Confusion about room within a room construction.

I'm about to rent a space in a warehousing area, all of the walls separating the different bays are 2x6 construction with 5/8 drywall on each side. This 30x60 space will house 4 practice rooms and a small studio. I managed to find a bay with existing offices and a large room in the back for a studio. The room will be a 20x30 one room studio, ceiling height is approx 19 ft. The end two 20 ft walls will connect my space with the adjacent bays. (the ones with the 2x6 single leaf 5/8 construction. One 30 ft wall will be against a concrete exterior wall with a large roll-up style bay door (to be covered). The opposite 30 ft wall will be an attempt at reducing the noise from the 4 practice rooms, two of which will be immediately on the other side of the wall that I will build. (all walls for the office spaces were built as insulated single studs with one layer of 5/8 drywall on either side. I will be recording all manner of music, loud drums and guitars, bass etc. I also intend to have a PA in this space as it will be used as a practice room also. I intend to leave 8-12 inches of space between the existing walls and my new walls. I would build the walls like this. Existing layer of drywall 8-12 inch space, 2x4 stud (wood or steel upon your suggestion), frame, insulation and 2 layers 5/8 drywall. The ceiling is roughly 19 feet high, I'm not really sure what to do about the ceiling yet. Any suggestions would be appreciated. budget is minimal $3000-$4000 USD. I have two questions... 1. Will I need to layer drywall on the inside and outside of my frame, between the existing wall and my new studs/insulation? 2. Is there any difference in spacing studs 16 or 24 inches apart? edited to provide more information

shakestheclown wrote:

1. Will I need to layer drywall on the inside and outside of my frame, between the existing wall and my new studs/insulation?

No. In fact you are better off not doing that. Put all the drywall on the same face. The more mass the better, and all the mass should be on the same side. Depending on how many layers you install, you may need to build reinforced frames.

shakestheclown wrote:

2. Is there any difference in spacing studs 16 or 24 inches apart?

Yes. 24" performs better acoustically, believe it or not. But check the code requirements in your area. They may not be legal, especially if they are load bearing, bringing us to.... You ask about the ceiling, I'd build out the rooms and then give each room its own ceiling, using rafters attached to your walls. Put as many layers of sheetrock on the ceiling as you do on the walls, and make the whole assembly airtight. There is a diagram of how to do this in the stickys of this forum.

Have you really considered how far that budget will go with the cost of materials/tools/and finish products? Sounds like a large space with not a whole lot of money. For consideration i have spent about $2k already just into beefing up a 20x16 garage space exterior walls, resourcing some of the materials at less than retail from want ads (ie insulation,sheetrock). If i get away with this whole thing for less than 5k finished nicely (not including electronic gear) i will be happy! The costs sure add up fast and having to stick to a small budget does cause one to make some sacrifices (like not floating floors) but you can save money by recycling some of the old drywall if carefully removed to be placed in between the studs of the walls for the beef up! Get some pics for us to see

OK, concerning the practice rooms, they have already been built with single leaf construction. I intended to add another layer of drywall to the interior of all the walls. The ceiling is an insulated drop ceiling that I was considering just capping off with rafters and drywall. The bay immediately next door (to the left) to those rooms is vacant ATM. The ceiling looks like this...( I am standing on what I believe to be the 2 layers of 1 inch plywood that covers the other half of the space.) You are looking the long way (60 ft.) into the the empty space in the back that will be used for the studio. I guess I'm not looking for perfection here...for the rooms because of what already exists. Just something to keep the neighbors-to-be from having me evicted.

This is the back room where I am more concerned with isolation... Landlord says all drywall will be finished... what that means I'm not really sure. I guess if he just hangs it and doesn't tape and mud it I'll get to do that too but, whatever. I'm also not sure what to do with the staircase as I forgot to measure it to see if I could turn it 90 degrees or something. I assume airspace is the answer to the separation between the studio and practice rooms?? Is 8 inches enough? Will the wall against the rehersal spaces need to reach the ceiling? Any suggestions about how to cover the bay door?? There is a "spool" that it rolls onto above it. about 7 feet up the wall and it probably sticks out about 2 feet...