Hello,
I am completing my first pass through Rod Gervais' "Home Recording Studio : Build it Like the Pros," trying to design a drum room that won't disturb my neighbors, but I'm missing something basic.
I understand the concepts of MSM, flanking path, and mechanical decoupling. But then I am apparently supposed to slice through my nice, solid, decoupled two-leaf wall, and push vents through it. Yes, the ability to breath is compelling. But so is the ability to actually make noise in a room intended for that purpose.
Now instead of the acoustic energy having to pass through two double walls and an appropriately-sized air gap, it can take a much easier path through one layer of metal vent or through an open register, travel down the vent, and pass through one more layer of metal to exit the vent. Surely that renders most of my heavy decoupled wall moot, does it not?
I know the drums are going to be loud, though some of that probably depends on my playing. Getting consistent 60-70 dB of reduction outside the room will be hard enough without cutting a hole through the walls. It seems like I would need to build a two-leaf wall around my ducts, but that would still be of limited help unless the air handler and all the other ducts were similarly enclosed.
What do people do in cases like this?
Neil