Home Music Studio in a garage or basement

We receive a lot of requests from people wanting to construct a home recording studio in their garage or basement. There is only one way that we know of the construct an effectively soundproofed studio in the basement ot garage and that is by using the room within a room concept. This is explained in detail on the website www.soundproofingamerica.com but in a nutshell, the room within a room concept is exactly what it sounds like. It is the complete construction of a new room within the confines of the existing basement or garage space. This would require some construction skill and will need to meet all city and county building codes.
This reconstruction does not have to cost $30 to $40K in order to be effective, but there will be some initial cash outlay for the materials needed to soundproof and sound condition your new studio.
By constructing a new room within a room you are able to treat the stud and joist cavities with batt materials such as bonded acoustical cotton, rock wool or Mineral wool. We have had some outstanding results using a product called Roxul AFB batt insulation. Roxul is specifically designed to give you excellent thermal qualities and is an effective sound absorbent material.
Once you have the walls and ceiling framed out and the Batt insulation installed, you will want to nail up a layer of the 1 or 2 Lb Mass loaded vinyl to the studs and the joists. MLV is a reflective barrier which adds 27 to 32 STC points to your wall or ceiling assembly.
There are other factors to consider when constructing your private home studio, things such as whether or not to floating walls and ceilings to break the connection of the wallboard from the stud and joist structures. There is no such thing a "overkill" in soundproofing, but there is such a thing as overkill to your wallet. When building a home studio (this applies to home theaters as well) the more knowledge you have, the more money you will save and the better your studio will perform. There are many other factors to be considered such as studio HVAC systems and what needs to be done to silence them, as well as studio doors and control room windows.
Home studios and home theaters are evolving endeavors and are best accomplished with careful planning and thorough knowledge of what you are dealing with. Budget accordingly. The old belief that " You get what you pay for" is never more true than it is here. Thanks for reading and learning.

As Always,

Dr. Bob
e-mail: dr.bob@soundproofingamerica.com
Call Toll free (877) 530-0139