soundproofing tips

In Tejas you can drive around with all the hoes you can afford. [img]wink.gif[/img]

Foam, egg crate, carpet, etc.... That stuff will only help with the high end, but the low frequency (bass drum) will cut right through. The only way to stop low frequency noise is with mass (i.e. heavy products, like multiple layers of sheet rock, or concrete) Also, you must seal up your windows as well. I did a bunch of research on this, and if you look on the web, there are some handbooks out there that tell you how to construct "Rooms within a room", which is really what's required. After looking down the barrel of about $2K in materials, I decided to rent a storage unit for $70/month that's close to where I work, so I can play at lunch, or after work. Much better...

Or, if you're building a house, you could have the m pour you a concrete basement with 4 solid walls, then just seal off the top and door.

I built a 10x16ft soundproof room in my basement. I went to professionals who told me exactly what to buy and how to do it. They could have done it for me for 10k$ but I did it myself for 3k$. It works wonders. The living room and kid's room are just over me and I can play my acoustic kit anytime. The peace of mind I get is worth the $$ and effort. If you want advice, I can tell you what I did.

T

Back when I lived in a house I used quilts(God bless my grandmother) on the walls and the door to the practice/bed room. Double ply on each wall though.(extremely dead) Had a couple Marshall stacks cranked up pretty loud and only had one minor incident with a neighbor. The only reason that happened was because the door to the room was opened.

Clint

You guys are right about the "low-end" coming through even after soundproofing. One suggestion would be to build a small riser for the kit so less of the low frequencies are transferred to the ground.

I thought I saw somewhere that a company was selling really heavy-duty foam beams that you could rest a kit or bass amp on so that less of the lows were being delivered through the ground.

(Or maybe I dreamt about it.... weird.)

Tombo 7/8:
It would be great if you put everything you did down in a document, and then posted it on the board......

Thanks!

Thanks for all the suggestions, I plan on putting carpet padding on the walls and maybe acoustic foam from Auralex (Auralex.com) I do have the foam beams that you spoke about but the room is small and I would need a 6x6 piece of plywood...... might just have to do that. Here is the hyperlink to that website, hope I did it right.web page

That company sells the foam beams and I got mine thru Sam Ash.
For now I took my soundoffs and cut hole out of middle so I am hitting the drumhead not the rubber pad and used alot of paper towels to dampen the top and bottom heads. Had my girlfriends daughter play and I went outside. It did cut the noise down alot. My neighbor is pretty cool though, the reason she asked me to "turn down" is because her kid was sick.

Obviously drums are supposed to project so think of ways to suppress that projection. Set the drums up where they face a wall that faces into the house instead of positioning them toward a wall facing the street, a window or the neighbors' houses. Placing something directly in front of the bass drum would help: an armchair; a mattress tilted on its side against something to prop it up; stacks of pillows, cushions, newspapers or magazines; a clothes basket full of ironing; anything to help absorb that low end thump. You'd still have the feel of the bass drum while significantly retarding the sound, at least while you're practicing (not rehearsing with a group.)

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Originally posted by Five Eight:

There was an incident one morning where my guitarist and I saw a real estate agent leading some octogenarians into the house next door for a showing. We flung the windows and doors wide and Aerosmithed them right out of the 'hood. That house stayed unrented for years. [img]cool.gif[/img]

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I have been known to do this.. Too funny! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

What if, while the house is being built, you put tons of sound proofing or even that pink insulation stuff between the sheetrock of a specified room? I've always wondered about that.