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A garden shed is a good place to start...

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8. Use floating floors (another difficult bit)

In essence, this is the same as we've done to the walls: decoupling two surfaces to prevent vibration being carried across. To float a floor, wooden beams can be placed on rubber U-Boat supports at regular intervals and, with neoprene strips inbetween, a chipboard floor can be screwed on top.

A much simpler and cheaper solution is to use PlatFoam to raise separate pieces of kit off the ground. PlatFoam comes in the form of long 3"x2" strips of high density foam which can be laid a few inches apart with a sheet of plywood placed on top to create a floating riser.

9. Tune the room (absorption and diffusion)

You may well find that the reflective properties of the plasterboard make for a rather unpleasant and harsh-sounding room, which is not really what you want if you're going to be recording in there, and certainly not what you want if you're going to be monitoring and mixing in there either.

Simply having the room carpeted and putting a sofa at one end will probably help, but to address the wall reflection you can use a combination of two solutions: absorption and diffusion.

Diffusion involves sending the reflections off in different directions, breaking up the sound, while absorption soaks up certain unwanted frequencies. This is where the old eggbox myth can be laid to rest – while their shape should make them potentially good sound diffusers, their material isn't reflective enough, and its absorptive properties are minimal too. They don't look very nice either!

So, try picking up some 2'x4' sheets of hardboard and make yourself some absorption panels using 1" slabs of mineral wool (the same size) placed over the top and a dustsheet laid over and tightly stapled from behind. They'll look better and, more importantly, will actually work when hung on opposite walls.

If you'd prefer to invest in something ready made for the job, try some Aurelex, ProFoam or similar. These companies make a range of products for studios and even make room packs with all the different elements you'll need for different sized rooms. As you'd expect, this comes at a price, but gives professional results both sonically and visually.

10. One room or two?

If this soundproof space is to be used as a recording studio as well as a practice room, your next consideration is whether to go for a one-room studio or to have a separate control room. It may seem obvious that a recording studio needs two rooms, one to record in and one to listen back in, but for some musicians it can sometimes be easier to work in the same room as the equipment.

One compromise in this situation is running a second computer monitor into the live room and using a wireless keyboard and mouse to control things. This way each room can be tuned to it's optimum potential.

11. Remember: Rome wasn't built in a day

Building a studio can be a time-consuming process and you'll no doubt encounter setbacks along the way. As a result it can be frustrating as the time ticks by and costs add up, but try not to lose sight of the fact that once it's complete, the space is yours to create your own studio environment in.

You'll be free to play when you want without disturbing anyone and you can be as creative as you like. That's got be worth the effort hasn't it?

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