How to Soundproof Recording Studios Using Green Glue Compound

Ambient noise makes the world a noisy place. Recording studio builders know the truth of that statement better than most. Even on a quiet street, a starter studio picks up every little sound. The background noise penetrates a partially soundproof room, bounces its way towards a sensitive microphone, and a supposedly flawless recording session plays back as a noise polluted waste of time. Green Glue Compound can save the day.

Recording Microphones Hear Everything

Green Glue Compound stops outside noise from getting inside while simultaneously preventing inside sound from getting outside. Only the scale has changed, and we’re not referring to room dimensions. No, there’s a lot more audio energy being generated inside a recording studio. What’s more, the listening “ears” inside this noise isolated space are much more sensitive than your own. Indeed, a studio microphone can easily pick up ambient sound, then add that acoustic pollution to a recorded track. Ruined by the bang of a loose pipe or the sound of a barking dog, the day’s master tape gets erased until a more effective solution is put into effect.

Building a Green Glue Soundproof Recording Studio

The room, be it a garden shed or a purpose-dedicated room in a home, will gain an extra layer of plasterboard. The original walls are coated in Green Glue Compound, then the second set of walls are mounted on top of that putty-covered coating. What you now have is two rigid panels on every side of the room, plus a layer of noise-dampening compound, which is pressed between the plasterboard panels. Due to the room’s newly installed noise-to-heat converting feature, 90% of the work is done. The room is very nearly soundproof. A curing period should be allowed now, for Green Glue becomes even more effective as it hardens. However, heavier bass sounds and high-frequency tones may still find their way out, not past the compound, but through wall studs and sound conducting fasteners.

Getting that last 5 to 10% of sound isolating effectiveness can be tough. Believe it or not, this annoying acoustic leakage has nothing to do with the Green Glue Compound. No, in all likelihood, there are noise propagating channels concealed behind the walls. Before installing the final foam and fabric-backed wall panels and frequency inhibiting rock wool, before even mounting the second set of plasterboard, go deeper. Seal wall cracks and seams. Install contact point decouplers and resilient sound clips. Now, with that last 5% of loud studio noise compensated for, there’s no audio bleed left to annoy the neighbours and no ambient sound left to send a studio engineer into a state of despair.