Cost of building in home studio?

NoMirrors23

New member
Sorry, didn't do much research but does building a home studio only involve sound proofing the room? If so, how much should this cost for a small room? I've seen anywhere from $10-$30k. Does this sound right? (obviously w/out equipment) Appreciate it.


Also, what are drawback of a studio booth besides ugliness? I've seen some nice ones for about $5k?
 
There are two terms - sound proofing and sound attenuating.
Sound Attenuating (or sound reduction) reduces the level of sound that leaks out to adjacent rooms while Sound Proofing (or sound eliminating) eliminates sound from leaking.

That being said, Sound Proofing is crazy expensive. My suggestion is to go with a sound isolating booth. These are cost effective sound attenuating solutions that work well and can be moved if you decide to relocate. Attenuation is measured in decibels (DB). If you can get 30db or more attenuation at the low frequencies (100-150hz) then that is fairly typical.

Low sounds are harder to attenuate. This is why you hear bass only when you hear a car stereo from a distance. Drawbacks to isolating booths is that they can get hot and stuffy inside so you will need to attach a portable A/C unit to its ventilation system. You can get more info on this from the manufacturers website. A good place to start is by Googling "sound iso booth".

Hope this info helps.

Kevin
 
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Yes, it depends on what you mean by "studio," "sound proofing" (as explained above, highly unlikely), and what you want to do (if it's create in-the-box and record vocals, not much; if it's record lots of live instruments and bands, do pro mixing and mastering, etc., it could be cost prohibitive).

To start as far as resources, there's the Craig Anderton classic, and another book I can't remember the name of or the author (!!), but he used to contribute regularly to TapeOp.com, so you might be able to search it there. Also lots of good articles in Sound On Sound Magazine. Also a good old fashioned Google search wouldn't hurt...

GJ
 
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