What is Sonic Rehearsal Studios, you ask?
Well that’s a good question. I didn’t know how to build these rooms at first, but I did the research, tweaked the materials according my budget and went for it. Acoustics is a good mix of art and science and there is no such thing as a sound proofed room. The masters will tell you this and the sooner you accept this fact the faster you can get to building and experimenting with your own arrangement of soundproofing materials. Those of you that know me know that I built a studio in my garage and later, after moving, converted a shed into a studio.
If a tree falls in the forest….
I’ve been studying acoustics for a long time. Its a big subject, it’s fascinating to me and something Im passionate about. Lets talk about Sound dampening, sound isolation, sound proofing and all that good stuff. Sound is energy. It’s energy that we hear. Sound is vibrations; vibrations are frequencies. Take a guitar for example, when the string is plucked it creates a vibration. That vibration goes into the air and hits a molecule and that molecule hits the molecule next to it and the one next to it and so on and it finally reaches your ears. You ears have tiny receptors which make contact with that vibration and your brain then interprets the sound. Above all, where there is air, there is sound. No air No sound. That puts to rest the old question of “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it it does it make a sound?” Sound happens regardless if you and I are present. Its a matter of air being present or not. In space there is no sound because there is no air.
If you live in a noisy place, or your kids play their music or games very loud, how do you isolate yourself from that noise? There are many practices, here are a couple of things that I am currently experimenting with. This comes from research and reading articles that are over my head. It comes from trial and error and just simply experimenting. Double wall construction — sometimes known as “a room within a room” — has the greatest impact regarding sound transmissions. This means that walls are not shared between rooms. The walls are “decoupled.” At Sonic Rehearsal Studios all of our walls are decoupled double walls.
Soundproofing is all about controlling the vibrations or slowing them down and in the end taking the energy that we hear and transforming it into energy that we can’t such as heat. Thats a whole other topic for another day. Its about making sure that receptacles, lights and any wall penetrations are as air tight as possible so that sound can’t get out and sound can’t get in. ANYWHERE AIR can travel, SOUND will travel. Sheet rock and insulation will help most frequencies but when considering lower frequencies at high decibels they will not be as effective as some type of dense membrane. Sonic Rehearsal Studios uses a proprietary synthetic elastomeric membrane blend to attenuate those lower frequencies.
This is a little bit about the construction of the rooms but who we are and what we do is simple. We are not just a rehearsal studio. Our mission is to acknowledge your talents and create environments where ideas become reality. Contact us today!
– Fuzzy