I am planning a move from my in-home studio space to a newly constructed space. I live in a very wooded rural area, no exterior noise to speak of. I own the land. I want to do the majority of the work myself. My plan is a small studio (around 1200 square ft) (30x40) 10 foot ceilings all around with a small apartment/writing area included. A main room, control room, small equipment area, restroom/with shower shared between the apartment and studio. Because of the rural setting many artists want to stay in the area while recording. I primaily record acoustic singer/songwriters but do track string sections (4 to 6) and drums occasionally. The constrution will be on a concrete slab 4" with 12" beams around perimeter and along interior walls. The walls interior and exterior will be hadite (concrete block) 8x8x16 with the voids filled with sand. A freind is giving me sufficient block to do the building, so the wall materials are free except for labor. My question is how sound proof will 8 inch block walls be with sand filled voids? I can't seem to get any idea. One additional question is how different are the reflective properties of concrete floors as opposed to wood? I was hoping to paint or floors in one or more rooms and use stategically located rugs and or wood areas. Is concrete floors and brick walls going to raise hell with reflections and sound like an aircraft hanger. I know I can add absorbsion but if the interior sound is going take MASSIVE amounts of treatment it might be cheaper to find another way to build. However the hadite blocks are free so that is a significant consideration.
Any suggestions apprectiated.
Randy Brown
PS> Great site and wonderful information here!!!
East Texas Studio Questions
-
brownr
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2004 2:35 am
- Location: East Texas Piney Woods
- Contact:
East Texas Studio Questions
"Avoid all endeavors requiring new clothing." H.D. Thoreau
-
knightfly
- Senior Member
- Posts: 6976
- Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2003 11:11 am
- Location: West Coast, USA
Randy, you're looking at somewhere between 57-60 dB STC, with TL being weakest at around 72 hZ (the critical frequency), coming in at around 33-34 dB@ 60 hZ, and with an evenly rising TL toward higher frequencies - most, if not all of these blocks tend to be kind of porous, so you will need to put two coats of fairly heavy paint on both sides to get those results.
With that setup, a kick drum @ 90 dBa inside would just start to become audible outside - so at typical levels of around 110 dB, you would hear a small amount of low frequency bleed close to the walls, which should be pretty well masked at 100 feet with just typical outside noises; trees, birds, killer psycho's with chain saws, etc...
Concrete, if done right, looks really cool stained - do a google search on stained concrete, you should pop up some DIY stuff on it - sound-wise, as long as the stiffness and mass of a wall or floor is the same, hard is hard - I've never noticed much (if any) difference in sound between concrete, linoleum, wood, even some kinds of tile - they're all pretty bright.
With effectively solid concrete walls and a slab, you will need quite a bit of bass trapping in any room to keep the boom under control; if you can, leave about 3 feet more wall height than you think you'll need, then you can do a sloped inner ceiling that's porous around the perimeters, with a varying space above - this can be fairly filled with standard non-faced insulation, and will do a fair job of killing quite a bit of the boom. We can get into more detail as you get closer to completion, but the main thing is to provide for the needed extra ceiling height when doing the walls.
Of course, your ceilings will need to ALSO provide at least as much isolation, or this is all a moot point; weakest link, and all that - you need to plan your roof/ceiling so that the outer mass is heavy enough not to weaken your isolation.
It's not come up yet where someone used a single heavy mass wall outside, so it will take me a bit to think of a good way to couple the ceiling and walls without compromising anything - I'll have to get back to you on that one... Steve
With that setup, a kick drum @ 90 dBa inside would just start to become audible outside - so at typical levels of around 110 dB, you would hear a small amount of low frequency bleed close to the walls, which should be pretty well masked at 100 feet with just typical outside noises; trees, birds, killer psycho's with chain saws, etc...
Concrete, if done right, looks really cool stained - do a google search on stained concrete, you should pop up some DIY stuff on it - sound-wise, as long as the stiffness and mass of a wall or floor is the same, hard is hard - I've never noticed much (if any) difference in sound between concrete, linoleum, wood, even some kinds of tile - they're all pretty bright.
With effectively solid concrete walls and a slab, you will need quite a bit of bass trapping in any room to keep the boom under control; if you can, leave about 3 feet more wall height than you think you'll need, then you can do a sloped inner ceiling that's porous around the perimeters, with a varying space above - this can be fairly filled with standard non-faced insulation, and will do a fair job of killing quite a bit of the boom. We can get into more detail as you get closer to completion, but the main thing is to provide for the needed extra ceiling height when doing the walls.
Of course, your ceilings will need to ALSO provide at least as much isolation, or this is all a moot point; weakest link, and all that - you need to plan your roof/ceiling so that the outer mass is heavy enough not to weaken your isolation.
It's not come up yet where someone used a single heavy mass wall outside, so it will take me a bit to think of a good way to couple the ceiling and walls without compromising anything - I'll have to get back to you on that one... Steve