My band went E drums and all direct out to IEM’s for some and small monitors for others when we lost our practice space. Definitely loses some of the oomph, but rehearsal is about nailing parts, not blowing away the neighbors.
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Home Rehearsal HELP!
- Thread starter twhitedc
- Start date
This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but is the cheapest, easiest and most likely to improve your bands sound and feel:
Don’t play so f*cking loud!
Don’t play so f*cking loud!
I’ve yet to see a tile-format product that actually addresses isolation. They are always, IME, a treatment product rather than an isolation one. Can you provide a spec sheet of what you’re describing?
This is pretty much what I was going to say - save the money you'd spend on additional rockboard and buy an electronic drum set and IEMs.
FWIW, an attic is the worst spot in most houses to try to achieve significant noise reduction.
1. Air paths carry leaked sound, and the attic is designed to breathe. (BTW, if you block up all the attic spots that exchange air, you'll have issues.)
2. The attic's high, and tends to run to the house perimeter on all sides. Any other space in a typical house provides more massy attenuation above and on at least two of its sides.
3. Room-within-a-room treatments (plus multiple rocking out adults, + amps and other gear) = significant extra load. Especially if your house design has vaulted ceilings below the attic (or otherwise involves tall walls transfering vertical loads from the attic), be thoughtful about whether the building is designed to transfer the extra weight.
A basement usually offers far better sound attentuation. Next best is a first-floor room with its exterior walls on the opposite side of the house from the closest noise-sensitive neighbors. But if the attic is the only available space and you must cut the leaked sound to appease the neighbors, go e-drums and DI instruments.
1. Air paths carry leaked sound, and the attic is designed to breathe. (BTW, if you block up all the attic spots that exchange air, you'll have issues.)
2. The attic's high, and tends to run to the house perimeter on all sides. Any other space in a typical house provides more massy attenuation above and on at least two of its sides.
3. Room-within-a-room treatments (plus multiple rocking out adults, + amps and other gear) = significant extra load. Especially if your house design has vaulted ceilings below the attic (or otherwise involves tall walls transfering vertical loads from the attic), be thoughtful about whether the building is designed to transfer the extra weight.
A basement usually offers far better sound attentuation. Next best is a first-floor room with its exterior walls on the opposite side of the house from the closest noise-sensitive neighbors. But if the attic is the only available space and you must cut the leaked sound to appease the neighbors, go e-drums and DI instruments.
I thought LED surface lights would have pretty much made recessed lighting obsolete by now?
My space, basically an attic over a cinder lock two car garage — has 5/8” drywall over 1/2” “soundboard” — that compressed sawdusty type board. I made heavy curtains for the window. The OC703 (similar to rock wool) in my installation is more for sound treatment of the space than soundproofing.
Adding a second layer of sheetrock was hard with the 24” OC truss spacing— I had to angle long drywall screws through the 5/8” AND the 1/2”. Many were left proud of the surface which made taping a joke. It doesn’t look great, that’s for sure.
Mass stops sound. I do think that you will do well to add another layer everywhere you can, and think about the floor too.
Adding a second layer of sheetrock was hard with the 24” OC truss spacing— I had to angle long drywall screws through the 5/8” AND the 1/2”. Many were left proud of the surface which made taping a joke. It doesn’t look great, that’s for sure.
Mass stops sound. I do think that you will do well to add another layer everywhere you can, and think about the floor too.
I don't have a spec sheet. I do know that mechanical rooms with the acoustic tile treatment leak almost zero sound versus rooms with drywall alone. I do not know the construction details of those rooms. In the context of what the OP described (sound reduction, not isolation) this might be an economical solution.
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Came here to say this. Basement FTW; attics are too high to soundproof fully.
I’d move to e-drums and IEM in that situation.
Give thought to low volume drum heads and cymbals. Remo puts out Silentstroke drumheads. They are not silent, but a lower volume. There are a number of low cost brands of cymbals one can purchase at Amazon and other sites as well.
The post states "not after full soundproofing" and describes looking for reduction to that of a loud stereo. I may be misunderstanding what he is actually looking for. At any rate I believe that acoustic tiles completely covering the wall space, windows and doors would acheive the sound reduction he is seeking and would be much less expensive and time consuming than building a room within a room. Switching the band to IEMs would be even more effective.
I'm in the camp of don't create the huge soundwave in the first place.
Headphone, IEMs, are acceptable for studios to concerts. Learn to use them.
Drummers should look into edrums.
If it's an attic space you'll also need air conditioning, heat, ventilation - and they are all going to be air leaks + sound leaks.
You'll need less air conditioning if you're not turning on heater like amps.
Headphone, IEMs, are acceptable for studios to concerts. Learn to use them.
Drummers should look into edrums.
If it's an attic space you'll also need air conditioning, heat, ventilation - and they are all going to be air leaks + sound leaks.
You'll need less air conditioning if you're not turning on heater like amps.
The OP describes preventing sound transmission of a full band rehearsing from his friend’s space into his neighbor’s. That is sound isolation which is nothing more than a colloquialism for sound transmission characteristics between two assemblies.
There is no product available commercially that can be simply tacked on in tile form that will appreciably improve the TL characteristics of an assembly in a meaningful way. I’m happy to be proven wrong with spec sheets that cite TL, or at the very least STC. All of the tile products I’ve ever seen reference NRC which only relates to decay characteristics and has nothing to do with transmission.
Jazzdogg
Less barking, more wagging!
The least expensive solution may be to play with musicians who possess enough self-discipline to play quietly.
This video gets a lot right and a few small things wrong that are worth mentioning.
He confuses the terms damping (isolation) and dampening (treatment) a few times. They’re different processes and it’s important to understand where to use each.
He states that damping and adding mass work differently depending on the frequency range, and he’s correct. The implication he makes that’s a little misleading is that you damp for high frequency energy and add mass for low frequency energy. The reality is that you do both for either, and in both applications lows are more difficult to address than highs.
Lastly he gets into absorption and then describes insulation inside a wall cavity which is a non-absorptive placement. Absorption is an acoustic treatment, not a sound isolation measure. Further he states that mineral wool is better in a wall cavity than fiberglass. Rod Gervais’ book, which is a better and more detailed reference than any YouTube video, describes why mineral wool products, such as Rockwool, perform worse than fiberglass in terms of low frequency TL in a wall assembly. Stick to the pink fluffy stuff inside of wall cavities if a high TL assembly is the goal.
