Thoughts on soundproofing

dono · Post by **dono** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:03 pm

I may be moving (the wife and I are looking at buying a house) and I am wondering if anyone has had any experience in soundproofing. I currently have a spare room that has all of my recording equipment in it, and It's small enough (8ft x 10ft; carpet and drywall) fortunately that I don't have any echoing and pretty good acoustics.

However, the house we're looking at is fairly large, and my recording room in there would be in a second story room that is 11ft x 15ft with 9ft ceilings, and plaster walls. My goal would be to make it into a nice recording space, as well as keep my neighbor from hearing me jam out.

Thoughts?

oscillik · Post by **oscillik** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:04 pm

soundproofing is expensive

:-/

good luck

dono · Post by **dono** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:05 pm

oscillik wrote:soundproofing is expensive

:-/

good luck

I know! *cringe*

That's why I am hoping someone has some intuitive trick to tell me, lol.

EDIT:

I thought about building a drywall cube inside the room with a grid of 2" diameter holes spaced about 6" appart all over the cube, then lining the outside of the cube with cotton filling, lol.

oscillik · Post by **oscillik** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:10 pm

dono wrote:
oscillik wrote:soundproofing is expensive

:-/

good luck
I know! *cringe*

That's why I am hoping someone has some intuitive trick to tell me, lol.

well firstly making sure that the walls are properly heat insulated will help out a lot. the whole empty egg carton / apple crate liner deal is bullshit though....i remember back in college my friend was collecting loads of empty egg cartons to put on his walls, until we found out that it's not worth it at all.

other than that, things like getting movable partitions and using quilted bed blankets help out with sound dampening

Phasen · Post by **Phasen** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:27 pm

pshh im in college. we can do things on budget, haha.

save empty egg cartons. this would take a while, but...they work.

or try a fast food place. the styrofoam drink holders (the 4 cup tray things) work good too. maybe someone can give you a ton for cheap.

thick blankets work good too.

dono · Post by **dono** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:28 pm

hows about something like this... maybe like four 4x8 panels of this in the room?

http://www.scottcagno.com/photos/sound_proof_idea1.png

court · Post by **court** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 9:49 am

You could try using those old eggcrate mattress pads

cheapest I've found was $20 for 32"x72", so fitting an entire room with them might get expensive

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DWiIPVKGL.jpg

ArtOfTheGroove · Post by **ArtOfTheGroove** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 2:49 pm

In a small room bass is always your enemy - fortunately bass traps can be built easily and cheaply. I've made several for my room which are 2'x 4'x 6" deep. Just a wooden frame filled with compressed fiberglass (something like 703, NOT regular loose, fluffy fiberglass insulation). The important part is to mount them standing off from the wall at least 4 or 5 inches, more is better if you have the space.

I covered the fronts of mine with fabric, so the face of the bass trap also acts as a nice high frequency attenuator.

Here are some pics:

www.artofthegroove.com/groovestudio

(Took me 4 years to build - ran out of money a couple of times. Actual build time probably around 1.5 years...)

Also - this is a great forum where I learned a ton about studio construction:

www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

and I bought "Home Recording Studio: Build it Like the Pros" by Rod Gervais, who posts frequently on the forum mentioned above.

dono · Post by **dono** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 3:49 pm

boom boom pow. thanks a ton man.