Attic Studio

Hi all: Thank you John and team for providing this forum. I have been in the planning stages of a new build for about a year now and have recently stumbled here. Hence... I have some questions for those here more expert than I. First, the facts: Studio purpose: I am a filmmaker as well as part time wannabe DAW hound and drummer. My principal need for sound isolation is moving my drum kit to this space and being able to play without bothering neighbors. I will also be doing some vocal work (voice overs, etc) as well as full post production of motion pictures in this space and will be aiming for a 5.1 set up to monitor those audio mixes for my motion picture work. The house/space the studio will reside in: The home is a two story brick home with a rather large attic space. I have enlisted a structural engineer to create the plan attached and sought his help principally to ensure that I could run the spans for the studio which will be a 3rd floor on my ceiling of my second floor. He has confirmed by adding some structure/beams that I will be good to proceed. My goal from the beginning has been to build a room within a room. The studio will sit within the attic space and (if all goes as planned) be structurally isolated from the house's framing. Studio details/proposed materials: The dimensions are shown with the height being 8 feet at the center of the room, and two knee walls running to a six foot height and then two portions of angled ceiling leading to the 8 foot section. (dotted lines shown on the plan are the transition from 6 foot height to 8 foot center. I have planned on using either isoclips and mounting drywall on channels or quietrock. My decision will be made made based on answers to questions below. As for floor, I am researching isolation methods and would also appreciate recommendations about what has proven best (again, questions below). The questions and the plan: The plan shown is an amalgam of my engineer's drawing and changes I am proposing to him (mine shown in green and red). As you can see, my changes are: the deletion of several built in storage areas; deletion of a door leading to the attic; adding a wall to make one area of the room a vocal area with a door leading to the live drum/mixing area; adding the approximate placement of my drum kit and editing area which I plan to be a built in desk with drawer/cabinet storage beneath. My questions: Layout: 1) As I hoped to have more space to work with before seeing what emerged from the final plans (isn't that always the way?), I have chosen to break the space up with the entry door and door from the vocal area serving as a 'double air lock' of sorts so that the loudest of the sounds I need to isolate (the drums obviously) are well cut off from the rest of the house. Does this layout seem logical? 2) Seeing as I do not (arguably) have the room to build a dedicated mixing room with the live drum room as a room unto itself, I am hoping to tune the room with baffles or half walls around the drums in order to sweeten the room/optimize the drum sound. How feasible is this? Should I invest some thought into how to get a dedicated mixing room in this space? 3) The room is obviously fairly cubical/symmetrical. Should I plan to change that now in order to avoid frequency mishaps later? If so, what would be the best way to do that in a space such as this while giving up minimal square footage? 4) I will be mounting a 42" flat screen on the wall above my mixing/editing desk and speakers on the walls. I have read that products such as quietrock lose effectiveness if nails or screws pierce their sound absorbing layer. Can one drive screws into the quietrock and as long as they remain filling the hole still have effective sound transmission protection? 5) My thought has been to isolate the sub floor on pads above my joists. I have read about several products for achieving this. Any recommendations on the best for a situation such as mine? 6) If drywalled with channels and clips or quietrock, is framing via 2 x 6s top and bottom plates and creating a staggered wall framing beneficial or will I receive enough benefit to make the additional framing expense and time worth it? In other words, are isoclips or quietrock enough or should I also plan to stagger my framing? I am sure I will come up with more questions - I really appreciate anyone taking a look and providing me with feedback. Please let me know if I left anything out. K.

welcome! nice first post! one quick thought - to get the amount of isolation needed for an acoustic drum kit, you will need mass. you may consider that if you float a concrete floor with the rest of your room on that, and you beef up the mass on the surrounding walls correctly, you should be able to achieve a high level of isolation. however it will be significant effort.

Thanks, gullfo. I appreciate the insight - I will have to think about weather I could float concrete on the spans/joists which will be my floor (currently attic ceiling). K

You will not be floating concrete on an attic ceiling. You might develop a decoupled floor system using rigid insulation and plywood but I can tell you straight up, concrete is not in your future in an elevated wooden structure:) Even still, throwing a lot of money into an elevated space, It takes more man hours simply because it is elevated...but flanking and all the potential overloading will add a difficult burden to the existing structure...a few tons, you can believe that ;)

Thanks, x. I will definitely need to figure out how being elevated affects my resonance through the home structure. I appreciate the comments. K

flanking paths and hard connections, structure borne sound, coupled assemblies...that is how you are going to be affected, it isn't your "resonance" but will more apply directly to the entire build.

electronic drums will also help in scoping the final approach :wink: have you done any acoustic measurements to determine how much isolation you currently have? some hammer testing to determine how much structural coupling you have? i don't disagree with Brien - you need mass and it needs to be decoupled - your structural engineer on-site can tell what may be possible within reason. do you have an option for a basement build instead? that may be easier to reach the levels of isolation required.

Can you produce a picture(s) of this attic space, so we can see the existing framing and what you may be up against. In respect to QuietRock, it's heavy and may well be outside of your availability to use in this environment. But some pictures would be nice, for me ;)

Thanks, x. I will take some shots and post. K

manksrecords wrote:

Hello, I do not know if you already have completed your studios foundation. But if not float the floors and under the floated floors use hockey pucks.

Do not go there manksrecords....your will not like the out come;) Do not suggest floating a floor unless you have information that can support what you say...not what some one else said and you are just repeating it. And do not even mention hockey pucks unless you are a player of the game.