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Topic: Which is Best Door for Soundproof Music Room? |
Pat Burns
From:
Branchville, N.J. USA
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Posted 3 Apr 2004 6:21 pm |
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I know this isn't really an "electronics" question, but this seemed like the best place to ask...
..I'm building a basement music room, and "sound-proofing" it as much as is practical without spending a fortune...I have put 1/2" soundboard over inside and outside of the wooden 2X4 wall studs, filled the stud cavities with R-19 fiberglass insulation, furred out the soundboard with hat channel and screwed the sheet rock to the channel so that there is air-space between the sheet rock and the soundboard, and no direct contact of the screws with the studs to further damp any vibrations....ceiling has double insulation, sound board over the joists, and will have a suspended ceiling...
...so the question is, given that the room is not studio quality but is pretty good for a basement music room, what's the best door to use for sound-proofing? Hollow wood? Solid wood? Hollow metal? Hollow wood filled with Cherry Jello?...
...I would like to hear of anyone's experience with this...thanks!..[This message was edited by Pat Burns on 03 April 2004 at 06:30 PM.] |
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Darvin Willhoite
From:
Roxton, Tx. USA
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Posted 3 Apr 2004 6:48 pm
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I used double pane glass, exterior entry doors between the studio entry and the control room, and also between the entry and isolation room. These have a magnetic seal and a rubber threshold seal and do a pretty good job of stopping sound. I used a double pane sliding patio door between the isolation room and the main studio. There are some pictures on my website, see the link under my signature.
The website is out of date, our equipment list has changed quite a bit. The latest addition was a Soundtracs Jade, 32 channel console with automation, and integral patch bay. We'll have some new pictures up in a month or two.
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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording
[This message was edited by Darvin Willhoite on 03 April 2004 at 06:52 PM.] |
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chas smith R.I.P.
From:
Encino, CA, USA
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Posted 3 Apr 2004 8:46 pm
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I think the cherry jello is going to work really good. The issue is mass, isolation, damping and being air-tight. The no direct contact is the isolation, the R-19 is damping. Air-tight is important because sound can go throught a pinhole and radiate out.
What I did in my studio is all the doors are double thickness solid-core, glued and screwed, rather than double doors, which was impracticle for me. They weigh upwards of 160# each, as I recall. Then the door to the outside has an offset around the door so that the sound has to penetrate a "Z" pattern to get in or out.
The walls in my studio, which I built from 1985-87, are a bit overbuilt, but the important part is each layer (there are 3 walls between the inside and outside) has a double layer of 5/8" sheetrock glued and screwed. By overbuilt, I mean that a 700 square foot building has 12 tons of sheetrock with 30,000 drywall screws and enough insulation to do a 25,000 square foot building, 2-stories tall. Thank you methamphetamine...... |
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Ron Randall
From:
Dallas, Texas, USA
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Posted 3 Apr 2004 8:54 pm
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From the work I have been doing, solid core door. Lots of mass. Frame needs to isolated from vibration sources. Door to be well sealed. Airtight is the ideal.
If you have the room, put in 2 solid core doors with airspace in between. Some folks make a sound lock, with room enough to stand and operate each door. Others just use two doors in 2 separate frames, close together.
Good luck |
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Dave Boothroyd
From:
Staffordshire Moorlands
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Posted 4 Apr 2004 1:08 am
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That just about covers it, but we have two studios which have massively heavy sliding double doors, each leaf is double glazed, and there is a big lever to lift the door up onto the roller track when you want to open it. When it is in the lowered position it drops down so that a rebate on the door comes up against a vinyl seal.
We had them second hand from Maison Rouge, the Rolling Stones' Studio.
One thing you might need to think about, if you ever have children or people who are not very strong in your studio, is fitting a panic button for people inside who cant get the door open.
I saw an eleven yeaer old drummer absolutely hysterical when he could not open the door of a studio drum booth one day.
Mind you the door to that room was like something out of a submarine!
Cheeers
Dave |
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Bruce W Heffner
From:
Payson, Arizona
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Posted 4 Apr 2004 3:32 am
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Pat,
Try a used blast door from any decommisioned nuclear missle silo. I've seen them on EBay.
Bruce W 
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www.pedalsteel.net |
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Pat Burns
From:
Branchville, N.J. USA
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Posted 5 Apr 2004 10:39 am
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..thanks, Bruce..that sounds like what Dave was describing!..Dave, I can't picture Keith Richards negotiating that door without help after a long session...
...Bruce, I did try to get a couple used blast doors from the old Three-Mile-Island nuclear plant out your way, but it seems they just used hollow luan doors...
...Thanks for the advice, Chas..I can relate to those speed-induced marathon jobs..glad those days are gone..
...I believe I know which way I'll go now.. |
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Ray Minich
From:
Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra
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Posted 5 Apr 2004 11:59 am
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I designed a soundproof room to silence a 104 dB point noise source at 4000 hz center frequency. Actually, it didn't "silence" the noise, it just attenuated the noise to below the 85 dB threshold you find in an industrial environment. Greater than 85 dB and you gotta wear ear protection. Picture a hand held air chisel chipping the weld on a steel ring, it's loud as hell, and right at the center frequency that makes your eye teeth hurt.
Using the Riverside Associates Consulting Manual, I found the trick that works best if you can swing it. The noise attenuating wall section that works is: Perforated or expanded metal skin at about 50% open area. Then about 1-2 inches thickness of rockwool or fiberglass batting behind it. Then, about 1-2 inches of air gap between the rock wool and the wall. The sound waves go thru the perforated metal opening, thru the rock wool, and into the air space, and then are trapped to bounce around in the air space and not escape.
The air gap can be faked by using corrugated metal as the backing wall.
