How to Get Floor Sound Isolation in Recording Studios

Isolation in your recording studio needs to be at the front of your mind. Improper isolation will result in rumble, bleed and unwanted resonance in your recordings. One of the places you need to consider isolation is in your floor. Rumble and vibrations in your floor can create unwanted low frequency resonance. Try out some of these methods to isolate your floors better.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Decide between hardwood and carpet. Many studio designers and engineers swear by hardwood floors, but they can get you into trouble if you haven't designed your space properly. Hard parallel surfaces in the studio are very bad because they can create standing waves, so hardwood floors that are parallel with a hard ceiling can create problems. Consider opting for carpet or another soft flooring if you have flat ceilings.
2. Throw in some rugs. Rugs are a great way to isolate instruments on hard surface flooring. Place your drums or guitar amps on a rug to keep the reflections under control. This will also cut down on some of the vibrations these instruments cause to travel through the floor.
3. Isolate individual instruments from the floor. Vibrations through the floor can cause lots of rumble problems, and while rugs may help, there are a few other options that will cut down more of the vibrations. Place your drums on a riser. This gets the drums off the floor so that the vibrations they cause stay more controlled. Also, place guitar and bass amps on a table or chair to get them off the floor.
4. Use shock mounts. Shock mounts help prevent vibrations in the floor from reaching the mic. A shock mount floats the mic so that the shock mount absorbs vibrations carried through the mic stand before they reach the actual mic. This is the most affordable option to cut down on floor rumble.
5. Float your floors. Floating your floors in your studio will probably take a lot of money and some construction work, but if you have the ability, floating floors are great investments. Floating floors separate the sub-floor with spacers that absorb vibrations. This means that vibrations will not transfer into the studio from outside sources or across the studio from multiple instruments.