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building practice space???

#2
BoognishMang said:
I'm planning to build a practice space in my backyard :hyper: . Anyone here have any experience or tips, or know of any other forums that might help me with ideas. I can do alot of the contruction with a friend. Any suggestions would be helpfull.
-Thanks
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make it underground. I bet you get no complaints about noise if it's underground.
 
#3
Blisshead said:
make it underground. I bet you get no complaints about noise if it's underground.
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Got himself a point. No insulator's gonna work as well as a few tons of dirt. Besides, if it's underground, you only really have to soundproof the ceiling, if at all.

Just make sure make the stairs/ramp leading down wide, so moving in/out is easy.
 
#9
I´m afraid that they´ve got a point with the underground practice space :)

My band used to practice in a garage in a residential neighbourhood and I can tell you this that no amount of insulation could keep the noise down. We had plastered all the walls with egg cartons, the garage door was plastered with egg cartons, then insulation plastic, then a huge mattress etc.

We got a couple of noise complaints so we did not stay there long.

Then there´s a whole another thing to actually build a practice space.. To build a fairly soundproof practice space will run your wallet dry.

We ended on renting a practice space in a insustrial neighbourhood, no one to complain about noise now :)

Good luck though!
 
#10
soundproof it. don't make it just for practicing either. make it just a cool place to chill. get a tv, computer, couch (or whatever), table, and decorate the **** out of it. and make it like another part of your room or something. underground is cool also, except make sure it is "rain proof".
 
#12
Brendan said:
A ramp would be easier, don'tcha thing?
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Bulkhead. they come premade from "home despot', and then your lug out would be no different than the thousands of other bands that practice in basements. We are not talking about some Dr. Evil underground lair near the Earth's core here.
 
#18
If you're seriously going to build, keep this premise in mind:
The only thing that stops sound is MASS. Lots and lots of it. No other trick will work, no shortcut exists around the laws of physics. So the underground idea is pretty much right on, unless you put some massive effort and/or serious $$$ into an above-ground Fortress of Rockitude.

If you dig around on the internet (pardon the pun), you'll quickly see the difference between what most people call "soundproofing" and really doing the job. Egg crates and blankets and foam -- that's all sound treatment. It's not soundproofing. It'll help tame bad high-end reflections in your room, and make it more dead sounding inside, but it doesn't do jack squat about actually stopping sound. And there's just an amazing amount of sound involved in any live music situation, such that it's very hard to truly reduce it to nothing.

Actual soundproofing requires things like floating/double walls, floors, & ceilings; vestibules for any/all doors in or out; special double-paned windows; treatments for ventilation systems; accoustical caulk for all drywall/wood joints, etc. It's work, or it's money, or it's both, so be prepared.

Check this site out:
Link Removed
Aside from the horrible HTML design, it's a very informative site, which should help you form an idea of what you really want to do.
 
#20
Hey there's another thread with similar discussion here: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=137915
BoongishMang - if you are interested in what we did to address that issue write me [email protected]
totally on a shoestring budget fer shure - also, as good of an idea as the Underground Chamber is, it might not work. Places like Round Rock, Dripping Springs, Manor et al have bedrock w/in 18" of topsoil. Out at my Mom's (north Hayes county) they had to use dynamite to dig the well and sink the septic system. Nowadays you can't get a permit to do that because it damages the aquifer. Re: rental space in Austin - we started with that in mind but found that most places have a waiting list ;-[ plus when we realized that we would probably NOT be able to stick to a time-table we scrapped the idea. supermonkey is right about the principles of acoustics, and I think it's dangerous to tack up a bunch of found material - could very well violate fire codes
 

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