Need to sound -proof garage area for recording, yet also ...

[Dene Burton]

Greetings.

I am building a new house, and am incorporating a dedicated control room and small recording studio (studio A). My Studio B will be a double garage directly connected to the control room. The control room will have direct visual access to the garage via double window, as will Studio A.

The garage walls will be sound-proofed from the beginning, and doors leading into the foyer which connects to studio A and to the outside world will be solid core acoustic doors.

My problem is with the actual garage doors. My boss (that is, my wife) who encouraged me to build the studio nevertheless wants to use the garage as a garage - reasonable I should think. But how do I do that AND have standard grage doors ... anyone think of any viable options ? I would probably be willing to spend $5,000 Australian on the garage doors problem ...

And if i haven't fulfilled the reqirements for getting these posts answered, my sincere apologies ...

[len-morgan]

Well, I'll ask a few questions you missed to give us a little more information:

1) What kind of music are we talking about?

2) At what levels and times of the day?

3) What is the neighbor situation? How far away are they going to be and where relative to your walls/doors?

4) Are you suggesting that when you want to use Studio B you'll pull the car out and close the door? I'd think that the occational oil drip might be dangerous if you walked over it while recording rock guitar or something. I can just imagine an enthusiastic guitar player jumping up in the air to play the final down beat of a song, slipping on an oil spot and getting a groin pull injury. Not the kind of injury common to guitar players.

5) If the garage is going to be a double garage with half for a car and half for Studio B, if it were me, I'd frame a garage door on the Studio B side, but put in a sound proof wall and make it look like a real door on the outside. The intention would be that when it came time to sell the house, you could just take out the sound proof wall and you're all ready to just install a garage door on that side.

len

[Dene Burton]

1) What kind of music are we talking about?
Varies - intend putting full bands in there - contemporary rock thru to folk thru to accapella choirs

2) At what levels and times of the day?
From 10am thru to 10:30pm, would not exceed 90db, c weighting

3) What is the neighbor situation? How far away are they going to be and where relative to your walls/doors?
Neighbours close by, plus we are right on the top of a hill overlooking the suburb. Closest neighbour is probably 7 metres from the corner point of the garage (next to sound proofed wall - should be ok). Is the one across the road that will suffer (minimum 12 metres away)

4) Are you suggesting that when you want to use Studio B you'll pull the car out and close the door? I'd think that the occational oil drip might be dangerous if you walked over it while recording rock guitar or something. I can just imagine an enthusiastic guitar player jumping up in the air to play the final down beat of a song, slipping on an oil spot and getting a groin pull injury. Not the kind of injury common to guitar players.

Yes, but will have roll out rug to go over floor

5) If the garage is going to be a double garage with half for a car and half for Studio B, ... nope, will be using full double garage for both graraging cars and recording. Once I work out how to append graphics to this, I'll try and get plans scanned in.

[len-morgan]

I think you're going to have some real isolation problems if you are going to have to have functional garage doors. The cross purposes of a door that is light enough to actually open, and yet has enough mass to block sound is a daunting task. The "insulation" you normally find on a garage door is usually styrofoam and that has great thermal properties but does nothing for sound proofing.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but something will have to give if you've got neighbors that close and a light garage door. If we take drums out of the picture (you could use digital drums), you could make some heavy isolation boxes to hold the amps for guitar and bass and you might be able to keep the external noise down. However, you'll always have to contend with cars driving by in the street in the middle of a soft vocal.

len

[Nashtalon]

I agree with len on this. Building a studio and trying to leave a garage door and keep the garage functional is very difficult.

I tried that approach and had no success and ended up removing the door. I then framed in the opening, added OSB and vinyl siding to the exterior and did the normal beef up on the inside. Then built a room in a room.

I'm not saying keeping the garage useable as a garage isn't doable...but I see a lot of effort and heartache in the process.

I also noticed you said your SPLs wouldn't exceed 90 db. Don't bet on it.

90db really isn't that "loud", especially when you're dealing with music, most notable low end. I think a more realistic SPL, and perhaps too conservative, would be around 110db or so.

When I started my rehearsal studio project, I made the mistake of thinking I'd only be generating around 100db. However, live drums can exceed 120db easily, especially with rock music.

[Dene Burton]

*** If we take drums out of the picture (you could use digital drums),

I would actually place the drums in studio A (which will have a window allowing visual communication between drummer and rest of band)

***you could make some heavy isolation boxes to hold the amps for guitar and bass and you might be able to keep the external noise down. However, you'll always have to contend with cars driving by in the street in the middle of a soft vocal.

I was thinking about making some "false walls" that swing out from sides of garage to cover the doors. Another thought was to use some kind of "barn" doors that open out (rather than roller doors). I've seen something similar where4 part of a studio allowed for bump in from a loading dock

[Dene Burton]

***I also noticed you said your SPLs wouldn't exceed 90 db. Don't bet on it.

I must confess I plucked that figure from the air based on sound levels I tested at a couple of live gigs - but they weren't exactly heavy metal gigs ... so I take your point.