For projects in Denver
Recording studio acoustics and soundproofing in Denver
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. Home and project studios go into basements and converted garages with equipment budgets far ahead of the building. The room leaks to the floor above long before it sounds wrong inside.
- 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 material
What this is, and what it changes in a Denver room
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.
Home and project studios go into basements and converted garages with equipment budgets far ahead of the building. The room leaks to the floor above long before it sounds wrong inside.
Work reaching us from Denver is mostly multifamily apartments, offices, breweries and taprooms, schools, clinics, home theatres.
- Light frame multifamily at volume Thousands of units built to the same separating detail. If the detail underperforms it underperforms everywhere, which makes it worth solving on the drawing.
- Taprooms and hard rooms Breweries and taprooms are concrete, steel and glass by design. They are loud by construction, not by accident, and the ceiling plane is usually the only place to fix it.
- No port, so plan the road leg Everything arrives at a coast and drives in. We quote the sea leg and the road leg separately so you can see where the time goes.
- 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 Denver.
02 / The build-up
What goes where, from the structure in
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Layer 1
Acoustic foam and BassBloc
Open cell foam shapes for high frequency control, and BassBloc, a high density absorber built for the low mid range where ordinary foam does nothing. In Denver, packaged rooftop units and ducted forced air are standard, so noise arrives through the duct rather than through the wall. Lining the first three metres of duct and treating the return path is usually the whole job.
First reflection points. Mirror trick placement on side walls and ceiling, which is a handful of panels rather than a lined room.
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Layer 2
SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl
A limp, high density sheet that adds mass to a partition, floor or duct without adding depth. In Denver, churches, school gyms and multipurpose halls double as performance spaces, which means a room designed for neither speech nor music has to carry both.
Floor, floating. Membrane under a resilient layer and a floating deck, so impact energy is broken before it reaches the slab.
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Layer 3
Soundproof curtains
A layered curtain with a mass loaded vinyl core, used where an opening has to stay an opening. In Denver, public school buildings run long corridors with hard floors and lay-in tile ceilings that were chosen for cost, not for speech. Classroom reverberation and corridor spill are the two complaints, and both respond to ceiling area rather than wall panels.
Full height with return. Curtain taken floor to soffit with a side return and an overlap, because the gap is what leaks, not the fabric.
Architects working in Denver usually need the build-up before the product. We will draw the section and mark what does the work. See how we support architects.
03 / On the ground
What decides the build-up in Denver
- Light frame multifamily at volume
Thousands of units built to the same separating detail. If the detail underperforms it underperforms everywhere, which makes it worth solving on the drawing.
- Taprooms and hard rooms
Breweries and taprooms are concrete, steel and glass by design. They are loud by construction, not by accident, and the ceiling plane is usually the only place to fix it.
- No port, so plan the road leg
Everything arrives at a coast and drives in. We quote the sea leg and the road leg separately so you can see where the time goes.
- Dry air, sealed buildings
Our PET felt does not shed fibre or degrade in dry conditions, and it holds its shape in rooms that stay closed and conditioned.
- The housing stock
American homes are timber frame with gypsum board on both faces, so a party wall or a basement ceiling has almost no mass. Adding a second leaf with a limp membrane between does more than any amount of surface treatment.
- The studio and content scene
Home and project studios go into basements and converted garages with equipment budgets far ahead of the building. The room leaks to the floor above long before it sounds wrong inside.
04 / Room by room
Space by space, for Denver briefs
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Isolation
A measured background level, agreed before anything is bought. Thousands of units built to the same separating detail. If the detail underperforms it underperforms everywhere, which makes it worth solving on the drawing.
- Acoustic foam and BassBloc, 1800 x 900 mm
- Soundproofing materials, 1800 x 900 x 20 mm, 100 kg per cubic metre, NRC 0.85
- Soundproof curtains, 5.5 kg per sq m
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Low frequency
Corner and boundary absorption with real depth, not surface foam. Breweries and taprooms are concrete, steel and glass by design. They are loud by construction, not by accident, and the ceiling plane is usually the only place to fix it.
- Acoustic foam and BassBloc, 20 mm
- Soundproofing materials, Mass, then decoupling, then cavity absorption, then sealing
- Soundproof curtains, Up to 30 dB
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Early reflections
Controlled at the mix position, and only there. Everything arrives at a coast and drives in. We quote the sea leg and the road leg separately so you can see where the time goes.
- Acoustic foam and BassBloc, 100 kg per cubic metre
- Soundproofing materials, ASTM E90 for the barrier, ASTM C423 for the absorber
- Soundproof curtains, 30
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 / Durability
What the Denver climate rules in and rules out
Denver is mild summers and cold, wet winters, and that narrows the material list before acoustics is discussed.
Cold external walls and long heating seasons make condensation behind a lining the thing to design out. PET felt is unaffected by damp air.
The failure we design against here is condensation and cold bridging behind new linings.
Where a consultant is already engaged on a Denver project, we supply to their specification and send the test reports rather than describing them. More on working with acoustic consultants.
06 / Worth knowing
Where this kind of project usually fails
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Buying foam to solve an isolation problem
Small on the drawing, expensive on site, and almost always found after handover.
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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
More absorption is not better absorption. Past the target the room goes flat and people raise their voices to compensate.
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Treating it as a generic Denver job
Thousands of units built to the same separating detail. If the detail underperforms it underperforms everywhere, which makes it worth solving on the drawing.
05 / Supply
What the route into Denver actually looks like
| Ships from | Palwal, Haryana, India |
|---|---|
| Arrives at | Houston or the West Coast, then road inland |
| Dispatch | 4 to 7 working days |
| Freight | Sea, then road inland |
| Support | Drawings, build-ups, BOQ and material that arrives complete |
Standard items dispatch in 4 to 7 working days. The sea leg from India is long, so plan the full door to door window into the programme. We give real dates, not optimistic ones.
Sea freight into Houston or the West Coast, then road inland to Denver. Air freight for samples and urgent quantities.
Questions from Denver projects
What makes recording studio acoustics and soundproofing different in Denver?
Home and project studios go into basements and converted garages with equipment budgets far ahead of the building. The room leaks to the floor above long before it sounds wrong inside. Thousands of units built to the same separating detail. If the detail underperforms it underperforms everywhere, which makes it worth solving on the drawing.
Where should the budget go first on a Denver 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 Denver?
No. We manufacture in India and supply into Denver. 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 Denver site?
ships from: Palwal, Haryana, India, arrives at: Houston or the West Coast, then road inland, dispatch: 4 to 7 working days. Standard items dispatch in 4 to 7 working days. The sea leg from India is long, so plan the full door to door window into the programme. We give real dates, not optimistic ones.
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
Drawings in, BOQ and a delivered date out
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.