Acoustics Question:-

[Petebass]

A friend of mine is just started up a rehearsal studio. He’s reasonably happy with how well each room isolates noise from the adjoining rooms, but he’s asked me if there’s anything he can do to further reduce the amount of low frequencies being transferred between rooms.?

No-one has complained yet, but he wants to start working on it before anyone does.

The way I see it, this is a difficult problem to overcome. You only have to go to a club with loud music and walk into the bathroom to hear how easily low frequencies travel through walls. Is there anything he can do, within reason, to reduce this transference even a little bit?

 

[1958Bassman]

If isolation is an issue, building each room as a "box inside of a box" and de-coupling each room from the floor, walls and ceiling of the main building, as well as any mechanical systems is the right way. Framing the walls with 2x4s on a 2x6 or 2x8 plate allows using a dense membrane and fiberglass insulation keeps the inside of the wall isolated from the outer surface. This works very well. Also, using a heavy, windowless door with weatherstrip helps and don't use one door from one room to the other- if each room has a door, it will attenuate the sound even more. If a window is needed so people can see from one room to the other, make sure the frames aren't connected to both sides of the wall- keep those separate, too. Use insulated glass and angle them (at different angles) so any sound getting through will have minimal effect.

If you want to do it as cheaply as possible and doing the "box in a box" can't happen, peel the drywall on one side and insulate with fiberglass batts, then install new drywall. If you can, add a second layer of drywall on each side, using Green Glue to bond it to the studs and first layer.

 

[Petebass]

If you want to do it as cheaply as possible and doing the "box in a box" can't happen, peel the drywall on one side and insulate with fiberglass batts, then install new drywall. If you can, add a second layer of drywall on each side, using Green Glue to bond it to the studs and first layer.

Thanks 1958Bassman. Good info there.

This is pretty much what he's done, and like I said it's working reasonably well. I don't think he's able to do the "Box in a box thing" as he may have gone too far already with construction, but I'll certainly pass this info in to him and let him digest it.