Need Your Help to put it all together

I've been searching, reading, studying, researching, contemplating, building, tearing down bla bla bla....... Now it's time to do it but I need your help. Here's what I got. 21' X 17' and 8' high space in garage to build a room within a room. Plans: Double wall construction using 2 X 4 16" odc and staggered. Inside wall will be 2 ply 5/8" dry wall with Green Glue between. Outside wall will be 2 ply 5/8" dry wall. Inside will be filled with R19 fiberglass insulation and there will be a 1" gab between the two walls. The plan as of now is to use the entire space for tracking and mixing. Room size is not adequate to have a separate control room. All construction will conform to Rod Gervais Book: Home Recording Studio, Build it Like The Pros to the best of my ability. Since my band will be practicing in this space the prime consideration is isolation so I will concentrate on filling all air spaces and use the strictest isolation principles feasible for my budget. I'm not shooting for perfection but best possible while at the same time trying to conform to acoustic principles for the best possible sound. QUESTIONS: I plan on building a rectangle using a good ration and then put a roof on top. How should I construct the roof? I will consider building an isolation room for vocals and for drums. Any thoughts? I'm new to all of this, have done my research and now I'm ready for your input. Hope to hear your thoughts and suggestions Cheers, Ken

welcome! please provide your location in your profile. is the ceiling in the garage open to the roof or does the garage already have a drywall ceiling? depending on the answer, if its open, you might consider using isolation clips and hat channel on the joists to create a decoupled ceiling and create soffits around any support beams. if it's closed, i'd measure the existing isolation and see if you think that adding GG and some more drywall will meet your needs. if you're going with a "ratio" for the room rather than just using the entire space, then i'd build the isolation booth as a small room outside of the practice room to give you the best isolation and probably simplify the construction by not trying to nest isolation spaces.

Hey Glenn, Thanks for taking time to reply to my post. I've added my location to my profile. The garage is finished with a dry wall ceiling. Do I build the walls all the way to this ceiling? I figured if I did this I would be transmitting frequencies to the ceiling and home through the walls. Or do I stop the walls short of the ceiling and build a separate ceiling? I'm inclined to think the latter is the way to go. How do I build this ceiling on the walls? I don't really see anything that addresses this construction technique. Your input is valued and appreciated. Cheers, Ken

given the room height - i'd be inclined to remove the existing drywall and use it to beef up the floor above (i'm assuming you have a floor above it) or roof if that's an option. then build a new ceiling using isolation clips and hat channel. this will preserve a lot more space than trying to put in new ceiling joists. build your isolation walls to accommodate the lower ceiling so the drywall layers will interleave but remain decoupled. you can use isolation brackets to help support the wall or frame the wall floor to joist and use isolation clips and hat channel for the walls as well. use the isolation clips and hat channel on support beams to encase it. for support poles encase it in the space between walls or build a soffit around it.

Excellent idea Glenn. I had not even considered removing the existing ceiling dry wall. There is no floor above, just the attic space and roof. Since I have never done this before and paired with the fact that I'd like to do this the "right" way is it possible to see some sort of diagram or sketch to get a more detailed idea of what you are referring to? I realize I'm probably asking a lot here so perhaps you can direct me to an existing diagram somewhere. I really can't thank you enough for your timely response and generosity with your time and expertise. Cheers, Ken

A couple of other questions. 1) I plan to have different band mate stations. Each station will just be an open area in the live room but will have a wall plate with 2 xlr females and 1 trs female inputs in addition there will be a standard electrical outlet at each station. I plan to have six stations in all. This amounts to a lot of holes in the wall. I'm okay with this as long as someone can recommend a good way to seal the surrounding area for isolation. I've already purchased the wall plates and cables to hook everything up. Any suggestions? 2) I have 13 5/8" between the top of my wall and the existing ceiling. I need suggestions on the best way to proceed. Do I add joist and put in my own ceiling? Do I build up the wall to reach the ceiling and if so how? Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm stalled out until I know what to do. Here are some pics.

so if you already have the walls built for the new ceiling (that would be the 8'), then you could build new ceiling joists supported by the walls, leave the existing drywall and/or add some layers there, and then a new ceiling on the bottom the new joists to achieve the double leaf. if you're going lower than 8' or want to leverage the addition 1' or so, then i'd remove the existing drywall, put new 2x drywall on the upper part of the joists and then use isolation clips/hat channel and 2x drywall on the underside. this would be a reasonably performing partition and then i'd build my isolation walls to that inner ceiling level. any internal partition walls (which to me sound like static gobos...) could be ceiling height or less depending on what you're trying to achieve with them.

Hi Glenn, Thanks so much for your expert suggestions. I am going to go with adding ceiling joist to the new walls then add 2 layers of 5/8" dry wall with green glue. For my intended use I think this is the least time consuming and least expensive option. This forum is really lucky to have you. Guys like you save guys like me a ton of time and $ from doing things the "wrong" way. Cheers, Ken

make sure to check on Brien's suggestion in the other post.

Will do Glenn, Cheers.