Soundproofing

[play4theworld]

Hey guys,

Sorry if this is the wrong place for a question like this but it didn't seem like there was a spot on these forums and I wanted to hear from you guys.

I am trying to soundproof my room/studio/pad. I do my recording in my bedroom and believe it or not it sounds pretty good and I think if I really wanted it right a little foam and acoustic work would set it straight.

But now I want to try and keep sound in, and out if possible. I have music running almost all day and I practice constantly. Also, Im a firm believer that when electric guitar comes in, its better with a big amp . I live in a small house with 3 other people and this gets kind of troublesome during the day and it is limiting my practice time.


Is there some way I can rig up a ghetto soundproofing? The walls are pretty thin, there is no attack (atteck atick? i dont know...). I think the main fail point is the door. Its not very tight at all.

So any help is apreciated

And if a mod feels this is an utterly wrong forum feel free to move it where you think it should go

[JMS40]

Soundproofing must be done with structure... double walls, cinder block... etc.. Not to be confused with sound treatment.
To bring yourself up to speed on these issues, I suggest you spend some time at John Sayers forum.
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

[promixr]

There's definitely some things you can do to make things better- we are running a seminar tonight on acoustic treatment for home studios:

http://imsproav.com/main/Primacousti...y-Seminar.html

We will be YouTube-ing it after the fact - email me privately and I'll send you a link : )

[mano111]

To stop sound you'll need mass. This means construction and its typically not cheap. It often involves building walls, doors, and things that are not modular and can't be done in a rental apartment.

[Hotcrazyfruit]

You noted the door isnt very tight, This can be the biggest problem of all. (it was for me).
There could be a 4 foot thick concrete wall, but if there is even a 1mm crack running straight through it it will completely compromise its ability to stop sound.

I bring this up because in my small basement studio before i had made a tight seal between the door and the jam, the door did NOTHING to stop the sound at all, even though my walls were calculated to have a transmission loss of about 46 or 47 dB. If you opened the door while my brother played the drums it was only slightly louder than if the door was closed. This is because of the small crack between the door and the jam.

What i did to remedy this was get some 1/4" plastic tube from home depot and run it along the jam of the door to seal it, and what a difference it made. Its still not sound proof, not even close, but it at least does what i need it to do, keep it a bit quieter.

Now if i could only ask my mom if i could move the washing machine above me to the up stairs

Nick

[play4theworld]

I thought about trying that. The main problem is that my door opens to our living room so I doubt my parents would like a big rubber thing hanging off my door. Another being that its not very tight ALL AROUND the darn thing. But even as it is, it makes a huge difference open or closed so i think I'll give the runners a shot.

[play4theworld]

Read through your post again, did you just put stuff on the top and bottom or all sides?

And i soundproofed a modular home once and I may have some green glue left over...think we finally got rid of it. Stupid eh?

[nst7]

Here's a great primer on acoustics from the Auralex site:

http://www.acoustics101.com/

I found this very helpful for learning the basics.

[graveleye]

screw Auralex - they're too expensive.

If you're going to buy try these guys: http://www.foambymail.com/soundproofing.html

[play4theworld]

Thanks for the links.

I think for now I'm just going to have to experiment with cheap foam and blankets etc. considering i just went to Nashville and blew all my spare money on a Gibson J-180 EC