General newbie help...basement practice/recording room

Hi. I have been lurking a little bit here recently and I feel like I'm getting overwhelmed with all this. Maybe one of you fine gents could provide some simple guidance? FYI, I have read the sticky request to provide as much information as possible, etc. It's not that I'm not serious about my project, but I have so much to learn yet that I don't think I'm even at that point in my thinking yet to have this stuff mapped out. In general here's what I want to do, I'd really appreciate just some pointers in the type of setup that I should begin doing research into. I want to set up a room in my basement to practice my music alone or with others, and do some basic recording. I'm not going to setup a "studio" persay, but I want the ability to record. That's fine, I can figure that aspect of it out as I go...but the main issue I need to address is that I need to isolate this room from the rest of the house so I can bang on the drums, play the bass and guitar and disturb the rest of the family as little as possible. Having it completely silent in the rest of the house even when I'm hitting the drums would be ideal, but I'm thinking it is not likely to be feasible in any practical sense. The two areas I'm considering closing off and sound-proofing will either have 2 concrete walls and concrete floor OR 3 concrete walls, concrete floor, but a window in one of the concrete walls. From concrete floor to bottom of the joists above is about 7'6"...not very much space vertically. Neighbors are definitely a huge consideration because I have houses within 20 feet of mine on either side. The ideal LOCATION, in my opinion, is a section that would be about 9'6" X 14' that would have 2 concrete walls to work with and no window. The other area would be bigger and 3 concrete walls but would have a window and I'd rather save that area for rec room. Ok. With that overview I would just like some general guidance with which to start seriously thinking about this. My main questions at this point are: -Can I realistically get one of the spaces summarized above to be relatively quiet from outside of the room? -Having two sheets of drywall per side and maybe some green glue between, could this bring volume outside the room to anywhere near silent? -Are my concrete walls that are fully below ground soundproof enough to where they won't require two sheets of drywall on each side of 2x4 studs to stop the sound? -will my concrete floor transmit bass drum and bass guitar to the rest of the house, or will it pretty much eat it up? Again, I don't expect anyone to map out a design for me, just give me some basic direction if possible. Thanks a bunch. Dave

Hi Dave, 1st thing you need to do (after updating your profile to include your location) is get Rod's book. It's available on Amazon, and worth it's weight in gold. It'll answer a lot of your questions and you'll get a sense of whether or not what you're wanting to achieve is possible with your budget. It will also tell you why putting drywall on both sides of a 2x4 wall next to a concrete wall is not a good idea ;) Hope this helps, good luck!

Thanks Joe. I had looked at Rod's book and some of the comments seemed to indicate that the information included within would likely way beyond what I'm looking to do. Again, I'm not looking to build a studio as much as just isolate an area for practice and some demo-recording. I don't mind shelling out the $$$ if it will apply to my situation. My initial impressions were that it would be too advanced/technical for my needs. Thanks, Dave

A quick response. If you are looking for max bang-for-buck isolation in a basement on a concrete slab, you'll want to do this: * build a room-in-a-room, with the wall frames connected directly to the concrete floor. Also, use ceiling joists so you can create a ceiling in your room. * use double-drywall construction, with Green Glue in between the layers of drywall if you have the budget. As Rod shows, all the drywall should be on ONE SIDE ONLY of the frame. * make everything airtight, including the door. That should get you pretty far in terms of isolation. If you have Rod's book, it's all in there. Just realize that isolation is a lot of work, needing a lot of materials put in exactly the right place to work correctly.