Topic: Soundproofin'

So as mentioned in another thread, I'm moving to a new spot where I can't be as loud as I'd like...sad, I know.

I'm looking for a good soundproofing solution:

1) So I can dampen the sound in the room itself and get an accurate response from my monitors, and
2) So I can actually contain the sound within the room and not bother the above or below neighbors.

Any affordable suggestions?...Thanks!

Re: Soundproofin'

carpet. on the floor and the walls

Re: Soundproofin'

stapling together those cardboard egg dozen containers all over the walls and ceiling?  - a low-budget acoustic room ? tongue

Re: Soundproofin'

Eeek, good luck with that - proper full-on soundproofing is bastard expensive. Apart from using headphones (which is a bit dull, sorry...), isolating your speakers from the floor by putting pads underneath them might help... a bit.

There's loads of info on the SOS site...

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul00/a … oustic.htm

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb98/a … ofing.html

Re: Soundproofin'

I suggest using hard rockwool. It is a great sound absorber and if it is thick enough it can even handle bass, which usually gives most trouble. 10 - 20 cm should do the trick. It must be wrapped in wool to stop the dangerous rockwool particles reaching your lungs. I think the standard industrial wool is 3 cm thick. Make nice wooden frames and wrap everything in burlap and you get cheap panel absorbers.
Also you can use thin wooden boards combined with above mentioned rockwool absorbers, but each board resonates at some freq. so you need to calculate where it has a peak. Boards need to be away from walls/ceiling and rockwool flattens the peak so you get broad freq response.
Actually if you have a big room, then move the rockwool panels away from the wall as well. It reduces the room, but gives best results.
Also note that too much absorption reduces the overall level of sound in the room.. not to mention that it can sound really strange to suddenly lose the reverberation.

This is the most basic procedure. I suggest you check out this really nice diy design

http://thegilpins.org/Projects/Site/Pro … 8F17F.html

but you can also make them uglier, with less trouble
I built mine without the wooden frame so they look like big pillows and are easy to transport.

good luck

Re: Soundproofin'

great!...thanks for the advise guys

I'll let you know how it turns out!

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just use nearfields and don't mix too loud.. its bad for your ears and your mixes anyway!

proper soundproofing is not done with any of the above solutions.. (where your neighbours won't hear you..) most of that stuff is just for making the room acoustics more dead. the only way you can really soundproof is to build a box-in-a-box with no direct connections to the structure of the building whatsoever, only via rubber..

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Proper soundproofing is usually not affordable, unfortunately.

Most of us are stuck with cheap, partial solutions. And very angry neighbours..

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this is why I am going to buy a self standing house in the next future big_smile no more complaining neighbours, got a nice 28m3 room for all
my hobbies which is facing on one side and the floor the live earth, on the back a corridor with the technical room (air pump, water outlets, etc),
the other side the laundry room and on top the living room... Sleeping room are one floor above the living room and I will have a nice wall-like
window that faces in the garden with the pool... This is luxury smile

Re: Soundproofin'

rude66 wrote:

proper soundproofing is not done with any of the above solutions.. (where your neighbours won't hear you..) most of that stuff is just for making the room acoustics more dead. the only way you can really soundproof is to build a box-in-a-box with no direct connections to the structure of the building whatsoever, only via rubber..

Yeah, you're right. We have one of those at work, Big enough to drive a car into. I think it cost millions.

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Actually I know a guy who built such room-in-a-room himself, using old tires and old matrasses... filling up the voids
with polystirol foam... the result were anyways impressive, he could manage to get the spl down to -60db (where the
zero was the normal room outside) and he did not spend more than a thousand euros - everything was more or less
recycled...
Not a perfect "no sound" solution, but enough to work even at night and/or with neighbours big_smile

Re: Soundproofin'

but seriously: do you guys really mix that loud? my neighbours never complain, and i have no soundproofing at all. i tend to mix on pretty low volume, sometimes checking a little bit louder but overall not much more than normal radio listening evel.. your ears also don't fatigue as much like that..

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mix loud = weak low end in your mix
for Fletcher and Munson's sake don't do it!

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Personally I tend to be definitely not loud, also because I want to take advantage of the dynamics...
I do really hate those records that, if analyzed with a spectrum analyzer, look more or less like a square wave because of humongous
compression...
But I am always afraid to disturb the neighbours, especially that I am now in Switzerland where everything is so quiet...

What I am trying to do right now (even if I currently don't have the proper setup) is to use the same technique that people who works in
the audio industry for movies is doing, basically setting the 0 db something like at -20, so that you have a nice overhead when you want
to have a little more pressure in the sound...

Re: Soundproofin'

No, I don't mix loud, but I like to listen to music loud, and the levels go up especially when I am in some other room or even on the balcony, and I have no other speakers then the ones in my studio (10 euro multimedia midgets do not count).

Or listening to music while vacuum cleaning wink

Re: Soundproofin'

Both your music and neighbors will benefit from mixing at low volumes. And composing takes more time than mixing down anyway, so I just mix down during the day when my neighbors are not at home or if they are, they're less likely to complain (which they never did anyway). Saturdays are perfect for mixing down because people always leave their houses for a couple of hours. And if they are at home you could also just inform them: sorry, I'm gonna mix down a few tracks, let me know if it annoys you.

Re: Soundproofin'

Brian Chinetti wrote:

And composing takes more time than mixing down anyway

thats not necessarily true. i remember especially on tracks with vocals, it took me a hell of a lot longer to get a good mix than to compose the actual track. stuff like the sally shapiro mixes, overkill and things like that, i tend to spend a lot of time on the vox to find the ''sweet spot'' also with some fx and stuff. and then fitting it in the mix can be hell too.. but most of this type of stuff can be done very well on low volume too..

Re: Soundproofin'

@ruud: well in your case I would consider that part of composition and not mixdown smile
The problem with mixing down at a low volume is that sometimes you need some 'drive' to the amp and the monitors to have a good
frequency response... and of course, you have to know your reference, so you have to check it in every possible situation, so that you can
understand the extents. For instance, I still did not had the time/chance to pump up the volume on my KRK6, so I do not really know the limits,
both low and high....

But that will change as soon as I get in the new house smile

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Re: Soundproofin'

Thanks for all the advise guys...

I've lived in several different environments with a variety of sound limitations...I think I have a natural tendency to want to mix loud.  Actually the way it usually works out is I start soft and then get louder, with the notion that certain elements of the mix will reveal themselves at different levels...I've been told by a few people that this isn't the best approach, but it's almost a force of habit.

Well, in my new place, mixing loud won't be an option smile

Re: Soundproofin'

Yikes!
I have been so used to mixing loud due to only having access to huge crappy home stereo speakers. I am moving into a place with high ceilings, wooden floors, and upstairs neighbors. My original idea was to finally get a pair of real monitors; the generation 2 KRK 8's. Will it be harder for me to mix at low volumes on larger speakers?

Re: Soundproofin'

I think switching from crappy home stereo speakers to real monitors can only make things easier, regardless of the volume or anything else.

You may need some time to get used to the new sound, though, but it's a rewarding experience to hear your stuff on a new setup. You could hear many things that need improving. I switched from Edirol to RME Fireface 800 two months ago and I was shocked by the difference. When I pay it off, I'll order new monitors and prepare for another shock.

Btw, wooden floor sounds bad for the neighbor upstairs. And you'll be able to hear (and record) his footsteps..

Re: Soundproofin'

dance music loud

if you make pink floyd music keep shit quiet

-1db mastering bwahahaha

GREETZ!

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kill the neighbors prob solved

GREETZ!

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Re: Soundproofin'

Perfect time for this topic. At the end of the month we're gonne transform the garage of the (stand alone) house We live in since March to My private Musicroom. Its gonne be a partial room in a room. I know that this isnt the best thing, but its to reduce costs cause I'm hoping to do this with a

Re: Soundproofin'

Four Duvels? I love a good beer so I don't want to sound like a moralist but drinking is  also a bit of a bad idea, for the very reason you already pointed out. It alters the way you percept and enjoy sound, just like dope and lack of sleep. It kinda takes away all the advantages of reference speakers and the treated room...