Soundproofing

page 1 David Mellor

Soundproofing

There has always been a lot of confusion between the role of materials that reflect
sound, and materials that absorb sound. Sound-absorbing materials are NOT
good at blocking sound transmission.

This is not to say that they have no function in soundproofing. Just that the gen-
eral public consensus is that to provide soundproofing, all you need is lots of
absorbent material. This is 100% absolutely not so. Here’s an example:

Suppose a partition is created from a very thick layer of mineral wool (the most
cost-effective sound absorber there is). Suppose it is so thick that it absorbs 75% of
the sound pressure that falls upon it, leaving only 25% to transmit through to the
other side. This seems good, since the sound pressure has dropped to a quarter.

However, when you consider this in decibel terms, reducing sound pressure to a
quarter is a change of minus 12 dB. So if the sound pressure on the side where the
sound originates is 100 dB SPL, the sound pressure on the other side of the parti-
tion is still a very significant 88 dB SPL.

This is a noticeable difference, but it’s hardly soundproofing. For really effective
soundproofing we need a drop of at least 45 dB, and preferably more. Even then,
the sound will very likely be audible on the other side of the partition.

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Materials

Effective soundproofing can only be provided by materials which reflect sound

energy. Such materials would be massive and non-porous, such as concrete, or a
well-made brick or blockwork wall. Here is a list of suitable materials:

• Concrete

• Bricks or non-porous blocks

• Plasterboard (also known as drywall, sheetrock, wallboard, & gyp-

sum board)

• Plywood and dense particle board

• Glass

• Metal

• Proprietary flexible soundproofing materials

The two characteristics that all of these have in common is mass and non-porosity.
The last item, ‘proprietary flexible soundproofing materials’ covers an immense
range of potential solutions, some of which - when you look at their advertising
material - seem to work by magic rather than physics. They will only work if they
are massive and non-porous - simple as that.

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The Three Requirements for Good Soundproofing

Having looking briefly at the materials, we can now consider the three require-
ments for good soundproofing:

• Mass

• Continuity of structure

• No defects

Mass means what it says. Double the mass of a partition and you get 6 dB more
insulation.

Continuity of structure not only means non-porosity, it means that the sound-
proofing should enclose the room in question absolutely 100%. If there is any
place where sound can get through, it will. You could spend a lot of money and
see it wasted because of ‘acoustic holes’ in the structure.

‘No defects’ really means the same as continuity of structure. Except that it is one
thing to design a room with no acoustic holes, quite another thing to see it through
to completion successfully. Builders do not always comply with architects’ plans
100%, and the shortcuts they take could well compromised soundproofing con-
siderably.

Let’s go back and look at the materials once again.

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Concrete

Concrete is a wonderful building material. The only consideration is that it should

be vibrated effectively to make sure there are no air pockets.

Bricks

A house brick often has a hollow in one surface, known as the ‘frog’. BBC prac-
tice is to lay bricks with their frogs uppermost (which is not always the case in
conventional building practice) because then they have to be filled completely
with cement. This makes the wall heavier than it may otherwise have been, and
therefore a little bit better at soundproofing.

Plasterboard

Plasterboard consists of a layer of gypsum plaster around 12 mm thick sand-

wiched between two sheets of thick paper. With it you can make a ‘dry partition’.
A wooden framework is constructed and layers of plasterboard nailed on.

The BBC’s ‘double Camden partition’ consists of two such frameworks, onto
which are nailed a total of eight sheets of plasterboard.

The advantage of dry partitions is that they can be constructed while the rest of
the studio complex is still operational. Concrete and bricks are very much more

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messy, making it more likely that operation will have to be closed down totally.
Dry partitions are sometimes called ‘lightweight partitions’. This is because you
can divide a room into two using just two sheets of plasterboard on the wooden
framework. But by the time you have added enough extra layers for good sound-
proofing, it is no lighter than a brick wall providing the same degree of insula-
tion.

Plywood and particle board such as chipboard and MDF

These are all good materials - obviously the denser, and therefore heavier, the
better. They are more expensive than plasterboard however, so they are only used
where they are needed.

Glass

Glass is a very good material for soundproofing, but it is expensive. Therefore it

is only used when you need to see through the soundproofing.

Metal

Once again, this is a very good material for soundproofing, but it is expensive in
comparison to the alternatives. It is only used where its high density is important
in achieving a relatively thin sound proofed partition. It is most commonly found
in sound proofed doors, which may have a lead lining.

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Proprietary flexible soundproofing materials

With regard to the comments made above, these are generally expensive in com-
parison with their acoustic worth. They should only be used where flexibility or
ease of installation is important. They may also be used as damping material.

For instance a metal panel in a car may vibrate and transmit energy to the passen-
ger compartment. If it were damped, then not only would the vibration would be
reduced, but significant energy would be taken out of the sound wave.

