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I finally made it! Retired Sept. 30. Well, kinda. I immediately contracted back to the same employer. What the heck, the money is good and I might be able to take some more time off. Anyway, now I am going to build my metal barn (40X40X14) and build out my practice/studio room (20X20X10) inside. All exterior walls and ceiling will be plywood and interior sheetrock. Besides a good layer of insulation all around what is the best bang for my buck for sound proofing? I am not going to be ready to spend money on fancy baffles so what have some of you guys done?
Todd
Todd
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There's a whole science to building a studio, of course. The best way is to build a box within a box. If that's not possible, have lots of odd angles. If that's not possible, Aurelex on the walls.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Todd,
Congratulations on the retirement gig...
Ya, another company made me and offer couldn't refuse.
Took me about 2 years after totally retiring for the
I'm off Monday thru Friday thing to hit...
Enjoy, enjoy.
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Todd, There are several good books on the topic. For right now, forget about absorption in the room. Here's a general rule of thumb for acoustics and noise control: Stop it at the source, failing that - stop it in it's path, failing that - stop it in the final space. If you are wanting to build this in a metal barn, you have some challenges ahead of you to turn out a usable recording studio inside of a metal outbuilding. 1. Metal barn = metal roof, correct? If you live in an area with any amount of participation, this is going to be a huge thorn in your side. Instead of the roof serving to stop noise from coming inside, it will become a SOURCE of noise that you have to manage whenever it rains. This makes my head hurt just thinking about what you would have to do to make this a non-issue. I would seriously consider trying for an asphalt shingle roof over OSB sheeting if that's at all an option. 2. Matt is right that you will need to do a room inside of the room. That is, you will want at least two layers of isolation (sheetrock) separating your space from the larger space of the barn. Biggest challenge here will be heating/cooling that doesn't act like a big path for airborne noise to enter the room. Pay particular attention to this, it is where you will want to spend the most time and planning and even dollars. Do this right, and you can always add more layers to the outside of the room to kill off a little bit more noise, do it wrong, and no matter how many extra sheetrock layers you do, or how many auralex panels you buy, the HVAC ductwork done wrong (typical home construction) will be a constant headache to make quiet recordings. You need to plan for much larger cross-sectional area for the HVAC, with at least 2x the typical length of what you would normally use. Why? Because you need to make a 'tortuous path' for the air, that also has absorption in the ductwork. I would not pay attention to any resource on new home studio construction that doesn't address this topic FIRST, or at very minimum, in the top 3 things to consider. It requires the most planning AND it requires quite a bit of space to do well. For most folks, they don't think about this, but I know far too many people that have spent good money on their 'foam' without taking care of this aspect first. The Auralex page on HVAC addresses most of the sources of noise coming into your room from the HVAC system (both self generated like fan noise and air rush noise, as well as transmitted noise from adjacent spaces). http://www.acoustics101.com/hvac.aspAgain, this probably doesn't seem like the most obvious thing to think about when planning your construction, but because it's infrastructure related, it's hard to correct once installed. Non Parallel Walls, also mentioned by Matt above is important for keeping flutter echoes and standing waves to a minimum. They don't have to be huge non-parallel differences, but again, this is a primary challenge since most folks that do construction aren't used to thinking about things this way. We want everything plumb, not at unfamiliar angles. Not so with a recording space. Getting more familiar now - entry and exit to the room. Dispose of any idea of using a typical interior door for the room. For my construction at my last house, I used a solid wood door that the builder hung into his own construction jamb, and I specified the clearance at the floor so I could use a 'bulb threshold' seal like an exterior door, and I built my own sealing system from simply 1"x2" trim and some triple-seal weather stripping. This let me experiment with pressure on the seal and different thicknesses of weather stripping. Already covered of sorts, but just again to re-iterate; this should be a room in a room. This also means avoiding sharing any of the metal walls with the walls of this room. Impractical, yes. Even more familiar - sheetrock. Some fairly simple ideas rule here, if you can plan for it: 1. If you can do staggered stud wall construction, then by all means do it. http://www.controlnoise.com/staggered-stud-wall/ The only error I see in that construction is the plate is shared. When I did my room, I designed it with two independent 2x4 plates at top and bottom and only let them touch each other at the corners. What you are trying to avoid here is the mechanical transmission of noise from the exterior sheetrock surface to the inner sheetrock surface through the studs. 