How To Soundproof A Recording Studio 

One of the Best Ideas of SoundProofing is "SoundProof Curtains" That Stops Outside Noise by 80% (25 Db) Tested. Check Here: livesoundproof.com/best-soundproof-curtains/

Yes, especially how they dealt with the door.

Yeah the folks at green glue marketing stumbled on a gold mine with their "converts sound into heat!" line. Anything that traps sound vibration ( so: caulk, foam, insulation, water, etc.) will in turn vibrate. Vibration causes friction. Friction releases heat energy. This is absolute basic physics, which I'm sure I slightly mangled, but green glue does not have a patent or monopoly on physics.

All true, Noneya. I would also add simple tar paper, preferably to the studs before the first layer of sheetrock, and/or before the second layer as well. This is due to different absorbtion and vibration levels. Also, it's cheap. Lastly, use the foam gaskets for outlets and light switches.

100%. I'm using green glue between both layers on mine but only because I got an amazing deal on it. It's frankly too expensive otherwise to matter; if you want more sound isolation, better to put up a third or fourth layer of drywall, as long as you have space and your framework can support it. If I didn't get the deal on the green glue, I would have tested with two layers of 5/8" GP, and added more if necessary. Gypsum is relatively cheap!

@@ClintonJudy Much cheaper than green glue and just as effective is to purchase polyiso insulation boards (available at Home Depot and Lowe's) and sandwich them between your two layers of 5/8 drywall. The dissimilar materials touching makes for a huge reduction of sound transfer...Sound in the room hits the inner layer of 5/8 and that drywall has a specific resonance to it, then it hits the polyiso board which has a completely difference resonance, so it changes the vibration transmission rate, and then what vibration energy (sound) is left has to go through that second layer of 5/8" drywall, which is again different from what the vibrations were just competing against (the polyiso board). Icing on the cake is if you have sound isolation clips with hat channel and your 3 layers are screwed into that channel so there are no walls touching directly to the wall studs. Double layers of 5/8 give you more mass, which is good, but if they are touching, they are vibrating at the same resonant frequencies and therefore will not dampen the sound as much. That's what your green glue is doing...it's acting as a dissimilar material between the two drywall boards so the sound energy is drywall>green glue>drywall, but at a huge price tag. Hope this helps!

@@brandonswafford861 Hey Brandon, you got any 3rd party (or even 1st party) STC ratings to show that setup? I'd like to check that out. Polyiso is expensive AF, but cheaper than green glue. I've used Roberts Carpet Adhesive from the big box store in place of green glue, but I can't verify it's effectiveness and it's a pain to use.

Hey Christian I am building a course on how to soundproof your studio and would love to know what you wished you had known when building your studio?

@@WilsonHarwood Hi Wilson,well I am still in the process,I think I have covered all the bases.The rockwool,the sonopan,double sheets of 5/8" gyproc and I also read and saw in another video,they use soundproofing caulking around all the seams of the wall and outlets.Using acoustic panels also helps.

@@christianpolytechnique7404 Hey Christian, yes the acoustic caulk goes around all the seems of your walls and where the wall and ceiling meet. You can also use it around outlets and light fixtures. Rockwool really isn't necessary. There isn't any scientific evidence that it adds to the soundproofing and it costs way more. You can use it if you want, but you may be wasting some money there. Regular pink insulation works great if you build your walls right. I have a website where I have a free course that goes a bit more in depth if you want: www.soundproofyourstudio.com. Please let me know if you have more questions. Happy to help!

@@WilsonHarwood Well I like the Rockwool cause it's fireproof and water resistant.

And does it make it 100% soundproof? Gearing up for a garage/studio room outside specifically for this so not interior or in a house

Rock wool is garbage and you won't find any in an a-list studio, ever. In fact it can actually transmit sound if it's not incredibly loose but design eliminates the need for it anyway. Corning 703 is good for broad band absorbers and Helmholtz resonators but don't buy into it for sound proofing because it's limp dense material that will stop sound along with a properly designed inner and outer room. A shame lead is so unhealthy. Gold would do in a pinch but...

@@drampadreg1386 yeah, that's not true. Rockwool has the same absorption coefficient as 703. I've been involved in several high end studio builds and all of them implemented rockwool. 703 is great for treatment because of the rigidity and lack of sagging, but it's way overhyped.

