soundproofing your jamspace?

AoD · Post by **AoD** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 4:06 pm

i just got a buncha that foam shit insulation and covered everything in carpet. its not really soundproof at all but its all i could afford really. anyone have any tips for cheap ways to make shit cool? also, how do you set your shit up so it sounds the best acoustically in the room?

Gnarkiller · Post by **Gnarkiller** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:17 pm

use your splooge to cement in any cracks

Pfl?yd · Post by **Pfl?yd** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:31 pm

What is the construction of the room itself? Is it in a basement? Concrete or drywall? Floor material? Room size? High ceilings? Drop ceiling? Adjacent to an exterior wall? Windows? There are a LOT of factors that involve the sound and soundproof-ness of a room than just throwing up some carpeting.

My jamspace is in a finished room in the basement. The interior walls are separated from the outer wall by about six inches of dead air with carpet over the concrete floor and both windows are sealed up and covered with wood. I elevate all the amps (especially the bass amp) off the floor and keep them from being too close to the wall angling them into room from the corners. I hang a couple of sheets of carpet padding in the corners and on the walls to reduce reflection.

With this set-up the amount of sound outside the house is next to nothing; you can't hear anything from the street or from within the neighbors' houses. The sound on the main floor of the house is still pretty clear, but not so much that it's any louder than a television set in the main room; mostly because the ceiling isn't a drop ceiling and there isn't a lot of space between it and the floor joists.

AoD · Post by **AoD** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:36 pm

how loud do you play? the room i use is a backroom to a garage, cinderblock. its half buried in the ground . i have the 2 windows sealed with wood, insulation for heat on the ceilings and everythings covered in carpet except for the floor which would just get too dirty and the very rarely happening water damage that would start to stink im sure.. i think we just play too loud. do you really think the 6 inches of dead air helps?

Tweel · Post by **Tweel** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 8:59 pm

go to places like waffle house, ihop, huddle house and ask for there spent egg cartons, cover the place up with them

BassPhemy · Post by **BassPhemy** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 9:18 pm

AoD wrote:do you really think the 6 inches of dead air helps?

The dead air is how soundproofing works to my understanding.

Pfl?yd · Post by **Pfl?yd** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 9:29 pm

BassPhemy wrote:
AoD wrote:do you really think the 6 inches of dead air helps?
The dead air is how soundproofing works to my understanding.

Yeah, go to any professional studio and that's what they do. The majority of sound is carried through vibration; if there is no material between the walls to transfer vibration, you kill a lot of the sound transfer to the outside wall. If you are playing in a concrete room, it's going to be require you have some material to absorb most of the sound before it gets anywhere near the concrete. Concrete is one of the worst environments for sound and it gets worse the louder you get.

I don't play super loud because it's counterproductive. Once you get to a certain decibel level, the nuances of sound and technique get lost in a mish-mash of noise and vibration. The whole point of practice is to zero in on details and make sure everything jives and sounds good. I save the high decibels for the live environment where all those hours of honing in on the details will transfer that much better.

Brandon · Post by **Brandon** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 1:27 am

im gonna move back out to rural ohio. it would be great to have a farm. no neighbors to whine about noise.

washburnML · Post by **washburnML** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 2:18 am

Brandon wrote:im gonna move back out to rural ohio. it would be great to have a farm. no neighbors to whine about noise.

move to the Tiro area.

croninburg · Post by **croninburg** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 1:30 pm

Brandon wrote:im gonna move back out to rural ohio. it would be great to have a farm. no neighbors to whine about noise.

?

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 1:31 pm

hahaha

AoD · Post by **AoD** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 2:34 am

ill update what happens when i do the carpet 6 inches from the wall next weekend....

whitemike · Post by **whitemike** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 10:51 am

Tweel wrote:go to places like waffle house, ihop, huddle house and ask for there spent egg cartons, cover the place up with them

Egg boxes don't insulate sound, they only change the acoustics in that room.

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 7:30 pm

weonlywonfiveone wrote:
Tweel wrote:go to places like waffle house, ihop, huddle house and ask for there spent egg cartons, cover the place up with them
Egg boxes don't insulate sound, they only change the acoustics in that room.

In theory, they should offer some degree of insulation with the numerous tiny pockets of air. It won't be as effective as a second wall separated from the first, but it seems to me that they would reduce the sound more than, say, just carpet.

Gnarkiller · Post by **Gnarkiller** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 8:20 pm

Ben wrote:
weonlywonfiveone wrote:
Tweel wrote:go to places like waffle house, ihop, huddle house and ask for there spent egg cartons, cover the place up with them
Egg boxes don't insulate sound, they only change the acoustics in that room.
In theory, they should offer some degree of insulation with the numerous tiny pockets of air. It won't be as effective as a second wall separated from the first, but it seems to me that they would reduce the sound more than, say, just carpet.

problem solved. staple them mu-fucking egg boxes onto the carpet wall. jizz in the rest

whitemike · Post by **whitemike** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:55 am

Ben wrote:
weonlywonfiveone wrote:
Tweel wrote:go to places like waffle house, ihop, huddle house and ask for there spent egg cartons, cover the place up with them
Egg boxes don't insulate sound, they only change the acoustics in that room.
In theory, they should offer some degree of insulation with the numerous tiny pockets of air. It won't be as effective as a second wall separated from the first, but it seems to me that they would reduce the sound more than, say, just carpet.

Q I've heard that sticking egg boxes or acoustic foam to walls will help soundproof a room. Is this true?