2. If you can't do staggered stud, then at very minimum make sure to use two different thicknesses of sheetrock. This keeps the 'drum head' formed by the sheetrock across the studs that will have it's own natural frequency, from coupling with exactly the same natural frequency of a similarly constructed sheetrock/stud combination on the other surface. Mass is your friend here - go as thick as you can imagine, even doubling up the sheetrock on one wall if you do it. Whenever you think of stud and sheetrock construction, you also need to consider all the electrical and HVAC pass-throughs. If you can avoid it in your planning, always make sure to stagger your electrical and other pass-throughs so that they don't share the same section of wall. Avoid cutting any holes in the sheetrock (like no recessed lighting) if you can. You can also hang sheetrock on resilient channel to help kill mechanical transmission of noise. In my previous home, I used resilient channel to hang the ceiling drywall, as there was living space above with foot traffic. It wasn't necessary for the side walls. So far, resilient channel is the only 'fancy' material mentioned. Everything else is basic construction technique, but with more planning (the HVAC will be somewhat more costly than normal, but not preventatively so). Once you have all of that sorted, then you can think about absorption in the room, which can actually be accomplished very inexpensively.
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That's great on the retirement, Todd.
Now ya'll can GET TO WORK.
--Mac
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If you live in an area with any amount of participation, .. I giggled. Nobody participates 'round here.. However we did get some precipitation, in the form of snow. It's still out there. Not much, but not welcome. May be we're in for a long winter. I'll be participating in snow removal if that's the case. Sure; Lions finally havin' a good year and the weather has to get Uglish.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Oops Participation precipitation.. carry on...
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Congratulations! Enjoy your new avocation. I was going to add something to this discussion, but NotRockStar said it all and more. I'll just reiterate that you shouldn't spend a dime on acoustic treatment until you do some research. Amazon has some wonderful books. If you're on a budget, look up How to Build A Small Budget Recording Studio From Scratch. If you're not on a budget, the sky's the limit. Good luck, and keep us posted. R.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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BTW - I have the "How to build a small budget recording studio from scratch" book and I would be willing to send it to you if you paid for postage, or I would even just sell it to you for a small fee. I won't be building another studio anytime soon. My current room in the basement in this house has no forced air entry/exit into the room and it also has a big sliding door closet stuffed with winter clothes and linens - that combo and my mic choices have been pretty forgiving compared to the old purpose built room.
To be honest, quite a bit of stuff in that book was quite a bit over my budget when I built my basement studio.
I'm pretty adamant about the HVAC stuff because it's specifically what I was unable to accomplish in my build and it was by far and by spades the weak link in my whole build.
The issue for me was that I had to create this basement 'studio' in a space where the built-out ceiling would be just under 7' and I had to run HVAC via the space over the main I-beam and between the floor joists and I had no ability (though I just read a very interesting idea while looking for some links for you) to make the tortuous path I was referring to above - particularly for the return path.
I WAS able to keep the foot traffic noise above to nearly non-existent through both isolation as well as absorption - thick batting between the joists, 'sound stopper board' (which looks just about the same as the old asphalt bound sawdust sheeting they used to use on stick construction before foam became the norm), furring strips across that, then resilient channel (I used the stuff that is 'z' shaped), and then hung the drywall from that. I should say that I did all of that work except for the hanging of the drywall, the guy I paid to help me did all of the drywall work.
On one side wall - it was running along the length of the main iron I-beam for the house, so I built a wall on either side of the I-beam using two different thicknesses of sheetrock for each side - and stuffed it with batting. Door details in the previous post.
