I'm converting my 2 car detached garage in the LA area into a one room studio for mostly personal film scoring work, which includes a good amount of (sometimes very quiet) acoustic instrument recording. I will be sealing the outer leaf of stucco, putting a wall where the car opening is, then insulating and using Resilient Channels with 2 or 3 layers of sheetrock/green glue for the inner leaf, and I am on a fresh 8" slab of concrete. Now I need to figure out an HVAC system that's quiet enough without having to turn it off every time I'm recording something quiet.
I've always been led to believe that a ducted system with the appropriate duct silencers and baffle boxes in place would be the quietest way of having AC and fresh air, but EVERY SINGLE TIME I talk to an HVAC person (I think I've talked to 4 at this point), they push Mini-Splits with a separate fresh air intake. I understand the mini-splits are easier, install-wise, take up less space and require less power, but what I DON'T want is to have to shut the AC off every time I need to record something like a solo sparse clave track (it happens).
All these HVAC guys claim to have done a bunch of studios and have experience with the needs of quietness but even when I go through all the explanations and processes behind what I want, they either look confused or go back to the mini-split thing. I feel like I'm having the same conversation over and over again and expecting different results, so you'll understand if I'm feeling a little insane?
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The last guy basically told me that the 72-80db of noise from a ducted unit (which would be parked outside and behind my garage) would be so great that I'd still be shutting it off for quiet takes if I felt that the 30db of noise from a mini-split in my space would be too loud, and that he couldn't in good conscience install it because of this. As much as I'm frustrated by this continued refusal to accept my way of thinking, I don't want to ignore what seems to be a potentially valid argument. So?
Would anybody care to share their actual experience with having mini-splits in a 2 car garage sized space? Do you feel the need to shut it off when recording delicate spacious things?
What about those of you (if any) who've actually gone through the process of running a well thought-out full ducted system for such a small space: are you hearing that as well?
My wife had mini-splits (Mr.Slim's I think) in her old gallery space and they made a terrible whining high pitched (maybe vibrational?) noise when they cycled on, even though they were installed new and kept getting serviced to try and fix the problem. I'm imagining that even a slight low frequency hum through the walls from an outside unit would be easier to deal with, but obviously I have no direct experience with this.
So I reach out to you, the community(s). Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
-Geoff
PS - I'm posting this on a few different sites because they, for the most part, seem to have different regulars coming from different areas of experience. If you're one of those folks who frequents more than one of these forums I apologize for you having to see this multiple times?