This same "attenuating" cross section has been used over the world to silence the noise of cars in tunnels, and the noise of jet aircraft. It's one of the most efficient attenuating wall sections, but also expensive. The cross section description may give you some ideas for the door you wanna build.
For our forklift doors we used barium loaded polyethylene sheet material 1/2" thick suspended on barn door dollys. |
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Michael Brebes
From:
Northridge CA
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Posted 6 Apr 2004 7:04 am
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| If you only have room for one door, another option you can do is to glue sound barrier sheet onto a solid core door. It adds mass and doesn't transmit sound well. |
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Pat Burns
From:
Branchville, N.J. USA
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Posted 6 Apr 2004 12:54 pm
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...that's probably my best option...I was thinking of using cork-board on both sides because it's sturdier and doesn't flake or break easily like sound-board, but the outside of one of the doors will face the kids' rec room...they'll probably use it for a dart board...
...maybe I can give them a monitor so they can syncopate the sound of the darts hitting the door... |
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Jim Palenscar
From:
Oceanside, Calif, USA
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Posted 7 Apr 2004 6:58 am
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| Remember the ventilation factor before you're done with all of this . When I built a 400 sq' trapaziodal studio a while back in my now ex-wife's back yard it was really too air tight- even though I had designed special ventilation ducting up the back wall-down the sloping ceiling to the other end of the room then opening into the room, also using multiple layers of sound board (Celotex), insulation, 5/8" dry wall,sound channel, and more dry wall. The first time I closed the solid core door I cracked one of the two 1/4" plate glass windows (I had two of them 5'x5'-one on the inside wall and one on the outside wall installed at an angle to each other). Shutting the door created too much pressure and - WHACK- whoops- there it is! There is a good book that I lent out and unfortunatley no longer have called something like "How To Design a Small Budget Recording Studio" that offers multiple ideas/solutions to problems that are commonly encountered in constructing studios and is well worth the time checking into (2 doors vs. 1 door, non-parallel walls, insulation, wall construction, wall covering, on and on). |
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Joe E
From:
Houston Texas
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Posted 7 Apr 2004 11:00 am
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My home studio is simular to what is shown on Darvin's website. (gear and consrtuction...to a cetain point)
For cost reasons, I had to go with a metal outside door with glass. Basically it was a pre-hung front door with a double pane glass window and 6 raised pannels in it. It seals real tight, and includes the threshold and reduce the noise by a huge amount. It is not completely quited but probably close to what your room is.
The second solution would be to add a glass storm door to the same opening. So you have the front door and the storm door just like in you home. The air gap and second doors will reduce any remaining noise to just about nothing.
My bigest problem with noise coming in or out of the studio is not the walls at all. It is from the ceiling/floor above. Although my walls are doubled with air gap and rock wool, they still attach to the cieling joistes. (I forgot to isolate them from the mountings at the top. THe bottoms are on ruber isolation pads.) Thus when something happens up stairs the floor acts as a soundboard that resinates in the studio. And my sound in the studio resinates to the upstairs. |
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Pat Burns
From:
Branchville, N.J. USA
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Posted 8 Apr 2004 9:27 am
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...thanks, guys...I'll incorporate as many of these ideas as I can practically include..
...I appreciate you sharing your experience with it, so that hopefully I can avoid some of the simple mistakes, and include some of the simple fixes... |
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Jody Carver
From:
KNIGHT OF FENDER TWEED
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Posted 11 Apr 2004 4:54 am
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Pat
There is a great insulated door for sale at
the "Tom Quick Inn".. check it out. |
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Dennis Detweiler
From:
Solon, Iowa, US
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Posted 11 Apr 2004 6:04 am
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I hang commercial wallcoverings for a living. There is a commercial grade soundproofing that we use on walls in conference rooms, computer bay areas, etc. Its a course ribbed felt material (54" wide) that works great for damping the interior walls. It would be great for a final "dead response" to the interior.
Also, a friend of mine built the ulitimate studio music room by constructing it with no doors or windows. I haven't seen him since then, so I don't know how it worked out for him?
DD |
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Pat Burns
From:
Branchville, N.J. USA
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Posted 12 Apr 2004 12:17 pm
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..  ..I think you've hit on the answer, Dennis! I'll just build a trap door in the floor and a tunnel out to the driveway...
...Jody, is that for real? Why would the Tom Quick be selling a door?... |
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Jody Carver
From:
KNIGHT OF FENDER TWEED
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Posted 12 Apr 2004 4:01 pm
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...Jody, is that for real? Why would the Tom Quick be selling a door?...
Because I told them you were looking for a door with a backround  soundproof for reasons that are obvious.  |
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Jody Carver
From:
KNIGHT OF FENDER TWEED
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Posted 12 Apr 2004 4:07 pm
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| Besides...I heard that Charlie Rich wrote that song."Behind Soundproof doors in the same room where the door is For Sale. [This message was edited by Jody Carver on 12 April 2004 at 10:57 PM.] |
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John Floyd
From:
R.I.P.
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Posted 13 Apr 2004 9:07 am
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| Quote: |
| I think the cherry jello is going to work really good. |
Only if it has fruit cocktail and Sliced Banana's mixed with it. |
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George Kimery
From:
Limestone, TN, USA
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Posted 13 Apr 2004 4:19 pm
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| Anybody attempting to build a home recording studio should get the book BUILDING A RECORDING STUDIO by Jeff Cooper. The publisher is Synergy Group, Inc. 4766 Park Granada, Suite 106 Calabasas, CA 91302. This book is a godsend. It is in plain, easy to understand layman language. It just cuts right to the chase and shows you how to do it. I bought several books on the subject, and this is THE one to get. [This message was edited by George Kimery on 14 April 2004 at 05:13 AM.] |
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