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Construction Techniques

A room is made up from a variety of surfaces and components, all requiring their
own construction techniques:

• Walls

• Ceiling

• Floor

• Windows

• Doors

• Cable ducts

• Ventilation ducts

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Walls

Whatever material the wall is made out of, it is better to use two thin walls spaced
apart rather than one thick one of equivalent mass.

Remembering that soundproofing is best achieved by reflection, and that reflec-

tion occurs at the boundary between one material and another, it makes sense to
provide four boundaries rather than two.

At first thought, it may seem that if a partition has a sound transmission class
(STC) of say 35 dB, and two such partitions are provided, then the overall STC
will be 70 dB. This is not the case.

By doubling the mass you get an extra 6 dB, and by spacing apart the two leaves
of the partition you might gain another 3 dB.

This may not sound like much, but it costs hardly anything so it is worth having.

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Dry partition detail

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The reason why you don’t get twice as many decibels of sound reduction is that
the two leaves remain coupled together. In fact the more closely they are coupled,
the more the object of the exercise is defeated.

Double-leaf brick walls (‘cavity walls’) are often constructed using wire or plastic
ties which couple the leaves together for mechanical strength. For a wall that is
designed for good soundproofing, the use of such ties should be minimized. Care
should be taken not to allow cement to fall onto the ties. In normal building, this
would not matter.

Also, builders are known to have a habit of depositing rubbish between the leaves
of a cavity wall. You probably didn’t want to know this but it ranges from food
waste to plastic bags containing human excrement. This of course must not be al-
lowed to happen as it couples the leaves of the partition.

The space between the partitions should be filled with absorbent material such as
mineral wool. This is where absorbent material does have a place in soundproof-
ing. If the cavity is left empty, sound will bounce back and forth between the
leaves and some of the reflected energy will end up being transmitted.

If this can be absorbed significantly, then the insulation will be better.

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BBC-style double Camden partition

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Ceiling

The difficulty in building a sound proofed ceiling is mounting sufficient mass

horizontally. The brute force solution is to lay concrete on top of metal shutter-
ing, preferably as a double-leaf construction. The concrete could be up to 175 mm
thick in total. As always, mass wins.

For a less heavily engineered solution, the BBC recommend woodwool slabs.
Woodwool is a sheet or board made from a mixture of thin strips of wood and
cement, which are bound together through compression within a mould. Layers
of plasterboard can be used too, providing they are adequately supported.

‘Acoustic tiles’ are virtually useless as sound insulation, although they do find
application in acoustic treatment.

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Floor

Once again, mass rules. But also there is a technique known as the ‘floating floor’,
which is widely used in studio construction.

The fully engineered floating floor would consist of a concrete slab formed on
metal shuttering, supported on rubber pads or even heavy-duty springs. The
mass of the slab is important as the mass-spring system will have a resonant fre-
quency, at which the sound insulation properties will be worse than if the floor
were not floating! A massive slab can push this resonant frequency below the
audio band.

Where restriction on cost or loading prevents a heavy floating floor, a lighter-

weight version can be constructed to BBC recommendations by putting down a
resilient layer of high-density mineral wool (approximately 30 mm) covered with
a plastic sheet, and then laying a 70 mm reinforced concrete slab on top of that,
with a further 40 mm concrete screed on top.

A wooden domestic floor may be improved by adding two layers of 18 mm par-

ticle board on top, with the joints staggered to avoid gaps. The gaps around the
edges can be filled with a mastic material, or by compressing mineral wool tightly
into the gaps. There would be no harm in ‘floating’ this on top of an old carpet,
but the additional benefit, other than for impact noise, would be slight.

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Windows

Glass is a good soundproofing material if it is thick enough.

There is one type of window that is absolutely useless for sound insulation how-
ever, and that is an open window!

If a window has to be opened to provide ventilation then all of the rest of the
soundproofing in the studio is rendered worthless. Some windows have to be
opened only for cleaning, in which case the opening section should be surround-
ed by a compression seal, not a brush seal (or no seal at all).

A properly constructed window would have two panes of differing thicknesses

(to avoid resonance effects allowing the same band of frequencies through each
pane), set in mastic in a well constructed frame.

The flexible mastic decouples the panes from the frame and from each other, re-
ducing the opportunities for sound transmission. Since this is in effect a double
leaf partition, it would be sonicly advantageous to fill the gap between the panes
with mineral wool. Unfortunately, the window would now no longer function as
intended.

The best compromise is to line the reveals (the edges between the panes) of the
window with absorbent material to soak up the energy that would otherwise

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bounce around inside until it found an outlet.

Often, windows are constructed so that the panes are angled to each other. This
has some value in preventing standing waves being set up between the otherwise
parallel panes, but its greater value is in cutting down on the visual reflections
there would be otherwise.

