Mighty Atom Site Studio in Resonating Drum!
8 November 2000

Well, it appears we've moved our studio into a resonating drum. Now, maybe we were a little naive here, but we kinda assumed that with this being a BBC studio, small issues like accoustic isolation would have been addressed as a matter of course. That's the way the BBC usually do things. They go right over the top with all things in the studio. However, in this instance they did not. What we have instead is a control room and studio that have been carefully prepared to provide good accoustics but no isolation. Actually, let me rephrase that. The beeb in this instance have gone better and created a studio environment that actually amplifies sound - a reverberating drum.

All this means that we have a little work on our hands in order to sound proof the control room and live room to enable us to record LOUD rock n roll music. Furthermore, the isolation needs to be pretty damn good since the beeb are still broadcasting from downstairs. All this on a typically tight budget. So how have we approached it.

First off, lets be clear and say we are not accoustic experts, and when your not an expert, the best thing to do is get one in. Fortunately we have some good friends up in London at Serious Audio and at the Sanctuary Group who have all been down to cast their expert eyes over our deepening problem. Early conclusions identified two main problematic areas. the floor and the air conditioning. The floor seems to set up a nice resonating frequency around 40 Hertz. Perfect for amplifying bass drums. So step one is a floating floor.

Now, after many discussions and deliberation we settled on the following. Onto the existing floorboards we laid a layer of RW7 slab rockwool (horrible stuff) - we were lucky enough to reclaim most of this from the closing Black Mountain studio in Llandilo. This is not a job I would wish on anyone. The rockwool was followed by a layer of 8mm MDF 8'x4'. On top of this a layer of flooring grade chipboard, then a layer of rubber matting topped off with another layer of flooring grade chipboard. In the control room this was topped off with a layer of laminate flooring including substrate layer. In the live studio if was topped with the previously existing carpet.

Next up we have to consider the air conditioning system which lives above the suspended ceiling. It weaves majestically up and down the room piping sound and resonance to the rest of the building - particularly upstairs. The system is not in anyway clad or damped and thus resonates in perfect harmony with the floor. So the obvious first step is to clad it. This we will do next week. Paul knows a man who specialises in such jobs.

Thats all for now. Stay tuned for the next installment in soundproofing drums.