Soundproofing a room

[GreenApollo]

It finally happened. I got my girlfriend to agree to a music room. Some people who are renting from me are moving out and the room will be empty. I was wondering if anyone on TB has soundproofed a room and if they had any other advice. Also, if anyone has some way cool ideas for my music room please post! I am thinking about wall mounting my bass for the fun of it.

Thanks

[alatham82]

Congrats, having a music/recording room is great. I had one in my last apartment and as soon as I get all moved in to my new house I'll be building one again.

Start here:
Acoustical Science/Philosophy Showdown - Cockos Confederated Forums

Anything by "Yep" is pure gold. His posts start at #17. He talks about the theory of why to put certain panels in certain positions and then he gives some pretty easy to follow instructions about how to build the panels you'll need.

The room I treated was a small second bedroom, about 11'x10'x12'. Just about the worst possible proportions. All hard surfaces too. I put 7 panels up (2 on the vertical corners behind the speakers, 3 on the ceiling corners, and 2 at the "first reflection" points) and the improvement in the sound was amazing. You didn't even have to be listening to anything to hear the difference. Even just the sound of "silence" in the room was dramatically improved by putting panels up in the corners of the room.

My girlfriend (now wife) is not a careful listener, but even she noticed the improved sound quality of the records I was making. Best $100 I ever spent on recording equipment.

[testing1two]

There is a tremendous difference between "acoustically treating" a room and "soundproofing" a room. One is designed to make a room sound more balanced and the other is designed to keep sound from escaping. They employ very different strategies.

Spend some time on RealTraps - Home as well as the studio forums and see what options fit your needs and budget.

[alatham82]

testing1two is correct. I had assumed you meant "acoustically treating." My advice won't help you actually soundproof a room, from what I've heard it's enormously expensive to keep sound from escaping a room unless it's been specially built for that purpose.

Acoustic treatment is really great though. It'll take some research, but it's a diy project if ever I've seen one. Realtraps are a good idea to look into as well, though they're touched on in the link I gave earlier.

[TheEmptyCell]

No help from me on acoustic treating, but if you decide to hang your bass, make sure you attach to a stud. You, your girlfriend and your landlord (if you rent) will appreciate it. String Swing and other hangers claim it's safe to use drywall anchors and just attach willy-nilly to the wall, but I wouldn't trust it.

If you wanna save some money, you can Google "DIY Wall Hanger" and get some excellent ideas that are way cheaper than commercial guitar hangers.

If you play through a combo or something small like a 1x12" or 2x10", you could also benefit from an amp stand. I think a nice amp stand is classier than a box sitting on the floor IMO.

[Stumbo]

1 Sound proofing/reduction
2-w/ room pics
3-w/ room pics
Build Recording Studio book- for pros/DIYr's
Budget Build Book
Terms and Tips

[bartoneblaze]

Soundproofing is any means of reducing the sound pressure with respect to a specified sound source and receptor (noise control). There are several basic approaches to reducing sound.
Use acoustic materials.The acoustic goal for band room noise is to first hold the noise to within the loud music room, and then treat the interior of the room for better sound quality. To hold the noise to within a music room use acoustic material.By applying the sound proofing techniques of "disconnection and density" to your surrounding wall and ceiling surfaces, you can trigger a 10-12 decibel level drop from inside the room to outside.

[ggunn]

Originally Posted by testing1two

There is a tremendous difference between "acoustically treating" a room and "soundproofing" a room. One is designed to make a room sound more balanced and the other is designed to keep sound from escaping. They employ very different strategies.

Yes, but there are also two types of soundproofing. One is, as you say, to keep sound from escaping so that the police are not a regular visitor to your sessions, but the other is to keep exterior sound from getting in so that you are not hearing semis drive past in the middle of your recordings. The techniques are similar, of course, but the degree of soundproofing you need is situational.

If all you are wanting to do is keep from annoying your girlfriend when you are playing, and you guys live in a house on a slab, you can install another thickness of sheetrock on the walls that your room shares with the rest of the house and install a solid core door with weatherstripping to your studio. That will go a long way to promote domestic tranquility and won't be very expensive.

[prd004]

Originally Posted by testing1two

There is a tremendous difference between "acoustically treating" a room and "soundproofing" a room. One is designed to make a room sound more balanced and the other is designed to keep sound from escaping. They employ very different strategies.

Spend some time on RealTraps - Home as well as the studio forums and see what options fit your needs and budget.

This, x 1000.

There are many options for acoustic treatment, you can read up study and do a decent job but understanding the physics of sound is beyond helpful.

However, there is really only ONE WAY to soundproof a room and this involves construction of a room within a room, floating floors, and suspended ceilings. Any attempt to half-@$$ a soundproof is wasted time/effort/money IMO.

[SurferJoe46]

While it might work for higher frequencies - I find that attempts to hold the bass to a level that cannot be heard outside the building are mostly futile.

When I hit a note, the walls all reverberate and as timpanic surfaces themselves they re-radiate the notes outside as though I was playing outside in the first place.

My neighbor tries to figure out the songs she hears the basslines to - and keeps a list and asked me to do the same thing on my end of the songs I play to. Then we compare notes.

Good neighbor there for sure. But the point is that hiding a bass from the neighbors is kinda like hiding an elephant in your refrigerator - you will - at the very least - find his footprints in the butter dish.

[escaraBAJO]

Any attempt to half-@$$ a soundproof is wasted time/effort/money IMO.[/quote]

Agreed. Been there. Spent the money and effort and didn't work.

Some of my friends are acoustic engineers and they say that the only way to avoid sound from escaping is a thicker wall (and hopefully, no windows) so if you don't build it from the start you have to build the "room inside the room".

