Seeking Advice/Guidance on New Studio in Townhome

Hello, This is my first post on this site, so I'll do my best to follow the rules. I've done quite a bit of searches and researching (spent a better part of yesterday and today tooling around the site), so I'll try to keep my questions specific to the unique requirements of my studio.... so here goes. OVERVIEW: I am having a new townhome being built near Chicago, in which I would like to locate my project studio. I am planning on locating my studio in the lower garage area, which also has an adjacent room that I will use for my control room. The garage area (23 feet x 20 feet x 9 feet high) will be the live room. The adjacent room (23 x 11 x 9 feet high) will be the control room. Since these are "cookie-cutter" type of townhomes, I have little control over the construction of the basic shell and most of the internal walls as they will stand once I get in the unit. So the drawing that I have attached is how I will get the unit. UNIT CONSTRUCTION AS IT STANDS NOW: I am purchasing a middle unit, so I will have neighbors on both sides. At the grade at which the proposed live room and control room stand, I will have concrete walls (8" thick) in between myself and my neighbors. The far right wall (as you look at the drawing), will also have additional 2 x 4 construction with 5/8 drywall attached to it and R-11 insulation inside. The left wall and bottom wall in the live room will be 2 x 6 construction with 5/8 drywall and R-11 insulation. The top wall in the picture is actually the garage door. It is an insulated hollow steel construction. The ceiling has 5/8 drywall as well, which is attached to engineered joists. The floor will be concrete, not sure what the standard is.. probably 4 to 6 inches thick. SOUND PROOFING GOALS: I would like to be able to record middle of the road rock (think Tom Petty or Wilco) type of bands, but will also record the occassional hard rock band. So, first and foremost, I need to isolate myself from the neighbors as the first priority. Since I already have 8 inches of concrete, backed by 2 x 4 drywall, Im just not sure what that will provide in the way of isolation from the neighbor on the right side of me. My neighbor to the left is separated from my live room by a similar concrete wall and 2 x 4 drywall, but also by a hallway and another wall. I am not too concerned about sound traveling up into the living area of my townhome, since I live alone. But, I also have to contend with the garage door, and I need to keep the garage door functional, without a permanent wall in front of it. Lastly, I know I will need some additional isolation between my control room and live room. SOUND ENHANCEMENT GOALS: I know I have issues to contend with there, but I have found lots of good ideas on bass traps, slat resonators and gobos all over the site.. and since my post is already running long, I'll save any sound enhancement questions for later... my goal with this post is isolating myself from my neighbors. CONSTRUCTION LIMITATIONS: Since its a new townhome, Id really like to avoid ripping off the brand new drywall. I also cannot move any existing walls or doors as they serve other purposes. I am not opposed to adding additional walls inside however. But, I cannot wall off my garage door permanently, as I may need to park a car there someday. I was considering making several floor-to-ceiling gobos backed by drywall/mdf and putting them in place in front of the garage door with some type of neoprene seal. Im also not going to put a window between the control room and live room, I am going to put a camera with a video feed to the control room instead. BUDGET: Would like to keep it around 5k, but can stretch it to 7500 if it will make a big difference. And I can do the construction myself. THE BIG QUESTIONS: 1) How good is the isolation from my neighbors as it stands now? 2) If the answer to number 1 is "probably not so good", what do I need to do to get it so I am not dealing with complaints? 3) What would be the best solution for putting a "non-permanent" wall in front of my garage door? 4) Would building a drum riser floated on neoprene pads help alleviate the transfer of vibration of the kick & toms? I've seen several designs on this and other sites that discuss converting a garage into a studio, but all of them treat it as a permanent conversion. I need to keep my garage a functional garage if I need it to be at some point... which is probably my biggest challenge, so thats the hand I have to play at the moment. Thanks in advance for the help and advice.

Before I can answer your questions about isolation, I need a bit more info (although you've been more thorough than most :) ) - On your side walls, are the frames inside your concrete walls TOUCHING the concrete or are they spaced away a bit? If possible, a detail sketch with dimensions would help. Other problem areas I see for isolation between neighbors - IF your ceiling drywall is directly attached to the joists, and if those joists run continuously into your neighbor's place (or touch something that DOES intrude into that space), you will HAVE to remove the drywall and hang it instead from resilient mounts; either Resilient Channel, or (better) from RSIC clips and hat channel. IF your wall's inner frame is NOT separated from the concrete walls, this will ALSO be a flanking path to the neighbors and will also require resilient mounts, which will entail removal of drywall, install mounting system, and replace drywall (minimum two layers of 5/8") Drum isolation (especially flanking thru the slab into neighbor's) would be helped somewhat by a floated riser (if done correctly) but would also require heavier wall (at least one more layer of drywall on the resilient mounts, better if Green Glue is used between layers. Biggest problem is not being able to permanently close off the garage door; an operable garage door is typically a REALLY poor sound isolator - almost no mass in panels, poor seals... Even if you were to be able to seal those panels better, the lack of mass would mean that to get any serious degree of isolation you'd need to compensate by using REALLY heavy mass for the INNER leaf (and placing it at least 12-16" away from the door) - so even if you were to come up with a design that allowed multiple 4x8 wall sections to be moved into place and tightly sealed, each 4x8 section would weigh about 350 pounds. Also - acoustically, a non-symmetrical control room will make it nearly impossible to get balanced, translatable mixes - the slight angle at the rear isn't a large problem, but that rectangular "bite" out of the front corner is. Those are the main challenges as I see them... Steve

