Recording Studio New Recording Studio 1 – Soundproofing

It’s been a while! I’m happy to say it’s all because I’ve been spending the last 3/4 months moving into a recording studio!! This is a massive step for me and it’s going to transform the productions coming out of Eskimotion Music. I’m really looking forward to using the studio to it’s full potential for my future composing and singer/songwriter work.

It’s been a long journey getting it into it’s finished state (well… almost finished…). I’ve had to learn a lot about DIY… My only previous DIY experience was IKEA flatpack furniture, a bit of CDT at high school and maybe hanging a few pictures frames… so I had a lot of experience to gain.

The first phase of the work was soundproofing the room. The studio is situated in the same building as another thriving studio in Chorlton, Manchester so it was important to block as much sound coming in and out of the room as possible. The room had next to no soundproofing when I arrived.

We (i.e. me with on and off help from some friends and family… predominantly my dad!) started by locating the studs and then cutting holes in the existing walls. The walls were then filled with acoustic partition foam in the aim to absorb the sound.

We then refilled the holes we cut and then began sticking up the 15mm soundbloc plasterboard. Firstly, we plastered a load of adhesive onto the back of the board to then stick the board in place… Holes were then drilled through into the studs and then heavy duty plasterboard screws were screwed in.

One of the walls needed extra work due to it’s exterior wall being made of wood! (so the soundproofing properties of a shed pretty much!!). For this wall, I decided to stick an extra two layers of plasterboard inside the cavity before the adding foam (this added up to four layers of board in this wall).

The room connects directly to the live room so we needed to put an extra wall with extra foam to improve the soundproofing here.

An estate agent would say the room is cosy, so I decided to flip the door frame round in order to give some more floor space in the room. I replaced the original door with a heavy duty fire door and screwed one layer of plasterboard onto the door for good luck. I also installed a door closer… Which I’m still trying to sort out to be honest… It’s a pain in the arse to get right. I have a whole new respect for doors that open and close properly.

For the ceiling, I got into the attic and drilled holes each side of the joists. This gave me a guide for where I needed to drill in order to screw the boards to the ceiling. I marked up the boards in relation to where the joists were marked on the ceiling, plastered on a load of adhesive, and offered the boards up for drilling. This was one of the hardest things to do and I required two extra bodies to help hold the weight (each full board is 42kg but I tried to halve that where possible). I have to say a massive thanks to Jens Boehm and Ben Langley for helping out with this. I also filled the gaps between the studs in ceiling to hopefully block some of the sounds travelling around the attics for other live rooms.

So this was the first stint of work to at least get the room soundproofed. I’m in no way saying this is the perfect way to do it, but it’s worked for me on the budget I’ve been working to. Hope people have found it useful and I’ll fill you in on the next step in the process soon.

I have to say a massive thanks to my dad, the guys at Airtight Studios and anyone else who has helped out either giving their time or their tools!!  It has been really really appreciated!

2 comments

  1. James, congrats on your new studio! I hope you enjoy working there. It certainly looks like you all did a tremendous job with it, and thank you for the detailed soundproofing tutorial.

    1. Ah thanks a lot Jeff… I’m really enjoying working in there!! There’s a couple of final bits I need to do before I can say it’s completely finished (the main one being to hang an acoustic panel above my head…) but it’s working really nicely nevertheless… Keep in touch!

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