"Live Room" . . . To skylight or NOT to skylight" . . .

"but that's not really the question." I would love to know if anyone has windows in the ceiling of their live room (tracking room) and if you managed to do it without sound escaping to any great degree, how did you do it? We're working in the DARK over here! Well, not completely, but it would be great to have some natural light during the day if it's plausible/possible. Thanks.

It could probably be done, but you'd want to take extra care in your design to maintain a Mass Air Mass design. This may require something like a sheet of thick laminated glass on the inner leaf, followed by airspace, then the outer leaf (skylight). The design and construction of this would have to be done very carefully to avoid have a lot of sound escaping. Not to mention that skylights can be prone to water leaks if not installed properly. Try searching this site for windows. I'd imaging not all of them are interior. I was in Lynchburg a few months ago at Centra Hospital (I think that was the name.)

Interesting . . . my Nashville friend was also concerned with his own design, which does include a pair of skylights . . . but his main concern was that he had trouble tracking things in the main room when it RAINED!! He said it made a terrible noise over his mics . . . good for some bizzarre sound effects perhaps, but not the best for a 4 piece string section! He advised against, and I'm kinda beginning to let go of the dream. The studio we've built has poured concrete walls and brick on the entire perimeter of the building (the brick is almost completely for looks, so it will match the house . . . it does look great . . .like a brick fortress or something) . . . it's half underground too . . . built into a hill . . . not to mention the interior walls and how we've designed it to contain and control sound. . . it would be stupid to throw all this effort and expense away because I want it to look cool. As far as the Lynchburg hospital . . . you were probably at Lynchburg General Hospital, which is run by a VA company called Centra Heath. My wife worked for them for awhile. Thanks for responding . . . I get frustrated with this forum sometimes.

which does include a pair of skylights . . . but his main concern was that he had trouble tracking things in the main room when it RAINED!! He said it made a terrible noise over his mics . . .

Do his skylights retain the same mass density as the roof leaves they are part of? I would suspect not. As long as you stick to the basic rule of keeping the mass constant throughout a leaf then I can't see why there would be any problem. Just because part of that mass is transparent to light should not have any effect on its ability to isolate sound. Isolation is a function of mass and air gap, not of transparency. So just make sure that the glass in your outer leaf roof has the same mass density as the surrounding roof itself, and the glass in the inner leaf ceiling has the same mass density as the surrounding ceiling, then you will be fine. Of course, I'm assuming that the rest of the roof is already designed such that rain noise will not penetrate! In other words, that you have already considered rain as an impact noise source in the design of your roof, and that you have enough mass, decoupling, air space, and damping that even heavy rain will not be audible inside. If that is the case, then replacing some small sections of the leaves with transparent material of the same mass should make no difference at all to the isolation. - Stuart -

Soundman2020 wrote:

Do his skylights retain the same mass density as the roof leaves they are part of? I would suspect not. As long as you stick to the basic rule of keeping the mass constant throughout a leaf then I can't see why there would be any problem.

It is not obvious, until pointed out... The "rain noise" is from the impact of the rain drops against the highly stressed glass/plastic of the outer pane of the window. In other words the sound is being created by pane, not transmitted through pane. Normal roof toppings have much less stress in them, so less noise is created. Andre

Excellent points, both of you. Matter of fact, they're probably part of the same point. I am not completely sure how to approach making sure we select windows that would fit the bill in order for this to work . . . I can imagine what it would take to accomplish what you're suggesting, and I have a feeling that we're gonna finish construction without skylights at this point. Budget-wise, it sure would be good to not spend any more money right now. Perhaps it would be a good idea to work in the space for awhile to see if I even miss having natural light in there. If it's truly bothersome, I can pursue this further once the "initial blow" of spending this much money all at once subsides a little bit.

Installing a skylight requires framing for the light shaft that will directly couple the roof (again) with the ceiling joist unless some time is spent to make stable shaft framing that does not touch the roof but can support itself plus the load you install on it mass wise and that the ceiling framing will also be able to support the consolidated mass as well. Another reason why this would have to be carefully planned out if pursued at all.

The phrase "Close enough for rock n' roll" just does not seem to be spoken much on this forum, does it? :D Chances are, I will not have a skylight.