And this will work just for moderate amounts of volume, like solo practice. The rest comes from your neighbours tolerance.

good luck and tell us if you find a good solution

[trevcda]

Whatever you do, remember to keep fire safety in mind. The links to that room from the drummers forum looks somewhat effective as far as transfer of sound goes but without properly treated materials it could be a fire trap. I don't know about that application, I didn't read the entire thread, but I doubt the exposed wood has a very good burn rating compared to sheetrock. And if the foam isn't also fire rated, could emit toxic stuff when burning. The home game of the Rhode Island incident doesn't sound very fun. JUst something to keep in mind when your designing your room.

[Ed Fuqua]

The best advice I got was- think of sound like it was water. If you filled the room up with water, where would it leak out from? After insulating the walls and ceiling and decoupling from the floor, where does the "water" leak out? Around windows, doors, through openings into electrical conduit, etc. You've got to find some way to, if not completely close off, at least ameliorate the sound levels enough so that it blends in to everyday background levels.
So some of that is going to depend entirely on the proximity and sensitivity of the people you are trying to insulate from AND on the time of day (or night) you're going to be producing sound.

[farboozle]

I did a practice room, tore down existing paneling and put up resilient clip + hat channel ceiling, 5/8" drywall plus greenglue plus 5/8" drywall. It cost a fair amount and was a ton of work. It did not soundproof the room for a full band practice, but did improve things.

You should learn to love drywall before attempting this method . . .

[SoonerMatt]

When I was in high school we just stabled those foam eggcrate bed liners to walls and propped up some spare mattresses in an extra room in our drummer's house. It worked well enough, but we weren't playing with a bunch of power, either. My dad is having a room in his house converted into a theater room/man cave and is also soundproofing. So far he's...

Used 2 layers of drywall stuck together with Green Glue
Put acoustic dampening foam and cloth over the walls
Carpeted with acoustic foam beneath the carpet
Put foam and cloth on the ceiling (admittedly he's also putting LED "stars" there, too)
Put acoustic paneling in the rooms' corners

[Dieter]

This stuff homasote is supposed to work pretty good if you can find it locally it is about $25 for a 8x4' sheet.

Homasote green building boards fiberboard sound proof

I recommend building also some sound absorption with some recycled blue jean insulation. I did this with some 1X4" pine frames and burlap covering. The material is amazing at absorbing sound if you want to hang some in the corners as bass traps. It is cheap, and with colored burlap, not to shabby looking!

[BackToTheGroove]

My DIY story:
I have a finished room in the basement of our new home, to use as my music room: practice and basic recording of practices, and the lads over for some ales and jams. The last owner played guitar, and finished this room for use as a music/recording room - but finished it without soundproofing, as they decided to sell the house during finishing the basement.

Specs
- 10 x 12 with door into adjoining 7 x 12 'control booth' room with door. There is a 30"x60" framed window hole between the two rooms.
- Drop ceiling with standard 2x4 fibre panels.
- Standard interior hollow doors to be replaced with solid ones, with acoustic barrier panel added (wrapped Sonopan).
- Two of the walls are the concrete foundation.
- No windows.

Now, to get it as quiet as I can DIY, without breaking the bank. First, remove the drop ceiling, then:

Materials
- Between joists: Roxul Safe'n'Sound
- Anchored into joists with a layer of foam insulation sheets using large washers around the screws: Matériaux Spécialisés Louiseville Sonopan looks similar to homasote, in the post above.
- Glued to the foam layer: http://www.quietrock.com/
After speaking to a renovation pro that I have hired in the past, he said that gluing the sheetrock will help eliminate resonant transfer through using screws, into the joists (frame of the house), and up into the rest of my house. Liquid Nails is what he suggested to use. Permanent, yes.
He said, of course separation and mass is what you need, as in the 5 foot thick divider walls he builds for movie theatres...
- Sheet of QuietRock glued to the existing sheet rock of the walls, acoustic-caulked and taped.
- A plywood/wrapped Sonopan 'plug' for the booth's window when needed
- Replace doors with solid wood ones, and make a panel of Sonopan wrapped in fabric to fit the door; weather strip and bottom sweeper for sound seal (double check for light leaks)

Room balancing
I was lucky to score professional grade acoustic foam from a dismantled video studio, glued to 4x4 sheets of 1/4" plywood.
- These will be glued to 4x4 sheets of foam insulation and then glued to the wall. Permanent, yes.
- Bass traps: triangular for the corners and 16" wide rectangular along walls/ceiling: plywood base with Roxul wall side, Sonopan room side and wrapped in a fabric.
- A few acoustic foam panels to break up the flat ceiling.
- Floor will use a double layer of sound-proofing underlay, a layer of regular under lay and then the carpet.

I think this will work great. And ready for my son's band when he's a few year's older - should he want to Rock & Roll.

[AnchorHoy]

Originally Posted by prd004

there is really only ONE WAY to soundproof a room and this involves construction of a room within a room, floating floors, and suspended ceilings

Yep

The guy I sometimes use for professional-level recording did exactly that with his studio, which was built from an existing garage. In simple terms, a big box "floating" inside a bigger box, both structurally and acoustically isolated from each other

Yes, it works remarkably well and yes, it was hella expensive

Originally Posted by Dieter

This stuff homasote is supposed to work pretty good if you can find it locally it is about $25 for a 8x4' sheet

Great stuff. Made in my hometown out of recycled materials by an employer who takes better-than-average care of their production and maintenance staff. Never worked for 'em personally but have been inside the plant a few times and also have met a few current and former employees

I've also worked with the product myself a few times, over the years. If you can deal with sheetrock, then Homasote is a piece of cake

Homasote history and applications

Highly recommended