With all of that work - I could still hear my kids playing coming through the HVAC, two floors above and probably 40-50 feet of duct-work in between. Normal forced air HVAC ducts are incredibly efficient sound transmission devices!
I saw a really cool tip yesterday on how to perhaps help with that: Use a section of wall between studs as a plenum of sorts, make a tortuous path in the plenum with some of that stiffer fiberglass insulation - dump in at the top of the wall, and make your exit into the room at the bottom of the wall. This is from the Auralex site:
"• If you do your wall construction appropriately, you might even consider terminating your duct into the space between two wall studs, which you can line with fiberglass board, then venting that space into the room. We have seen this done and it proved to be very quiet!" If I was to do this all over again, I would make some flex-breaks in both inlet and outlet air, do this tip for both inlet and outlet (make sure you have enough x-sectional area for flow both ways) and be done with it.
I wish I had seen that before I did my build. Now, in order to make this work, you would need to caulk the sheetrock and stud interfaces in that section pretty tight, to avoid airflow leaks. I know I saw a diagram of this yesterday as well.
I was able to keep actual system noise to a minimum very simply because about 5 steps outside the door was the main power for my forced air HVAC. The only issue is that now and then after late-night recording sessions, I would forget to switch the system back on and the house would be really cold in the morning!
I guess the reason for my passion is that the amount of work that is done with noise & vibration control is dependent on the weakest link/system in the whole design. I'd like to see anyone avoid the big mistake (well, I was incredibly limited as to what I could do duct-work wise based on the existing construction and that danged I-beam) in my system design. I rolled the dice - I did know that HVAC could be the weakest link, and in a way I lost. I still had to wait until the family was at rest before I could do my mic'ed recordings as I was using a pretty sensitive LDC microphone at the time (I've almost completely 'switched teams' now using a very forgiving and inexpensive EV dynamic mic designed for vocals)
-Scott
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The only people I've ever met who did not LOVE retirement, were those who didn't have anything planned for all their free time. Sounds like you have that well under control.
Welcome to the WWW! (Wondeful World of Wretirement)<grin>
LLOYD S
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Great input for everyone, especially RS_not.
Our ranch is is the middle of South central Texas so precipitation (or participation for that matter as we are in the middle of nowhere) is rarely an issue (extreme heat, yes).
The new barn (metal) will be located a couple hundred feet from the house and will not have true HVAC, only a window unit for heating/cooling. It can of course be turned off during recording sessions. This will basically be a room within a room as the structure will be completely sheathed on all sides and top with plywood and then sheet rock on all sides. The top will remain plywood because I will use that space for storage. The side walls of the barn are 14" so there will be plenty of room above the studio room.
The room will also be used for jam sessions/practice sessions so I need to make sure the space is multi-purpose. I'm actually thinking of building space into a wall for my PA speakers so as to conserve floor space. I want to add a raised space along a wall for amps to provide easy access. Drums will be located on a small riser in the corner.
The barn also includes a 40X12 covered porch so the band (and the party) can move outside when the friends and neighbors gather at the pool.
Todd
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Todd--
Check the Yellow Pages and other directory sources for the kind of outfits that install Home Theaters and also supply the components for such that likely are in your area.
Room treatments, panels, design guides, etc. have never been more easily accessible nor as inexpensive due to the wide interest in Home Theater installations.
And the Home Recordist can take big advantage of that, as the techniques are pretty much identical as to acoustic environment treatment.
I know a young fella around these parts who just walked up and told the installers of Home Theater stuff what he was about, Home Recording, and asked them if there were any leftovers in panels, wall treatment materials, etc. - and the guys on the crews kept bringing him cutoffs, partially filled boxes of acoustic tiles leftover from jobs, etc. - which he pieced together to build a rather nice home studio in the family farm outbuilding. zero dollar situation as to materials.
