cellar studio window soundproofing

Hi there,

I have a small studio in a celler apartment. There's one double-glazed window in the control room, outside of which is a kind of drainage and lighting "box" measuring approx 4"x4"x4" where the light gets in and the leaves gather in autumn. The top of this box is a grid at ground level where the rain can and does get through.

I made a jpeg (graphic) of the window from inside the studio and a cross section of the "box" and to save on your server space I put it up on mine. Here's the link:


My question is - how do I soundproof it?

I thought about doing the following and was wondering if you thought it a good idea. I want to do two things
1) treat each window individually by screwing in two 0.5 inch (1 cm) thick pieces of plywood, seperated by a 2 inch (5 cm) gap filled with Rockwool, over each window
2) put sandbags in the external "box" area covered with a polythene sheet to keep them dry.

I'm grateful for any advice

First, let's make sure we are together on the meaning of words. SOUNDPROOFING will keep sound from getting out of your room and disturbing others outside or near the room. SOUNDPROOFING will keep external noises from coming in and becoming a part of your recording. ACOUSTICAL TREATMENT will determine what kind of sound reaches your microphone (with or without reverberations) as well as what reaches your ears from the monitor speakers.

You used the word SOUNDPROOFING so for now we work with the idea of not having sound transmit either direction through the windows and walls.

How severe does you soundproofing need to be? Is "leaking" sound a big problem or a small problem? To really clamp down on sound transmission you need to build a "room" inside your present room. Walls inside your current walls that do not touch the existing walls. Is that possible? Is the room large enough? Is that permitted and practical based on who owns the building and what are the rules? Does your budget allow you to get that extravagant?

What about the overhead? Is the current ceiling high enough to allow you to continue this room within a room? Can you come down with a new ceiling 5 or 6 inches below the current ceiling?

Talk to us some more.

Hi there,

thanks for getting back to me.

How severe does your soundproofing need to be?
The rest of the block is a residential area. i need to soundproof as much as possible in order not to disturb them. I'd like to be able to record at night safe int he knowledge that noone is being disturbed.

Is "leaking" sound a big problem or a small problem?
Well, at the moment, because there are no doors inside the studio it's big. Soundproofing the studio would, I guess, be a luxury at this stage.

To really clamp down on sound transmission you need to build a "room" inside your present room. Walls inside your current walls that do not touch the existing walls. Is that possible?
I know this is the best solution but there is noone below me, to the side of me and above is an empty shop. I just don't see the need to go to all that trouble just yet because I really want to spend time making music.

Is the room large enough?
well, the whole thing is about 30 sq. metres. Half of that is just a storage room. So it's small.

Is that permitted and practical based on who owns the building and what are the rulesIt's not practical to build a room within a room at the moment.

Does your budget allow you to get that extravagant?
No. I'm not earning very much money and I'll have to do all the jobs myself. (familiar to anyone reading this?)

What about the overhead? Is the current ceiling high enough to allow you to continue this room within a room? Can you come down with a new ceiling 5 or 6 inches below the current ceiling?
I can just about stand up at the moment. If I took any more off it'd be uncomfortable.

You can get a better idea by visiting http://www.thefair.de/studio1.html

Thanks for your time