Advice/help needed on building walls in a room!

[FFS]

hi people!
im moving to a new studio space in a few weeks and need a little advice on the best way to cheaply (if that possible) way to keep alot of the sound in!
its basically an 8ft X 14ft room and the height is about 8 ft also.
the walls are currently just plasterboard and not very thick.
I need to stop the sound escaping out as to not disturb the neighbours and the wife too much who will be only a few meters away (as its a warehouse space).
I have been quoted £900 to build a 4inch thick wall around internally which Im told will just be 4inch timber, rockwool and a plasterboard wall ontop, does this sound a) cheap and b) good enough?
I can add some acoustic tiles on top of this to control the sound a bit.
I would gratefully appreciate some advice you lovely people have to offer!
kind regards
glen

[AnthonySpinali]

Hi Glen,

I'm not a studio expert but I am a contractor and I know quite a bit about construction. (I've spent my whole life playing and recording but I'm new to the home recording game...)

The first problem is that we don't necessarily know material prices in your area. Second, how many doors do you need (Windows????)? Do you need to hire an electrician (Outlets, lights, switches)? How will you deal with HVAC (Heating and Cooling.... Humidity). Will you build the walls yourself? Can you give us a sketch of your basic plan? What is the existing ceiling height? Will you build a lower ceiling in the room? (This would help in soundproofing but hurt in sound quality...)

If you are using existing walls and want to keep the existing ceiling, then it's pretty easy. Ideally you want double 5/8" drywall on both sides of all walls and on the ceiling. In the US it's sometimes called Fire Code drywall; it's the heaviest drywall you can get in stock. In the walls I think it's generally agreed that standard fiberglass insulation is the way to go. However, this isn't the best you can do. I will wait for your answers to give more details.

[FFS]

hi Anthony
I really appreciate your answer! :-)
well, all this talk about ventilation etc! haha not sure all that stuff is gonna be too possible :-/
i might just have to open the door once in a while!
there is a door at the back and two windows down the right hand side if you fancing into the room from the door.
I think I will put a wall over and cover these though as they lead out into the main living area of our warehouse flat so dont really want the glass rattling too much from the bass! haha
what would be the easiest way to air condition it? I have a stand alone unit and guess I could drill a hole somewhere for the pipe?
also on the electrics front I just need to move one power point and maybe add a second one. There is a radiator down the left wall but this is gonna come off and be stored!
I was gonna order these tiles to scatter about in case there are too many reflections around the room! 30 Acoustic Foam Sound Treatment Tiles Wedge AFW45 on eBay (end time 06-Sep-09 13:04:52 BST)

what are your thoughts? :-)
glen

[AnthonySpinali]

There are all kinds of ways to deal with "fresh air." Ideally the room will be air tight so there won't be the normal leakage of air between the walls at outlets and around vents. In our ideal situation we would have a separate HVAC system for the room in question. Your stand alone unit will probably work. Sound can leak through any point in the system so it's always good to surround it with mass. That mass is usually drywall or MDF (medium density fiberboard). The more mass the better. There is also a product called Green Glue everyone seems to really like. It may be out of your budget. You would use it between layers of drywall.

Alternatively, many people use their existing HVAC and find creative ways to limit sound transmission. Search the site and you will find MDF boxes that people have built to allow the air in/out and cut down on sound transmission through the ventilation system.

As for treatment (IE foam bass traps etc.), forget the foam. Foam will not help you with bass, and bass is the real problem. Read as much as you can about bass traps on this site and look at the DIY (do it yourself) projects people have done. There's a ton of info here and foam isn't going to get you there.

Good luck!

[FFS]

Originally Posted by AnthonySpinali

There are all kinds of ways to deal with "fresh air." Ideally the room will be air tight so there won't be the normal leakage of air between the walls at outlets and around vents. In our ideal situation we would have a separate HVAC system for the room in question. Your stand alone unit will probably work. Sound can leak through any point in the system so it's always good to surround it with mass. That mass is usually drywall or MDF (medium density fiberboard). The more mass the better. There is also a product called Green Glue everyone seems to really like. It may be out of your budget. You would use it between layers of drywall.

Alternatively, many people use their existing HVAC and find creative ways to limit sound transmission. Search the site and you will find MDF boxes that people have built to allow the air in/out and cut down on sound transmission through the ventilation system.

As for treatment (IE foam bass traps etc.), forget the foam. Foam will not help you with bass, and bass is the real problem. Read as much as you can about bass traps on this site and look at the DIY (do it yourself) projects people have done. There's a ton of info here and foam isn't going to get you there.

Good luck!

Anthony, again, thanks for your advise, im defo gonna do a bit of research further on here and will look at the bass trap options as im primarily gonna be doing alot of bass heavy stuff in there! ;-)
thanks again, I really appreciate it
glen

[AnthonySpinali]

Also check out Build it like the Pros by Rod Gervais

Amazon.com: Home Recording Studio Build it Like the Pros (0082039530345): Gervais Rod: Books

It really covers everything.