Low ceiling in control room

[lazarus]

I have low ceilings in my studio (7'). My question is what are my best options for ceiling treatment in the control room and above the drums? I am building 4" & 6" bass traps for corners and walls but I'm just not sure with the ceilings because they are alot lower than most people talk about on this forum.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by lazarus

I have low ceilings in my studio (7'). My question is what are my best options for ceiling treatment in the control room and above the drums? I am building 4" & 6" bass traps for corners and walls but I'm just not sure with the ceilings because they are alot lower than most people talk about on this forum.

2" panels spaced 2" will work well.

Glenn

[lazarus]

Thanks Glenn I was starting to think I was on my own here.

[jwl]

What is the ceiling construction? Is it drywall? Or a basement studio with joists? 2" panels 2" down works well, but that leaves you with a 6'8" ceiling. I'm 6'4", and I wouldn't have much fun in that....

If you have solid bass trapping in the room, you can get away with 1" panels (of rigid fiberglass) flush with the ceiling. That'd spare you more ceiling height.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by lazarus

Thanks Glenn I was starting to think I was on my own here.

no problem. JWLs point about what kind of ceiling brings up a good point. If you do have a drop ceiling replace the tiles in the reflection points with rigid fiberglass and call it done. Also if you are a basketball player then 1" might be ok but I would still space it off the ceiling 1".

Glenn

[lazarus]

Thanks guys. as of right now I have open joists for a ceiling but will be using rockwool insulation and sheetrock most likely.....unless you guys have something better to recommend. The ceiling will be about 7' after that maybe a few inches higher.

[fooman]

I feel your pain man... the ceiling I use is also very low, not much over 6'. I make do what what I got.

I think the current drop ceiling might be a bit reflective when micing drums. I'm not sure what to really do about it that won't be a bad decision and a waste of money. I know Ethan makes some ceiling tile treatment, but it's pretty pricey... and I've not read anything on it yet.

[bpape]

If ISO from the outside isn't an issue in your place, you could just fill the stud cavities with insulation above the kit and cover with cloth. You'll have enough thickness to make them pretty effective.

I normally don't recommend this due to the isolation issue but you may have to. 7' drywall and then a treatment thick enough to be of much good over the kit isn't going to leave much room for an overhead mic.

Bryan

[jwl]

I agree with bpape. Hopefully isolation isn't an issue; if it's not then stuff the joists with insulation (I like Ultratouch cotton for this) and cover it with cloth. This step does actually help 3-6dB or so with isolation, enough to make an audible reduction.

[bpape]

A lot of it depends on what you're trying to isolate. People talking will be effected differently than hard shoes on a wood floor above than truck traffic on a street outside.

Sound getting OUT, you might get 6db at some frequencies but not in the bass.

Just go in with your eyes open before you make this decision.

Bryan

[lazarus]

Well my whole objective here is to stop sound transfer from my wood floors above and make the rooms sound as good as possible for recording and mixing. There is not alot of heavy traffic on my street and it will be rare that anyone will be upstairs while I record so really the objective here is acoustic treatment more than it is isolation. Thanks again guys.

[fooman]

How would you even go about stopping sound from wood floors about w/o ripping of the hardwood? I think that would be a very expensive project wow.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by fooman

How would you even go about stopping sound from wood floors about w/o ripping of the hardwood? I think that would be a very expensive project wow.

You could buy really big slippers for people to wear and tell them the must tippy toe when up stairs. Besides that it really is not that easy. Stick with the sound inside of the room as your main objective, would be my best advice.


Glenn

[jwl]

Yeah, given your situation I'd go with the insulation between the joists, covered with cloth approach. If you need more isolation, one trick (From Rod Gervais' book) is to cut some drywall into 16" wide strips (or however much space you have between the joists), and attach the drywall strips to the top of the ceiling between the joists. Doing a few layers of drywall this way (possibly with Green Glue between) will add mass to the ceiling and reduce transmission. Once this is done, put insulation in the rest of the joists and then cover the bottom of the joists with cloth.

Win/win, as you improve isolation (though it still won't perform as well was true 2-leaf, room-within-a-room construction, esp at lower frequencies), and you also improve the sound within the room.