How to Soundproof a Studio: As technology, fast advances and so has the cost of recording gone up. This has resulted in most people opting to record podcast or music in their home rather than going to a studio. This has been a major reason behind the rise of home studios.
Unfortunately, the quality of sound you get with most of these home recording studios is garbage, and worst of all is unwanted noise to those living next door and your neighbors. If you will be using your studio for drumming, without proper soundproofing, your neighbor might file a noise complaint against you.
Fortunately, there’s a way you can deal with poor quality home studio recording and at the same time prevent noise complaints against you by your neighbors. Soundproofing your home studio is the only answer. Not only does it improve acoustics but also prevents noise leaking outside your studio into other rooms while recording.
In this article, I have compiled a comprehensive guide on how to soundproof a studio and some of the advantages you get with a soundproof studio room.
Why is studio acoustic treatment necessary?
Studio acoustic treatment is very important as far as creating high-quality recordings is concerned. We all love listening to quality recording and gone are the days when you could sit down and listen to poorly recorded music/podcast without complaints.
The only way you can achieve quality recording every other factor taken into constant is through soundproofing.
Beside quality recordings, we all know that studio tend to be noisy places, and not everyone in the neighborhood likes noise no matter how sweet the music playing is. Acoustically treating a music room will not only improve the quality of recording but will also prevent unwanted noise leaking out.
If you have a baby sleeping in the adjacent room, soundproofing will go a long way in ensuring that your little one is not awoken in the middle of his sleep.
How to Soundproof a Studio
Soundproofing might sound like a nightmare, but in the real sense, it’s one of the simplest tasks. The process will be much easier when you have the right materials and the morale to engage in some DIY activities.
But if you ever find yourself at crossroads, not knowing where to start or how it ends, here is a solution for you- a step by step guide on soundproofing a studio. Let’s get started, shall we?
1. Add more mass
Adding more dense mass involves increasing the materials within and on the boundaries of the room. This way, you will be making the walls thicker, and because the denser the material, the more effective it is in blocking sound waves and vibrations, you will be able to reduce unwanted noise to manageable levels.
The sound waves that hit the studio walls will either be absorbed into the walls or reflected. Adding more mass helps keep noise from getting inside or leaving the room.
There are different ways you can add denser materials on the walls. The first method is an expensive investment and requires you to build a thicker wall or at times, apply to pad the walls. If you live in rental premises, this building a thicker wall may not be possible because most rental/lease agreements don’t allow structural changes.
Luckily, there is a cheaper alternative to adding more mass to the existing walls. You can invest in acoustic blankets or acoustic foam panels and hang them on your walls. Read this article on how to use acoustic blankets to soundproof a room.
2. Use acoustic panels
Besides adding more mass to the existing walls, you can fix the studio walls with acoustic panels for better and enhanced sound isolation. Acoustic panels are capable of resisting both high frequency and low-frequency sound waves.
The best part is that most of these acoustic panels have an adhesive side which makes the installation process one of the simplest DIY activity.
For best results, it’s important to use acoustic panels that have fiberglass because they are the best when it comes to blocking both outgoing and incoming sounds.
3. Damping sound vibration
Did you know that dealing with noise can be quite tricky? While a thick sheet of acoustic sheets can easily absorb high-frequency sounds, low-frequency sounds (bass sounds) travel through vibrations and will easily go through the added walls hence affecting the quality of your recordings.
The best way you can deal with bass sounds is by creating DIY bass traps for effective bass isolation. You can also sound dampen the floor to help dissipate bass vibrations. This process involves adding materials on the floor such as thick carpets or mats.
You can also try these corner bass traps to sound dampen the vibrations. I recommend Foamly Acoustic Bass Trap (Click here to check price on Amazon).
4. Seal all the gaps and cracks
Gaps and cracks are the biggest culprits in letting unwanted noise in and out of the home studio. Cracks are common on walls while the gaps are common around the windows and doors.
You can use green glue sealant to seal cracks on walls/ceiling/floor, and you can seal gaps on the window using weather seal strip for doors and windows. For an extensive guide on how to soundproof a window using simple DIY hacks, click here to read the guide.
5. Decoupling
There are two ways you can decouple when it comes to soundproofing. The first method is removing the instrument away from the walls as far as possible to prevent vibrations transmissions.
Another method is through structure decoupling by adding sound insulation materials. This process improves clear instrumental sounds. However, wall decoupling can be a tedious task, and also it can be quite expensive.
Final Thoughts on How to Soundproof a Studio
The music industry has become so competitive such that the best quality gives an artist the upper hand. Studio soundproofing is one of the most important steps you should consider if you want to have the best quality recordings.
Most of the techniques in this guide are not only affordable but also easily achievable. Implementing them in your home studio doesn’t require professional expertise. For best results, it’s important to combine one or two of the highlighted methods.