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"How do I soundproof my garage, basement, or a bedroom in my single family house or condo so my 4 piece rock band can practice and record and not bother the neighbors?" If I had a dollar for every time I was asked this question, I would be in the Bahamas right now, instead of writing this article. Many factors need to be considered prior to beginning your studio or practice room-soundproofing project. Some of the questions you should be asking yourself are: What type of amplification will the band be using, are the drums going to be acoustic and miked or are they digital. Are you going to be recording live late at night or are we going to be doing "line in" recording only? These questions and many more need to be considered before the actual construction begins. If live recording and rehearsal are the plan, then maximum soundproofing will be needed. The most effective way to soundproof a garage, basement, or bedroom is to actually construct a room within a room (go to www.auralex.com) and download the free booklet "Acoustics 101", this is a wonderful resource for the home studio builder. Their ideas are solid and applicable to any studio-soundproofing project. The room within a room concept utilizes the sealed dead air space that is captured between the inner walls and the outer walls to help greatly with the soundproofing endeavor. It is probably easiest to frame the walls on the floor and then tilt them up into place thus making dry walling the outside of the walls much easier. It is also highly recommended that another ceiling be joisted out for the room within a room, however, this is often times not possible due to space constraints. In this case, the existing ceiling and ceiling joists may be used as the ultimate ceiling for the studio, provided that it is adequately soundproofed with materials such as the mass loaded vinyl or a combination of closed cell foam mat and MLV. I will elaborate on these materials, as we get further into this article. Once the walls are framed out and the right amount of "Dead air space" is determined, then it is time to install the soundproofing. The first order of business is to consider what needs to be done to the wall cavities prior to installing a barrier and finally the wallboard. I like to line the inside cavities with a closed cell vinyl nitrile foam mat such as American Mat. This mat (generally 1/4" thickness) is adhered to the inside cavity walls as well as the studs and joists using a contact cement to adhere the

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