Best material for additional soundproofing on inside wall of studio

[TPO]

Hi everyone, long time no post as my drums have been packed away in the attic for two years. But, I have recently finished building a new soundproof studio at the bottom of my garden, so will soon be hitting the skins again!

I have one last job though, which is to do the internal wall coverings, and I want to try and put a bit more soundproofing and deadening into these.

By way of background, the studio is a professional solution that I got free from a music school that was getting rid of it. It was made by IAC acoustics in the UK, and is made from large metal panels. Each panel is 10cm thick, with a triple skin of sheet metal, and the two voids are filled with acoustic Rockwool. The walls, floor and ceiling are all made out of these panels, and the whole building sits on acoustic isolation rails with rubber feet above a concrete hardstanding. All the gaps and joins are also filled with rockwool, there's a heavy acoustic door and even a proper acoustic ventilation system.

However, there is still a bit more noise bleed than I would like in a domestic situation, plus the room is a bit bright due to the metal wall surface (I also do spoken word recording in there). So to finish it off I'm planning on putting up 2cm studs on the inner walls, packing them with some more insulating material, then covering with carpet. The carpet should deaden the sound inside the room, and another 2cm of insulation certainly can't hurt.

For the insulation I'm in two minds which was to go. My first instinct was just to get more rockwool and use that. It's fairly cheap, effective and easy to work with. But it occurred to me that if rockwool has any frequencies it's not so good at absorbing, I might get better insulation from having some other material in here since all the rest of the insulation at present is the same stuff. So I'm also thinking about putting in a double layer of acoustic carpet underlay. These are quoted as being 40db per sheet, although I suspect that's largely a marketing number.

I've also toyed with the idea of lining the void with plastic sheet then filling it with sand, as ultimately you need mass to absorb sound, but that would probably end up being horrendously messy and fiddly to do and would probably leak sand forever more.

Any thoughts on which would make more sense, or is there something else entirely I should consider?

[itchie]

inside the walls is more important than the inside of the room

if you kill the room sound inside you will play louder

[TPO]

inside the walls is more important than the inside of the room

if you kill the room sound inside you will play louder

Inside of the walls is already filled with rockwool. I'm effectively making the walls thicker and looking to put in a bit more absorption while I'm at it. I'm not expecting it to make a massive difference, but every little bit helps.

The room definitely needs deadening, as I get noticeable echo effects on the vocal recordings I'm doing. Which isn't surprising as it's basically a metal box!

[TPO]

A few pics,

The important bit, the kit.



The other end where I've put in a sitting area,



The outside of the studio. This is an old picture from before I put on the weather roof (hence the tarp) and then painted it.

[itchie]

start by changing the corners, they will stop reflections and standing wave forms

[Pearl MCX Man]

Love the kit, the room looks great.

[Pearl MCX Man]

start by changing the corners, they will stop reflections and standing wave forms

Just wondering itchie what do you mean by changing the corners.

[TPO]

Love the kit, the room looks great.

Thanks! It's so nice to have the acoustic kit out again, and especially with so much room to move about in. My old room was about the same size as the kit so setting up was a nightmare. Here's a better picture of the kit itself.

[Ray on the Drums]

I have been buying the coolest 4x8 sheets of black sound proof boards (off the shelves) from Home Depot for 10 bucks a piece for our jam room.

[TPO]

I have been buying the coolest 4x8 sheets of black sound proof boards (off the shelves) from Home Depot for 10 bucks a piece for our jam room.

Thanks, any idea what they are made of, or a brand name? We don't have Home Depot in the UK so I'd need to work out what the equivalent is.

[Ray on the Drums]

Thanks, any idea what they are made of, or a brand name? We don't have Home Depot in the UK so I'd need to work out what the equivalent is.

I don't recall a name but if you have any large lumber yards in your area just ask them about 4x8 sound board material.
I did see your location (UK) and wondered what stores options you do have.

[TPO]

I don't recall a name but if you have any large lumber yards in your area just ask them about 4x8 sound board material.
I did see your location (UK) and wondered what stores options you do have.

There are plenty of places I can get material from, but I don't recall seeing anything in the kind of price range your talking about. When you say 4x8, you mean feet right? Most acoustic tiles are more like £20 for 1ft x 1ft.

If I can get that sort of thing here it would be very useful, as I have quite a lot of wall to cover.

