John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hello. I'm new to this forum, and I'm a total novice when it comes to studio construction/design. I trust Steve and John's wisdom to the fullest,but have a couple of questions.

1) From reading the posts here and doing research, sound needs a medium to pass through. If you leave the ceiling joists (in a basement) exposed at the bottom, can't the sound travel through the joists to the sub floor even if you put insulation between the joists?

2) I'm about to hire someone to build my studio in the basement of my house. I am strictly giving the contractor info from this site (exposed joists idea). As with everyone's home, I have cables and other things running inside the ceiling joists. How can I sound proof the ceiling and have easy access to these cables without dismantling the construction?

Fresh oil

Sure can.

Here is my followup, I'd build in access panels to those areas where you need major access to cabling, etc.... make sure the panel doors seal to a neoprene seal similar to that in a security door. This will help with you isolation and access needs.

Just a suggestion on the door construction, make it at least as thick as the drywall thickness. ie. if you do 5/8" dwall/celotex/drywall then make sure the door is at least as thick.

I'd use too sheets of wood and a sheet of open cell rubber and glue the wood to the either side of rubber to make your access doors.

Bryan Giles

Access panels should be kept to a minimum, or avoided if at all possible. If you can, either re-route things or use Bryan's idea for access. Sealing is MANDATORY, maybe do cleats behind and use several screws to fasten the panel tight enough to compress the rubber seal. Do NOT screw your access panels through the ceiling into the joists, the sound will follow the screws into the joists and up into the subfloor.

If you have anywhere NEAR enough headroom, DON'T leave your joists exposed. You'll lose 'way too much isolation through flanking - your isolation will be much better using Resilient Channel with 2-3 layers of different thickness sheet rock... Steve