Help with noise travelling upstairs

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diaolosh
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:53 am
Location: Greece , Athens

Help with noise travelling upstairs

Post by diaolosh »

Hi everyone,

I've recently rented a basement underneath a 4 floor residential building and its garage/entrance. This place was used as a recording facility for vocals, overdubs guitar reamping etc.
During Covid we decided to do some drum recordings and received complaints during resting hours from a specific neighbor that lives on the first residential floors upstairs , right above the garage . So that’s two floors above us.

The basement's walls and floor are concrete. The live room was constructed in a room-in-a-room fashion with triple gypsum board. Suspended ceiling, no floating room. The drums have been used with a decoupled riser (2 layers of mdf on top of rockwool). It consists of superchunk bass traps on 4 corners and a full cloud ceiling , some broadband absorvers as well.

I've attached a sketchup plus some pictures, maybe someone can help to investigate what the problem is as I'm not too savvy with these stuff. Is it a lost cause, as everything been already built?

I must say though, that between the live room and the CR the noise reduction is very good, only a faint noise can be heard in the background if the drummer is an animal blasting heavy metal e.g The most obvious suspect is the supporting concrete beams that separate the basement, but the place has already been built around them. Please note that because my skethup abilities are limited the control room does not touch the supporting beams (i could draw it better) but on the concrete ceiling .

Many thanx.


SKETCHUP FILES:
The original basement before it was built.
https://mega.nz/file/Y1VkWLJB#HFupfYNuP ... MYc58_OwR0
The Studio
https://mega.nz/file/JxNEkBgQ#YhJgJQZom ... eodPnrao8I
Di
DanDan
Senior Member
Posts: 637
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 3:31 am
Location: Cork Ireland
Contact:

Re: Help with noise travelling upstairs

Post by DanDan »

Isolating is really difficult to achieve. Investigate the sound path(s). This will require access to the neighbour.
A mechanics stethoscope can be usefully to hear if sound is travelling within a solid.
diaolosh
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:53 am
Location: Greece , Athens

Re: Help with noise travelling upstairs

Post by diaolosh »

DanDan wrote:Isolating is really difficult to achieve. Investigate the sound path(s). This will require access to the neighbour.
A mechanics stethoscope can be usefully to hear if sound is travelling within a solid.
Thanx Dan I could access the garage upstairs and listen to the beams and see what's going on. I suspect there is not much I can do at this point by myself as it surpasses my technical knowledge. There is a company near me that does noise and vibrational measurements on site for 150 euros maybe they could give me a more detailed explanation.

Would you think that building a membrane trap /helmholtz In front of the drums could improve the wall vibration? I've discussed in the past here in the forum about a building floating floor but making a drum riser was suggested instead.

Thanx
Di
DanDan
Senior Member
Posts: 637
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 3:31 am
Location: Cork Ireland
Contact:

Re: Help with noise travelling upstairs

Post by DanDan »

Irrespective of who investigates, it is necessary to get in to the receiving space to listen measure analyse. Drums are the worst.
I play them. I recommend an avoidance strategy. e.g. Record drums only daytime, when the neighbour is out etc.
I have recorded albums with place keepers such as drum machines, shakers, perc, adding the real kit at the very end.
One can drop in.... all the musical info is there for the drummer to avoid playing over!
diaolosh
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:53 am
Location: Greece , Athens

Re: Help with noise travelling upstairs

Post by diaolosh »

DanDan wrote:Irrespective of who investigates, it is necessary to get in to the receiving space to listen measure analyse. Drums are the worst.
I play them. I recommend an avoidance strategy. e.g. Record drums only daytime, when the neighbour is out etc.
I have recorded albums with place keepers such as drum machines, shakers, perc, adding the real kit at the very end.
One can drop in.... all the musical info is there for the drummer to avoid playing over!

Unfortunately , the neighbor is not very cooperative. I've tried in the past to investigate the problem to no avail. I can usually work around the resting hours and book sessions before or after them not causing any trouble. Sometimes its a pain though .
Di
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