Please help me keep the lows in my own house

[Guild B301]

Electric guitar is much easier to control, for bass the issue is frequencies below 125Hz, which are harder to control.

SAFETY ALERT:
Materials suitable for use in acoustical control will carry specific flame spread ratings for the intended surfaces. Why is this important? Look up the Station Nightclub fire and that's why it's not a good idea (and is in fact illegal in most jurisdictions)

I have no idea where you got the idea I was playing only guitar. I play through Bass Marshall Stacks. And I always used proper fire rated building materials, which do also stop the bass frequencies. It also killed the sound of fiberglass shell drums. A hired a sound contractor who did the work. I play through these:

 

[WoodyJ]

One of these and a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 80 ohm pro studio headphones will work better than you think and will keep the police away for well under $500.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

I was also thinking, if they can hear and feel it in their house, maybe find out what music they like, and start playing that...


T$

What's the best kind of metal for angry neighbors?

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

Your neighbours are much more polite than the ones I've had. Unfortunately, you can't do much with $500. Forget about practicing w/ drums. You need a floating room built which will cost $$$$$. Good luck!

 

[sawzalot]

There's no $500 solution to this problem. A mixer, good headphones, and a BackBeat will put you over that budget. Acoustic treatment of the garage will put you WAY over that budget. So turning down, playing at other times of day, diplomacy, etc are your best options. Maybe move into the basement. Or find a rehearsal studio where you can let it roar once a week for an hour or so.

You'd do well to spend some of that $500 on some diplomacy in the form of beer/wine/flowers/etc for the neighbor.

 

[VolverseLoco]

I am SO glad you produced that note from you neighbor! Its a reality check for me as I now have upgraded my rig to a 500 watt TC head and a 15" Fender Bassman cabinet for my home studio/office (WFH here too). I live in a 1 floor house in Vegas and neighbors in Vegas are about 10~15 feet on both sides. I have been launching a full out sonic assault nightly untill 10PM here while practicing by myself. No, I have not received the dreaded note like you, but I can easily see one coming my way, so I must turn down. Yes, some may say thats common sense but all that firepower I have now, its hard to keep it at bay. When I was 22 in 1991 and playing drums as a punk kid with my long Bon Jovi hair in the back room of our carport in Florida (kinda like your garage scenario), the old man Ken across the street used to call the Largo cops on us during full nightly band practice. The cop who came out had a soft spot for kids playing music and not out terrorizing the town and on the first night he told us to stop playing (it was after 10PM in the night), but he also said that technically he could not tell us to stop because he did not have a dB reading but he could tell us to stop because we didn't have the reading as well, and the reading needed to be taken at Kens front door. He said this was required per Largo city ordinances. He told me to contact officer so and so and get him out to my house when our band played so he could take readings across the street. I got the readings done and our band playing at regular level and we were under the ordinance level. He told Kenny that and told Kenny if he continued to call the cops the cops could not do anything because of the handheld dB readings being within city rules. Well, we respected the level and never pushed it and Kenny still called the cops and nothing happened. Then Nirvana came out and our hair band was done, but being the punk kid I was back then, I had Kennys mail forwarded and put in the disconnect order for his electric, just to give him a hard time for calling the police on us. Aged Horse talks about the low frequency thing and think about it. Whales communicate with each other under water at distances up to 10,000 miles sometimes using low freq. Elephants also use low freq to talk to other elephants up to 25 miles! Amazing. So I dont know what to tell you, maybe want to check out your local sound ordinances. May want to work with the neighbor. Or you may want to shut their gas and electric off and forward their mail? Lol...

 

[bucephylus]

Moderators: the Amps/Cabs forum seemed like the best fit for this, but obviously we have more to consider than amplification here; please move this to Live Sound or elsewhere if more appropriate, with my thanks and/or apologies.

Contributors: I have read a bit about this subject on TalkBass and elsewhere, but obviously do not have a comprehensive knowledge of the topic or what has already been said on TalkBass. I hope you will kindly provide advice with my specific circumstances in mind. I would strongly prefer to solve this problem by containing my sound rather than changing or eliminating it. In that light, please do not suggest turning down, using headphones, or radically altering my settings. I can figure out any of those approaches easily enough on my own if containing my current decibels and frequencies proves infeasible. I can probably spend up to 500 USD if necessary.

With the preliminaries out of the way:

2020 forced an unexpected and unwanted major relocation upon my family, but at least we landed somewhere wonderful. We moved from a very rural location to a relatively dense neighborhood of single family homes in a college town, and I have literally no complaints about my neighbors. I wish they could say the same about me! We found this on the door this evening:

View attachment 4032003

The care they took to put this as kindly as they did indicates just how good we have it with neighbors, I think. (I suspect that this would have come up in an equally friendly conversation if not for the ongoing pandemic.)