One of the Best Ideas of SoundProofing is "SoundProof Curtains" That Stops Outside Noise by 80% (25 Db) Tested. Check Here: livesoundproof.com/best-soundproof-curtains/

Yeah Rockwool rocks! waterproof,soundproof and fireproof.

Rockwool costs more and has minimal sound benefits over similar R value fibreglass, especially once you start using hat channel / resilient channel, double 5/8" drywall with green glue or QuietRock. Better to spend that savings per sq ft on MLV for the ultimate quietness. Regarding fire rating, if you're waiting around for flames to penetrate double 5/8" drywall there are bigger issues. I've also seen experiments with fibre glass exposed to a propane flame where it seems to hold up well.

what a terrible neighbor

@@FixItYerself did you get it shot then continue playing?

Yaa i wanted to know all this and how much it costs i am a kinda sad i doesnt include all that

Hey Raiden! I totally agree. I built a studio in my backyard from the ground up and I didn't find many great videos on youtube. I am building a course to teach others how to soundproof a room and would love your feedback! Here is a start to the course for free if you are interested: www.soundproofyourstudio.com.

One of the Best Ideas of SoundProofing is "SoundProof Curtains" it actually Block outside Noise coming from Windows. Check Here: livesoundproof.com/best-soundproof-curtains/

Soundproofing is not acoustic treatment

You just saved me 5 minutes, thanks.

Thanks for that, Darth Vader

Reflected Miles THEN WHY DONT YOU MAKE A VIDEO AND SHOW THEM HOW ITS DONE ✅

Reflected Miles I am building a house from scratch soon and would appreciate any advice so I get it right the first time. I will be 50' away (and up on the second floor) from their closest wall but they use their backyard very often too which would merely be 15' away. Anything you can say (especially for HVAC and junction boxes) I could really use!

If you are serious about designing a serious room, this guy is a well known and desired studio designer and his website (link on his videos) has room mode analyzers that save you freakin' hours of sitting with a calculator dividing twice the length of the room into the speed of sound in fps or mps then making a graph for each dimension using the multiples of the fundamental frequencies to about 400Hz over and over until you get it right. It also has much more and it's free. ru-vid.com/show-UCmAjEZ1xMg-0KA6AxYJm-Pg

Put it inside it's own room with a robot to fetch your items for you =)

I imagine that day will come...

I believe that would be owning a Sunfrost with a DC compressor. Perhaps not exactly silent, but heavily insulated with one moving part, I think. The AC versions are probably about as noisy as others, though. It's not cheap, of course.

Get a Sub-Zero and you won't need soundproofing.

One of the Best Ideas of SoundProofing is "SoundProof Curtains" That Stops Outside Noise by 80% (25 Db) Tested. Check Here: livesoundproof.com/best-soundproof-curtains/

To keep noise out? Or in?!

Box Truck Studios how is your Box truck coming.

@@servantapashia7724 im curious as well.

Hey Aaron! How did your box truck studio build go? Super curious!

@@WilsonHarwood it worked out! If you want to see some of what I did with it there are some videos on my IG @thevoborny ... I recorded around 30 songs in there and then outgrew it. Definitely doable!

@@voborny Glad it worked out! I tried to find the IG account but only saw a few posts with a hashtag. What a cool idea!

lmao

LMAO 😂

LMAO too.

🙄

haha

Dave Gnash same thing i wanted to kno

You can make baffles. Rod Gervais has an excellent book on this kind of stuff.

Separate HVAC systems. I think the best way is with a mini-split system and then a fresh air vent can be added.

Just frame in a crack unit with an access panel. Evaporator in the ceiling with a condensate pump. Condenser hole for the supply and return refrigerant copper and seal it. Done.

Acoustic boxes

This question is why I'm looking in the comments. I still don't get it

First layer gets caulk on joints not the finish layer. Then seal edges of drywall around the room on finish layer

The ceiling is always the beginning of your project. Then you do the walls. Once that is complete then you do the floor.

@@mattwickham6985 how come? do you suspend the box from bungee cords? How do you hold it in place? silicone stress balls on the floor, then build the box on top?

@@snorttroll4379 Cover the floor with rubber workout mats.

