The very simple studio

[troutstudio]

Hi, thanks for having me. I have been reading the posts; bought the Gervais book and read it; but it seems as though everything is geared to a production studio. I have a garage in a rented property and I need a space to practice drums and record home projects. I did this in a spare room at the old place. It was upstairs, noise was not really an issue and I even recorded the vocals and drums and mixed albums there (and in the car, as the saying goes). I really need to make a start on this so I'd like to ask just a few quick questions if I may.

Room: 7m x 5m double garage; single brick; slanted metal roof - 3.1m to ceiling at one end, 2.3m at the other; tilta-door plus rear door; one window; adjoins lounge room; corner block.
Neighbours: not really a big issue, corner block
Problems: Train line 300 metres away. Not busy. Planes in the morning. No money!
Goals: open plan studio; drum practice and drum restoration; kids practice room; recording vocals (probably build a vocal booth), drums and assemble and mix songs.
Budget Preferably $3000 - $4000.
Experience I've "soundproofed" two spaces before, one was a studio for hire for demos. They were both "rooms within a room" I am a reasonably handy person; I restore drums for fun.

Because I'll be leaving here one day; I want to treat the room for mixing using removable items; either hand made or purchased - like Auralex products or similar. I'm considering blocking the metal door with a wall made from shipping pallets; I might put a divider up between the storage and workbench area in a similar manner. I want to be able to return the room to a Very Nice Garage. I don't intended to float the floor just thick coverings. I use the room to keep my drum kits and it's nice and dry and solid. I did very rough soundcheck last night. Set up a pair of monitors and played some music and measured on an SPL iPhone app. Here are the results:

90db at 1M from the source
68db standing outside at the metal door - coming from the gaps - it's a thick door actually.
50db standing outside at the left wall - this faces the street and the neighbour over the road; also the train is that way. It was pretty much unnoticeable over the road.
55db standing outside at the rear door standard old shed door not solid core.
47db standing in the lounge room close to the wall which the rooms share. Not really annoying for my family, but I'd like to damp that down.

How far down? Well, drums are louder than the Kaiser Chiefs, but I'm not a loud player and I don't play for long. I'm a one or two take drummer and it's not Slipknot. If I could bring the level down 10 -15db that would probably be fine. I think sealing the metal door will make a huge difference.

I'd love to just make a start on the ceiling (as there isn't one!) For my budget I'm thinking :

1. Lots of rock wool or batts (but leaving air too) There is insulation in the roof but it's not thick.
2. 16mm firecheck plasterboard; hung from channel (so it's disconnected from the roof) attached to the joists (not from the big bearers - see pics)
3. Seal all gaps very carefully.

Questions:
a) does the ceiling sound ok for what I want the room for (no midnight sessions or rock music)?
b) where can I find this famous RC2 or noise channel in Australia; or will some of the other brands of isolating hardware work? Gyprock have a system and so does Boral I believe. Any good? I found something similar here http://www.networkbuilding.com.au/index ... ail&p=1153.
c) lastly and most importantly - fire away with any tips for avoiding disaster with the ceiling or recommendations.

I've tried my best to follow protocol and not waste anyone's time - and I do thank you sincerely for your time (and I did donate for the cause:-) cheers, pk.

[DavidC77]

A couple of thoughts:

You will certainly need to add mass to the ceiling, as a metal sheet roof with minimal insulation doesn't offer you much. Tough in a rental situation, but hanging gyprock is certainly easiest and inexpensive, and as there is no-one above you I would think it would be adequate. Why are you using resilient channel? If you're hanging from the upper joists not the big bearers, I would assume that the hanging gyprock will butt up against the bearers anyway, making the channel redundant as you have negated any isolation from the outer leaf?

The garage door, back door and window are the other weakest links. Your idea of a temporary stud walls front and back will be necessary to get any decent isolation, and the question you will have to ask yourself then will be if you have already done new front and back stud walls, is it much more trouble and finance to do the other two walls and an independent ceiling to make a proper room-within-a-room? Depends if you can stretch your budget, but the isolation difference would be significant.

Hope that helps