Help with basic design for rehearsal/recording room

[teleguy2]

Well, I've looked quite a bit through this site, and it is massive, overwhelming, educational, and helpful. I've done several searches, and maybe I'm not using the right key words, so bear with me and point me in the right direction if I'm asking already asked questions.

My wife and I are adding several rooms to our house (and a kitchen). We had previously converted our 20 x 22 garage into a studio/rehearsal space. I use the term studio very loosely. I have a roalnd 1640, some sm57s and a few cheap russsian condesor mics.

Anyways, we are splitting this room into two rooms and then adding a whole other room the same dimensions as the previous garage/studio.

I'm building this in Southern California (Los Angeles County)

My biggest goals for the new room are to:

A) make it as unobtrusive as I can for the money (neighbors close by and
B) to not drive my new baby and wife crazy when the band is rehearsing or recording.

I am NOT a purist in terms of needs for the recording environment. I'd like to know the cheapest way to really sound proof the rooms on my budget. I have about 7,000-10,000 to spend (it fluctuates as the kitchen counters become more and more expensive).

What else do I need to tell you guys/(girls?) to get help on this project?

Thanks,

Steve

[cadesignr]

Hello Teleguy. Have you built these rooms yet? If in the planning stages, there are some things to do prior and during the construction phase, to improve the success of your isolation plans. Some people ask questions AFTER they have finished thier rooms and THEN want to soundproof them. It is better to do some things while in the construction phase, but needs to be planned prior. The best advice I can give at this point, is for you to post a plan of your intended spaces, and how it relates to the rest of the house. Also a general idea of the materials, type of home design(as I'm sure you are MATCHING exterior elements. This has to do with structural as well as finish elelments, such as exterior siding, roofing materials and construction(truss, rafter/beams etc), floor type(wood framing or concrete slab), and other things like distance to closest neighbors, etc.. This will enable people to give you the proper relative advice. Otherwise, they are just guessing at the appropriate solutions.
fitZ

[teleguy2]

No construction done yet, that's why I wanted to ask questions first and not regret NOT having done something I SHOULD have done.

Here's a picture of the proposed walls. The previous garage/studio space, was done with SOME plans in mind. I used 5/8 soundboard then some aluminum strips (looks like railroad ties) then 5/8 drywall.

I want to do my best to not totally blast my family and neighbors with the room. The room that says "guest/control" MIGHT house my Roland 1640 and then I'd want to just make it possible to bring mic cables through the wall and possible future computer recording stuff.

HOw would I go about bringing those in without being to obtrusive?
I've BEEN recording all within the existing walls (19 x 22 space) all in the same room. I'm not doing recording for a living (though I will be a musician my whole life), but I'd like to do the best I can with what Ive got.

We will be repouring the slab for the outer construction (West side of drawing). The outside of the house is stucco. Our closest neighbor's house is approximately 15 feet.

Also, I'd like to air condition with a wall unit. In my current set up I have a wall unit that I built so it was flush with the inside wall. Then I put a solid piece of corkboard so that it hinged over and closed. I only run it during breaks to help cool the room down.

thanks for your help, cadesigner (and all else who help out).

p.s. Forgive the drawing. Did it using boxes and lines in Mircrosoft Word...I use what I know.

[knightfly]

Teleguy, one of your comments jumped out at me; "I used 5/8 soundboard then some aluminum strips (looks like railroad ties) then 5/8 drywall. " - if you're not happy with the amount of isolation those walls are giving you, do a search here on m-a-m (just those 3 letters, hyphenated as shown) and read a few of the resulting links to get an idea why - especially for any of those walls that are separating your CR from either the bedroom or the outside world.

If you want best isolation between the new and old spaces, be sure to put a foam insulation board against the old foundation if the new slab will touch it; you want no hard contact between the old slab and the new one, and the foam will take care of that. The rest of the new construction should also somehow NOT be hard connected to the old, but that can be a real pain to acomplish. It would probably be easier to just build double-framed walls, and make sure the inner walls/ceiling are decoupled from structure. This has been covered here ad nauseum, do a search on decoupled - reading through the first 4-5 threads returned should help.

Also, be sure and check out as much of the REFERENCE section as you can digest

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2125

I've recently added new links on topics such as fireblocking, which is always going to be a discussion subject when building code officials get involved (or your insurance agent, for that matter)

I'm getting "honey-doo'd", so I'll cut this short for now - keep reading, it's much cheaper than re-buying materials and re-doing construction... Steve