"Modular" Project Studio in NYC office building

Hi All, I currently have my project studio in an NYC office building. I built it myself a year and a half ago using this forum as a reference. It came out great, cost me only $600 and has stopped the transference of sound much better than my expectations. See pic attached. Anyway, the building is going under new management and I am being forced to relocate to probably another office. This will now be the 3rd studio "room within a room" setup that I've built in 3 years! I want to find an easier solution than 2x4s and drywall and weeks of labor that cut into my work schedule. I've looked at whisperrooms but they are too expensive for a studio sized one. I would gladly pay $5k for a solution that I can easily take apart and bring with me when/if I have to relocate again. My sound isolation requirements are not that demanding. I monitor at a moderate (70db?) listening level and never have drums or loud instruments in the room. Occasionally, when mixing I will crank the volume to see how it sounds LOUD. However, there is music constantly and I don't want to disturb the neighbors. That being said, I would need to treat mostly for moderate listening level music. The spaces I'm looking at all have concrete slab floor and drywall separating the offices. So my question is: Does anybody know of any "modular" rooms or materials that I can box together to create a ~200sq' space that might be suitable to my needs. Something similar to the WhisperRoom concept, but DIY to save cost. Thanks.

Any thoughts on this?

I guess not... When building a soundproof system you'd have to go with proper sealings and caulking so I cant really think of a way to make it modular without being really air tight. Unless is some kind of metal thingie with "perfect fits" or something. In any way, you'd have to build the modular system for yourself, but that would be even expensiver. Anyway, whatever thing you do for your next space, maybe wont work again if you move to a different space. So if I were you, just do what you have to do and try to stay in that place for longer now!! If I knew it wanst for long, i wouldnt spend so much money to later take it apart in the first place

Hello. I am inexperienced in studio design, however, I am presently attempting to design / build a semi permanent isolation booth that is modular in nature. I understand the implications of poor sealing, however, being a general pain in the ass type of guy, I always like to attempt the impossible. ;-) and swim against the tide. And some times I do actually get some where. (however in studio design I am yet to prove myself, so take my advise at your own risk). . My idea is to build an isolation booth out of a modular wooden frame. . Walls: Make out of wooden frame. In two parts. 1st part being the height of the door so you can get it through the door and up stairs if need be). The second part, is the remainder of the height of the isolation booth walls. . Building a door into one part of the walls. . You should now have a 2 part wooden frames for the walls of your isolation booth. Which when fitted together will make up the entire height of the inner walls of your room. . Cover the outside of each part of the wooden frame walls with chosen reflective isolation material. Such as plasterboard etc. In order to make it into a box that can be filled with absorption/reflection material. . Fill the cavity within the frames with your chosen absorption insulation. . Now. when you want to construct your isolation booth, you can by fixing the two parts of each wall together to make the full length of the isolation booth walls using screws and sealing with green glue in order to give you some type of seal. . Now that you have constructed the walls in their entire length. Fix on the outside of the isolation booth, barrier mat or something else that is very reflective over the outside of each wall, ideally, in one piece for each wall using green glue. . This will hopefully give you more isolation. . Then, on the inside of the isolation booth. Fit something like PKB-2 or even some type of acoustic fabric material on flexible absorbent panels that can be bent to be carried through the door and fixed in place firmly once inside the room. . Fix walls onto a simple floating floor. Open cell foam/barrier mat/plasterboard/chipboard. Fix some type of floating ceiling on the top perhaps constructed in a similar way as the walls. . Put pictures of beautiful naked ladies on wall.....(er..only joking. Beautiful naked flumps!). . Anyway, at the mo. This is just an idea and not fully developed. Not sure how effective the sealing would be and not sure how easy it would be to remove the elements that are in single pieces and not modular. . Will have to test how the material reacts to glue / sealant in order to work out whether it is possible to dismantle or to see if it is effective enough in isolating the sound. . Alternatively, you could always build your isolation booth like normal and use a circular saw to attempt to salvage any materials that you have used in order to use them in your next environment. . ??? Anyway, I am sure I will be reprimanded for this post, and quiet possibly justly so. So, please take my suggestions with a pinch of salt when compared to that of the other members who are really experienced and knowledgeable on the subject. . Just trying to help. ? hope my ideas are not harmful. cheers

What you described might work, but after you put all drywall layers, scew them, seal them, mud and tape etc. You'll end up with wha you usually do in normal construccion. I can bet you'll break almost every piece of drywall when you try to take them out. or most of them

Sure, I understand that the drywall is fragile. So, maybe the drywall could be contained within the frame or fixed inside a frame that has 2 leafs of wood so the drywall is protected. .. ? What do you think?

Then each frame will weight a ton ! They'll have to be very small to be light .. and just one layer wont do it for anything than than vox

would the frame way too much to be supported by the floor. I mean, if the frame is in panels. The panels can still be transported. Just an idea. I imagine if the frame was in two parts, the frame would also have to have some type of supports/braces built into the frame in order to make the frame more sturdy. Although, from what I gather the guy in this post only really wanted to use the booth to dampen and isolate his music. as he does not want to annoy people. . I wonder if you could use thin ply wood on the outside, which you can attach the barrier mat too, and glue the plaster board to the inside. Which in turn you can fix the insulation to. . If the building can support the weight, the guy could always get some type of trolley to transport it. :-)

All the instruments arranged very well and sophistically but I think some more space would be a added advantage to it. It will look more nice and attractive.

I built my first studio in sections to be modular in fashion so I could take it with me when I moved. It survived a move but barely. it was really heavy, needed a lot of drywall repair and in general was a real PITA to deal with. The only thing that might work is to substitute MDF for the drywall. I built my 3rd studio with it and screwed it all together. It was a lot of work to disassemble, but it all came apart in good shape. Constructing something like this will still take some time to reassemble, but at least you save on the material and time spent making cuts. Of course you have to weigh that against the fact that MDF is much more expensive than drywall so bigger initial cost. Also, it's much harder cutting MDF and I wouldn't recommend using it unless you can keep dimensions utilizing full 4 x 8 foot sheets.