IAC Soundroom Overkill?

I'm getting ready to do all the overdubs (vocals, acoustics, etc.) on my new album. I tracked drums in a studio (Abe Laboriel Jr.) and to save money I'm doing the rest at home. Anyway, the ISO issue: Whisper Rooms are too expensive, DIY might be frustrating and end up crappy. I'm more concerned about sound getting out -- I want it quiet enough so I can do loud vocals and maybe mic a guitar amp. Solution or overkill: There is a used 12’x14’ IAC – Industrial Acoustics Corporation -- sound room for sale in my area. It's steel and MASSIVE but modular -- not really portable but the reduction specs are double that of a Whisper Room. I could probably play my drums at a medium volume which is appealing. It used to be in a radio station and is only $1,500. it would basically take up my entire living room. It can be assembled in different widths but the ceiling panels are 12 feet so it must be that long. Also, I couldn't use the floor that comes with it because it would be too tall for my 8' ceilings. I'm tempted to just buy it because I could just put it in storage when I'm done and put it in my garage when I buy a house (one day). Any thoughts for or against this idea? It feels like overkill, but it's tempting.

Kirk, IAC makes quality products (arguably some of the best in their field) that are typically implemented in commercial applications. The major concern you should have is that of weight. Most IAC products are composed of copious amounts of steel. In the case of the studio enclosures they manufacture, they often use ~4" thick steel panels. That's solid steel. The weight of typical IAC panels is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15 lb/ft². For a 12'x14' booth with a "standard" IAC height of about 7', the entire IAC room could weigh as much as 4-5 tons. (For reference on this, a typical sedan - like a Toyota Corolla - usually weighs on the order of 1-1.5 tons. Putting the IAC booth in your living room would be roughly equivalent to parking 3-5 Corollas in your living room. :shock: ) IMO, you could only pursue this sort of thing if your living room is built on a concrete slab. Even then, you should consult with a structural engineering expert to ensure the slab is thick enough and reinforced enough to carry 4-5 tons of dead weight. I'm pretty sure typical residential wood-joist floors would be able to accommodate the IAC booth. Rod G. is an expert on this, so he'll hopefully chime in, as appropriate. If you do have a slab floor with the right properties, then...good luck moving that thing in!!! :shock: (By my estimates, a single 2'x7' panel could weigh 150-200 lbs.) Of course, the buy & store option could work too, especially considering the bargain price. I would advise you make sure you have detailed paperwork from the seller regarding assembly, though! ;)

Thanks, as I kind of expected, that's too much of a room to take on. I thought it was thin steel filled with foam or other sound absorbtion material. But even so, it would be heavy, bulky and too much work for the benefit. If I owned a house with a garage, it might be a different story because I could make it permanent. I'm on the second floor of an old building so this IAC room would be foolish, if not impossible to install. I'm mainly looking an iso situation to get rid of the general apartment noise -- fridge buzz, neighbors' TVs bleeding, etc. BUT... I also want it to reduce the sound getting out so I can do long, loud, annoying vocal sessions without driving the neighbors insane. How about a "lite" version of a Whisper Room, maybe built with 2x2 and one layer of drywall and some foam... would that do it?

In general, you're going to spend about as much in time and materials to buiild your own booth as you would on one of the "prefab" varieties. However, the resulting isolation can sometimes turn out better if you DIY, depending on your attention to detail. :) For DIY, I would suggest Rod's book. For fridge buzz, you might try balancing it. I stuck a wood shim under the left front wheel on my fridge and all the buzzing stopped. (Leveled an unbalanced compressor.) If it's an old fridge, though, you might be stuck with the buzz. Good luck!

lovecow wrote:

... However, the resulting isolation can sometimes turn out better if you DIY, depending on your attention to detail. :) For DIY, I would suggest Rod's book..

I'll probably end up building a 6' x 8' x 7' tall room with drywall, particle board and 2" Owens Corning 705 (unless there is a cheaper alternative). One of my concerns is building it in sections small enought to fit through my apartment door which is 6'8" tall. The 8'x7' walls will be too large (and heavy as sh*t) so I was thinking of building them in halves (two 4'x7' sections) and joining them somehow in my apartment. Any tips on locking wall sections together? -- butting the edges together and clamping them together on the inside and out with big locking clamps of some kind.