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Buying a new studio building – need advice
Hello,
I am hoping this is the right place to post this question…
I own a small creative shop. We produce corporate video & mid to lower budget TV spots.
I just bought an office/warehouse unit and want to renovate the warehouse space into a studio I can shoot video in.
The warehouse space is 36×20 and has 12 feet ceilings. It is one big room with brick walls all round and a big garage door at the front which would be used to bring in props and large items like cars for the shoots.
The problem is… the freeway is about 100 feet away from my front door and you can hear it pretty well!
There is a concrete sound barrier in front of the freeway which reduces the noise, but there is still a significant hum. I don’t know how many DB’s it is – I could do a test and find out.
Now I know I need to do some pretty major work to kill all the sound. I am just wondering if I can get some experts advice on what I need to do
thanks
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6 Replies
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No expert here. But currently building my own studios…
Appart from the accoustic challenges, you’ll basically have to build a free floating room within the room.
If you’re mainly going to shoot video with spoken sound, you’re a bit better off than if you plan to recor music in there as well.
I would consider consulting an accoustic engineer to get his/her advise. And see how much of that advice you can afford… -;)
Gunleik
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Aside from finding a different location without a freeway next to it, “location location location”…
Your first job would be to find the greatest source of sound leakage in the proposed studio.
For example, if the garage door was determined to be the largest culprit, then a second set of hinged sound blocking doors could be constructed inside.Good Luck with your project!
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Yes, I think the second set of sound blocking doors is the way to go – that is definately the biggest source of sound leakage. How would I do this though? Where do I start?
thanks
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Many of these studio doors (it’s not an uncommon need) are built with walk-in refrigerator door hardware.
Your doors will need to be custom made. They are typically about 14″ thick, with wheels to support their weight. They’re made heavy, because you need mass to isolate mid-to-low frequencies. Plenty of rubber gaskets where they seat to seal out the higher freqs. Obviously, a fair amount of work goes into the frame as well.
That’s as much as I found out a few years ago when I helped in the eval of such a project (it didn’t go because of leakage through the roof, which would have been way too expensive for the owner).
What I don’t know is what builders fill these doors with. Fiberglass insulation? Blown in mineral wool? Sand?
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Those big 14″ thick doors are also great for keeping large apes away from your village.
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Hire someone who knows what to do.
Where are you?
Ty Ford
Ty Ford’s “Audio Bootcamp Field Guide” was written for video people who want better audio. Find out more at https://www.tyford.com
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