I DO NOT want to be "that guy" around here, but I would rather not retire my big iron. Can I contain my sound? If so, how?

I currently have things set up like this:
View attachment 4032008

Things I have tried:

•1x15 solid state 80w combo on a stand facing the outside wall. This seemed unobtrusive until that 30-year-old combo stopped working.

•Tube 200w 1x15 combo on floor facing outside wall, or solid state 200w head w/1x15 cabinet on casters facing outside wall. Perhaps not surprisingly, these setups seem to project into my neighbor's home

Things I could do now but have yet to try:

•I could put my extremely heavy tube combo on the stand.

•I could face any rig in any other direction.

Fun things on the way:

•I have finally cracked and will receive a brand new 200w Class D combo with a neo 1x12 by the end of the week. I can easily put that on the stand.

•I also have a period correct 2x12 on the way, but unless I use it as a somewhat expensive platform for elevating other speakers, it won't help matters.

Things I am considering that would require expenditures:

•Something other than a stand to elevate the modular solid state rig

•Gramma pads or similar

•furniture blankets hanging everywhere

•garage door insulation, if it would allow continued use of the garage door

•a (relatively) inexpensive drum booth

It also occurs to me that I probably haven't thought of everything.

What should I do?

Thank you for any helpful suggestions (or clever jokes).

Oh: nobody playing but me just yet, but my son's acoustic drums will likely enter the picture soon as well.

As @agedhorse posted, this is a pretty big challenge.

First, it helps to understand some of the physics. The low frequency energy is primarily projected from the drivers in your cabs into the airspace in your practice area. Placing pads beneath the cabs does not reduce this excitation of the air space, but does slightly change the way it couples to the floor. Which, if you get into the details, actually increases as the cab is initially raised, then falls off as the cab is raised further than about 1/4 wavelength (around 1m for 100Hz). In any case, the signal your neighbors are getting is primarily driven by what the drivers are doing. You are stuck with that.

The ONLY way I have found to reduce the transmission of this energy is to absorb it. If the floor coupling is the primary culprit, then spreading foam, such as yoga mats, in front of the cab may help. But, to really address the issue, you would need to deploy acoustic dampening materials on all the boundary surfaces in your practice space.

Since the full solution may not be practical, what you are left with is deploying whatever absorbing material on the floor in front of the cab that you can readily put away when not playing and reducing your volume. If that is not enough, then you may need to consider a good headphone amp, like the Cafe Walter. Sorry, but, those are pretty much your options. Or move somewhere else.

 

[agedhorse]

Sound proofing is a myth, you need sound absorption, and it will cost you way way way more than 500 dollars. Think pro studio type situation.

Actually, absorption is not the solution, because the problem is TRANSMISSION.

Absorption can and should be a COMPONENT of sound control, but what the neighbors are hearing is the transmission component.

 

[21DaHoagie12]

Consider yourself lucky that you didn't walk outside in the morning to four slashed tires and a note saying **** YOUR DRUMS... even though the previous day I had worked a double shift and wasn't even home and it was my roommate playing drums, not me... yeah I'm still pissed about it five years later

 

[LanEvo]

The best solution is to buy amps that sound amazing at low volumes. For guitar, that means 1-5 watt tube amps, like the Marshall 50th anniversary heads/combos.

For bass, that means something like a Phil Jones Bass Suitcase combo or the head of your choice through a low-efficiency, wide-spectrum cabinet.

 

[agedhorse]

I have no idea where you got the idea I was playing only guitar. I play through Bass Marshall Stacks. And I always used proper fire rated building materials, which do also stop the bass frequencies. It also killed the sound of fiberglass shell drums. A hired a sound contractor who did the work. I play through these:

When you used the term "Marshall stacks", most folks would associate that with guitar which is why I made that association.

I stand by my statements about the types of building materials needed to effectively control low frequency TRANSMISSION.

 

[MobileHolmes]

Garages are darn near impossible. As others have pointed out, the door is basically transparent, but quite a few don't have insulation or drywall either. I've never played in my garage, by I have a strong suspicion it would act like a giant resonator.

I'm with the others that don't think there will be much you can do to fix the garage. Do you have someplace inside you can use? In particular, a basement? I have the good fortune of living on a corner, and my music room is in the basement on the street side of the house, so even with some volume, I've never gotten any complaints. 500 bucks of added soundproofing in a basement might fix your issues. 500 in a garage won't

 

[Freight Train]

The only thing that will stop low frequencies is mass. Meaning thick, solid walls and preferably double walls with an air space between. You can hang all the blankets and acoustic foam on the walls that you can get your hands on/afford and that will not do anything but the make the acoustics in the room itself dead. If you are cranking a bunch of sub lows (below 50 Hz say) through your rig that is exacerbating the problem. The room is not large enough for those frequencies to properly form, so if you're cranking those lows until you hear/feel them in that room, you are creating an earthquake outside. What is so critical about this 'sound' you have to have? You should be able to practice with any minimal rig.

