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Originally Posted by verbal  Great suggestion...any products that you can recommend that would suit this purpose? Thanks again. |
Are the barking dogs right on the other side of the wall? If they are and the room can be rearranged so they aren't right next to the wall, that can make a huge difference.
I'm definitely not an expert at acoustics
. I'm not sure how much you know so I'll start with the basic couple of things I've learned...
There are two reasons for acoustical treatment: 1) to make a sound within a room pleasing to our ears for recording and listening (Room Treatment to make a listening room), 2) to decouple sound from leaking in and/or out of a room/space (Soundproofing, or Sound isolation). #1 is considerable easier and doesn't necessarily help with #2, which is your problem.
Sound behaves like water/air when encountering unsealed objects. It flows right through any gap it can.
As far as affordable absorption products I purchased a bunch of rigid fiber glass from a local construction insulation products company and put them in covers (bags) sold by this place:
Ready Acoustics Home
But that is more for making a listening room. I'd think that would help
some if placed in the room where the sound originates since it does absorb some of the sound. It's amazing how much just a few of those helps make a room sound better, but on the whole sound isolation thing, I'm not sure how much it would help.
Sealing any air gaps (doors, windows, HVAC, plumbing, etc) from room where the sound originates seems to me to be priority 1. Is the sound mostly coming through the wall or is it coming in from all sides?
It seems to me that the wall you consider building is going in the right direction once all the other paths for sound are taken care of. If that new wall is sealed all the way around but
isn't physically attached to the other walls, then it is acoustically decoupled from the other space and therefore doesn't transfer sound as easily as if it was screwed directly to the side walls. However, are the other two walls in your vocal booth directly attached to the wall between you and the dogs? If it is, that might be a problem.
Walls constructed the normal way have serious sound coupling issues for studios: 2 x 4 frames with sheet rock screwed to both sides. Everything is screwed together acting like one unit which just couples sound right through (it obviously does some attenuation, but not enough).
To decouple sound each side of the wall would have sheet rock on it's own complete frame (AKA double wall). Even better each wall would be decoupled from the floor, ceiling and side walls with rubber. But that is
probably more than needed in your case.
So the ultimate solution would be a vocal booth that is free standing in a room. It's walls and ceiling are not attached to any of the walls or ceiling of the current room, and the vocal booth is acoustically floating above the floor of the room it sits in. In other words it sits on some heavy rubber or air shocks or something that acoustically decouples it from the floor. This is hopefully overkill for your situation, but proves a point...
My knowledge is exausted
. Do some searches here on "Soundproofing" and "Sound isolation".
Here are some other forums for acoustics:
Recording Studio Design :: Index Acoustics :: Index
This is mostly about room treatment, but still a good primer on acoustics:
Acoustic Treatment and Design for Recording Studios and Listening Rooms
Ethan also has sells some great products and info at
RealTraps - Home