Thanks for all your help Steve. I'm going to go through your list of concerns and then hopefully I can come up with a workable solution. I've copied and pasted most of your original post, and my responses will be in CAPS for ease of reading... Im not yelling. :D On your side walls, are the frames inside your concrete walls TOUCHING the concrete or are they spaced away a bit? If possible, a detail sketch with dimensions would help. THEY ARE SPACED AWAY A BIT, BUT IM SURE THERE ARE RANDOM CONTACT POINTS, BUT DEFINITELY NOT FIRMLY ATTACHED. FOR SOME REASON, IM NOT ABLE TO POST PICS... NOT SURE WHAT HAPPENED, I'LL HAVE TO FIGURE THAT ONE OUT LATER. Other problem areas I see for isolation between neighbors - IF your ceiling drywall is directly attached to the joists, and if those joists run continuously into your neighbor's place (or touch something that DOES intrude into that space), you will HAVE to remove the drywall and hang it instead from resilient mounts; either Resilient Channel, or (better) from RSIC clips and hat channel. IF your wall's inner frame is NOT separated from the concrete walls, this will ALSO be a flanking path to the neighbors and will also require resilient mounts, which will entail removal of drywall, install mounting system, and replace drywall (minimum two layers of 5/8") THE JOISTS DO NOT CONTINUE INTO THE NEIGHBORS PLACE, BUT THERE ARE RANDOM CONTACT POINTS THAT CONNECT WITH THE CONCRETE WALL THAT DIVIDES ME FROM MY NEIGHBORS. THANKS FOR THE RSIC CLIPS AND HAT CHANNEL ADVICE... I'LL RESEARCH WHERE TO GET THAT. Drum isolation (especially flanking thru the slab into neighbor's) would be helped somewhat by a floated riser (if done correctly) but would also require heavier wall (at least one more layer of drywall on the resilient mounts, better if Green Glue is used between layers. THANKS! I'LL SEARCH THE SITE FOR DRUM RISER IDEAS. Biggest problem is not being able to permanently close off the garage door; an operable garage door is typically a REALLY poor sound isolator - almost no mass in panels, poor seals... Even if you were to be able to seal those panels better, the lack of mass would mean that to get any serious degree of isolation you'd need to compensate by using REALLY heavy mass for the INNER leaf (and placing it at least 12-16" away from the door) - so even if you were to come up with a design that allowed multiple 4x8 wall sections to be moved into place and tightly sealed, each 4x8 section would weigh about 350 pounds. YES, I AGREE. I AM CONSIDERING BUILDING A DRUM ISO BOOTH IN ONE CORNER OF THE ROOM, AND CREATING SMALLER "ISO-BOXES" FOR GUITAR AMPS... AND THEN PASS OUT THE HEADPHONES. :D Also - acoustically, a non-symmetrical control room will make it nearly impossible to get balanced, translatable mixes - the slight angle at the rear isn't a large problem, but that rectangular "bite" out of the front corner is. YES, I NOTICED THAT TOO. THAT "BITE" CANNOT BE REMOVED, BUT I CAN PUT A SYMMETRICAL "FALSE WALL" MADE OUT OF BASS TRAPS IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE CONSOLE. DO YOU THINK THAT WILL DO THE TRICK?

Risers - http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3771 http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4013 RSIC's - try here http://www.silentsource.com/rsic.html If you were to put 4" mineral wool (3PCF) all the way across the front including the "bite", it should work. Either a sand-filled floor or concrete floated one with inner wall frames built on the floated slab, ceiling frame sitting on outer walls (of the booth) and 2-3 layers of drywall in and out would be a good drum booth... Steve

You rock Steve, that was worth the wait! Okay, I think I have enough to keep me busy for a while. I'll post again when I have a design for the drum room. One last thing, I did find the post for the floating drum riser using 4" Rockwool as a bottom layer. But I already have surplus 2" 705 though.. is that a fair substitution? Lastly if my sheets of 705 are 4 x 8, and I want to make an 8 x 8 drum riser, can I cut a single 4 x 8 sheet into 6" wide (x 8 foot) strips and then space them at 6" intervals...or is that sacrificing strength of the floor with no real acoustic benefit? Thanks again! :D

Without trying that, I can't say it will work; but here are some of the factors - A constant contact with insulation across it's breadth will damp a panel more than intermittent strips, so there's more potential of resonance with the strips. A 2" thick batt with the same exact panel laid on top will resonate (be weakest) at about 1 octave higher than a 4" batt - in most cases, the lower you can get this resonance (preferably over an octave BELOW the lowest frequency you want to isolate) the better. Realistically though, this would take a 4" (AFTER compression) panel with about 6" of CONCRETE on top of it to get that low in frequency, so it's possible that the higher frequency "weak spot" might fall in a frequency range that's less obnoxious by using a thinner batt. 705 should be stiff enough (without being TOO stiff) to support your panels, but if possible I'd use FOUR of your 4x8 panels - lay two side by side, then two more oriented at 90 degrees to those on top, then your (preferably thick and heavy) panels. A second pair of wood panels (again, at 90 degrees to the first pair) would help tie this together, and just a few screws between layers should make a pretty stable platform with good damping. The lighter the wood panels and the less contact with insulation, the more you'd be building a giant drum head (not good) Steve