cheap room soundproofing

glen · Post by **glen** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 1:35 am

hello all. let me start out by saying this forum is excellent and packed with tons of great information, although im still looking for a bit of help with my current dilemma.

im moving into a new house soon, and the basement has a room im planning on using for amateur recording as its going to be my first try at it. my main concern right now isnt really the sound quality, but more or less soundproofing the room so we dont wake up the neighbours when me and my friends rock the house (we play fairly loud)

the dimensions of the room are as follows..

22 feet lenght
11 feet width
6.5 feet high (tall people beware)

the room itself is in the basement of the house, which is about 5 feet underground and surrounded by concrete (how thick, im not sure). two windows are in the room which are maybe 18x24 inches.

what would be a good method of soundproofing this room? im not in a position where i can modify the room much as its a rented house. ive been looking at the following with interest, but im not sure if they would be good for my application..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 44253&rd=1

ive talked to some owners of these and they all say their pretty good for high pitch sound, but for low frequency (ie bass drum/bass player) it wouldnt help much. im liking these because it would involve pretty much no modifications to the room except for hanging the blankets with a couple nails which i would have no problem doing.

anyone have any ideas? any input would be greatly appreciated as i'd like to do the best job i can the first time around and not have to spend a ton of money (im on a budget afterall

thanks!

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 4:05 am

Glen, welcome -

I wish I had good news for you, but I know of no way to get any noticeable improvement in sound isolation at lower frequencies that doesn't require construction and several hundred $ - if you've read through the "sticky" section, especially "complete section" and Aaron's "floating floor" one, this is pretty well covered. Without two masses separated by air/insulation, you aren't likely to do it. The only exception I'm aware of is if your concrete were solid and at least 6" thick - that part would have a pretty good isolation factor. However, windows are terrible for low frequency, and the area above the concrete as well as the ceiling of your basement will leak like a sieve. The low headroom doesn't help, because you need at least two layers of wallboard and a bit more space above it for resilient mounting in order to isolated downstairs from upstairs (once the bass gets into the frame, it goes everywhere)

Unless your landlord is a saintly philanthropist, you might be stuck with getting electronic drums, pods, and headphones... Steve

AndrewMc · Post by **AndrewMc** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 4:44 am

Glen - welcome to the forums.

Don't waste your money on those blankets - they are not going to do much for you. As knightfly says - there is no easy and cheap solution. There is only one way to isolate your room so you can play loud and not hear it outside and this is going to take some work & money.

glen · Post by **glen** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 5:53 am

im not shooting for a completely silent room, i know that would take alot of renovations which i cant really do since the house isnt mine to work on. would there be a "good" solution that would work in this case that you can think of?

my budget is about $300 of materials to work with, so whatever i can get out of that i'd be willing to put into the project

thank you both for your comments, its very much appreciated

AndrewMc · Post by **AndrewMc** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 7:39 am

To be honest I don't think you can even come close to meeting your goals for $300 - it's just not possible. There isn't a solution that is going to give you much partial benefit when trying to stop the sound coming from a live band playing. Whatever you do in that price range your neighbors are going to hear it. Maybe put some heavy duty wood coverings over the windows perhaps.

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 7:54 am

I agree with Andrew on this - that's about the ONLY thing you might do in your budget that would make a noticeable difference.

Here's a thread that may help you on this -

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=272

Doing this would at least keep the windows from being the weak link - however, don't think this will let you crank it at 2 AM - it may, however, keep your neighbors from calling the cops during daylight hours, or if they play their own TV pretty loud in the evenings... Steve

Innovations · Post by **Innovations** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 12:36 pm

Yeah I will agree with the others, The blankets are not bad, it is just that they are not for ISOLATION...preventing sound from reaching your neighbors. ABSORBTION is not ISOLATION. What the blankets will do is deaden the sound bouncing around INSIDE the space, not preventing it from getting outside. What you need for ISOLATION is as close to a seamless enclosure as humanly possible and MASS. As a blanket and less than .25 pounds per square foot it is not going to meet either criteria.