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Sound management in a garage- Help please

wraub

wraub

Apr 9, 2004
7,761
10,630
ennui, az
#1
I have a band, and we play in my garage. I recently moved into a new place, and am trying to do some preventive sound management.

I have 120 square feet of sound foam rolled, and 30 24x24x2 square panels. This is material sold specifically for sound management.
The space I am working with is 11x17x8.4 (WxLxH).

Any suggestions as to foam placement? Any other suggestions? Drums/bass/2 guitars/vocals.

I know we are never going to get a "quiet" situation, just really looking for suggestions on taming the beast in my garage.

Thanks to all...
 
#2
Last edited:
#3
All foam will do in a garage is reduce sound bouncing off hard surfaces. It won't do anything significant to reduce sound transmission to the outside. That's more the result of air gaps that allow air exchange and sound exchange between the interior and exterior. Also, bass will make the walls move slightly, and that movement acts directly on the air outside the wall to transfer sound.

Throw old carpet on the floor, and that will also reduce sound bounce as well as being kinder to your feet. If you want to reduce sound outside, start filling every air gap.

Then play quietly. That will do a lot to tame the sound outside the garage.
 
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#4
wraub said:
I have a band, and we play in my garage. I recently moved into a new place, and am trying to do some preventive sound management.

I have 120 square feet of sound foam rolled, and 30 24x24x2 square panels. This is material sold specifically for sound management.
The space I am working with is 11x17x8.4 (WxLxH).

Any suggestions as to foam placement? Any other suggestions? Drums/bass/2 guitars/vocals.

I know we are never going to get a "quiet" situation, just really looking for suggestions on taming the beast in my garage.

Thanks to all...
Click to expand...

As others have said, that foam can help conditions in your space but won't do much for keeping the sound contained. One challenge in playing in a rectangular room with parallel hard surfaces is standing waves - waves that bounce back and forth multiple times between two parallel surfaces and whose wavelength is related to the distance between the surfaces. The floor and ceiling will be your biggest problem since they are the surfaces with the largest area and the shortest distance between them. Left untreated that gap will ring like a bell. Before you treat the room, walk out in the center of the floor and clap your hands; you will hear it. Boiiiinnnnggg.

One thing you can do to help prevent this is to "kill" two adjacent walls and the floor to break the repeated reflection cycle. You can sometimes buy "remnant" carpeting - pieces of carpet rolls left over from an installation - from carpet installers pretty cheaply. Use something like that for the floor and put the foam on the walls.
 
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#5
Well, improving the overall sound quality and levels in the garage are the main part of the plan. Transmission to outside is a concern as well. The only opening to outside is the garage door and surrounding opening.
We have more foam inbound to line the garage door , were planning on using the foam that's here on walls and floor, although may get some rugs or carpeting also.

To clarify, we have 30 24x24x2 panels of foam, in a wedge pattern (looks like this):
images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUIvykFHFNWSvBeteWe22qhPWmp1cWePb5hTq2G4w_Bi9sIYlfSQ.jpg


and a 30 foot long, 5 ft wide roll of MuteX MuteX soundproofing - Acoustic Soundproof Material for Home Rooms, Studios, and Business .

Was considering placing panels on walls, in a staggered layout (panel, wall, panel, etc.). Suggestions?
Not sure where the MuteX will fit in yet.

Have seen various suggestions re: mounting these, ranging from staples or double sided tape to liquid nails to specialty adhesives designed for the task. Suggestions here also please?
 
#6
As to walls being parallel, there are cabinets, 2 workbenches and various boxes throughout the garage, so not many parallel surfaces as of now. This will change some as we finish unpacking from the move and get rid of unnecessary stuff.
 
#7
These guys are always have good advise

RealTraps
realtraps.com/art_basics.htm




I will say that yes treat the room, but room EQ such as IK Arc can help EQ for specific trouble spots.

A good alternative is going IEM. Cabs can be Mic'd but DI works great. It's usually quieter for the neighbors. You spend less time on creating the ideal practice space, it works for many spaces. When you perform it's the same experience.
 
#8
Yeah sound proofing a garage is nearly impossible.

Improving the quality of sound inside is not so much a task. Pretty much anything you do to add texture to surfaces will help to some degree. Carpet will go far. The stuff you have placed throughout the room will help as well to dry the room up.

But, as others have stated, unless you completely cover the garage door in sound proofing, stuff something into the gaps between the door and frame, stuff something into the gaps between door panels, cover all windows in thick foam (at least), etc you are not going to drastically reduce what the neighbors will hear.

Keep it down as best you can. Check with local authorities about your local regulations. Some towns (like the one I grew up in) have no volume regulations whatsoever until late at night. Some can give you a ticket at 12:00 noon. Some ticket you after three complaints. Just find out. Also, you can cut down on the tension by politicking in advance. Check with the neighbors and make sure none of them work 3rd shift and sleep all day. Find out when the least annoying time to jam is. Tell them to let you know if the volume starts to get on their nerves. You can cut off a lot of the potential problems later on by getting out in front of them.
 
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#9
wraub said:
Well, improving the overall sound quality and levels in the garage are the main part of the plan. Transmission to outside is a concern as well. The only opening to outside is the garage door and surrounding opening.
We have more foam inbound to line the garage door , were planning on using the foam that's here on walls and floor, although may get some rugs or carpeting also.

To clarify, we have 30 24x24x2 panels of foam, in a wedge pattern (looks like this):
images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUIvykFHFNWSvBeteWe22qhPWmp1cWePb5hTq2G4w_Bi9sIYlfSQ.jpg


and a 30 foot long, 5 ft wide roll of MuteX MuteX soundproofing - Acoustic Soundproof Material for Home Rooms, Studios, and Business .

Was considering placing panels on walls, in a staggered layout (panel, wall, panel, etc.). Suggestions?
Not sure where the MuteX will fit in yet.

Have seen various suggestions re: mounting these, ranging from staples or double sided tape to liquid nails to specialty adhesives designed for the task. Suggestions here also please?
Click to expand...

That MuteX looks interesting. I'm curious as to whether it actually works. But if you don't cover all walls and ceilings and floor with it, it's not going to do much to stop sound from getting out, that is for sure.
 
#11
Yes, bass seems to do a fine job of ignoring walls and such. Part of our aim is help mitigate that. We have turned down the volume already.

No windows in the space, not even in the garage door. Will be filling the door panels with foam panels as well, and chasing air gaps around the door.
 
#13
wraub said:
Well, improving the overall sound quality and levels in the garage are the main part of the plan. Transmission to outside is a concern as well. The only opening to outside is the garage door and surrounding opening.
We have more foam inbound to line the garage door , were planning on using the foam that's here on walls and floor, although may get some rugs or carpeting also.

To clarify, we have 30 24x24x2 panels of foam, in a wedge pattern (looks like this):
images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUIvykFHFNWSvBeteWe22qhPWmp1cWePb5hTq2G4w_Bi9sIYlfSQ.jpg


and a 30 foot long, 5 ft wide roll of MuteX MuteX soundproofing - Acoustic Soundproof Material for Home Rooms, Studios, and Business .

Was considering placing panels on walls, in a staggered layout (panel, wall, panel, etc.). Suggestions?
Not sure where the MuteX will fit in yet.

Have seen various suggestions re: mounting these, ranging from staples or double sided tape to liquid nails to specialty adhesives designed for the task. Suggestions here also please?
Click to expand...

That foam won't do much of anything to the garage door. Here's what I did:
garage exterior.jpg

I had a carpenter friend come over (who worked for beer), and we built a 2X6 framework in the garage door opening outside the door itself. We crammed the space full of acoustical/thermal insulation, caulked all the seams, and sheetrocked it over, then we added the cosmetic wallboard and trim and painted it to match the rest of the wood on the house. It's not totally soundproof but it cuts the transmission through the garage door way down.

Best of all, the Household Aesthetics Manager (my wife) approves of the way it looks.
 
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#16
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#17
buldog5151bass said:
Anything you can do that would make a major difference in keeping the sound in is gonna be more expensive than the garage is worth. Keep your volume down, play at reasonable hours, and keep the money in your pockets.
Click to expand...

FWIW, my treatment of the garage door opening only cost a couple hundred dollars and it made a major difference. A regular metal garage door might as well be standing open for all the sound isolation it provides.
 
#18
ggunn said:
FWIW, my treatment of the garage door opening only cost a couple hundred dollars and it made a major difference. A regular metal garage door might as well be standing open for all the sound isolation it provides.
Click to expand...

I assume now that the garage door cannot be raised to be used as a garage? That would seem to be an issue for many.

IMO the best thing to do is to make the sound as good as possible inside by cutting down on echos, and playing at a reasonable volume level. But if that works for you, cool, and congrats.
 
#19
buldog5151bass said:
I assume now that the garage door cannot be raised to be used as a garage? That would seem to be an issue for many.
Click to expand...
Not for me. Since we built the house in 1987 the only time a vehicle has been in that space was when we were unloading a friend's pickup as we were moving in. We did not do anything irreversible, though, so when it comes time to sell the house we can undo it pretty easily.
 

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