New Construction - Estrogen Escape

I am a drummer in search of a place to practice without annoying anyone. I and my family (wife & 2 daughers) live in a 3,000 square foot house on a 1 acre lot in Southlake, Texas (close to Dallas/Fort Worth). I am in the planning stages for a 25'x35' detached structure in the backyard to serve as an estrogen escape for me. The primary purpose of the building will be a drum rehearsal space. Secondary uses will be a retreat for me with couch, big screen TV, wet bar, and bathroom. I'm thinking the building could be marketed as a guest house/cabana if we ever decide to move. I plan to play my drums loud and eventually have band rehearsals/writing sessions in this space. Some amateur recording may occur in the future but I'm not attempting to obtain recording quality accoustics within the room. My primary goal is sufficient isolation to play drums whenever I want. The budget for the building could be as high as $50,000. Goal: Expecting to generate 110dBA and hope to achieve outside levels of 50dBA, requiring STC of 60. Local noise ordinance requires no greater than 60dBA. Definitely need to stay under legal limit and not disturb neighbors. Nearest neighbor will be 60 feet away and that would be the outside wall of their master bedroom. The building will be at least 150' from the street. There is an undeveloped commercial lot bordering the rear of the property. The exterior of the building will be brick to match the main house. The remainder of the construction is open for consideration. Challenges: High STC rating required. I want to design the building with a bathroom, kitchette/bar area and a storage closet. I'm planning to have the ceiling over the main room be vaulted. The only windows in the building will be in the main room at the end (25' wide) overlooking our backyard. I envision this wall having large double see through doors leading out to a patio. I want as much of this wall to be glass as possible with glass doors and windows all the way up to the peak of the vaulted ceilings. Since this building will also be used as an entertainment room/guest house, I would like to achieve the isolation without building a room within a room utilizing double doors. Any other type of high mass build is open for consideration. Options: I have the opportunity to purchase a used 7.5'x10.5" enhanced Whisperroom for $3,500 delivered to my door. The specs for the Whisperroom are: Frequency ( Hertz ): 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000 Reduction ( dB ): --- 30 -- 44 -- 53 -- 61 -- 67 -- 68 I could purchase the Whisperroom and incorporate it into the main room of the building. If so, I could take it with me if I ever move. I am assuming it would be much easier to design the building to meet the STC goal by utilizing the Whisperrom within the building. The drawback to the Whisperrom is that it is quite large to incorporate into a building yet quite small to be spending a lot of time in (especially if anyone wanted to join me). I would hate to let the Whisperroom get away and then later determine that incorporating it would have been the smartest option. The alternative would be to build the building with enough mass (if possible) to provide comparable STC results while incorporating the design features of a vaulted ceiling and large windows and glass doors. I have a friend (who admitadly has little experience with sound isolation) in the construction business who keeps telling me that it won't be a big problem obtaining the isolation required for the building without incorporating the Whisperroom. I'm having a hard time believing him. Questions I have: 1. Can I achieve the desired STC without a room within a room design? 2. Can I achieve the desired STC with a vaulted ceiling without a room within a room design? 3. Can I achieve the desired STC with the desired glass doors and windows on the one wall? 4. Given the relatively low cost of the Whisperroom ($3,500), would it be wiser to incorporate the Whisperroom into the building to achieve the desired STC rather than attempting to isolate the entire building? 5. If I do incorporate the Whisperroom into the building, what construction methods/materials would you recommend for the walls, ceiling, and windows to provide additional isolation? I have been visiting and reading this board for over a year in anticipation of this project and have been impressed with the amount of knowledge and information contained here. I have also read Rod's book at least once - certain sections multiple times. Thank you all in advance for any help you can provide. Todd

The more I thought about it I realized that while I am in the process of designing my space, my questions are more construction related. So, since I don't know how to move a post, I have reposted my original thread in the Construction Forum. If I need to delete this thread, I will. Please advise.