D.I. Y. Home Studio Acoustics

I have built a studio (control room, live room) in 2 rooms of my home. I live close to a major highway and some outside noise (mostly low end from large trucks) gets in. I used 3/4 MDF and fiberglass insulation to seal inside the windows of the live room but I am getting sound from outside through the walls and ceiling. I know that building a room within a room is the best way to stop outside noise. The problem is that I do not have enough space to do this. My live room is only 11'x14'x8' high. I there is some sound block material on the market but it is very expensive. I am considering building complete walls and ceiling out of 3/4" MDF inside this room with 2-3 inches of air space between the MDF and the drywall walls and ceiling. I would build this free standing on the carpet and slab foundation, but not actually attached to the walls or ceiling and seal all the cracks with calk. My theory is that the MDF would stop more of the low frequency trying to get in. The air space would help and the fact that it is not attached to the existing structure would prevent the sound waves from resonating between the 2 structures. Please let me know if you think this would work. Also, if you have any links 2 sites that would give me some low cost D.I. Y. acoustic design idea, I would greatly appreciate it.

Maybe you just want a single person isolation booth or box? Something likehttps://room.com/pages/phone-booth-black?utm_medium=ppc&utm_term=&utm_campaign=smart-shopping_usa&utm_source=adwords&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_cam=2074349976&hsa_ad=372582702687&hsa_grp=76868108352&hsa_ver=3&hsa_tgt=pla-834144269930&hsa_src=u&hsa_acc=3874436272&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItOKWxYPc5gIVUV8NCh3BbAACEAQYASABEgJUl_D_BwE maybe?

If you shop around you can find something that is like trunk or briefcase sized... maybe not perfect, but can help you isolate sounds around the microphone. Otherwise, if you want a completely isolated environment... yeah, it takes a lot of work and materials.

Maybe check this out?

The issue with that design, is the recording come out boxy. Keep the top and bottom open so you don't lose the high frequency of the vocal recordings.

Your thinking is correct: Fill Air Gaps, Add Mass, Damping, and Decoupling. Not a fan of carpet at all, better to add hard wood floors.

Mannorer wrote:I have built a studio (control room, live room) in 2 rooms of my home. I live close to a major highway and some outside noise (mostly low end from large trucks) gets in. I used 3/4 MDF and fiberglass insulation to seal inside the windows of the live room but I am getting sound from outside through the walls and ceiling. I know that building a room within a room is the best way to stop outside noise. The problem is that I do not have enough space to do this. My live room is only 11'x14'x8' high. I there is some sound block material on the market but it is very expensive. I am considering building complete walls and ceiling out of 3/4" MDF inside this room with 2-3 inches of air space between the MDF and the drywall walls and ceiling. I would build this free standing on the carpet and slab foundation, but not actually attached to the walls or ceiling and seal all the cracks with calk. My theory is that the MDF would stop more of the low frequency trying to get in. The air space would help and the fact that it is not attached to the existing structure would prevent the sound waves from resonating between the 2 structures. Please let me know if you think this would work. Also, if you have any links 2 sites that would give me some low cost D.I. Y. acoustic design idea, I would greatly appreciate it.

If you're on a serious budget...

Some used soundproofing blankets

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Audimute-Sou ... SwhEtdy~OY