Home > San Francisco > Recording studio acoustics and soundproofing
For projects in San Francisco
Recording studio acoustics and soundproofing in San Francisco
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 / Start here
What this is, and what it changes in a San Francisco 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 San Francisco is mostly victorian conversions, tech offices, apartments, studios, restaurants, clinics.
- Timber Victorians Light framed, over a century old, and divided into flats. Low frequency passes easily and footfall travels straight down.
- Depth costs real money At local rates a wall growing into the room is a significant number. A dense thin membrane usually beats a thicker framed build-up on total cost.
- Designed to move Seismic detailing requires junctions that stay flexible, so the acoustic layer must not stiffen across them.
- 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 San Francisco.
02 / The build-up
What goes where, from the structure in
-
Layer 1
SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl
A limp, high density sheet that adds mass to a partition, floor or duct without adding depth. In San Francisco, 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.
Wall, decoupled. Independent stud, membrane between the boards, cavity absorption, two boards. The membrane is one part of a system, never the whole answer.
-
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 San Francisco, churches, school gyms and multipurpose halls double as performance spaces, which means a room designed for neither speech nor music has to carry both.
Floating floor. Resilient layer and deck, to break impact energy before it reaches the structure.
-
Layer 3
Soundproof curtains
A layered curtain with a mass loaded vinyl core, used where an opening has to stay an opening. In San Francisco, 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.
Track with a seal. Ceiling track plus a floor seal or drape, so the perimeter is closed when it is drawn.
Architects working in San Francisco 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 / What drives the brief
The San Francisco conditions that change the answer
- Timber Victorians
Light framed, over a century old, and divided into flats. Low frequency passes easily and footfall travels straight down.
- Depth costs real money
At local rates a wall growing into the room is a significant number. A dense thin membrane usually beats a thicker framed build-up on total cost.
- Designed to move
Seismic detailing requires junctions that stay flexible, so the acoustic layer must not stiffen across them.
- Oakland is close
A short road leg after the port keeps landed cost and timing predictable.
- 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
What each space in a San Francisco project needs
-
Isolation
A measured background level, agreed before anything is bought. Light framed, over a century old, and divided into flats. Low frequency passes easily and footfall travels straight down.
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, 2100 kg per cubic metre
- Soundproofing materials, 1800 x 900 x 20 mm, 100 kg per cubic metre, NRC 0.85
- Soundproof curtains, 5.5 kg per sq m
-
Low frequency
Corner and boundary absorption with real depth, not surface foam. At local rates a wall growing into the room is a significant number. A dense thin membrane usually beats a thicker framed build-up on total cost.
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, STC 30, 5.25 kg per sq m
- Soundproofing materials, Mass, then decoupling, then cavity absorption, then sealing
- Soundproof curtains, Up to 30 dB
-
Early reflections
Controlled at the mix position, and only there. Seismic detailing requires junctions that stay flexible, so the acoustic layer must not stiffen across them.
- SoundBlanket mass loaded vinyl, STC 34, 8.4 kg per sq m
- Soundproofing materials, ASTM E90 for the barrier, ASTM C423 for the absorber
- Soundproof curtains, 30
Designers get colour, pattern and CNC options with the absorption figure attached to each. See how we work with interior designers.
04 / Climate
What the San Francisco climate rules in and rules out
San Francisco 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.
Consultants get the raw data, not a sales sheet. That is the whole of our side of the job, and it is set out under working with acoustic consultants.
06 / Straight talk
What we watch go wrong on jobs like this
-
Buying foam to solve an isolation problem
This is the one that comes back as a second fit-out rather than a snag.
-
Treating the room before the shell is isolated
It sounds like a small detail until the room is finished and the complaint arrives.
-
Killing the room completely and calling it controlled
A room can be over-treated. Past the target it stops sounding controlled and starts sounding dead, and you paid for that.
-
Treating it as a generic San Francisco job
Light framed, over a century old, and divided into flats. Low frequency passes easily and footfall travels straight down.
05 / Route to site
How material reaches a San Francisco site
| Ships from | Palwal, Haryana, India |
|---|---|
| Arrives at | Oakland, then a short road run across the bay |
| Dispatch | 4 to 7 working days |
| Freight | Sea via Oakland |
| 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 Oakland, then a short road run to site. Air freight for samples and urgent quantities.
Questions from San Francisco projects
What makes recording studio acoustics and soundproofing different in San Francisco?
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. Light framed, over a century old, and divided into flats. Low frequency passes easily and footfall travels straight down.
Where should the budget go first on a San Francisco 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 San Francisco?
No. We manufacture in India and supply into San Francisco. 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 San Francisco site?
ships from: Palwal, Haryana, India, arrives at: Oakland, then a short road run across the bay, 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
Send a plan and a section, get a real 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.