Yes that is what I thought. And a huge metal grid of channels and fancy clips??? That's hardly going to help in my book! That sound is going to run along the studs and to the screws and onto the channels with joy! At the very least they could use some softer material at this point. It seems that these guys have the usual American love of strength; solidity and over-design niggling away at them sub-consciously, when the ethos of a recording studio must surely be softness, floating delicate-structures and multiple layers of dissimilar sound-absorbing materials.

triple glaze, thicker glass expensive windows...1500 dollars easy

DEFINITELY THE WINDOWS AND THE HVAC SHOULD HAVE BEEN ADDRESSED

I definitely wouldn't recommend spray foam insulation. It doesn't have great acoustic properties and is expensive. Just build it right with double walls or using hat channels and then use the good old pink stuff!

Expensive materials like rockwool and green glue make more sense when space is at a premium. I'm not against using those for working inside existing architecture. But if you're building a brand-new facility, you'll save a lot of money by planning for the walls to be much thicker, and using cheaper materials like fiberglass and multiple layers of gypsum.

Air vents and returns are tricky. In my own home studio, we used the flexible cloth & foil kind of ducting instead of the rigid aluminum ducting between the furnace and my room. I don't get any mechanical noise transfer into my room from the furnace, but I definitely lose some effectiveness in overall soundproofing due to the hole in the wall that accommodates the vent. There are a few designs that add baffles in the duct to help mitigate this, but you're still basically putting a giant hole in your nice airtight soundproof room. But a person has to breathe!

Floating the floor can really help with soundproofing, but it's incredibly expensive. Second best option is a concrete slab, you can pour separate slabs for the live room and cr to decouple them as well.

Labor and material money

Green glue doesn't bond to surfaces. Better off with caulk since it will create an airtight seal.

You're supposed to use GG sealant between gaps and GG compound on the face of panels.

Hey Gary! Sounds like you have an ideal starting point. I built a studio in my backyard from the ground up and would have loved to have the isolation of earth and a concrete foundation to start with. My question is simple. How soundproofed is the basement already? Seems like if the walls and floor are concrete and surrounded by earth then you may have all the sound isolation you need. I would be most concerned with your ceiling. Is it a standard would deck? Also your door to the studio will need to be rock solid too. Please let me know if you have more questions. I would be happy to help since I just went through the whole process myself.

Hey! Been fighting with the best ideas for soundproofing an enclosure for portable inverter generators(Live sound engineer in the age of 2021 - outdoor venues). Green glue vs mass loaded vinyl; sheetrock vs osb vs medium density vs plywood; double wall vs stacked; clips vs everything; quiet rock; Rock wool vs fiberglass; Low end vs mids vs high end; and of course activated carbon $$$(think I saw you on that site). This is getting frustrating, in that the best answer, appears to spend a whole bunch of money, put up all kinds of mass, and at least 12 inches per wall for enough sound absorbing dead space. LOL Have a good one!! Carl

@@CarlsOpinion Did you measure the amplitude and frequencies you need to create a barrier for? That's the only way to determine what you need to create a barrier. Did you not listen to what the guy at Acoustic Fields' says? That's the FIRST thing you have to do, otherwise you're wasting time/money.

@@Oneness100 Yea no doubt. Then after that I can pay him $1,500.00 for an evaluation and then thousands of dollars on activated carbon!! LOL

@@CarlsOpinion What you expect an acoustic engineer to figure out what you need for free? At least what he'll recommend will work. Why would you guess and use something that most likely won't work? That doesn't make ANY sense. FYI, yes, Activated Carbon has been tested to be effective at much lower frequencies and at a higher level of absorption. It's a combination of porosity and mass. What? you think that compressed fiberglass or rock wool is going to do much to absorb low frequencies? Dream on.. I had discussions with the guy at Acoustic Fields about 7 years ago and he's tested EVERY major type of absorption material and compared commonly used against Activated Carbon. So, he's already tested it. Scientifically. He's also built wall structures using steel plate and concrete too. So it all depends on what your problem is.. Whether you need it for your specific situation remains to be seen, so you have to measure the problem first.

@@Oneness100 I have no problem paying for service. What is insulting, is not being up front with his youtube audience about what he is peddling. If you want to be on RU-vid to make money, fine, but you shouldn't dodge people's questions, if you are going to have an active comment section. Let people know up front, that we are here to sell a certain product, and give them the answer, to wit: "Activated Carbon is the best, we sell it, but it's expensive, here are some other solutions if you're on a budget". I do that in my business. Carl

Yup! I'm using Resilmount clips with hat channel on mine with 2 layers of 5/8", and it's frankly enough to support 3, maybe 4 layers.

not a big enough difference so most pros just use sheetrock

I used 5/8 sheet rock and could not be happier. Works like a charm. How is your studio build going?

