrete slab, wooden walled garage that I plan on using one whole side for my recording space. I've had good results in small, mostly dead spaces before, also I'm a fan of engineer/producer Tchad Blake who has recorded some great drum sounds in a 7' by 10' vocal booth. The main use for this giant iso-box would be for recording drums in a manner that on a given Saturday afternoon I wouldn't completely drive the neighbors crazy. So, what should I do? I have about a 20' by 10' space to work with and about a 10 foot high ceiling space. I am wondering if it would make sense to build a semi-modular box (4 walls & ceiling) perhaps based on Sepmeyer dimensions & 2-leaf Mass-Air-Mass construction on top of the original garage floor, but purchase something like Auralex's HoverDeck to put the drums on inside my giant iso-box instead of building the difficult floating floor above the original concrete floor of the garage? I think I may also put rockwool in the original walls of the garage (covered by burlap) to help matters a bit further. Any suggestions are welcomed, {csmr}

Thus I was thinking of building something like a giant isolation box, or a room-within-a-room type of thing in my new garage.

Room-within-a-room is good! The best way to isolate economically.

It is a two-car concrete slab,

Concrete slab is good! It's about the best you can hope for, in fact.

The main use for this giant iso-box would be for recording drums in a manner that on a given Saturday afternoon I wouldn't completely drive the neighbors crazy.

Sounds like you need to look at the famous "Sharward" thread! He's doing exactly the same as what you are planning. That thread should give you plenty of information on how to do it really well! You might want to grab a cup of coffee, as it's ind of a long thread.... (Actually, you might want to grab an entire crate of coffee...) viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2921&hilit=drum+room+in+garage

I am wondering if it would make sense to build a semi-modular box (4 walls & ceiling) perhaps based on Sepmeyer dimensions & 2-leaf Mass-Air-Mass construction on top of the original garage floor,

That sounds like an excellent plan.

inside my giant iso-box instead of building the difficult floating floor above the original concrete floor of the garage?

Yup! Floating a floor is NOT something that you want to do, unless you really, really have no choice, which is very seldom the case.

I think I may also put rockwool in the original walls of the garage (covered by burlap) to help matters a bit further.

Well, you'll need the rockwool certainly, as that will be part of the "spring" in the MSM equation, but you will also need more mass on those existing walls. I assume that right now you just have studs with OSB and siding on the outside, and nothing else? Or do you have something else? If that's what you have, then you'll need more mass on that wall, best achieved by "beefing it up" with pieces of drywall carefully cut to fit between the studs, up against the OSB, siding, or whatever you have in there. Since you want to play drums, you might want to consider going for three or even four layers of 5/8 drywall in there, for lots of mass. Then your rockwool (probabaly about 8 inches or so thick). Then another three or four layers of drywall on one side of the inner-leaf frame. Same for the ceiling. Then a pair of really massive, well sealed, back-to-back doors, and don't forget HVAC to complete the picture. That should pretty much do it. - Stuart -

Stuart, Thanks for all those insights! Sooooper helpful! If I do as you suggest, would it also be helpful to build a riser out of something like Auralex's Platfoam or HoverDeck to decouple the drums from the garage floor? Would it further help to "keep sounds in"? Many, many thanks, csmr

Hey there CSMR! A drum riser won't help much to "keep sound in", but it might help a bit to prevent impact noise from getting into the structure, through your slab. But depending on your slab, that may or may not be an issue. If your slab is already separate from the house slab, is thick and dense, and 100% on grade, then a drum riser probably won't make any real difference to the amount of sound that "gets out" through the slab. But if your slab is thin, coupled to the house slab, or has some kind of air space under it, then I guess a drum riser could help. On the other hand, if it is a resonant riser, then it might also add some character to the drum sound (John recently posted a photo here of such a riser).

csmr - Mark Sparky Partrige had the same rental problem so he set his studio up in a shipping container http://johnlsayers.com/Studio/Mainpage/MP-Mark.htm

UPDATE the garage iso booth is no longer an option Well, I managed to carve out a bit more space in my basement for my drum booth (see attached JPEG + SKP). My goal is twofold: to create a usable, dampened space to record drum tracks and to not drive my neighbors---who are about 10' away on both sides---absolutely bonkers on a Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately there are big obstacles at this locale, as well. Beyond the rather small space I also have to contend with a low ceiling that has an "acoustic" tile (Home Depot-esque) drop-ceiling that I am not allowed to remove. From the basement floor to the drop ceiling is about 6 feet 6 inches and from the floor to the solid barrier above the tiles is about 7 feet. It seems that long ago someone put some form of a drywall-like fiber board material across the ceiling attached to the main floor floor joists. Then in recent years, to further hide pipes & whatnot they installed a drop ceiling a few inches under this solid barrier. So, since the basement ceiling is too low to build a properly designed one underneath the drop ceiling, is my only recourse to stuff the cavity with rock wool or some other type of insulation? Besides disturbing my neighbors, it'd also be nice not to drive my family crazy who spend much of their time on the main level. Design questions... 1) looking at the space would it be wise to wall off a rectangular shape (~11' 9" x 6' 10") or should I keep the odd shape towards the top of the layout open? 2) Considering the width of the space do I have to forgo a MAM system for the walls I build? Many thanks, {csmr}

bump for help!

hoping for the best... bump.

casimer wrote:

Design questions... 1) looking at the space would it be wise to wall off a rectangular shape (~11' 9" x 6' 10") or should I keep the odd shape towards the top of the layout open? 2) Considering the width of the space do I have to forgo a MAM system for the walls I build? Many thanks, {csmr}

That ceiling could be a problem indeed. If you wanna go with what you got, you'd sure should stuff the space with wool and caulk the perimeters. Add another sheet of GB while you're at it. Keep the shape as it is, save us much space as possible. And yes, you should stick to MAM if you wan't it to be fairly isolated (as in sound attenuation). I know that's gonna compromise on your, already tiny, space.. but you've gotta work with wot u got. right.. sometimes it hurts, I know. :(

Yeah, I'm with Ro on this. See if you can get more mass up there (safely!), above the "acoustic" tiles, then pack the cavity with insulation. I guess you can at least take the tiles out temporarily, in order to do that? That will help a bit, but see below: Like Ro said, if you need isolation then you have no choice but MSM construction. You could build them inside-out to save as much space as you can. But the problem here is that you can't put an MSM ceiling on top of the walls, due to the height issue and the drop-ceiling restriction, so I don't know if it is worth doing the walls at all. Personally, I don't think the walls will do much at all without the ceiling. It would be like an aquarium with one side missing. I'm not sure there is much you can do at all, to be honest. That drop-ceiling restriction is the deal-breaker. If you can't move that, then you can't build a complete sealed inner leaf, which means you can't get good isolation. I'm assuming that your basement is not entirely below ground level, and some portion of it sticks up above ground. Is that the case? If not, and it really is completely below ground, then perhaps just doing the ceiling might be enough! - Stuart -