Hello,

I'm looking into creating a soundproof room in my basement for a drum set.
I've read a lot about the room inside a room concept. I'm curious how the
concrete walls and floor affect the room in a room concept? Example:

The room will be 10ft X 10ft or so, and north and west walls of the room are
the concrete foundation of the house and are below the earth. The other two
walls are standard drywall and studs. Do I still need to build a COMPLETE
room in a room, or can I leave the concrete walls alone and just create a
"wall within a wall" for the other two walls and a "ceiling within a
ceiling" (there are just open floor joists with fiberglass insulation on the
ceiling)?

Same question goes for the floor. The floor is the basement concrete floor
so I would think I wouldn't need to bother with soundproofing for the floor?

My guess is the concrete floor and two concrete walls will block sound
great, but will also reflect it back into the room great too, so plenty of
foam or whatever will probably be needed for those?

Any answers/tips appreciated!

Thanks

The room will be 10ft X 10ft or so, and north and west walls of the room are
the concrete foundation of the house and are below the earth. The other two
walls are standard drywall and studs. Do I still need to build a COMPLETE
room in a room, or can I leave the concrete walls alone and just create a
"wall within a wall" for the other two walls and a "ceiling within a
ceiling" (there are just open floor joists with fiberglass insulation on the
ceiling)?

The question comes down to how irritated are the rest of the inhabitants
of your house going to become if they can hear you pounding the tubs?

The answer to that question will then tell you how much isolation you
need between your drum room and the rest of the house. The purpose of a
room within a room is to provide mechanical isolation between the
environment in which the sound is created, and the surrounding environment.

Concrete is a very good substance for preventing sound transmission. In
other words, if sound hits one side of a concrete wall, the opposite
side of the wall will re-radiate very little sound.

However... Once sound energy enters the wall/floor/ceiling material, it
is conducted through that material and into any other material to which
it is physically connected.

This is why the room within a room principle is effective, because the
inner walls/floor/ceiling are physically isolated from the outer
wall/floor/ceiling.

When I say physically isolated, I mean that the inner floor sits on some
really poor conductor of sound, such as neoprene pads.

Same question goes for the floor. The floor is the basement concrete floor
so I would think I wouldn't need to bother with soundproofing for the floor?

Your drums will be sitting on the floor (albeit raised up slightly by
carpet or the like), so sound will be conducted into the floor and
therefore into the structure of the house.

I would say it more important to have your drums on a small,
mechanically isolated platform (only needs to be a couple of inches
high) to isolate them from the floor, and hang a suspended ceiling
(using absorbent tiles) which has an air gap and some fibre insulation
like rockwool.

My guess is the concrete floor and two concrete walls will block sound
great, but will also reflect it back into the room great too, so plenty of
foam or whatever will probably be needed for those?

This is a totally different question. Up till now we've been talking
about reducing the transmission of sound through room boundaries to the
surrounding building. Now you're talking about the acoustic environment
within the room.

Foam will have a limited benefit unless it is specifically produced for
use as an acoustic absorber. The reason for this is that in order for
the foam to act as a good absorber, all the little bubbles in the foam
must be connected to each other. This is known as an "open celled"
foam. Most commercial foam used for packing material etc, is closed
celled, and therefore, not much use as a sound absorber.

There are many ways of treating a room internally. The best thing would
be to read the Acoustic Treatment and Isolation pages on
http://forum.studiotips.com/viewforum.php

This question comes up alot, so you should be able to find most of your
answers there.

Chris W

--
The voice of ignorance speaks loud and long,
but the words of the wise are quiet and few.
--

The room will be 10ft X 10ft or so, and north and west walls of the
room are
the concrete foundation of the house and are below the earth. The
other two
walls are standard drywall and studs. Do I still need to build a COMPLETE
room in a room, or can I leave the concrete walls alone and just create a
"wall within a wall" for the other two walls and a "ceiling within a
ceiling" (there are just open floor joists with fiberglass insulation
on the
ceiling)?


The question comes down to how irritated are the rest of the inhabitants
of your house going to become if they can hear you pounding the tubs?

The answer to that question will then tell you how much isolation you
need between your drum room and the rest of the house. The purpose of a
room within a room is to provide mechanical isolation between the
environment in which the sound is created, and the surrounding environment.

Concrete is a very good substance for preventing sound transmission. In
other words, if sound hits one side of a concrete wall, the opposite
side of the wall will re-radiate very little sound.

However... Once sound energy enters the wall/floor/ceiling material, it
is conducted through that material and into any other material to which
it is physically connected.

This is why the room within a room principle is effective, because the
inner walls/floor/ceiling are physically isolated from the outer
wall/floor/ceiling.

When I say physically isolated, I mean that the inner floor sits on some
really poor conductor of sound, such as neoprene pads.

Same question goes for the floor. The floor is the basement concrete
floor
so I would think I wouldn't need to bother with soundproofing for the
floor?


Your drums will be sitting on the floor (albeit raised up slightly by
carpet or the like), so sound will be conducted into the floor and
therefore into the structure of the house.

I would say it more important to have your drums on a small,
mechanically isolated platform (only needs to be a couple of inches
high) to isolate them from the floor, and hang a suspended ceiling
(using absorbent tiles) which has an air gap and some fibre insulation
like rockwool.

My guess is the concrete floor and two concrete walls will block sound
great, but will also reflect it back into the room great too, so
plenty of
foam or whatever will probably be needed for those?


This is a totally different question. Up till now we've been talking
about reducing the transmission of sound through room boundaries to the
surrounding building. Now you're talking about the acoustic environment
within the room.

Foam will have a limited benefit unless it is specifically produced for
use as an acoustic absorber. The reason for this is that in order for
the foam to act as a good absorber, all the little bubbles in the foam
must be connected to each other. This is known as an "open celled"
foam. Most commercial foam used for packing material etc, is closed
celled, and therefore, not much use as a sound absorber.

There are many ways of treating a room internally. The best thing would
be to read the Acoustic Treatment and Isolation pages on
http://forum.studiotips.com

This question comes up alot, so you should be able to find most of your
answers there.

Chris W

--
The voice of ignorance speaks loud and long,
but the words of the wise are quiet and few.
--

In article writes:

I'm looking into creating a soundproof room in my basement for a drum set.
I've read a lot about the room inside a room concept.

The room-within-a-room serves two purposes. First is reducing sound
transmission through the walls, floor, and ceiling by brute force -
providing something dense that the sound can't get through. This keeps
inside sounds from getting out and outside sounds from getting in. The
other purpose is isolation, which keeps sound from being transmitted
by shaking a floor or wall which shares surface with an adjacent
space.

How extensive you need to be depends on how much leakage you can
tolerate. If you want to be able to pound drums and play bass while
people are trying to sleep (or watch TV) upstairs, you'll have to do a
lot with the ceiling and any walls that attach to the ceiling (and
therefore transmit vibration to the floor above.

The cement foundation walls and floor are quite adequate for keeping
sound transmission to an acceptable level unless you're next to a
railroad track or something that sends a lot of vibration through the
ground. They will do nothing to help the people upstairs however.

I'd isolate the wall studs from the floor above, and hang a very dense
ceiling, isolated from the floor above.

Or just schedule your work so you won't bother anyone and vice versa.
Easy enough to do if this is for a personal studio, but difficult if
you'll be taking in clients who have to work with their own schedule.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo