how well would walls block loud noise??

[varunkapahi]

i'd soon have a spare room now which i want to turn into a jam room. now this room would have no windows or opening else than one door which i would make sure shuts tight and doesnt let much sound out. this is on the 1st floor of the building with rooms right below and above it.

now what am wondering is how much sound/vibrations would really pass through ~9inch walls? am going to have atleast
an acoustic drum kit (on a hollow riser)
100W bass combo
two 50W guitar combos
maybe another 100W of vocal or keyboard or misc amplification

now nothing would be turned up to the max really.... and i also plan to layer the inside walls with something to kill the reflections inside the room. am just worried about how much sound would go out, i cant afford to annoy my neighbors much.
so what do you think?

any other tips to kill the sound from getting out would greatly help, am thinking about layering all the 4 walls and the ceiling with egg trays as they would not only absorb the sound but also leave some air gap in the cups to help the waves die between the cardboard and the wall

ps: i dont know if this is the right sub-forum for this, if not please move it!

[SpamBot]

Your plan sounds solid. Walls themselves would let a lot of bass frequencies through, but the egg cartons would solve that.

[varunkapahi]

Originally Posted by SpamBot

Your plan sounds solid. Walls themselves would let a lot of bass frequencies through, but the egg cartons would solve that.

cool! more replies would be awesome

[Bocete]

In my opinion, egg cartons are good... for eggs. Not for sound isolation. Especially for bass frequencies. We're talking huge wavelengths here. Those go right through egg cartons. However, what should you do? I really don't know that: I don't think you can reduce the bass frequencies in any major way by padding the room with stuff, you'll only kill the highs. I'm sure there's more than a few acoustics experts here who can give you proper advice. What I think is based on talking to a few acousics guys, but I'm not an expert myself. For what it's worth.

[zenrad]

Originally Posted by SpamBot

Your plan sounds solid. Walls themselves would let a lot of bass frequencies through, but the egg cartons would solve that.

Egg cartons and similar sound dampening materials will work for muting highs because the high frequency waves will bounce around between the peaks and valleys and get dispersed, but bass waves are physically very long and will pass right through the wall, and make it vibrate. Egg cartons do nothing for bass.

You need mass to stop bass waves. It's a complex topic, but if you look for information on recording studio construction and sound isolation it should get you started.

[SpamBot]

......My bad. Disregard my comment

[Rumblejohn]

If the 9 inch walls are block, they will deaden sound fairly well. Your weak points will be the door and the ceiling and floor above you. They will act like a sound board on a piano, or the top of an acoustic guitar. The only thing that will stop bass frequencies is dense material, and plenty of it. You have to stop or at least dampen sound waves (vibrating air). If the floor above you is poured concrete, that will really help.

John

[D.A.R.K.]

install a floating floor,
walls and ceiling with at least 1" of dead air space between them and the existing walls.
the new room in a room should have mass loaded vinyl covering the entire inside without any gaps. double sealed doors.
no climate/air control unfortunately....
if the existing floor and ceiling are poured concrete it will help immensely, but you will still have to isolate them from vibration.
egg cartons... are good for a fire hazard and diffusing some high end frequencies.
drum riser needs to be filled with sand.
i know this is over the top,
but no more so than what you are trying to do in an apartment building with touchy neighbors above and below you.
i'm in a similar situation, extra room in my apt- here is my solution:
investing in a nice headphone amp, a small mixer and an electronic drumkit. a tiny guitar amp mic'd right can sound huge(led zeppelin records are a great example of this) if the gtrd must have an amp.
at first i thought this would suck, now it is my favorite way to practice... it's just like a good studio mix.
easy to record, too.

