For projects in Cape Town
Recording studio acoustics and soundproofing in Cape Town
Two jobs that must not be confused: keeping the building out, and making the room honest inside. The first is mass and decoupling and has to be built first. The second is absorption and diffusion and can be tuned later. A strong music and production culture works out of converted commercial and residential rooms with no isolation plan.
- Isolation
- A measured background level, agreed before anything is bought.
- Low frequency
- Corner and boundary absorption with real depth, not surface foam.
- Early reflections
- Controlled at the mix position, and only there.
- Quote
- From a plan and a section, within 48 hours
01 / The product
What you are buying, and what it fixes in Cape Town
Two jobs that must not be confused: keeping the building out, and making the room honest inside. The first is mass and decoupling and has to be built first. The second is absorption and diffusion and can be tuned later.
A strong music and production culture works out of converted commercial and residential rooms with no isolation plan.
Work reaching us from Cape Town is mostly hotels and restaurants, heritage conversions, offices, apartments, schools, studios.
- The port is at the city Direct sea into Cape Town avoids the long inland haul, which makes the landed cost and the date both easier to hold.
- Heritage fabric stays put Older buildings in the city cannot be structurally altered. Work has to be internal, shallow and ideally reversible.
- Hospitality is the market Hotels and restaurants where the room is part of what the guest is paying for, judged when it is completely full.
- Isolation A measured background level, agreed before anything is bought.
Full specification
Thickness, density, NRC by frequency, fire class, standard sizes and build-up detail for studio soundproofing are on the main product page. This page covers what that means for a project in Cape Town.
02 / The build-up
The stack, in the order it is installed
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Layer 1
SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl
A limp, high density sheet that adds mass to a partition, floor or duct without adding depth. In Cape Town, split units and generator sets, with backup generation running often enough that its enclosure matters as much as the HVAC.
Wall, decoupled. Independent stud, membrane between the boards, cavity absorption, two boards. The membrane is one part of a system, never the whole answer.
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Layer 2
Soundproofing materials
The blocking side of the range taken together: mass loaded vinyl, resilient layers, cavity absorption and the build-ups they belong in. In Cape Town, church buildings and community halls are large hard rooms carrying amplified music and speech at high level.
Resilient bar. Where a full independent leaf will not fit. Effective, and very easy to short circuit with one wrong screw.
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Layer 3
Acoustic panels
The full absorber range rather than one product: plain PET felt, printed felt, grooved panels and fabric finishes, chosen by how the room is used and how it has to look. In Cape Town, classrooms are hard walled with high ceilings and large class sizes, and school halls double as assembly and performance spaces.
Wall array. Panels placed at first reflection points rather than spread evenly. Fewer panels, better result.
For a Cape Town practice, the useful thing is a detail you can put in a drawing set, not a brochure. See how we support architects.
03 / In this market
What decides the build-up in Cape Town
- The port is at the city
Direct sea into Cape Town avoids the long inland haul, which makes the landed cost and the date both easier to hold.
- Heritage fabric stays put
Older buildings in the city cannot be structurally altered. Work has to be internal, shallow and ideally reversible.
- Hospitality is the market
Hotels and restaurants where the room is part of what the guest is paying for, judged when it is completely full.
- Wind and coastal damp
PET felt does not absorb moisture or feed mould, which matters on exposed coastal elevations.
- The housing stock
Brick and concrete construction with hard floors. Townhouse and cluster developments share walls that were built for structure, not for separation.
- The studio and content scene
A strong music and production culture works out of converted commercial and residential rooms with no isolation plan.
04 / Room by room
Space by space, for Cape Town briefs
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Isolation
A measured background level, agreed before anything is bought. Direct sea into Cape Town avoids the long inland haul, which makes the landed cost and the date both easier to hold.
- Acoustic foam and BassBloc, 1800 x 900 mm
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, STC 30, 5.25 kg per sq m
- Acoustic panels, Cut pattern in PET felt, adds visual rhythm without changing the absorber
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Low frequency
Corner and boundary absorption with real depth, not surface foam. Older buildings in the city cannot be structurally altered. Work has to be internal, shallow and ideally reversible.
- Acoustic foam and BassBloc, 20 mm
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, STC 34, 8.4 kg per sq m
- Acoustic panels, ASTM C423
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Early reflections
Controlled at the mix position, and only there. Hotels and restaurants where the room is part of what the guest is paying for, judged when it is completely full.
- Acoustic foam and BassBloc, 100 kg per cubic metre
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, 12.6 kg per sq m, STC on request
- Acoustic panels, 9 to 24 mm, 1220 x 2440 mm standard, up to 2440 x 4270 mm, 1200 to 3600 GSM
If the visual is fixed and the room still has to perform, that is a solvable problem and a conversation worth having early. See how we work with interior designers.
04 / Climate and durability
Why the climate in Cape Town changes the material, not the target
Cape Town is hot summers, mild winters and a distinct wet season, and that narrows the material list before acoustics is discussed.
PET felt handles the wet months without absorbing moisture or feeding mould. Timber and wood wool want a ventilated cavity and a stable indoor RH.
The failure we design against here is wet-season humidity behind linings.
On a Cape Town job with a consultant involved, our part is material that matches the submitted data. See working with acoustic consultants.
06 / Read this first
The six errors that cost the most
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Buying foam to solve an isolation problem
This is the one that comes back as a second fit-out rather than a snag.
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Treating the room before the shell is isolated
Small on the drawing, expensive on site, and almost always found after handover.
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Killing the room completely and calling it controlled
We would rather calculate the area and sell you less of it than line every surface and call it thorough.
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Treating it as a generic Cape Town job
Direct sea into Cape Town avoids the long inland haul, which makes the landed cost and the date both easier to hold.
05 / Getting it there
What the route into Cape Town actually looks like
| Ships from | Palwal, Haryana, India |
|---|---|
| Arrives at | Cape Town, then a short road run to site |
| Dispatch | 4 to 7 working days |
| Freight | Sea into Cape Town |
| Support | Drawings, build-ups, BOQ and material that arrives complete |
Standard items dispatch in 4 to 7 working days. Grooved panels and custom colours take longer, and we say so before you order, not after.
Sea freight direct into Cape Town, then a short road run to site. Air freight for samples and urgent quantities.
Questions from Cape Town projects
What makes recording studio acoustics and soundproofing different in Cape Town?
A strong music and production culture works out of converted commercial and residential rooms with no isolation plan. Direct sea into Cape Town avoids the long inland haul, which makes the landed cost and the date both easier to hold.
Where should the budget go first on a Cape Town project?
Isolation. A measured background level, agreed before anything is bought. Low frequency. Corner and boundary absorption with real depth, not surface foam.
Do you have an office or installation team in Cape Town?
No. We manufacture in India and supply into Cape Town. We give you drawings, build-ups, a BOQ and material that arrives complete, and we will tell you plainly when a job needs a local contractor we cannot be.
How does material get to a Cape Town site?
ships from: Palwal, Haryana, India, arrives at: Cape Town, then a short road run to site, dispatch: 4 to 7 working days. Standard items dispatch in 4 to 7 working days. Grooved panels and custom colours take longer, and we say so before you order, not after.
What goes wrong most often on this kind of project?
Buying foam to solve an isolation problem. Treating the room before the shell is isolated.
What do you need from us to quote?
A plan, a section through the critical partition or ceiling, and what the room is for. From that we can give a build-up and a BOQ rather than a price per square foot.
Next step
Tell us the room, we will tell you the build-up
We quote from drawings, not from a square foot rate. Send a plan and the section through the critical wall or ceiling and you will get something you can actually build from.