Building a home studio has long been a dream project of many hobbyists, DIYers, and enthusiasts, but what many people get wrong is that the quality of the studio has to be subpar just because it’s in your home.

With the right tools, tips, and tricks, building a professional quality home studio is very achievable, and the first step is soundproofing. In this guide, we’ll be focusing on how to soundproof a home studio so you can keep unwanted noise out and keep your beautiful sound in.

There is a common misconception that soundproofing a room is the same as installing an acoustic treatment. Let’s go ahead and shut that down. Good soundproofing does not equal good acoustics. Think of it like this: the goal of soundproofing is to keep sound in or out of a space. The goal of an acoustic treatment is to improve the quality of sound within that space.

What is Home Studio Soundproofing?

Home studio soundproofing is all about isolating your studio from the outside world, preventing unwanted noise from getting in or your sound from leaking out. To do improve a barrier's soundproofing ability, you need to add mass, seal everything up airtight, and isolate the structure. You'll need quality soundproofing materials and the know-how to get the job done.

Soundproofing materials are measured by their sound transmission class (STC) rating and their impact insulation class (IIC) rating. The more sound a material can block, the higher the STC rating. An STC rating of 60 is effectively soundproof. The typical wall in your house is likely in the 30-34 range. As for the IIC rating, the better the material is at resisting noise generated by impact, the higher the rating. This is particularly relevant in basement studios where footsteps from above can ruin a recording.

Reasons to Soundproof your Home Studio

• You want a professional quality recording without outside noise mucking it up.
• You don’t want the sound of your neighbor’s lawnmower to appear on your recording.
• Your family (or neighbors) keeps complaining about all the racket you’re making.

What is a Home Studio Acoustic Treatment?

A home studio acoustic treatment is all about strategically placing absorptive materials and diffusion in your studio to achieve a reverb time that is optimal for recording (and mixing). It is the obvious second phase of building a truly professional level studio after soundproofing the space.

Acoustic materials are graded by their noise reduction coefficient (NRC) rating, which tells us how much sound a material can absorb. A rating of zero means that 100% of sound is reflected, and a rating of 1 means 100% is absorbed and transmitted. If a material can absorb sound effectively, you’ll hear fewer reverberations and enjoy a clearer sound.

When you get to this phase of the planning and execution, read our home studio acoustic treatment guide and reach out to us for a custom acoustic treatment plan. 

Reasons to Acoustically Treat your Home Studio

• You desire professional sound quality in your recording space and your control room.
• You want to reduce echo and reverb in your recording space to an optimal level.
• Clarity is very important to you for mixing and listening enjoyment.

Need more help Decifering between soundproofing and acoustic treatments?

Both soundproofing and acoustics play a vital role in recording studios, so neither should be overlooked. Read our article to help you decifer between soundproofing and an acoustic treatment, and check out this graphic below as well!

The first thing you'll need to do is determine what quality you're going for. We've seen home studios ranging from serviceable to professional depending on the budget and intent for the space. Generally, we always recommend any pro audio space to have a minimum STC rating of 50 but generally higher for better soundproofing. If you're in a quieter home and/or neighborhood, getting by with a lower STC might be just fine. If you want to achieve professional level quality, keep in mind that most professional studios have an STC rating in the 60-70 range.

Steps to soundproof your home Studio

The higher the STC rating you need to achieve, the more work will go into your project, but Second Skin is here to help! We've broken down some steps for you by the type of results you can expect to get:

1.  Choose the Right Room
2.  Soundproof the Door
3.  Soundproof the Walls and the Ceiling
4.  Soundproof the Floor
5.  Soundproof the HVAC

Step one: pick the best space for your home studio

Some locations in your house will be a better starting point for your home studio. Selecting a quieter or more secluded space will mean less unwanted noise to soundproof against! It seems obvious enough, but the degree of difficulty in soundproofing your home studio can largely depend on the starting point. Where is this room located with respect to the rest of the house? Perhaps you're in the basement, or maybe you're up in the attic with the squirrels. Consider the basic construction of the room and the sources of outside noise.

In most homes, the two biggest weak spots are doors and windows. Choosing a room with windows is awesome for natural light, but it also means you might be hearing your neighbor mowing the lawn. You'll need one of our well-researched window soundproofing solutions like our Fantastic Frame window insert, as it will reduce noise through the window by up to 80% and let you keep natural light. We have interior and exterior window soundproofing products for your home studio.

Step Two: Home studios need a soundproof door

Like we said, the most common weak points for sound to leak through are windows and doors. Perhaps the best bang-for-your buck with interior noise is soundproofing your door. For the doors, we've got several options for you—ranging from good, to better, to best, but for our full take, read our article on how to soundproof a door.

Good

Is your existing door a hollow core door or a solid core door? We strongly recommend every home studio at least upgrade to a solid core door (or something equivalent). This low-hanging fruit will be an automatic improvement of around 10 STC points. A solid core door has a 30+ STC rating compared to the hollow core door's paltry low 20s.

If you aren't up for replacing your door, the next best option is to use a sound blanket to cover the door. Our Quiet Quilt™ Indoor Acoustic Blanket will reduce noise through a hollow core door by 7-8 decibels. It's lightweight enough that it's easy to hang, but heavy enough to actually block sound. Just make sure you can seal around the edges with Velcro to make sure sound doesn't leak through.