--Mac
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Soundproofing, that's expensive. Treating a room to create a better listen enviornment, as Mac said, not so expensive. Here's a good thread on the topic... Start at Post #17 by Yep: http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=11882
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This will basically be a room within a room as the structure will be completely sheathed on all sides and top with plywood and then sheet rock on all sides. That description doesn't sound like what folks refer as a room within a room. You need to 'float' a room inside of a room. The object is to dampen the vibrations from the inner room to the outer room. The inside walls should not have any materials (like the studs) that make a connection to the outside walls. You literally build a room inside of another room. Even seperate doors.
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If actual soundproofing is a must, and you are building anyway, consider constructing the "room within a room" concept.
The old school method was to "float" the interior room on top of trailer truck inner tubes.
The space between the outer room and inner room can be utilized for instrument storage, mic cabinet, etc. as well.
If you can find an old Hearing Test Booth, often found surplus, reassembling same on premises makes for a great and silent vocal or ac guitar booth. They even have connection panels already on the inside and outside.
--Mac
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Mac makes a good point about surplus panels. Another great source are companies that do portable office installs - you know, cubicle walls. Once they get out-dated looking, they get sent out to pasture. You can make nice GOBOs out of these.
Air movement in/out of the room quietly will be your biggest challenge.
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Ah, the cubicle thing made the light bulb come on...room inside a room!
Todd
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Where I often record tracks as a sideman is a neat little setup made from an unused two-car garage. He has the room-in-a-room, acoustically isolated from the outer building, and that's divided into two parts: control room/lounge, and recording area with mics etc. In the recording area, he further has a room-within-that-room small isolation booth for a solo recording, voice-overs etc. That last small room is very small, maybe four or five feet square.
ps Congrats on retiring. I decided to do that twelve years ago, so I could concentrate on music, put out a CD, and see what would happen from that. One of the best choices I ever made. I would never have been able to do that while running a college.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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If you have a home depot around When you get ready to insulate the walls and ceilings, they carry cellulose blowing material. I use that in our business here for superior sound control. It is far better than fiberglass due to the shear density of the material.
When you purchase the bags you can rent the blower for around $30 a day. just go ahead and drywall but leave a 2 inch strip off around the walls and stick the hose down in there, and fill it till it is packed pretty good. Then on the top, place the pressure blocks right down the middle and leave a 1 foot strip of the plywood decking off down the center, and blow both directions until it is filled and screw the center strip on and you got a very well insulated box. You can also buy a special drywall called quiet rock, that deadens sound transfer through it.
buy some simple semi rigid fiberglass panels from a good building supply and cover then with fabric, and attach them to the walls like decoration panels , and that makes a great home made bass trap.
HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB/RB 2026, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 11 , Presonus Audiobox USB96
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Todd, Great advice has been given here and I have little to add. I just want to remind you that there is math attached to the science of acoustics. If you are serious about treating your space correctly, you must do some research before you pick up a hammer and saw. Otherwise you are just shooting in the dark, and you probably won't be happy with the results. I hope you will take the time to do some reading and calculation before you begin this wonderful project.  Richard
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Our new jazz, funk & blues RealTracks include a groovin’ collection of RealTracks and RealDrums! These include more requested “soul jazz” RealTracks featuring artists Neil Swainson (bass), Charles Treadway (organ), Brent Mason (guitar), and Wes Little (drums). There are new “smooth jazz” styles (4), which include a RealTracks first: muted trumpet, as well as slick new smooth jazz brushes options for drums. Blues lovers will be thrilled—there are more “classic acoustic blues” styles, including guitar (5), bass (4), and drums (10) with blues master Colin Linden, featuring understated and tasty background acoustic soloing, plus brushes drums and acoustic bass. There are also new electric blues RealTracks, including electric blues with PG favorite Johnny Hiland (3) and soulful electric slide guitar from Colin Linden (4). If you love funk & gospel, there are great new options this year, including gospel organ (3) from Charles Treadway, as well as new funk, tango, and rock ’n’ roll drums (3) and bass (1). And for big, bold arrangements, we have uptempo soul horns (4) featuring a three-part hip horn section with options for a full mix or stems of each individual horn — plus an accompanying rhythm section (4) of drums, bass, guitar, and electric piano!