 

[logdrum]

It's the curse of playing bass. When I practice my horn, my conservative neighbors give me compliments. Not so much with the electric bass or drums. If I bow etudes on my double bass - I am playing music but not when I am doing walking bass lines, it's been compared to a diesel generator thump. I have an adobe house , so traps bass, but not everyone living inside approves. I do have a shed, so if I have to have amplified bass, I do not play later than 830PM. I do live in a semi rural area, minimum acreage is 1 acre, I have 2+. In San Diego when I was living in an apartment, I played without amplification or through headphones. The walls were so thin that I quickly learned that my player of a neighbor had multiple partners.

 

[Redbrangus]

The room is not large enough for those frequencies to properly form...

While I tend to agree with the post's overall position, this part is not accurate.

 

[Freight Train]

While I tend to agree with the post's overall position, this part is not accurate.

Yeah it is. Speaking from over 40 years as studio design consultant. You can crank those lows until you can hear them in the room, but 90% of the energy is going outside the room, unless you're in a bunker.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Moderators: the Amps/Cabs forum seemed like the best fit for this, but obviously we have more to consider than amplification here; please move this to Live Sound or elsewhere if more appropriate, with my thanks and/or apologies.

Contributors: I have read a bit about this subject on TalkBass and elsewhere, but obviously do not have a comprehensive knowledge of the topic or what has already been said on TalkBass. I hope you will kindly provide advice with my specific circumstances in mind. I would strongly prefer to solve this problem by containing my sound rather than changing or eliminating it. In that light, please do not suggest turning down, using headphones, or radically altering my settings. I can figure out any of those approaches easily enough on my own if containing my current decibels and frequencies proves infeasible. I can probably spend up to 500 USD if necessary.

With the preliminaries out of the way:

2020 forced an unexpected and unwanted major relocation upon my family, but at least we landed somewhere wonderful. We moved from a very rural location to a relatively dense neighborhood of single family homes in a college town, and I have literally no complaints about my neighbors. I wish they could say the same about me! We found this on the door this evening:

View attachment 4032003

The care they took to put this as kindly as they did indicates just how good we have it with neighbors, I think. (I suspect that this would have come up in an equally friendly conversation if not for the ongoing pandemic.)

I DO NOT want to be "that guy" around here, but I would rather not retire my big iron. Can I contain my sound? If so, how?

I currently have things set up like this:
View attachment 4032008

Things I have tried:

•1x15 solid state 80w combo on a stand facing the outside wall. This seemed unobtrusive until that 30-year-old combo stopped working.

•Tube 200w 1x15 combo on floor facing outside wall, or solid state 200w head w/1x15 cabinet on casters facing outside wall. Perhaps not surprisingly, these setups seem to project into my neighbor's home

Things I could do now but have yet to try:

•I could put my extremely heavy tube combo on the stand.

•I could face any rig in any other direction.

Fun things on the way:

•I have finally cracked and will receive a brand new 200w Class D combo with a neo 1x12 by the end of the week. I can easily put that on the stand.

•I also have a period correct 2x12 on the way, but unless I use it as a somewhat expensive platform for elevating other speakers, it won't help matters.

Things I am considering that would require expenditures:

•Something other than a stand to elevate the modular solid state rig

•Gramma pads or similar

•furniture blankets hanging everywhere

•garage door insulation, if it would allow continued use of the garage door

•a (relatively) inexpensive drum booth

It also occurs to me that I probably haven't thought of everything.

What should I do?

Thank you for any helpful suggestions (or clever jokes).

Oh: nobody playing but me just yet, but my son's acoustic drums will likely enter the picture soon as well.

Air gaps are your enemy.
Get heavy curtains that seal off ingress and egress (doors)
The vents on the walls to the outside also.
Any rafters insulate or add a drop ceiling.
Remember, if you see light from the outside, in a gap the sound escapes.

 

[lordradish]

OP long gone it seems... still an interesting read.

Perhaps he didn't like the reality check.

 

[Redbrangus]

Yeah it is. Speaking from over 40 years as studio design consultant. You can crank those lows until you can hear them in the room, but 90% of the energy is going outside the room, unless you're in a bunker.

Your experience aside, if bass wavelengths needed more than the 25' x 25' area of a two car garage to "properly form", you wouldn't be able to hear bass frequencies on a pair of headphones. And I've had at least a hand in designing and/or building a couple of studios myself.

 

[Jeff Hughes]

Are you just playing loud to play loud, or is this for practice with a band?

I mean, I like to feel the bass, but maybe that is a bit self-indulgent. You could try playing in short bursts for 10-15 minutes at a time.

Build a room within a room within a room with elevated floor and plenty of insulation. This should create enough of a barrier. But of course, we are talking about the surrender of your garage and a great expense.