Better

If you've already invested in a solid core door, the way to make it better and improve the STC rating is to make your solid core door soundproof using our easy-to-install Sound Lock™ Door Seal Kits. With the door seal kit, you can gain up to 20 STC points, with a maximum of STC 51, while most sealed doors are in the 40s. The door seal kits aren't effective on hollow core doors, because they're too lightweight.

Best

There are a lot of home studios that are just professional studios inside homes. If that's you or maybe you get a lot of noise from inside the house, you need to invest in a soundproof door. Afterall, your soundproofing is only as good as your weakest point. Our Sound Lock™ soundproof studio door is a beautiful wood interior door with an STC value up to 56!

Step Three: soundproofing the walls and the ceiling

All 6 surfaces in the room need to be considered, because sound will “flank” around the surfaces you do treat and still escape, underscoring this step's importance. Most residential walls have an STC rating of 28-34, which is plenty for your typical home but not for a home studio. Let's go over how to treat the walls and the ceiling with another look at a good, better, best comparison. Read our respective articles for more ways to build a soundproof wall and soundproof a ceiling.

Good

For good wall soundproofing, you'll still need to remove the drywall if you want results. A good option on a slimmer budget is installing Luxury Liner™ MLV rolls behind 5/8" thick drywall. You simply roll it out vertically across the studs, butting the edges up against each other where they meet over the studs to create an airtight barrier with a lot of mass. You're not setting any soundproofing records, but your home studio could be good enough depending on external noise levels. Expect a high 40s STC rating. Make sure to seal around the edges of the MLV with acoustical sealant and then again around the drywall and any penetrations (outlets, vents, pipes, and between the floor and the wall).

If you don't have noise above you, you can probably get away without treating the ceiling for now. Just don't use canned lights; they're major flanking paths for sound. Use acoustical caulk to seal up any gaps or cracks and around vents.

Solely using acoustical sealant is more of a servicable home studio soundproofing solution for those in quieter neighborhoods and homes, but it is the easiest, DIY-friendly way to soundproof your walls and ceiling, capable of improving the room's STC by several points with relatively low effort.

Better

This next solution will get you an STC rating in the mid-to-upper 50s with the use of sound isolation clips to significantly boost the soundproofing of the walls and ceiling (either on the existing wall and ceiling or directly to the studs). When someone is constructing a new home studio or has a location that will be loud (like the basement), RSIC-1® clips are the way to go.

Install RSIC-1® sound isolation clips to the studs in your walls with 25 gauge aluminum channel snapped in. Install 5/8" drywall on top to get your wall and seal up any gaps with acoustic caulk. These clips stop impact and airborne sound transmission through wall and ceiling assemblies by isolating your drywall from the structure of the building. If you are dealing with structural noise above you, installing these into the ceiling assembly is the only way to stop unwanted footstep noise above you from ruining your recordings.

If you don't want to remove the existing wall or ceiling, RSIC-1® Retro clips come with a washer that allow them to be installed directly on top of the existing drywall. You'll just be compromising performance a smidge at around STC 52-53.

Best

For a professional recording studio level of soundproofing, start with the RSIC-1® clips and 25 gauge aluminum channel on the studs of your walls/ceiling and add your first layer of 5/8" drywall. Just like before . . . seal up gaps with acoustic caulk. Next, screw in a second layer of 5/8" drywall to get around STC 60. To get a little more, apply Green Glue to the back of the second layer of 5/8" drywall before screwing that on top of the first one. You'll bump your home recording studio up to the mid 60s for STC.

Home studio projects often require outside the box thinking, but sometimes inside the box thinking is the way to go. One alternative to consider is building a room within a room! You'll want to make sure you isolate the new room from the old room so that sound is really contained inside and outside noise is just that. Just don't forget to breathe! You'll need HVAC still (read below). The range of performance is far too variable, but combining these principles with your new construction will yield excellent results. Reach out to us to discuss your project!

Step four: soundproofing the floor

Speaking of isolation, floor soundproofing is part of a professional-level home studio setup. The goal is to remove the floor as a flanking path into and out of your studio. Depending on how you plan to use your home studio, where it's situated, and the level of investment, not everyone soundproofs the floor. For new construction, we strongly recommend it, especially if it's above another room. For a retrofit home studio, the cost may not make sense. The answer will depend on the amount of impact noise you expect to need to mitigate.

To treat the floor, install our UnderBlock™ Rubber Floor Underlayment to stop unwanted impact noise and significantly improve both the STC and IIC rating. To install the rubber underlayment, you simply roll it out on the floor. Use acoustical sealant around the edges. The finished flooring then goes on top. Other methods include floating a floor, though that has varying results.

Read our full guide on soundproofing a floor for more details.

Step Five: SOUNDPROOF THE HVAC

When it comes to finishing touches, we always look at flanking paths like HVAC ducts. Unfortunately, where airflow exists, so too exists sound flow. You need to soundproof noisy ducts to make sure there isn't sound transferring between room and to make sure that the blown air itself is not a noise problem showing up on recordings. If you hear a lot of noise, you may want to consider building a baffle box with plywood and BlocknZorbe™ sound panels. It allows the air to flow while reducing noise on the way.

If you’re interested in taking the next step to building your own home studio, reach out to us — we’re happy to discuss your plans and recommend a solution that fits your goals and budget. If you are curious how to soundproof a room for podcasting and if it is any different than a music studio, then read our podcast soundproofing article to find out! We also cover how to make a closet recording studio! Contact us anytime and our experts can help you find the right materials to improve the sound in your space or block outside noise from getting in. We’ll be happy when you’re happy!