tyniest mobile recording studio ever?

[pablotar]

Hi everyone I was happily turning a 14' long X 7' wide 6.5 tall trailer into a recording/rehearsal studio for 1 person, me.(I became tired of building double walled structures in basements and bedrooms and having to tear them down when I moved).
Anyway, I bumped into this site and I learned how gutting a trailer is not worth the time (after I did it); mlv is not a good thing( I have 400 pounds of it). and that the dimensions are pretty inadequate for recording drums.

Anyway after feeling suicidal for a couple of days I've decided that at least I'll try to turn the thing into a mixing room and maybe soundproof enough to practice on a "hybrid" kit; a live snare drum and cymbals with electronic pads for the bass drum and toms.
I was hoping for some input from all of you fine fellows, Using the outer leaf -air spring -inner leaf system, of course.

the walls of this thing are pretty flimsy with 2" x 1" supports holding up a sheet metal shell which I painted with rubberized roof paint to try and deaden it( I know,it seemed like a good idea at the time) and I took the time to fill all the spaces within the supports(studs?) with this stuff called soundstop(get it? soundstop? hah!) which is just really, thick cardboard.

If I some screw some plywood on top would that still count as one leaf?

The ceiling consists of 2" x 2" supports with the spaces filled with 2 layers of styrofoam and a layer of soundstop on top. I have a feeling I'm going to have to take the soundstop off to pop the plywood on...

I was thinking that I would use a 1/2" layer of plywood plus a layer of 1/8" masonite for the outer leaf, stick some r13 fiberglass on and that, leave as much airspace as I can afford (I'm 5'7" tall, I'll stand with no shoes on) then use 2"x2" and 1"x2" studs to support another sheet of masonite,the mlv and 3/8 of drywall. Will that be too flexible? should I use 2"x4"s instead?

the floor right now is;

1/2" plywood
1/8" linoleum
1/2" plywood

After reading about all the shennanigans involved with floating floors, I will not be attempting it.

How many more layers should I add to to the floor to make it comparable to the two leaf walls?

I was going to add a layer of mlv, masonite and a 1/2 inch of plywood .

will the remaining space (after adding bass traps and absorbers ) leave enough room to mix with nearfields ?

Is all this crazy talk?

I'll try to post a drawing as soon as I have the time.
Thanks again in advance

Pablo

[sharward]

Hey Pablo,

I don't have any magic solutions for you, but I mainly just wanted to give you one of those friendly kidding around punches in the arm, tell you it'll all be OK, and that you're in the right place.

Have you seen John's designs of the Studio in a Container and the Clicktrack Mobile Van? Perhaps seeing these will get you out of your funk -- or into your funk if you're into funk!

Hang in there!

--Keith

[pablotar]

Hey Keith! thanks for the kind words! I'm actually feeling much better now.
I did take a look at those before but I was under the impression that neither of them were built with that kind of noise isolation in mind...
were they?

[sharward]

You're probably right...

[clicktrack]

I did take a look at those before but I was under the impression that neither of them were built with that kind of noise isolation in mind...
were they?

Ever try to mix a show live to broadcast while parked directly behind stage? oh...and the band on stage was *seriously* pushing the 105-dB max speed limit...

lol..hell yes, isolation was indeed one of the primary concern, and we feel that we've achieved it. We wanted more, but when you're building a studio on a truck body, there are size and weight limitations that need to be adhered to.

In our case, we didn't want to move up to the next class of truck chassis...both for size issues as well as licensing, weight and cost issues. That would put us in a whole new weight class which would mean huge expenses in taxes and licensing. As well, we wanted to be able to get the truck into tight spaces. As it turns out, we were able to pick the right size truck for the job.

All that being said, the size of the truck and the weight capability severely limited the amount of the weight budget that the isolation could consume.

So, yes, it was a design goal to get the maximum isolation and we are happy with what we achieved. At the same time, though, there are other factors involved that will affect your desicision.

Cheers!
Click