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Doors

The best solution to access is simply to by a sound proofed door. This will be ex-
pensive, but it will be worth it. It will probably have magnetic seals around the
top and sides, and a compression seal at the bottom. It will also be very heavy,
meaning that the wall it fits into will have to be strong enough to support it.

A reasonable alternative is a heavy fire door, with the jamb fitted with rubber com-
pression seals and extended all the way around the door, including the bottom.

To gain better insulation than a single door can achieve, a ‘sound lobby’ is some-
times constructed so there are two doors between one side of the wall and the
other.

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Box Within a Box

The ultimate in studio building is the so-called ‘box within a box’ structure. Here,
the external building provides shelter from the elements, and office facilities,
but within it is a completely enclosed and self-supporting structure standing on
rubber pads or springs. Naturally, this is expensive.

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Ventilation

Ventilation and air conditioning, sometimes known as HVAC (the ‘H’ stands for
‘heating’) is a vitally important topic to study in conjunction with soundproofing.
When a studio is sound proof, it is also air proof, unless steps are taken.

Ventilation and air conditioning are not synonymous. Ventilation means access to
fresh air from outside the building, air conditioning means cooling and maintain-
ing the humidity of the air that is already inside. An air conditioning system may
provide ventilation, but many do not at all.

There are a number of problems caused by such systems:

• Noise caused by air turbulence within the ducts

• Fan noise transmitted through the ducts

• Noise in the structure of the building transferring to the ducts and

being transmitted through them

• Fan noise transmitted through the metal of the ducts

• The ducts create transmission paths through the building

These are the solutions:

Turbulence is reduced by having ducts with a large cross-sectional area. This

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allows the air velocity to be lower and any remaining turbulence will be lower in
frequency.

Any airborne noise can be reduced by the incorporation of plenum chambers. A

plenum is a large space through which the air must travel, lined with absorbent
material. The air temporarily slows down and allows time for any sound it carries
to be absorbed.

The ducts are also lined, bearing in mind that the absorbent material must not
give off particles (like mineral wool does), unless the air is being extracted. Baffles
are generally not used as they increase turbulence.

Noise that would otherwise travel through the metal of the duct is reduced by
suspending the ducts flexibly, and by having flexible connector sections every so
often to absorb vibration.

Noise from the fan that would otherwise enter the structure of the building can
be reduced by mounting the fan on a heavy plinth, itself resting on resilient pads.
Obviously, a fan that is intrinsically quiet should be used.

Studio ventilation and air conditioning systems should be installed by contractors

who have experience in doing this in a studio environment. Otherwise it is likely
that the result will not be satisfactory.

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The Function of Absorption in Sound Proofing

If soundproofing were carried out using only reflective materials, then the sound
energy would continue to reflect back and forth, each time offering another op-
portunity for some of the energy to be transmitted.

If there is sound absorbing material within the room or cavity, this energy will
sooner or later be absorbed and converted to heat.

Using absorption in this way is useful when the level of the sound source is fixed
- a noisy fan could be enclosed and the enclosure filled with absorbent material,
for example. It is also useful in cavities.

In a recording studio control room however, adding more absorbent material for
this purpose is not useful since it will lower the sound level in the room and the
engineer will simply turn up the level to compensate.

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Flanking Transmission

Flanking transmission occurs where are partition is built up to the height of a

suspended ceiling, or down to the level of a raised floor, but not all the way to the
solid structure of the building.

No matter how good the soundproofing qualities of the partition, sound will take
the flanking path over or under the obstacle.

Cable Ducts

Where a cable duct passes through a partition there will be the opportunity for
sound to leak through the duct.

To prevent this, the space not occupied by cables must be filled with ‘pugging’.
This can take the form of sand in bags, or tightly compressed mineral wool.

Note that there is no ‘l’ in ‘pugging’.

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Check Questions

• Are materials that are good reflectors of sound, good sound insula-
tors?

• Are materials that are good absorbers of sound, good sound insula-
tors?

• How is sound absorbing material used in conjunction with sound

reflecting material to improve insulation?

• With reference to the question above, when is this not effective?

• What property of a material controls its sound insulating ability?

• What are the three requirements for good soundproofing?

• What is ‘flanking transmission’?

• What is ‘pugging’?

• What is a ‘dry partition’?

• What is the disadvantage of proprietary flexible soundproofing

materials?

• What should be avoided when building a double-leaf partition?

• What is a ‘floating floor’?

• Describe the construction of a window between a studio and con-

trol room.

• What types of seals would a sound proof door have?

• What is a ‘box within a box’?

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• What problem does soundproofing cause with regard to ventila-

tion?

• With regard to the above question, describe some of the solutions.

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Soundproofing
© David Mellor 2001-2002

The original purchaser is licensed to make copies as rea-

sonably required for their own personal use.

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