Creating a dedicated space for music production or DJing requires more than just setting up your equipment. One key aspect that is often overlooked by newcomers is soundproofing. If you’re looking to build a soundproof room for your music production, you might feel overwhelmed by the technicalities. But don’t worry — the process can be broken down into simple, actionable steps that can transform your room into an ideal environment for creating music.

When I first started DJing and making beats in my small home studio, I didn’t have to worry about disturbing neighbors or outside noise seeping in. At that time, I was just so excited to experiment with my gear and produce music that I didn’t think twice about soundproofing or acoustics.

However, as my productions progressed, I started to notice how external noise and sound leakage affected my work. Eventually, I realized the importance of having a properly soundproofed room—not just to block out unwanted noise, but also to create an optimal environment for mixing and recording.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the best steps and strategies to soundproof your room, ensuring you get the most out of your music production setup, whether you’re working in a small apartment or a dedicated home studio.

How To Soundproof Your Room For Home Recording

Effective Music Studio Rooms

The room you choose for your home recording studio is crucial to the quality of your recordings. Not only does it affect the acoustics of your space, but it also impacts your comfort and workflow.

Larger spaces, like a garage or home study, are often great for soundproofing because they provide more space to work and allow sound to carry out. These rooms also offer room for equipment storage and sound insulation materials. However, the size of the room will affect the amount of time and money required for soundproofing.

Choosing the right room to establish as your recording space is about as important as the equipment it’s outfitted with. Some key characteristics to have in mind when deciding what room to designate as a workspace are how high the ceilings are, whether the walls are asymmetrical, and how quiet the area is. 

Ceiling height is another important factor. Rooms with high ceilings allow sound to carry more naturally, which is essential for recording live instruments like drums. On the other hand, a small room might lead to unwanted reflections, especially with loud sounds like drums or DJ speakers. For optimal results, ensure that your recording area offers enough space to allow for good sound dispersion without creating unwanted sonic feedback.

Asymmetrical walls can also have a detrimental effect on sound quality, compromising the stereo image of your recordings. Therefore, the placement of your studio monitors is crucial. Ideally, your monitors should be set up so the sound travels along the length of the room, allowing the stereo image to be as symmetrical as possible.

If you choose a small room, the cost of soundproofing will be less. You will also need smaller studio desks and studio monitors, and therefore fewer expenses. If it’s a basement with no windows or a room with many openings will also affect the materials needed for sound insulation.

Soundproofing vs. Acoustic Treatment

“Soundproofing” and “acoustic treatment” are two different things

Before diving into soundproofing, it’s important to distinguish between soundproofing and acoustic treatment. While both are crucial for a professional sound environment, they serve different purposes.

• Soundproofing is about keeping external noises out and preventing your sounds from leaking into other rooms. It involves sealing gaps, adding insulation, and ensuring your space is as sound-tight as possible.
• Acoustic treatment, on the other hand, focuses on managing how sound behaves within your room. It involves controlling echoes, reverberation, and frequency balance to ensure that your recordings sound clear and accurate.

For a DJ studio or radio station, soundproofing is crucial to prevent external noise from interfering with recordings. But for music producers or audio engineers, acoustic treatment ensures that what you hear in your studio is a true reflection of your work, free from unwanted distortion or interference.

If you want to record singing or instruments you need to reach the lowest possible level of background noises.

And if you are also dreaming of your own home recording studio check how to build a music studio with $500.

Soundproofing Insulation Tips

The location you will pick for your studio sets out the assets for the build of a quality soundproofed recording studio. Avoid using a room close to a bedroom or any other place that you may disturb people. Better pick a room where by default you hear less ambient noise.

The bigger the room, the hardest will get to achieve excellent sound insulation. Pick a small to average size room with fewer possible windows or not at all if you are ok working under artificial light. Otherwise, you will need a single, double-glazed unit over the window or a sheet of acoustic glass to cover it.

The most important is to be comfortable in your workplace. I personally prefer a soothing and less distracted studio room with no windows. Only if the daylight works better for you, then you will have to spend a bit more money and energy to isolate your windows properly.

Doors and Ventilation

Doors are another area where sound can leak in or out. A heavy door can help reduce noise, but it’s essential that the door is properly sealed. If your door is light or poorly insulated, adding mass by using a dense door or a mass-loaded vinylsheet can improve sound isolation.

To check for leaks, ask a friend to hold a flashlight on one side of the door and look for light passing through the cracks. If you find leaks, use draught excluders or door seals to block them. Ventilation is equally important for your room’s health, as stale air can damage your equipment and impact your comfort. Installing an air vent can help, but be sure to add acoustic foam or a specially designed acoustic box to reduce noise leakage through the vent.

Creating a Room Within a Room

I hope things look easy so far and you can probably finish the first steps in a day or two. The next one takes serious commitment, time, and money investing the will upgrade your studio.

As an electronic music producer who rarely records vocals or instruments this step is not so important. You can soundproof the walls, floor, and ceiling how we will review below and you are good to go. If on the other hand, you are planning to record a band with drums, strings, keys, and other physical instruments then this step is necessary.

Building a vocal booth is a job for professionals. There are a few books you can buy and give you step-by-step guidance on how to do it, but it’s not an easy task.

