Rundown: My family owns a 3-family home with 2 small 1-Bedroom apartments side by side on the 1st floor and a large 2-bedroom apartment on 2nd floor w/ an extra 3rd floor knee-wall bedroom. I'm moving into one of the small apartments. Both of the two small apartments have a bathroom, kitchen, living room, and bedroom. The main difference is the other small apartment has a larger bathroom, slightly larger kitchen, and slightly smaller bedroom. The only wall separation between the 2 small apartments are the bedrooms, these are separated by a front hallway. This front hallway can be accessed through the front porch door, a door in the living room of my apartment, and a stairway from the large upstairs apartment. All apartments have separate outside entrances and there is also a basement.
Studio Room Choice: I wanted it to be the living room due to the larger area and because of the poor window setup in the bedroom. However, the bedroom is not connected to the other small apartment, it doesn't have a heating floor vent like the large one in the living room, theres only 1 doorway as opposed to 3 in the living room, and the room above it doesn't get as much noise coming up due to the large furniture and rug...Bedroom is the better choice right?...Thoughts?
Soundproofing: I'm not looking to make it completely dead silent or anything, just want to make it a lot quieter for the other apartments, mainly upstairs and outside. I'd like to be able to listen back on my monitors and produce music at normal volumes without bothering anyone. What I'm trying to achieve is - Only being able to faintly hear muffled audio with ear to floor and tv off. Upstairs shouldn't hear me when their tv is on at low to normal volume.
Normally, 1x2 strip board is used to create the separation from drywall ceiling to panels. I will most likely double or triple that to get the spacing to like 3 inches.
CEILING: I'm not taking down walls and ceiling, so I have to somewhat build a room within the room. I would like to start with the ceiling by paneling over the existing one but dropping it down further than you normally would for that. I would either be using tongue-and-groove wood panels (like pictured) or styled MDF Panels (cost effective). The space in between would be filled with something that would help the soundproofing. With what, I'm not sure yet...Thoughts/Advice?
I also want to install four LED color selectable Canless Recessed Lighting. So that might have to be taken into consideration with what & how the space between the drywall and new paneled ceiling is filled with.
WALLS: I may end up panelling just like the ceiling, but probably only on the wall against the front hallway.
WINDOWS: I will seal both windows as best I can. Then I will cover with heavy moving/soundproof blanket or curtain, or build some sort of mountable hard cover with rubber seal edges to take on and off when needed.
DOORWAY: Figured I'd cover with a heavy moving/soundproof blanket or curtain. I may need to install a door too because I believe it's just one of those PVC accordion doors.
FLOOR: The floor is already carpeted, plus no concern with basement noise.
ACOUSTICS: I will be building my own frameless acoustic panels and bass traps. They will be in the top & bottom corners of walls, middle of walls, and 2 or 3 on ceiling above the desk/where I will sit.