Rock & Pop (Sets 476–482):
Our new rock & pop RealTracks bring a powerful mix of requested favorites, fresh genres, and modern chart-inspired styles! We have more of our popular “Producer Layered Acoustic Guitars (15)” featuring Band-in-a-Box favorite Brent Mason. We’ve continued our much-requested disco styles (10), and added new Celtic guitar (5) with a more basic, accessible approach than our previous Drop-D or DADGAD offerings. There are also highly requested yacht rock styles (17), inspired by the smooth, polished soft-rock sound of the late ’70s and early ’80s — laid-back grooves, silky electric pianos, warm textures, elegant harmonic movement, and pristine production aesthetics. Fans of heavier styles will love our new glam metal (13), capturing the flashy, high-energy sound of ’80s arena-ready guitar rock. We also have a set of rootsy modern-folk rock (18), with a warm, organic sound combining contemporary folk textures and driving acoustic strumming. And we’ve added lots of new modern pop styles (16) — the kinds of sounds you’re hearing on the radio today, featuring exciting new drums, synths, and cutting-edge RealTracks arrangements.
Country, & Americana (Sets 483–488):
Our new country & Americana RealTracks deliver a rich collection of acoustic, electric, and roots-inspired styles! We have new country pop (9) with legendary guitarist Brent Mason. There is also a potpourri (14) of bouzouki, guitars, banjo, and more, perfect for adding texture and character to contemporary acoustic arrangements. We’ve added funky country guitar (5) with PG favorite Brent Mason, along with classic pedal steel styles (5) featuring steel great Doug Jernigan. There are more country songwriter styles (8) that provide intimate, rootsy foundations for storytelling and modern Americana writing. Finally, we have “background soloing” acoustic guitar (12) with Brent Mason — simpler, but still very tasty acoustic lines designed to sit beautifully behind vocals or act as a subtle standalone solo part.
Check out all the 202 new RealTracks (in sets 468-488)!
And, if you are looking for more, the 2026 49-PAK (for $49) includes an impressive collection of 20 bonus RealTracks, featuring exciting and inspiring additions to add to your RealTracks library. You'll get new country-rhythm guitar styles from PG Music favorites Johnny Hiland and Brent Mason, along with modern-pop grooves that capture today’s radio-ready sound! There are also new indie-folk styles with guitar, bass, 6-string bass used as a high-chording instrument, acoustic guitar, and banjo. Plus, dedicated "cymbal fills" RealDrums provide an added layer that work very well with low-key folky styles with other percussion.
The 2026 49-PAK is loaded with other great new add-ons as well. Learn more about the 2026 49-PAK!
2026 Free Bonus PAK & 49-PAK for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac®!
With your version 2026 for Mac Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition or PlusPAK purchase, we'll include a Bonus PAK full of great new Add-ons for FREE! Or upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for only $49 to receive even more NEW Add-ons including 20 additional RealTracks!
These PAKs are loaded with additional add-ons to supercharge your Band-in-a-Box®!
This Free Bonus PAK includes:
- The 2026 RealCombos Booster PAK:
-For Pro customers, this includes 27 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles.
-For MegaPAK customers, this includes 25 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles.
-For UltraPAK customers, this includes 12 new RealStyles.
- MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
- MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
- Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
- Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
- Playable RealTracks Set 5
- RealDrums Stems Set 9: Cool Brushes
- SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
- iOS Android Band-in-a-Box® App
Looking for more great add-ons, then upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for just $49 and you'll get:
- 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums with 20 RealStyle.
- FLAC Files (lossless audio files) for the 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums
- MIDI Styles Set 93: Look Ma! More MIDI 16: SynthMaster
- MIDI SuperTracks Set 47: More SynthMaster
- Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
- Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
- RealDrums Stems Set 10: Groovin' Sticks
- SynthMaster Sounds & Styles Set 2 (sounds & styles with audio demos)
Learn more about the Bonus PAK and 49-PAK for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac®!
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