The basic idea is that you need to isolate the inside room from the surrounding structure. In other words to get your new wall to “float” on the existing one. The same concept should be applied to your floor as well. 

Effective soundproofing Methods

There are a few tactics that will help you achieve maximum possible soundproofing into your studio. And I say maximum because no matter what you will do, it is impossible to manage perfect soundproofing. Some are expensive methods and others are more affordable for bedroom producers.

1. Adding Mass:

One of the most important procedures to sound isolation is to make the walls harder to “move”. And therefore prevent the transmission of sound through walls.

If you are building your studio from the start, sufficient mass can be added by simply forming the walls thicker with dense material like concrete. Otherwise, adding mass to an existing wall can be done in two ways. Either by adding a minimum of two layers of drywall or by adding material into the wall such as the TMS Mass Loaded Vinyl.

You probably already imagine adding drywalls on your walls but don’t forget the ceiling as well. Not only attach drywall but for better results, three layers will do the job.

2. Damping:

Damping is another soundproof method that converts kinetic energy from sound waves to heat. The combination use of a minimum two-layer drywall and damping stuff will remove a big part of the sound vibration before it enters the construction walls or ceiling.

There are many options of commercial “soundproof drywall” panels that work fine. Unfortunately, they cost a lot, and they may not perform very well with the low frequencies.

Instead of buying ready-to-use panels, there is a cheaper solution by using standard drywall and between two of those rigid panels to use damping compound. Green Glue Noiseproofing is one of the best and most popular damping compounds on the market. 

If you want to isolate the sound from the inside, then the drywall method is ideal. Most radio stations use double drywall with enhanced sound absorption panels for ultimate insulation.

3. Decoupling

The best way to isolate two structures in your room that are in direct contact causing a sound vibration from one to another is decoupling. There are many products in the market like the Auralex Acoustics U-Boat Floor Floaters that can be used to the newly structured floor resulting from striking out the transfer of energy.

Check out our top picks for the best acoustic foam panels in the market, as this is the best way to soundproof your room temporarily.

4. Sealing Air Gaps:

It is essential that all small cracks and holes in your doors, walls, windows, and the rest in your room be sealed up air-tight. An acoustic caulk can be used almost on any type of surface, and it will achieve excellent results. The St. Gobain Green Glue Noiseproofing Sealant is the best option here. You can also check some automatic door bottoms that will block perfectly the cleft between the door and floor. 

5. Managing Noise from Devices:

Keep in mind that there are many things to soundproof in your room. When you own a PC, A/C, or any other device it will produce some noise level. Pesky sounds that will mess with your recordings. Believe me; it can be more frustrating than you might think.

Apple products are usually relatively quiet and other PCs. All offer a very low noise level that you can find in the descriptions. AirConditions also mention the noise level of the product. The Mitsubishi MSZ Ultra Quiet A/C is a great studio recording air conditioner. It offers a 19dB noise level, and to realize how much this is, the background noise of a public library is 30dB.

Things that will help you improve soundproofing in a home recording studio:

• Carpets
• Curtains
• Bookcase filled with Books, Vinyls, etc.
• Couch

Things that won’t help much:

• Egg cartons
• Blankets
• Other small furniture

Why do I need to soundproof my studio room?

If you can hear your neighbors talking through the walls, or if too much bass is traveling through the walls, and disturbs your housemates, then noise proofing is essential.

Sound Treatment

While we covered a practical beginner’s studio setup for home recording, more advanced home studios would benefit from appropriate acoustic treatment to the recording space.

Most rooms within a house have poor acoustics, and you can’t be in order to make less noise at all times. Something that may not seem apparent, like what material the room’s walls are made of. It can have a tremendous impact on the way audio is treated in your studio.

Sound is typically either reflected, absorbed, or diffused when it comes in contact with a surface. This can be detrimental to the control you have over the quality of your recordings. Especially in the advent of standing waves. Standing waves occur when sound reverberates off of two parallel surfaces. Most rooms within a household offer solid walls that lead to this phenomenon occurring.

By implementing a blend of soundproof panels and diffusers, your home studio will be able to retain the desired sound of your recorded audio, despite the house’s structural limits. Together, the panels and diffusers, absorb any unwanted frequency while supporting the natural tone of whatever you record.

In essence, the theory behind soundproofing is meant to reduce the likelihood of sound resonating off objects within a recording environment. Typical modern homes enforce at least 35 dB of sound isolation. The advent of unwanted audio interference can be further subdued by patching any cracks and holes that allow air to pass through within the room.

The most common area for air permeance is through the crevices of the door. Installing rubber, and metal gaskets is a useful additive measure for canceling the flow of unwanted noise. Every angle and crack of a room should be inspected and controlled if acoustic purity is to be achieved.

Final Thoughts

Achieving optimal soundproofing and acoustic treatment for your music studio or DJ setup is an investment that will pay off in the long run. Proper soundproofing ensures a quiet, isolated environment for recording and mixing, while acoustic treatment gives you precise control over the sound in your room. By carefully selecting your space, using effective soundproofing methods, and incorporating the right equipment, you can create a professional-level music production environment right in your home.

Remember, soundproofing is not an instant fix, and it may take time and effort. But with dedication, you can create a space that allows you to produce and mix music to the highest standards without disturbance from the outside world.