I'm trying to soundproof my dedicated theater room in the basement from the family room above. My plan is to stagger two layers of 5/8" drywall on the ceiling and interior walls. I've read about the green glue, but I am trying to find a low budget solution.

I was thinking perhaps of stapling 1/16" underlayment (normally used for hardwood flooring) to the studs and the ceiling prior to hanging the drywall. Do you think this will help or am I just wasting my time? Also the walls and ceiling will all be insulated as well.

Thanks for the help.

Have you thought of building a "room within a room" ? - that would be the best solution

if that is not possible then use rsic clips and hat channel on the ceiling along with double drywall and green glue ... use staggered studs on the walls with double drywall and green glue

if that is not in the budget then double drywall on ceiling with green glue along with all the walls

you also have to think about sound escaping/intruding via HVAC and the entry door

the underlayment is not going to either decouple ( rsic clips/hat channel or room within a room ) or dampen ( green glue )

post a few pictures of the room along with dimensions ... I am sure that something can be figured out

I'm kind of late in the game because the drywall is happening this week. I guess I won't waste the time w/ the underlayment then. Thanks.

I will let the experts weigh in, but my understanding is that if you do not plan to use green glue between layers, you might get some benefit using slightly different sizes for your two drywall layers (such as a 1/2" layer and then a 5/8" layer). The idea is to get them to resonate a bit differently.

Integrity gasket is based on the same principle as what you are thinking about with the underlayment. CUSHIONING or mechanical isolation. Problem is the use of integrity gasket hasn't been conclusively proven to help in a HT application. It has been used by a few guys but the test data on their web site is a little hard to interpret.
http://www.integritygasket.com/

The problem is that the drywall screws decouple the the effect of the cushioning and mechanically transmit the sound from the drywall to the framing.

THis late in the game, I would say your option is to use a 7/8" hat channel on the ceiling, and then do green glue between the 2 layers, if GG is out of budget, then the hat chan plus 2 layers of drywall is far better than just the 2 layers.

ALso make sure you have all of your fiberglass insulation up and ready to go. Will not be as good as clips/isolation, but the hat chan will provide a good impovement by eliminating alot of surface area touching the joists that you have in common with the upstairs.

You could even do this for the common wall between the rooms, but you would then have to compensate for the door and outlets with extenders and then plan on adding a spacer to the door frame which is not a big deal.

In my situation,I don't care about the adjacent room, I focused on the ceiling and have had zero complaints from the wife.

Add a third layer of drywall.

Check list of other things that are probably too late to do anything about.

Frame walls a little short of the joist and attach with rubber isolation clips

Retrofit HVAC system with duct work that doesn't carry sound to the rest of the house.

Build back boxes or use puddy pads on the rear of all wall outlets, switch boxes and recessed light fixtures.

Install heavy door with weather stripping and bottom seal.