Hey Jack! For windows I would recommend building them yourself. Build a double wall with a one inch air gap and then put 1/2" laminate glass on the outside and 3/8" tempered glass on the inside. I did that in my studio and could not be happier with the soundproofing. I can help you with full install directions if you want. Feel free to reach out at info@soundproofyourstudio.com. Happy to help!

when you make an airtight building you must always take in consideration some HRV system

Hey Ace! How is your studio build going? Did you find all your answers? I am building a course to teach producers how to build a soundproof studio. I would love feedback on what has been helpful on youtube and what is lacking for building a soundproof studio. Thanks!

Look into Mini split systems.

Mini split or silencer boxes that work similarly to car mufflers.

Wood is more resonant acoustically (we make instruments out of it) as well as acoustic grade plasterboard being more dense with a higher mass

Drywall has a much higher mass. You can't beat it.

Depends on space and usage, id you can build thick walls and gonna listen to music wood is better according to some but it's hard to beat drywall if you want maximum sounddampening and lower cost.

same concept with the double wall thing for the windows, rubber sealant at the base of the window with acoustic panels below and above I believe, the actual windows should be around 10mm thick and they should both differ in thickness. Doors must be solid core, not hollow, have sealant around the frame and maybe even door jams that seal the bottom gaps in the door once its closed. I'm not a pro but that's the general idea of what to do Im pretty sure.

Hey Hakim - The last reply was pretty on point. For windows I would recommend building them yourself. Build a double wall with a one inch air gap and then put 1/2" laminate glass on the outside and 3/8" tempered glass on the inside. I did that in my studio and could not be happier with the soundproofing. The door is a bit more complicated but overall you use a solid core door with 8PSF of sheet lead and then a layer of 3/4 cabinet grade plywood. You also need to install weather stripping seals and finish off with magnetic weather stripping seals. I can help you with full install directions if you want. Feel free to reach out at info@soundproofyourstudio.com. Happy to help!

Rockwool

Just make an 6' high 2'x2' box of sandwiched materials.... using gyproc, wool and iso-foam. Instal 4 castors from Home Depot on the bottom. Get inside, and problem with wife sorted!

Hat channel is a perfectly descriptive term to virtually anyone looking to buy it. "One screw" hitting the framing absolutely does not negate the "entire effort". That's ridiculous. 1/8" of screw body doesn't magically transmit full decibal value through a solid wood stud and mass wall. Stop making ridiculous, snobby claims and starting sentences with "One" like some 19th century collegiate.

@@noneyabidness7226 awww did I hurt your feelings? I'm sorry Wally. Remember, the devil is in the details and this is "pro-level" lol - 5 years ago. I'll keep making my ridiculous snobby claims just to irritate the likes of people like you. Don't blame me for your inept vocabulary or limited horizons. Good grief, someone must have really hurt you long ago. Let it go dude.

Clothes

regular fiberglass. See here. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3mGbPHx_8X8.html

Look into mini split systems. Fujitsu.

Send this to the top

Maybe you should go back to watching Fortnight videos then

@@BurntTransistor WTF is Fortnight ?

@@johnmark6628fortnite

I highly recommend the Soundproofing Company! Have you started your build? I just finished building a studio in my backyard and would be happy to help out.

@@WilsonHarwood awesome do you have a contact information?

@@augustus5003 Hey you can email me at info@soundproofyourstudio.com. I am happy to help anyway I can. I know it is a big daunting project.

Perhaps a ton of money

A fortune for greenglue alone. Budget version with 90% of the efficiency is 2 layers of 5/8" sheetrock and fiberglass insulation in the cavity. See here. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3mGbPHx_8X8.html

Kelcey if you play brass, get a practice mute

r13

Batt?

😂😂😂

No rugs on the walls for superior sound proofing, clearly amateur hour.

Why?

How so? Why don't you enlighten us what you would do better?

See insulation.owenscorning.com/homeowners/renovation/products/quietzone/ and www2.owenscorning.com/quietzone/pdfs/QZBAtts_DataSheet.pdf

When used inside of a wall, the pink stuff has just as good of acoustical dampening as mineral wool or other material. It's the mass of the wall and the decoupling from the rest of the structure that does most of the work. The insulation is just there to deaden the air and transfer the vibrations into heat.

okay boomer

Here ya go. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3mGbPHx_8X8.html

Other sources to back this. Just duckduckgo it.

The fuck u say