Any idea what it's made of, is it just some sort of hardboard or MDF?

[SpazApproved]

I have the sound blankets hanging on all the walls. But the walls are just concrete so nothing I could do for the inside of the walls. I didn't build it.. they help a lot but it's still rather loud

[Ray on the Drums]

Yes 4 ft by 8 ft. LOL I can't even find it on their site (just looked) but I walked in and found it by the other 4x8 material, siding...near plywood kinda... not the sheetrock area though. But I think this stuff was meant to be covered in sheetrock. I like it just the way it is and HATE sheetrock. You can run a screw in it for pictures (probably not real heavy one, with just one anyway) staples big and small work great and have held with severial practices.

A couple extra light may be needed. I have nothing but colored lights and it looks killer against the black. When I'm done I'm gonna fog the walls with a glitter spray.

I wish I could get pics but the room is not very photo friendly still looking into that or about to.

[Ray on the Drums]

I have the sound blankets hanging on all the walls. But the walls are just concrete so nothing I could do for the inside of the walls. I didn't build it.. they help a lot but it's still rather loud

That does probably work, the blankets but I also have concrete walls and used a tube of liquid nail on each piece.
It worked but wasn't much fun holding sheets till they dried going back and forth to each one a few times.

[itchie]

Just wondering itchie what do you mean by changing the corners.

no 90 degree angles etc

[Ray on the Drums]

The first time I seen it was a year or so ago, right there were you could pick at it and flip it over, etc. Then I went back when I decided to start the project and couldn't find it. I had to ask and they called for a forklift to bring it down from way up high out of site. Said they didn't sell much of it so they put it up there. I rejected the first 20 or so sheets due to not being perfect, LOL kinda pissed the guy off but oh well. And yes 10 bucks a sheet. 10 sheets = 100 bucks plus tax.

[Ray on the Drums]

Cool carpet?

[Pearl MCX Man]

Aye Ray you wouldn't happen to be talking about the old black jo we used to put on the outside walls of a house under the siding etc. Tar/felt combination. Just wondering cause they stop using that stuff years ago and replaced it aspenite material.

[PopsOldSkins]

Foam

[late8]

no 90 degree angles etc

I agree. By adding bass traps to the corners will help with any phase canceling issues that may surface in the room. Here's what we're talking about if you're not too familiar with bass traps and were to place them:







Your drum room could end up looking like this room. You'll need to do some "trial by error" placement of the traps and find the areas around the room that could use some acoustical baffling.

[Russ]

Given the resources to do it, what I would do is get a square piece of plywood at least 1" thick, cardboard, and eggcrate foam. Make panels by cutting the cardboard to fit over the plywood, and then putting the eggcrate foam on top of the cardboard. You could cover the insides with it, or spread them out, but it would be pretty effective for the money. Alternatively, line the walls with mattresses. Rugs/carpet would also work if you need to save space, but mattresses will block out way more noise. There's a number of options available to you.

[porkpieguy]

My questions is how pretty/professional do you want the room to look?

Pretty options - Get some Auralex, possibly a big package of it. Some of the packs you can buy include bass bins for corners and what not.



Not-so-pretty options - Buy some "egg crate" mattress pads and a staple gun. This stuff may start to peel after a few years, but it can work for now if you need something immediately. I've seen this used lots of times.


A happy medium might be to buy some hard foam sheet insulation and hang it up all over. I actually saw a church that did this. They bought the big sheet insulation, then framed it in with 1x1 or 1x2 boards and covered it with the cheapest material they could buy.

[Ray on the Drums]

Aye Ray you wouldn't happen to be talking about the old black jo we used to put on the outside walls of a house under the siding etc. Tar/felt combination. Just wondering cause they stop using that stuff years ago and replaced it aspenite material.

BINGO! That does sound like what I bought and put up. The light tar smell kinda freaked me out but shortly (like just a couple days) went away. The little white barcode tab sticker they use said soundproofing, soundproof, sound board or something like that.

Just working on getting it all up with a stereo playing and talking I could tell a difference before we even played an instrument. It did eat up box knife blades like crazy. I'd say 2 clean cuts then after 2 more rougher but exceptable cuts it was time for another blade.

[SpazApproved]

great information about bass traps in corners. I'm going to try that in my studio myself