Soundproofing

[johnnycabaret]

I'm thinking about soundproofing the spare room of my house cos my neighbours and girlfriend are getting pretty hacked off with 'noise' I make when I'm practising. Any ideas on how easy it'd be to do and the cost. If I've posted this in the wrong forum, apologies.

Thanks

 

[msquared]

It will be time consuming and expensive.

If someone tells you to hang foam or egg shells or blankets on your walls, slap them.

Do a search in Google Groups on the topic and you will get a ton of good information, notably from the rec.audio.pro forum. You might also try Invalid Link Removed.

Quick and dirty answer: build a room within your existing room which doesn't touch any of your existing room's walls or ceiling. Make sure it's as airtight as is possible.

Another quick and dirty answer: get headphones for your entire band and an electronic drum kit for your drummer.

 

[ric1312]

Have you tried simply repostioning your amp or cutting out some of it's bass signal with EQ.

We had a similar problem with neighbors next to us and across the street in our garage/practice spot.

Originally we played facing out from one of the side walls. So the garage door would be to my left. the sound cut through pretty good and the cops would come.

We then moved everything to the wall opposite the garage door and facing out. Havn't had a complaint since. The garage soaks up the sound better before it can escape.

 

[stranger0]

to help the vibration you could always put your amps etc...on a platform thats solid (not wood)

 

[Standalone]

I sheetrocked a large space with half inch soundboard (sawdusty stuff) and 5/8ths Sheetrock, with plenty of regular insulation. OC 703 to treat the inside reflections. It worked well enough for me. I did it with plenty of research on gearslutz and homerecording.com/bbs, so I went into it with my eyes open and well informed. Spent about 1500 bucks including renting a sheet rock lift and buying a sheetrocking screwdriver. 20'x30'x7'2". The space went from nearly zero sound reduction to quite noticeable sound reduction, enough even for my tiny 0.1 acre lot/close neighbors. It's plenty loud below in the garage, tho.

It was definitely *not* soundproofed, and I play mostly JAZZ, so milages will vary.

 

[johnnycabaret]

Thanks people, a lot of useful info there, any other suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[DocBop]

Remember one key to killing sound is air space. So a having an absorbent material, on top of a hard material, then air space, then another hard space. The sound wave is absorbed, then slows down going thru the hard material, the hits the air space and speeds up again, but runs into more absorbent material or another hard wall and bounces around in the air space till it decays.

I was lucky to be around one of the big name studios when they were building their second studio which would have a shared wall with first room. That is where I learned about air killing sound. They had a large space between rooms so after studio surface they had two layers of sheetrock. Then they built a framework in the space to hold rolls of insulation. What they did take regular wall insulation and roll it up in like a jelly roll, then stacked those floor to ceiling in the frame work. After that was a airspace about 18" wide. Then the same layer of insulation, double sheetrock, and studio wall to the other studio. It was very effective. I've seen variations on that used in other studios.

A friend owns a rehearsal studio and wasn't planning for totally killing sound between rooms, but to kill enough that bands wouldn't be bothered when playing. In general he built a frame work of 2x4's on edge out from the existing wall then sheetrock'd the wall. After that drilled large holes in the sheetrock and filled the walls with sand. Then tapping the walls down to get the sand to settle and keep adding more till solid. Then filled the holes and covered the walls with carpet. That wasn't too expensive and really deadens the sound.

Some combo of those idea could work for you.

 

[seamonkey]

Also check office surplus and the 'bay for high office cubicle walls. You can build a room in a room with them. Some are pretty well padded and sound-proof. Some aren't so check them out before you buy.

 

[the fuhz]

hmmm. I think you should hang foam, egg shells, or blankets on your walls.

 

[Standalone]

hmmm. I think you should hang foam, egg shells, or blankets on your walls.

Look out!

Myths #'s One, Two, and Three.

 

[Standalone]

If someone tells you to hang foam or egg shells or blankets on your walls, slap them.

and.... ahem....


Fuhz, you're joking, right?

 

[tasty sweeps]

heh, stick a [spare?] mattress up against a wall. it'll soak up a good deal of sound. hanging blankets, etc etc are perfectly acceptable from a simple practice space. it's cheap (usually free if you've got extras laying around), it's easy to do yourself and certainly way easier to take down. and it's only slightly more of a fire hazard depending on what else is in the room (versus a 'real' acoustic dampening solution).

isolate the amp from the floor, make sure it's not resting on a joist or anything like that.

...turn the volume down?

mattresses do work pretty well, though. used to have a vocal booth made of mattresses with small and medium removable mirrors to change the reflections and add a bit of clickety clow if you know what i mean.

'uber ghetto', i know, but you do what you can with what you're given.

 

[joebingo]

It will be time consuming and expensive.

If someone tells you to hang foam or egg shells or blankets on your walls, slap them.

it's good for high end stuff, well, blankets at least. stops ping - anything that makes the room deader is fine by me. In terms of catching bass though, absolutely useless!

 

[projectMalamute]

it's good for high end stuff, well, blankets at least. stops ping - anything that makes the room deader is fine by me. In terms of catching bass though, absolutely useless!

I agree, it can help with clarity in the room a little bit. It does not help with getting the levels down outside the room at all really. Getting a good sound in the room and soundproofing are two different problems.

 

[msquared]

Fuhz, you're joking, right?

My guess is that he probably is.

 

[msquared]

it's good for high end stuff, well, blankets at least. stops ping - anything that makes the room deader is fine by me. In terms of catching bass though, absolutely useless!

You are talking about sound treating and not sound proofing. Sound treating a room is when you're changing the acoustic properties of a room, reducing standing waves, things like that. Sound proofing is when you are keeping outside sounds from coming in and/or inside sounds from going out. Hanging a blanket on the wall isn't going to keep even high frequencies from getting out or in, but it will make the room less boomy sounding so you don't play as loud, which does help things.

 

[the fuhz]

My guess is that he probably is.

yeah, Im joking. kinda...
I dont like blankets or mattress. However, I think think that foam on the walls is a good thing. Not necessarily for sound proofing, but it makes the sound better inside the room.

The best advice I can give is sealing up the doors and window, putting weather stripping (ie: foam tape) on the jams works really well. Bascially, if air can get through, so does the sound.