Hmm, that seems a little pricey compared to what I bought. I used the Manville equivalent from Menards (R15 - Sound and Fire mineral wool). After their 11% rebate it cost me a total of $380+tax for the 9 bales I needed for $.95 a square ft (10 batts per bale). It’s fire retardant up to 2000° and seems to insulate well with the added benefit of sound deadening. I don’t feel like I wasted money here.No one is calling it a rule book, but it’s one of many very valuable studio building knowledge repositories that one should consult well before ever buying any materials, let alone installing them. I like Rod’s book, and he knows more about this than any of us.
For anyone reading: Rockwool, specifically the “Safe n Sound” variety that’s marketer towards sound isolation while providing zero benefit over pink fluffy fiberglass insulation, runs about $77 at Home Depot for a batt bundle. A comparable amount of pink fluffy insulation with an identical R rating and the same sound isolation performance is about $36 at Home Depot. Over the course of an entire build this cost can add up. You might as well not waste your money and apply the savings elsewhere in the build for things that actually see a performance improvement.


I mean, use whatever you want… I’m not trying to convince you not to follow the rule book, but I’m still fine with my decision. I’m pretty sure when I did my sound studio in 2017 it cost much less, a much smaller quantity used, likely around $150 total at the time (but I don’t have those receipts to compare).
Again YMMV
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