Sound deadening material (aka Dynamat) anyone?

I've been reading through the forums for a few days and there's a lot of good information but is mostly overkill for what I'm doing, so I'm looking for some very simple/basic help. I'm building a little recording booth (7'x7') in my garage. I play my electric guitars right in to my DAW so no amps to deal with, but I don't want my acoustic guitar to wake my kids at night. I'll be using the onboard preamp/eq on the acoustic so no external mics. For these reasons, I'm not at all unhappy with the size of the booth, I think it'll work out great. My question is with the door to the room. The room is just your basic 2"x4" wood studs but I'm planning to use some of the products I've seen in these forums to help with sound. I have a spare hollow-core door that I was considering using (I know, solid is better but this one is already here), and I was considering using something like Dynamat (RAAMmat) on the inside of the door to help with sound transfer. I've got a ton of this stuff left over from some of the car audio installations I did in the past and thought it might be worth a shot. Has anyone tried this? Just curious. Thanks.

Actually the information here isn't overkill, per se, you just haven't been reading long enough to get the correct combination for your build. A few weeks here would let you know that a square room, like your 7 X 7 is problematic. A few more weeks and you would find that you can apply acoustic treatments that can kill the problem reflections at the center points of the walls. Mass is one of the componants required to isolate sound, so yes, adding something of a dense composition to either side of the door will help. Door seals are a requirement as is a threshold. Do not cut holes in the door for a knob but install a pull handle. The reason is that you do not want to penetrate the door and cause a decrease in your soundproofing. Good luck

xSpace wrote:

Actually the information here isn't overkill, per se, you just haven't been reading long enough to get the correct combination for your build. A few weeks here would let you know that a square room, like your 7 X 7 is problematic. A few more weeks and you would find that you can apply acoustic treatments that can kill the problem reflections at the center points of the walls. Mass is one of the componants required to isolate sound, so yes, adding something of a dense composition to either side of the door will help. Door seals are a requirement as is a threshold. Do not cut holes in the door for a knob but install a pull handle. The reason is that you do not want to penetrate the door and cause a decrease in your soundproofing. Good luck

If I'm playing an electric guitar through DI into my pc, there is practically no sound other than faint pick or strum noise. I could sit in my current garage and play and no one inside the house or outside the garage would even know. I could also just as easily play in a bedroom closet - the room size and airspace has no effect on an electric guitar that is recorded direct to the DAW. The acoustic guitar is different, but it since I'm not using an external mic the interior dimensions of the room and acoustic reflections and what not don't impact me as much. The acoustic guitar has a fairly narrow frequency range so yes, I think using double walls, triple-layer drywall, etc is overkill for my application. My concern is the door and if a HC door with Dynamat would be sufficient for cutting out most the acoustic noise or if I should just go for the SC door.

I will probably sound silly here - but if you already have the material and the door - why don't you just do it up and see if it works for you? How long can it possibly take you (seeing as you are only investing your labor)........ If it does work - then you're done and happy - if not - then you begin to look at alternatives. I have never heard of the material you speak of - and thus can offer no comment other than what is above. Rod

Where you from, dirtbag?

Traditionally Dynamat was an asphalt mat used for sound deadening the interior of vehicles. It does a great job at that. It is great at dampening, but has very little mass since it is so thin. I imagine it would work similar to green glue if you used it between layers of drywall. But not as good and probably more expensive. Dynamat is not cheap. I just looked at their website and they do have architectural acoustical products. http://www.dynamat.com/products_archite ... ction.html Dynamat Extreme: Deadens sheetmetal (ducting, metal panels, etc.) $60 for 6.67sqft Dynamat EnWall: Maybe for soffit speaker isolation/deadening. But probably useless for studio application. Dynabox: Looks pretty useless for studio applications. Dynil: MLV $669 for 112sqft Dynapad: Floor sound barrier $940 for 112sqft Might be worth looking into but it's all way too expensive.