The 2 Types of Recording Studio Soundproofing

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If you are working on a home recording studio you probably are interested in soundproofing it. Not everyone in the suburbs of Indianapolis, IN or Los Angeles, CA wants to hear your drums at 4 AM after all! An added benefit of recording studio soundproofing is that it will also mean that the only thing you are hearing in your control room is exactly what the microphones are catching. This isolation makes making engineering decisions a little easier.

When you are working with recording studio soundproofing, you are basically trying to find a way to keep all that acoustical energy from getting out of your rooms and into your neighbors ears. There are two basic ways of accomplishing that. You can create a barrier that is so dense and thick that the acoustical energy simply won't get through or you can isolate the room so that the acoustical energy has nowhere to go. Both methods can work well, but depend on your situation.

The first method is the simplest but by no means the easiest. Just pour 18" of concrete on the floor, walls, and ceiling. Make sure the room is completely surrounded with very thick concrete and sound will have a hard time getting out. Of course, this will be very expensive. If you have a leak, you are done! If there is a place where sound can get out, it will. It is similar to winterizing a home with insulation. One little hole will allow a lot of sound or cold air through! This method of soundproofing usually is not possible for a home recording studio soundproofing. You can visit http://www.recording-studio-software.com for more information on soundproofing.

The second method of recording studio soundproofing is what is called a "Room Within A Room." Basically, you take an existing room and build another room inside it, leaving a 3" air gap. It is extremely important that this new room not touch the existing room in anyway. In fact, you don't want the new wall to be mechanically connected to the floor, ceiling, or any other part of the original structure. The concept is that the acoustical energy will quickly fly through the air. As soon as it hits a wall, it's going to try to go through it. In order to do this, it has to change. Obviously, it has to use energy to shake the wall. Then it will go through the drywall, studs, etc of the wall and come out the other side. When it comes out the other side, it has less energy than it did before it hit the wall. So, by adding a second "conversion" you can greatly reduce the amplitude of a sound going out into the real world. The downside is if any part of your new room, including the floor, is mechanically connected the sound will flow through the floor to all over the building. This is called "transmission." So it's extremely important in recording studio soundproofing that a studio be mechanically isolated when using the Room Within A Room concept.

Kelly Hunter operates http://www.recording-studio-software.com and writes about Recording Studio Software.