[varunkapahi]

Originally Posted by D.A.R.K.

install a floating floor,
walls and ceiling with at least 1" of dead air space between them and the existing walls.
the new room in a room should have mass loaded vinyl covering the entire inside without any gaps. double sealed doors.
no climate/air control unfortunately....
if the existing floor and ceiling are poured concrete it will help immensely, but you will still have to isolate them from vibration.
egg cartons... are good for a fire hazard and diffusing some high end frequencies.
drum riser needs to be filled with sand.
i know this is over the top,
but no more so than what you are trying to do in an apartment building with touchy neighbors above and below you.
i'm in a similar situation, extra room in my apt- here is my solution:
investing in a nice headphone amp, a small mixer and an electronic drumkit. a tiny guitar amp mic'd right can sound huge(led zeppelin records are a great example of this) if the gtrd must have an amp.
at first i thought this would suck, now it is my favorite way to practice... it's just like a good studio mix.
easy to record, too.

nice! i will keep these in mind. a headphone amp system sounds good but electronic drum kits are really expensive here so it wont work out.
can you tell me about more about the mass loaded vinyl covering? whats that??
yeah i know egg cartons are good for a fire hazard but i couldn't really think of anything besides.


thanks for the replies everyone! keep 'em coming please

[varunkapahi]

bump

[varunkapahi]

hmmm is there nothing else i can do besides getting another room build within the room??

[BurningSkies]

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to isolate sound. Beyond building a complete isolation room, which takes lots of cash and time...

This is why I pay for a practice room across town rather than using the spare room we have.

[ggunn]

Originally Posted by varunkapahi

nice! i will keep these in mind. a headphone amp system sounds good but electronic drum kits are really expensive here so it wont work out.
can you tell me about more about the mass loaded vinyl covering? whats that??
yeah i know egg cartons are good for a fire hazard but i couldn't really think of anything besides.


thanks for the replies everyone! keep 'em coming please

Egg crates work OK for cutting down hi freq bounce inside the room (for reducing mic feedback) but will do absolutely nothing for keeping sound from escaping the room. If you are in an apartment building, then you'll probably get evicted if you bring in acoustic drums; there's nothing you can do short of spending a whole lot of money on room-in-a-room construction (and even then there are no guarantees) to keep the kick drum contained. Mass loaded vinyl is useless for low frequency transients. Move to a house on a slab.

[varunkapahi]

hmmmmmmmm
how much can electronic drums help?

[ggunn]

Originally Posted by varunkapahi

hmmmmmmmm
how much can electronic drums help?

Immensely. Everything besides acoustic drums has a volume control. Put a volume control on the drums and you'll have, well, control. Bass and keys can play at any volume; guitarists may have to go to attenuators or small amps to get the sound they want at low volume. Use modelers and go through the board into headphones, and you can damage your hearing without waking the baby in the next room.

[Ripper]

first off: how big is this room?



and what about fiberglass insulation for deadening sounds?

[ggunn]

Originally Posted by Ripper

first off: how big is this room?



and what about fiberglass insulation for deadening sounds?

It won't help with low frequencies.

[Lexicon]

Originally Posted by varunkapahi

hmmmmmmmm
how much can electronic drums help?

They are amazing at accomplishing exactly what is being suggested. I'm a drummer first and just recently started learning bass. I have a Roland TD6v that I bought used because I couldn't possibly play an acoustic kit in my house. I bought an inexpensive Yamaha mg102 mixer and a four channel headphone amp. I can run drums (in stereo no less), bass and guitars (through modellers) into the mixer and out to the headphone amp. I can play until I'm blue in the face and sweating like crazy with my 3 year old asleep one floor up and one room over. The noise amounts to no more than the tapping on the mesh pads and the dull thud of the bass drum beaters on the rubber bass drum pad. I love it.

If you already have a drum kit you could buy a less expensive, used trigger module, some external triggers like the Roland RT-10 series and a set of mesh heads. With a few e-cymbals it's not exactly cheap but worth it if you have concerns about noise. A practice space will easily cost a lot more over the long term.

[TheVoiceless]

Originally Posted by SpamBot

Your plan sounds solid. Walls themselves would let a lot of bass frequencies through, but the egg cartons would solve that.

NO YOU DID NOT!!!! Where did it become known that egg cartons was good for sound absorption?????

[TheVoiceless]

No easy way to achieve isolation. Everything from the floor to the ceiling has to be treated. Two things to consider. The sound IN the room, and the sound that EXITS the room. And each is treated different. If this is your home and don't mind investing then do it right.