John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi everyone!

I just moved to a new house with a fairly big basement for my studio. The basement has a very handy closet where I have my noisy PC, but the closet door is very wimpy and doesn't block any of the PC noise, which ends up leaking in the recordings.
Replacing the door isn't an option right now so I was thinking I should treat the door somehow... how would I do that? what materials should I use? I took a couple of pictures of the door, here's the link:

http://www.juanalbarran.com/door.htm

Thanks in advance!!

PS- I've already ordered some quiet fans to replace the noisy ones on my PC, but I still want to know what could I do with the door.

Hi Squier51. Welcome!

Firstly, your link doesn't seem to work!

Regarding your door, there are two things you need to do. First, there door needs more mass. The only way to sop sound is to put something in its path that resists movement. The easiest way to do that is with mass, meaning heavy building materials, such as MDF, plywood, drywall, etc. (You could also do it with exotic things like lead or steel, but the prices are kind of "out there"!) So your best bet would be to replace the door with a solid-core door. Buy it or make it yourself, but get a heavy one.

The second thing you need is an air-tight seal around the edges of the door, and through the door. In other words, there can be no gaps around the edge: the must all be carefully sealed with rubber strips. And there can be no gaps THROUGH the door, such as through keyholes or carelessly done mounting of hinges and locks.

Take care of those two, and your door should do a good job of attenuating the sound from your PC.

However! If you seal your closet door air-tight, where is the PC going to get its cooling air from? It cannot come from the room, or you will end up with noise again. So you need to figure out another way to get ventilation in and out of your closet, from another room. Don't forget that you need two ducts: one to bring in cool air, the other to take out hot air. You might also need fans on those ducts, which might be yet another source of noise...

Of course, all of this assumes that the rest of your closet is already fairly well isolated, acoustically.

- Stuart -