what size wallboard should i use for my basement recording studio? is 5/8" necessary or could i get by with 1/2" im doing a double wall between my control room and tracking room, with a 3" gap between the 2 walls, with 705 between the studs of each wall, and sheetrock on the outer "leafs" so to speak. standard "two leaf" double wall, the way most people recommend it be done on this mb.
ive searched many threads on this matter and couldnt really come up with an answer. thanks
wallboard/sheetrock thickness?
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knightfly
- Senior Member
- Posts: 6976
- Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2003 11:11 am
- Location: West Coast, USA
There are too many variables for there to be one definitive answer to this question, that's why you couldn't find one 
You don't mention whether you need good isolation from upstairs, or neighbors, or if you're 4 miles from anyone who cares - this makes it hard to answer what you would be able to use. The 1/2" wallboard gives slightly less isolation than the 5/8", but that small difference can easily be lost by wrong construction methods. The best combination performance wise is to use 2, or even 3, different thicknesses of wallboard and to make each of the 2 leaves of the double framed wall different from the other. This way, no two barriers have the same frequency of resonance, and so no one frequency gets through easily.
If you're using two layers on each of two leaves, using 1/2" instead of 5/8" will be the same as if you'd used one less layer of wallboard on one side of the wall. That may not be a problem if you don't play too loud, dont have picky/close neighbors, etc - at this point I can only guess, so you'd need to give more information... Steve
You don't mention whether you need good isolation from upstairs, or neighbors, or if you're 4 miles from anyone who cares - this makes it hard to answer what you would be able to use. The 1/2" wallboard gives slightly less isolation than the 5/8", but that small difference can easily be lost by wrong construction methods. The best combination performance wise is to use 2, or even 3, different thicknesses of wallboard and to make each of the 2 leaves of the double framed wall different from the other. This way, no two barriers have the same frequency of resonance, and so no one frequency gets through easily.
If you're using two layers on each of two leaves, using 1/2" instead of 5/8" will be the same as if you'd used one less layer of wallboard on one side of the wall. That may not be a problem if you don't play too loud, dont have picky/close neighbors, etc - at this point I can only guess, so you'd need to give more information... Steve
Soooo, when a Musician dies, do they hear the white noise at the end of the tunnel??!? Hmmmm...