Hello and Nervous Newbie Request for Advice!

Greetings :D Having just joined and browsed this forum I am impressed at the level of activity, helpful interventions and - clearly - great expertise and experience in all aspects of studio implementation! I have joined because of my own work in progress project here in Isleworth, London UK. This is a small-scale loft conversion to an existing 1930’s property. Building regulations, party wall and planning restrictions are being fully adhered to. The windows are all double glazed. Currently I have a home studio setup in a ground floor room. I am looking for advice on soundproofing and acoustic treatement, as well as organising the room. I am totally non-technical so apologies in advance for any omissions etc. but as well as the notes below I am attaching the building engineer's scale drawings, some rough and ready measurements I made yesterday and some photos I have just taken. There are two studio users here – I am a pianist and work in jazz, acoustic, soundtrack and world music styles (often with female vocals and occasionally live percussion), the other musician is a pianist and guitarist who works in orchestral classical, and sometimes heavy rock with male vocal. I already have most of the studio equipment, a mixture of rack units, microphone/s and PC hardware/software, and monitor with 2x Focal CMS50 and Focal CMS Subwoofer. Neither of us “hammer” the output levels while monitoring, but obviously percussive sounds and live singing do carry. The party wall (on the left hand side of the 1st plan) is protected by some insulated space as you can see, and the neighbours do not currently have a loft room on their side, so I would mainly want to avoid noise carrying ‘diagonally’ down into the neighbour’s first floor area. We are semi-detached on the other side (along with the large volume of unoccupied space between the edge of the loft room and the outer wall) , and with a reasonable size garden and no facing properties, so I am less worried about noise escaping through the windows, roof or other side. It is a pretty quiet area and there is no issue about external noise (traffic, trains etc.) coming in. The loft room sits above two other bedrooms and so sound insulation via the floor is very important; audio monitors and live singing are the primary sources. I may well have a TV in there also. Once insulation is addressed, I am then looking for guidance in terms of acoustic treatment and positioning of equipment. This is a relatively modest setup and a small-ish room so I was not envisioning a sealed vocal area. On the bottom left diagram on the attached sheet I have tentatively indicated where I thought the vocal and monitoring area would go. One consideration was that I would ideally like to have my master keyboard where I could see/interact with the vocalist, since some of the recordings will be “live” performances, but that doesn’t have to be the same location as the mixing area. In terms of budget I am of course looking to use what I have wisely but it is essential that I can use the studio and that means ensuring adequate soundproofing and reasonable acoustic treatment. I'm hoping that £1,000-£2,000 would be enough, but I do have a bit of margin if necessary. I have an experienced builder and team undertaking the work who I hope are capable of undertaking the installation side (and they are very reasonable on cost), but am open to advice on this too. Thanks in advance for any thoughts, advice, comments and so on!! I will post a couple of music links shortly also ...Chris

Hi, Are you currently doing the reno? Or is the work from the exsiting owner? What is your budget for? Just the treatment or the building process? Can you stop works and start from scratch? I don't have the knowledge to help you with the flanking path down to your neighbour in such a small room. But I assume it will need to be fixed via bandaid methods..... The slopping plaster work though, I think you can start again using 2 x layers of 16mm plaster board and build with some more care than standard house builds. Stagger the layers and seal all joins as you go. Sorry I am only going off the pixilated pic attached.

Lilith Envy, thanks for the response - some developments to report and I'll answer your questions too ... I am the owner and working with a local builder - since the original post I brought in a studio consultant (Howard Turner, a well-established specialist here who has written for various Music Tech Mags) who has given various recommendations both for soundproofing and acoustic treatment. I attach a summary document outlining some of his key recommendations - I will have to discuss costs with the builder and see what is possible. A few initial questions arise from his visit and report; you'll see his specs and suggested positioning for HF panels and tuned bass traps (if I understand it right, the long one on the northern wall is a split comprising two differently tuned panels). I'm assuming I can just buy acoustic panels of the suggested size or close to, there seem to be quite a few suppliers. There are some places which allow to customise the screen with a photo or design, which is quite appealing. I'd like to do the same with the bass traps too, although his specs seem a lot deeper than the products I've seen on sale on line. Or should I let the builder work from his diagrams? Also, I'm not sure where the 'flying' panels should go - simplest thing is probably just to ask! In terms of the process of sealing ... I wondered whether this was a DIY opportunity which might take some pressure of the budget also. I'm happy to spend hours and hours working around the room filling in any visible cracks with sealer assuming that this is something an unskilled novice can do. What do you think? One key observation he made was that, short of creating a room within a room (which is structurally not feasible), it was impossible to expect 100% sound isolation. Since the impact of studio use on neighbours and other house residents is only problematic after 11pm, my current feeling is to use the budget selectively: rather than spend every penny on isolation (given that it can't be totally effective). I will invest in a high-end headphone monitoring option for late-night mixing and arranging work (I'm unlikely to be recording vocals at 3am) - I'm thinking Sennheiser HD800 or HD650 (or possibly AKG K702 which has been recommended for my styles of music), along with a Graham Slee headphone amp and the Focusrite VRM filter. Seem like a good idea? Thanks and best wishes :D Chris