Practice studio sound issues

[sirpug]

Ok, so I couldn't figure out where to put this so I slammed it in here. What are some of the experiences you have had with soundproofing/dampening your jam shed. I'm trying to work with my neighbors and I was looking at sound blankets vs acoustic foam. Anybody ever use this stuff? How much do they really work? Don't really have money to do much more than this so if anybody else has any ideas that have worked for external noise control I'd like to hear them. Right now we're in an old garage but I did spend some money to rebuild it. I made the walls about 8" thick and used blow in insulation. I'm mostly having issues with low freqs (as usual). I'm also looking at these corner bass traps to use with the foam or blankets. Do they help as claimed?

[Stumbo]

We covered the walls with old carpet we got free from carpet stores and then we hung some floor to ceiling heavy drapes that we picked up from a friend. There's a lot of good carpet that's thrown away. Call a few carpet stores/installers and find out if they will let you show up at a job and haul the old carpet away. Piece together the best parts.

Get the bass cab off the ground onto a thickly carpeted stand and up to ear level.
This will decouple it somewhat from the floor and put the sound where it's easier to hear.

Put 3/4" sound board around the drums and cymbals. (best thing we ever did) or get an
electric set so the volume can be adjusted. We cut a 4'x8' piece into 3 pieces, stood them up around the drums, drilled a few holes near the corners and wired them together with hanger wire. We also put several layers of carpet in th bass drum to deaden it. Ask the drummer to play softer.

Put the drums on some carpet to decouple the bass drum from the floor a bit.

If the garage has a garage door, it's probably vibrating like crazy and acting like a big speaker. We stuff it with carpet padding and covered it with carpet. You'll have to cover the side openings and top with pieces of hanging carpet that can be removed to open the door.

Try rehearsing as quietly as possible to test everything and the turn up a bit 'till you find the level that you like and don't bother the neighbors.

There are also a bunch of TB threads on this issue. Try TB search here.

My .02, YMMV.

[sirpug]

We've got a line on a bunch of old, thick shag carpet for free that we're going to put up this weekend. We're on a concrete floor now and my bass cab is off the ground. Also have a fake floor with carpet for the drums. We have been thinking of building some thing around the drums to help. As far as the door goes, it's essentially two moving walls on hinges. Unfortunately I couldn't make them as thick as the regular walls so they are a weak spot even though they are heavily weatherstripped and sealed when closed. I've also read allot of the threads here and other places and I'm somewhat familiar with the theories and principals of sound engineering (ie soundproof vs sound damping). Our current setup cuts the overall noise by about half. Bass is still the issue. I think the blankets will kill most of the rest of the higher freqs. My real question is how much will the bass traps work? Anybody use them? Are they worth the money?

[Stumbo]

Try this: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/archiv.../t-243608.html

or this: http://www.google.com/custom?domains...ORID%3A1&hl=en

[Bass Boy]

Originally Posted by sirpug

Ok, so I couldn't figure out where to put this so I slammed it in here. What are some of the experiences you have had with soundproofing/dampening your jam shed. I'm trying to work with my neighbors and I was looking at sound blankets vs acoustic foam. Anybody ever use this stuff? How much do they really work? Don't really have money to do much more than this so if anybody else has any ideas that have worked for external noise control I'd like to hear them. Right now we're in an old garage but I did spend some money to rebuild it. I made the walls about 8" thick and used blow in insulation. I'm mostly having issues with low freqs (as usual). I'm also looking at these corner bass traps to use with the foam or blankets. Do they help as claimed?

These are room treatments and not soundproofing.

The thick walls and insulation are a start but the room treatments won't soundproof the room and keep the bass freqs from being heard outside the room. They will tame them inside the garage though.

[kalle74]

Originally Posted by Bass Boy

These are room treatments and not soundproofing.

+1000000.

soundproofing and room treatment are very different subjects. somebody once said: "treating a room isn´t easy, but it can be done cheap. soundproofing is easy, but costs a lot." well said.

when soundproofing, you need mass to stop the vibrations. isolating surfaces will help a lot, too.

[Stumbo]

Depending on how big the garage is, building a "room within a room" is one of the better methods to reduce the db's making it outside.

Check this out: http://www.homerecordingconnection.c..._story&id=1398
or this: http://www.soundproofing.org/infopages/garage.htm

[Pilgrim]

One thing that's basic is decoupling the inner and out walls. Standard walls have a 2x4 between the inner and outer material - which transfers sound through. If the Inner wall is mounted on one set of studs and the outer wall is mounted on a completely set of studs - and the two don't touch each other - the wall is decoupled and much less bass transfers through. To some extent, this is the same concept as a room within a room.

Only problem is it's a bit late in the game for that. Given standard construction, what will kill sound is mass. Bass can only move so much weight. Lead sheets or an inner wall covering of concrete-based wallboard might help.

[Stumbo]

How about filling the inner walls voids with sand as you put the dry wall up? That will add weight and mass.

[sirpug]

[quote=Pilgrim;5825861]One thing that's basic is decoupling the inner and out walls. Standard walls have a 2x4 between the inner and outer material - which transfers sound through. If the Inner wall is mounted on one set of studs and the outer wall is mounted on a completely set of studs - and the two don't touch each other - the wall is decoupled and much less bass transfers through.QUOTE]

To some extent, this is what happened. The nature of the shed rebuild required a new wall inside the old wall for new roof support. There are a couple of places where the new wall is tied into the old wall but not that many. It's pretty good now and with all my research and your help, I think we'll achieve our target sound dampening with some inside the room sound control. We're going to cover all the walls and the floor with shag carpet tomorrow and order the blankets and one set of bass traps. We're hoping that this, along with a reorganization of the equipment, will reduce our external volume enough to satisfy everybody. I'll keep you posted.

[Stumbo]

With all the shag carpet, you may need to add some paneling to create a bit of ambiance in the room. It will be totally dead. That may be the way to go if you tilt the amps upward or put them on stands so you can hear them better.

When I got my cab to ear level, I didnt' need as much volume. Everyone could hear it more clearly.