Here's the deal.  Imagine new home construction, a 15'X15' basement room with foundation on two sides, and a $10K budget for the entire room (meaning you start with an empty space in the basement and need to have a completed room).

There will be a nearby basement family room that will have two windows at should/head level, so that should be considered for noise leakage.  A portion of the music room will be adjacent to the stairwell.

The ultimate goal is a room within which one (me ) can bang away on a set of drums with real live heads and no mufflers on the cymbals.  I'd like the people on the first floor of the house to be able to exist in relative peace whilst said banging is occuring.  Persons on the second floor of the house should be able to sleep through the clatter (meaning they shouldn't be able to hear much, if any, of the nocturnal music making going on in the basement).

Now, I know I'm not really talking about a true "soundproof" room.  My budget probably won't allow for that.  But I'd like it to contain as much sound as possible.  I'd also like it to have a forced air vent going into the room, although if that is too big of a hole for sound to go through, the room will have to be climate controlled by simply leaving the door open when not in use and relying on ventilation from adjoining rooms.

Our builder is a musician himself (guitar), and thinks he could build what we need for around $5K.  (FWIW, I think he's probably giving us a deal on basement rooms based on the total package.)  He would just use the specialty heavy wallboard that is used in duplex construction (we're not building a duplex).  He said that it wouldn't be soundproof, but it would "muffle" the sound.  Well, the instrument he plays has a volume dial.  Mine does too, but it's stuck on 11.       I just want to make sure that his plan would be sufficient.

I'd hate to have the house built, only to find out that the music room doesn't contain enough of the noise.  Then I'm back to where I am right now -- mesh heads and cymbal silencers in a really expensive room.

Anyone have any ideas or resources that I should be checking out?

TIA,

Corey

EDITED to add that I haven't really figure out how to seal the door, but would probably be looking at some type of solid core door with heavy weather stripping around it.  Also, our builder mentioned some type of acoustic wrap that can be used in rooms like this.

This might help:

http://www.customaudiodesigns.co.uk/articles/roominroom.htm

or this:

http://www.silcom.com/~aludwig/My_Music_Room.htm

Good luck!

Billy G.

Hi Corey,

You might want to consider some form of wall treatment, either foam (min. 3") or glass fiber (2") acoustical panels. The foam panels are the more cost effective of the two, but the glass fiber panels are more attractive since they are typically covered in attractive fabric with various colours available. They both have a high NRC (Noise Reduction Coefficient).

Acoustics First makes some great product.

Foam Panels
http://www.acousticsfirst.com/polyfoam.htm

Glass Fiber Panels
http://www.acousticsfirst.com/frstresp.htm

cheers,
Joe

I would like to add that you should not confuse acoustical panels with soundproofing.  Panels and other wall treatments absorb/diffuse sound such that there is less bounce and flutter in the room.  Or, put another way, all they do is limit the amount of sound reflection in the room itself.  They do nothing to keep sound from exiting the room through the walls/ceiling.

Having said that, I put Auralex foam squares in my finished room to deaden the reverberations, and for that purpose they work very well.  I also hung some nice 6x9 Berber rugs (I got at Sam's Club for $29 each!) on the walls, and they are just as effective.  But, I realize carpet on the walls might not be everyone's cup of tea!

If you truly want to soundproff- you need to have walls that ar not connected to your exterior walls. Here is a good link to get some info to show you methods to do it yourself; www.soundproofing.org

Auralux and other aucoustic Foam companies are great- but they do not sound proof. Acoutical foam is used for deadening a room, eliminating bass traps,  etc...

Research it- as stated before there is a thread on this board we talked about previously. Also there is great info on the Internet.
Google it!

We have done some recent STC tests from an independent lab on your double 5/8" construction and some other typical wall constructions... when I get the data, I'll have Bart put it on our webpage- www.woolyinc.com

You ought to check out some of our products if you are considering mass loaded vinyl.  And check out the newer RSC channel on the market now that is rubber dampened at the stud points.  Pretty cool.  I have not seen any STC data on it the stuff yet though.  Which reminds me of something I'm going to have to do next week.

Good luck, have fun, soundproof rooms are worth every penny.

felix:

So with your product, I could forego the staggered stud wall and ceiling, install installation in the standard wall and put standard drywall over the Wooly Wall using the RSC?

This sounds incredibly easy.  Almost too good to be true.

Would it effectively "soundproof" the room I'm describing?

Any chance you'd give a cost guesstimate for your product (for a 15'X15' room)?  Please email me if you'd like to keep it offline.

Thanks everyone for all the info.  This is the kind of Q&A that is much more benificial to me than a google search.  But I do apologize if this thread is one of those overdone "thread of the week" threads on this board.

Corey

Roger that.  Sorry about the breach of etiquette!

Hope you weather the storm okay.

Corey

Great link.  Thanks!

I'm even thinking about doing stuff like putting a specific light in the room that is attached to a light switch in the main living area (and maybe another switch right outside of the room).  An el'cheapo set of two-way radios would provide communication between the music room and mother ship.  The light would get my attention.

We're also planning some type of doorbell/video camera system.  I'll probably specify a remote for that in the music room as well.  Whether it triggers a light in the room or not will depend on the volume I can dial into the ringer.

We will have an active family living in this house, so the challenge will be isolating the music room yet still providing some communication with the rest of the house.

Anyone else dealt with that issue?

Corey