John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello all, I have been reading these forums for about 3 days and this is my first post.

I have an studio apartment that has had the bathroom totally gutted/stripped down to: concrete floor, wooden studs with batted fiberglass insulation between most of them and that's about it.

The room measures 8' long x 5' wide x 8' high.

I have hung some 5' x 8' rugs along the walls - screwed into the studs and over the 6" insulation between studs.

Yes, I know, I know, this is pretty pointless to do for sound reinforcement, which brings me to my real first question.

Would it be better to leave things as is and add some bass traps to the room, OR put up sheetrock over the wood framing and then add bass traps and other panels?

Looking for a place to start

GJ

Are you more concerned with sound proofing, or good sound in the room? In a room that small, really good sound isn't possible - all you can do is make it "less bad". If you could provide a few more ideas of what you plan to do there, it would help too... Steve

It sounds to me like you're not worried about sound transmission, correct me if I'm wrong. If so, here's what I would do, probably:

-pull out all the insulation and caulk all the joints in the open wall, i.e. between studs and sheathing on the other side
-put in 1-2" 703 in between all the joists, depending on;
-the panel traps you're going to make in between the 2x4 studs. alternate Ethan's low and high bass absorbers all the way around, with the 1/4 in skins of the low absorbers on the faces of the 2x4's, and the 1/8" skins of the high ones recessed on 2x2's up against the studs.
-hang 703 a couple inches in front of the walls and ceiling anywhere you're getting a first reflection.
-get a pair of small monitors, something that doesn't go down lower than, say, 60hz but sounds good to you otherwise. put them up.
-continue to add absorption as needed until the room is good and tight, and make sure it's *all* spaced off wall and ceiling some to get some low mids as well- you can't afford to just knock some highs off with some of the treatments, they have to do double duty.
-get a pair of headphones with smooth, deep bottom end to check the bottom octave or two.

I'm sure there are worse ways of dealing with a tiny space, but don't take my word for it.