John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

ive been reading this forum and i have one looming question. I am about to start construction on a 24' by 25' seperate garage to make a studio. My question is on outer walls. Everything in discussion seems to be inner. I am stripping down to the studs but the outer side has plywood and stucco. Not sure if I can build a double wall bacause of money and space. After the studs what is the most logical wall layering? From what i gather it is insulation between(703), rc-1 attached to the studs, 1/2" drywall 2 layers, and something about wrapping the studs. Is that correct?

Mike, that would partly depend on how loud you intend to get, how irritated your neighbors can get, and whether you want to use this space at 3 am to cut drum tracks with a death metal band - can you fill us in a bit more on your intent so we can tell you more accurate lies?

Keep in mind that isolation is no free lunch - if you MUST have good iso in order to use the place, then giving up another 5-6" all around is a GOOD trade... Steve

thanx ive checked budget and im going double wall. but i dont know the best gap of frames. i feel i can afford up to 6" but if thinner is good id love the space back

mike

mikeklooster wrote:i feel i can afford up to 6" but if thinner is good id love the space back...

I'm with you, Mike -- for my project, I'm planning to space my wall frames 3" apart, which would yield an 8 3/4" to 10" gap between leaves... But if I can get away with 1" or 2", I'd prefer that -- or, if giving up an additional couple of inches would make a big difference, I'd be willing.

Custom Audio Designs wrote:Increasing the cavity space . . . greatly improves the transmission loss at the lowest frequencies. (source)

The low end is critical. I think you and I both would like to know how many inches yield how much benefit.

Up to at least 12" air gap, you'll see fairly constant improvement with greater depth - beyond that, payback is iffier.

However, that being said I'm considering 8" concrete outer walls, 36" air gap and double gypsum framed walls for my outer containment, depending on which of two plans I follow to Nirvana - main reason is that this would lower m-a-m resonance to around 8 hZ, so anything audible would all be on the same side of the resonance curve and not be "amplified" -

Added benefit - I could literally walk inside my walls and "tune" as necessar, AFTER the fact - Added problem - very painful to give up that much space, this will ONLY happen if I decide to put the new studio inside a 48 x 108 shop building that's not yet built.

Reality check - if you're doing loud drums next to cranky neighbors with good hearing, I'd go up to 12" with 3 layers, as Keith is planning. If you're into dulcimer and flute, go find a quiet hilltop and a laptop/recording sofware, and save your money