Soundproofing a Tuff Shed

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naturalbridges
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Soundproofing a Tuff Shed

Post by naturalbridges » Thu Nov 21, 2019 3:44 pm

Just had a Tuff Shed built in my yard and am looking to use it for writing/demoing/recording. I've been doing research as far as how to go about soundproofing (mostly so I don't annoy my neighbors!) and thought this might be the place where I could get advice from others who have completed a project like this or similar to this? It's a 10x12 Tuff Shed. It doesn't have to be completely soundproof, just don't wanna completely bum out my neighbors. I play fairly mellow music, too. Thanks, everyone!

-Matthew

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Nick Sevilla
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Re: Soundproofing a Tuff Shed

Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Nov 21, 2019 6:10 pm

Hi,

I recommend a combination of this:

https://www.acoustimac.com/soundproofin ... yl-1lb50sf

Covering the entire inside walls, as the outer layer of the inside wall construction.

Outer wall shell > Mass loaded vinyl > 30dB rated (or more) bat insulation (also for heat retention > Standard Drywall.

The inside drywall should be mounted using Auralex RC8 resilient channel:

https://www.auralex.com/product/rc-8-resilient-channel/

This decouples the inner drywall, so that most vibrations hitting it will be diffused.

Build the inner was with 2x4" framing, so it all fits in there. You will lose some space, but gain enough isolation for most needs.

Basically, you would be building the entire inner wall as an absorber / diffuser, instead of making smaller, stand alone or wall mounted ones, which will not be enough if your neighbors are only 15 feet away (as is the case in most urban and suburban areas).

I did this (although I used double the inside drywall) on my stand alone garage in Northridge CA, and was able to play acoustic drums all day, with zero leakage.

Also, if the door is the same construction as the walls, as most of these sheds are, then just treat it the same as the walls. If the door is to be windowed, do try to replace the window, or make sure the window is double paned, of quality construction.

Cheers, and good luck!
Last edited by Nick Sevilla on Sat Nov 23, 2019 2:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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losthighway
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Re: Soundproofing a Tuff Shed

Post by losthighway » Thu Nov 21, 2019 8:25 pm

^ These are all good ideas.

If you think what you're doing will be mellow enough, there could be cheaper and easier approaches that will soak up fewer db's. Insulation plus double drywall with green glue would leave more space, cost less, but also absorb less sound. For an acoustic guitar, or electric with a small combo amp, or monitors at a reasonable playback volume it would probably be enough. The hard part is if you're going for a resilient channel you need to do it from the start. To build without it, then change your mind and demo the drywall would be madness.

Also consider how much OC 703 you're going to want to acoustically treat the space. It will probably need to be pretty dead, and probably need some heavier bass trapping in the corners if you're doing some mixing.

Also think about where your oxygen is coming from.

naturalbridges
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Re: Soundproofing a Tuff Shed

Post by naturalbridges » Fri Nov 22, 2019 8:27 am

Thank you so much for all of the ideas! It's a pretty small shed,so I'm trying to find the right balance between losing space and getting decent results. I'm mainly planning on doing singer/songwriter type stuff with understated, t-shirts on the heads drums. I'm going to be using a Princeton Reverb to track electric guitars and keyboards, so nothing super duper loud. Would also like to playback stuff I've recorded at a moderate volume after 10pm. Not planning on doing serious mixing. Good call on considering oxygen!

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Re: Soundproofing a Tuff Shed

Post by markjazzbassist » Fri Nov 22, 2019 8:40 am

i believe the first step is going around and finding gaps/holes/cracks/etc and using some sort of caulking to seal the whole place up. Check windows and doors and find solutions to seal them as well. once you do that then you can start your baseline testing and see how much you'll need to do from there. just play a song on your speakers as loud as you think you'll need to go (or the bands/artist will be) and then walk around outside and near the neighbors and get a good idea of the loudness. you might find you only need some thick carpet and bass traps and might not need to soundproof.

how far away are your neighbors?

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Re: Soundproofing a Tuff Shed

Post by naturalbridges » Fri Nov 22, 2019 9:16 am

Neighbors are roughly 15 feet away. I do live in a pretty normal, suburban neighborhood. I like the approach of seeing how loud stuff is gonna get, and then working from there. That makes a lot of sense. I was thinking I could get an iso box if I ever needed to crank it. I had a feeling the Tape Op folks would be able to provide some solid advice, and I truly am most appreciative!

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Re: Soundproofing a Tuff Shed

Post by kslight » Fri Nov 22, 2019 10:19 am

I don’t know if you’ve evaluated just how loud it’s going to get yet, I would probably start there. There’s definitely different ways to approach this, depending on what you’re planning on doing. I’m not clear if you’re planning on a band (seems like kind of a small space for that?) or live drums or if guitar amps and mixing is the extent of it.

For my own home studio use I’m a big fan of the load box approach to recording guitar amps. I’ve tried using an iso box and I had a hard time making it sound right, never did quite get there before I gave up. I use a Two Notes Torpedo Live. So if you were able to use a load box and didn’t blast your monitors crazy loud then you probably don’t even need to worry about going super crazy with isolating your studio from the neighborhood.

Just an idea to consider.

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Nick Sevilla
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Re: Soundproofing a Tuff Shed

Post by Nick Sevilla » Sat Nov 23, 2019 2:55 pm

kslight wrote:
Fri Nov 22, 2019 10:19 am
I’ve tried using an iso box and I had a hard time making it sound right, never did quite get there before I gave up.
Yeah, those iso boxes sure sounded like a good idea, but never quite made the grade.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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Re: Soundproofing a Tuff Shed

Post by vvv » Sun Nov 24, 2019 3:43 pm

IME, the box I used (I made one from an Anvil case) was good for getting the amp cooking for power tube distortion, but I found I definitely had to add ambience, which was definitely not as good as a mic'd room.

As well, it was really difficult to minimize the kinda boxiness of the sound.

FWIW, I would use 8" or 10" speakers in a small amp placed in the Anvil, connected as an extension speaker to the amp I was playing.

That, in turn, meant that I couldn't crank 50w. or greater amps, because my smaller amps wouldn't take the levels.

Using a bigger amp in the Anvil increased the boxiness.

I never used a specifically designed iso-box, but I think the issues might be about the same ...
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Re: Soundproofing a Tuff Shed

Post by kslight » Sun Nov 24, 2019 6:49 pm

vvv wrote:
Sun Nov 24, 2019 3:43 pm
IME, the box I used (I made one from an Anvil case) was good for getting the amp cooking for power tube distortion, but I found I definitely had to add ambience, which was definitely not as good as a mic'd room.

As well, it was really difficult to minimize the kinda boxiness of the sound.

FWIW, I would use 8" or 10" speakers in a small amp placed in the Anvil, connected as an extension speaker to the amp I was playing.

That, in turn, meant that I couldn't crank 50w. or greater amps, because my smaller amps wouldn't take the levels.

Using a bigger amp in the Anvil increased the boxiness.

I never used a specifically designed iso-box, but I think the issues might be about the same ...
Yeah I had a commercially made one and it was always funky, no matter what mic, always tried moving the mic around and or adding more insulation..before giving up. Ironically it sounded kind of all right with the door open... And it wasn’t all that quiet even with the door shut.

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