Accoustic Insulation

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frugal

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I have a friend who is putting a business case together to start a small recording studio (for the average bloke on the street or small unsigned bands rather than big names).

At the moment his biggest outlay looks like soundproofing the recording area. Can anyone suggest any products or suppliers in the Gloucestershire area that might be able to provide accoustic insulation at a reasonable cost?
 
I know this sounds daft, but back in the days we used to use egg-boxes for sound proofing. The pyramid shapes diffuse the sound which creates good acoustics and insulates too. Would require a hell of a lot of eggboxes though, eh?

We used to have a chicken farm down the road, so were alright for eggboxes!!

However I am sure someone will be along soon to correct and improve on my suggestion.

HTH

Neil
 
When he discussed his plan with me last night I asked if we should start saving egg boxes for him and he said that it doesn't work. But hey I am no sound engineer or physicst
 
A mate at university did the chicken box thing. It made no difference to the music coming from his room.

I've had a quick look at acoustic foam before but the cost was far too much. It also wasn't necessarily going to work due to the floor touching the walls (via floorboards, skirting, etc.).

Dave
 
OK, my (very) limited knowledge on the subject I have come across two main types of insulation. These are, quite simply, soft and hard. There is a range of fabric kind of insulation, and these are, I think, the most popular. B and Q sell a green tiled version (I looked at it yesterday with my mum!!) which I was a bit dubious of. It was, however, well priced.

The more rigid types I have not really come across, but they are out there!

This was quite informative http://www.cus.net/insulation/subcats/s ... ofing.html
You may already be in posession of these facts, but....

HTH

Neil
 
I would think hanging heavy blankets or felt around the room would absorb sound very well. Quite cheap I would think.
After all the sound deadening in a car is only felt stuck to the metal.
Just a guess :duno: :duno: :duno: :duno: :duno: :duno:
 
These are worth every penny, especially when starting a credible business ; http://www.ecophon.co.uk/
Cost in Finland around 100Eur/6sq.m, you may find it cheaper locally. They also sell fancy ways to support the acoustic plates in place but there is clearly way to save by just gluing or screwing the material in place, it works fine like that. For recording studio almost all large surfaces need to be covered either to make them sound diffusing or absorbing, so you want to avoid acoustic "mirrors" which would reflect the sound creating echo.

But even before acoustic material the studio dimensions and structures should be matched for proper avoidance of standing waves and sound proofing by structural isolation not to transmit mechanical vibration sound is.

At home there is no need to be so pedantic, I've got two facing walls and ceiling covered with 5cm ecophon basic grey plates in my "media" room (extra bedroom originally). Third wall (listening end) is intentionally "hard" material namely plywood "Wisa Decor" and fourth is bookshelf with books and magazines which are also excellent sound absorbant, floor is covered with thick fabric mat. This arrangement is sometimes called; dead end - live end.

On the wall install the acoustic plates are just glued on the wall but on ceiling I wanted different look and some sound diffusion capability, so there is blue fabric and 1cm narrow pine slats with varying spacing on top of the plates.

By this arrangement I have enough sound damping in there but still good amount of reflected and diffused sound to make acoustic instruments sound lively.

The room is mainly used as intrument playing space (flute and piano), possible to close soundproof door to the house, not to drive everybody crazy when practising and secondarily room serves as home theater. With nice soft sofa, 5.1 sound and projector. Works pretty nicely ;-)
 
Another company:

http://www.customaudio.co.uk/

I cannot give them glowing reviews as I've not been very impressed with their email support this week. Very terse answers and little in the way of helpfulness (I need to buy 25m of acoustically transparent fabric and they couldn't give a toss really).

None the less, you may get on better than I...
 
frugal":s1ojc80t said:
When he discussed his plan with me last night I asked if we should start saving egg boxes for him and he said that it doesn't work. But hey I am no sound engineer or physicst
I have used egg trays to reduce the reflected sound in rooms by cladding the beams holding the roof up, works well. :D
However they are not good for stopping sound getting out of a room, you need too many in separated layers to be practical. :(
 
Hi
back in the 80's I was a contractor building acoustic rooms for CBS, and recording studios for others in the London Area. I worked under some of the big name recording engineers- eg Sean Davies and we usually isolated the room EITHER by making an internal stud frame, isolated from the outside walls, and made this rigid with sheets of chipboard that had a thin coat of lead bonded to its face. (This came from somewhere around High Wycombe.) OR if theIf the budget was tighter we filled the voids- ie between the the studs in the partition with 100mm rockwool rigid slabs. These methods attenuated the sound to the exterior.

However- the lead sheet solution gave a very "live" room, so further treatment was required to stop echo etc. A very useful solution was to hang a sheet of roofing felt, stopped short of the floor and hung on chains, with rockwook ROLL glued to both sides. These were known as wide band absorbers, and helped to "tune"?? the room, as well as keeping the sound in. Hope this is of help
 
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