Sound Proof Production Studio Project - New Hampshire USA

Hello everyone, My name is Tyler, and I'm new to the boards. Having read the readme's at this point, I'll start off by outlining the project to the best of my abilities. I've read the forum rules, and I hope I don't make any errors, but if I do, please just kindly correct me. :) The project at hand is a 19x13 downstairs basement room. It is unfinished at the present time, but we intend to finish off the entire basement into a soundproof audio production studio. Any opinions on the project, or any rough budget estimates on how much this is going to run would be well appreciated. The structure is wood framing, with concrete floors. The height of the room is 7 feet, and is directly below a family area/living room which is located on the first floor of the home. We are looking to do a complete sound proofing/isolation, so it cannot be heard whatsoever throughout the rest of the house. This would have to include silencing any vibrations there may be from any bass output, because as I said, there is a family living room/area directly above the room we'd like to do the soundproofing on. I produce electronic dance music, whereas there is a constant bass-drum pounding with the music, so we see vibration as quite possibly one of the biggest issues. I have just purchased a sound level meter from radioshack like the readme document on the forum explained, and the maximum decibel limit I'll be using for the room is around 105-110DB. We have a finish carpenter in the family, so any material recommendations for this level of noise/volume, will also be highly appreciated and understood. And also, I'd like to hear the opinions from board members here as to if they recommend self-building of the structure, or outsourcing to a professional in this type of field? Our budget is around or under the $10,000 range, we'd like this to be as nice as possible, so any advice will be greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing from the board members, and am quite happy I've found this wonderful forum. If there's any further information you need from me in regards to the room/structure, I will be happy to reply back and let you know. I will also post pictures of the room should anybody find it necessary. Thanks for your time! best regards, Tyler http://www.tylermicaud.com http://www.myspace.com/tylermichaud EDIT: Here's the pics of the room: Left Side: Right Side:

Hai Tyler and welcome to the forum. You're an excellent example of how we like "newcommers" to behave; read stickies, have their profile filled in and not asking how to build a soundproof room right away :mrgreen: so, yeah you did everything "right" :) nice to have you on board, looking forward to your plans. If you have any, specific, questions.. feel free to ask. ro

If you have the money I suggest to hire a couple of workers to do the dirty job. Honestly, its not an easy job at all !! On the other hand, if you're not in hurry (like you can have the studio done in 6 months) then do it yourself. There is a lot of things you learn about construction when you deal with little details So, feel free to post your plans and we'll happy to comment on them

ACCIDENTAL DOUBLE POST, IGNORE, sorry

I've just posted 2 pictures of the room we plan to soundproof. One of my main concerns are the above air ducts which the builders have told us will make vibrations extra intense. I haven't had any plans yet, but I have a couple builders ready to go but they're waiting for some good plans/advice as well. Does anyone have any recommendations on materials / ideas ? I really have no clue when it comes to this department in regards to the actual materials we should be using for walls/foundation and acoustics. Although, I will begin digging further into the forum for additional advice. Replies will be much appreciated. The builders are not specialists, they happen to be family who are in the construction/drywall business. They think they can get most of the sound out, but they're really concerned about vibrations due to the above duct work, and due to the family living room being right above this room.

Builders or body builders? :mrgreen:

Read a few of the build threads. $10k for room construction materials at todays prices is certainly doable.

I'm no expert, but I don't think you have enough height to build a room that will achieve anything close to the "soundproofing" that you desire.

thanks for the replies so far stunt... how much height do you think we'd need? we're talking about moving the air ducts right now with the builders which will give us another foot to a foot and a half to not only clear up the heigh issue, but also the fact that they're there transporting sound throughout the entire house... so we'd have about 8 to 8 1/2 feet clearance if they're moved. I'm going to take exact measurements tomorrow and reply in greater detail. ive spoken with a couple other people just after giving them a picture of the room, no pro builders or anything, but a lot of people are doubtful that i could even achieve a high level of isolation when the family room is just above... does anyone here think that as well? don't want to start building this up and then find out it was pointless, haha :)

tylermichaud wrote:

so we'd have about 8 to 8 1/2 feet clearance if they're moved. I'm going to take exact measurements tomorrow and reply in greater detail.

ive spoken with a couple other people just after giving them a picture of the room, no pro builders or anything, but a lot of people are doubtful that i could even achieve a high level of isolation when the family room is just above... does anyone here think that as well? don't want to start building this up and then find out it was pointless, haha :)[/quote] That height will work fine..... My previous room started with an 8'6" ceiling hgt before construction. Mixes were AWESOME and drums sound GREAT.

tylermichaud wrote:

ive spoken with a couple other people just after giving them a picture of the room, no pro builders or anything, but a lot of people are doubtful that i could even achieve a high level of isolation when the family room is just above... does anyone here think that as well? don't want to start building this up and then find out it was pointless, haha :)

You have the space inside the studs, you have the ceiling you will add... You will be able to achieve a good deal of ISO. Just do the build correctly and don't allow the studio ceiling to be in contact with the basement ceiling for max ISO

If you want to use the whole room, it looks like your height is limited by the steel beam. Your ceiling framing would have to go under that. A 2x6 ceiling joist with 2 layers of 5/8" drywall would be 6 3/4". Leave a 1/4" clearance under the beam and your new ceiling would be 7" lower than the beam. If moving the air supply/returns is doable, then move them to the "right" side of the beam. Then you would have a lot more headroom on the "left" side. Unfortunately you would only be able to build your room on the "left" side of the beam, which looks like only 9' or 10'. If you are really tenacious, you could take advantage of the fact that your sewer isn't under the slab and dig down a foot and pour a new slab.