Egg boxes can make a marginal improvement to some aspects of a room's acoustics by breakingup reflections from hard surfaces, but they are virtually useless for soundproofing. The same is true of lightweight suspended ceilings, acoustic foam and even Rockwool (Rockwool tends to be used for acoustic treatment or for damping out resonances inside partition walls. All these materials have their uses, but they're mainly for acoustic treatment, not for soundproofing).

The story still circulates that sticking egg-boxes to walls will work as soundproofing, but this is quite simply not true - I tried it in my college days, and though it makes a slight improvement to some aspect of the acoustics of a room, it has virtually no effect at all on sound leakage. However, there are practical measures that will have an effect in a typical project studio, although in most situations the word 'soundproofing' is rather misleading - the best you can hope for is to improve the situation. Eliminating all sound leakage is virtually impossible without a custom-designed building.

Q Can I use egg boxes to sound insulate my room ?

A : No. Absolutely not!

I hate to say it, but you have fallen victim to a nasty and VERY
widespread myth. White foam OR egg cartons will do an OK job of
reducing room reflections, except at low frequencies, which will
make the room "deader" (should clean up the sound in the room some,
can help if you're trying to record, and can cut down mic feedback
while practicing). This is called "Acoustic treatment." It is NOT
soundproofing. Egg boxes will do almost nothing to prevent sound
>from leaving the room.

Brandon · Post by **Brandon** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:17 am

i wanna soundproof my place so the neighbors dont hear the screams of young girls

Bren · Post by **Bren** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:25 am

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:24 am

same boat, stuck in a concrete basement, and worse, its a 3 story building with other people on the third floor, the sound carries up clear as day, no money to remedy it. i hear a lot of theories like quilts in the rafters holding up crinkled balls of newspaper, the drink carrier/egg carton deal which has been debunked in this thread....

does anyone have any cheap ways to at least improve the situation...

Pfl?yd · Post by **Pfl?yd** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:32 am

Kyle wrote:same boat, stuck in a concrete basement, and worse, its a 3 story building with other people on the third floor, the sound carries up clear as day, no money to remedy it. i hear a lot of theories like quilts in the rafters holding up crinkled balls of newspaper, the drink carrier/egg carton deal which has been debunked in this thread....

does anyone have any cheap ways to at least improve the situation...

An electronic drumkit, some DI boxes, and a headphone amp.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:09 pm

that doesnt sound very brutal...

Kellan · Post by **Kellan** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:47 pm

electronic kits can be very brutal actually

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:49 pm

goddammit if i am in the middle of sacrificing a small animal i dont wanna have a casio in the background.

Acid Flashbakc · Post by **Acid Flashbakc** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:25 pm

if you don't have the $ then just jam at someone else's house. it's better then jamming in a place where theres different people in the building

Pfl?yd · Post by **Pfl?yd** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:01 pm

Kellan wrote:electronic kits can be very brutal actually

Mine ain't bad.

MIDI controller to boot.

eurotard with tekno · Post by **eurotard with tekno** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:15 pm

a cotton sheet works

BassPhemy · Post by **BassPhemy** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 3:19 pm

No it doesn't you fucking retard.

eurotard with tekno · Post by **eurotard with tekno** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:49 pm

kind of obvious. only thing it would do is dampen the bass wave

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 6:21 pm

Acid Flashbakc wrote:if you don't have the $ then just jam at someone else's house. it's better then jamming in a place where theres different people in the building

that would be ideal, but its hard to approach a friend and be like "hey can we make a shitload of noice in your basement a few nights a week?"

whitemike · Post by **whitemike** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 5:36 am

Oooor, you could do what the majority of normal folk do and pay for a rehearsal room each time you want to practice. Good gear, good setup, good sound, not too expensive (For us works out at Â£5 each ($10) for 3 hours practice).

Pfl?yd · Post by **Pfl?yd** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 7:41 am

eurotard with tekno wrote:a cotton sheet works

Tht drumset looks like it should be taken out to the shed and put down.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:34 pm

weonlywonfiveone wrote:Oooor, you could do what the majority of normal folk do and pay for a rehearsal room each time you want to practice. Good gear, good setup, good sound, not too expensive (For us works out at Â£5 each ($10) for 3 hours practice).

as ideal as that sounds, i know of no services like that in my neck of the woods... i have a friend a few towns over who owns a full studio, but he doesnt realy have much equipment, and i dont kow how keen he'd be on us leaving our equipment there...

whitemike · Post by **whitemike** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 2:23 pm

Kyle wrote:
weonlywonfiveone wrote:Oooor, you could do what the majority of normal folk do and pay for a rehearsal room each time you want to practice. Good gear, good setup, good sound, not too expensive (For us works out at Â£5 each ($10) for 3 hours practice).

as ideal as that sounds, i know of no services like that in my neck of the woods... i have a friend a few towns over who owns a full studio, but he doesnt realy have much equipment, and i dont kow how keen he'd be on us leaving our equipment there...

How about you record your riffs into yer pc, or tab them into powertab as best you can, send them to yer bass player and drummer etc, tell them to write stuff to it over a week and then you could arrange a fortnightly session of a few hours to tie it all together at yer mates pad.

Acid Flashbakc · Post by **Acid Flashbakc** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 4:24 pm

i mean if you just straight up tell them that the people above are complaining and it wont work out, i'm sure your friends wont mind jamming at one of their places unless its a similar situation. the tabbing/sending thing is definitely not as fun

whitemike · Post by **whitemike** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 5:16 pm

Acid Flashbakc wrote: the tabbing/sending thing is definitely not as fun

This is very true, btw

DeathSion · Post by **DeathSion** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:39 am

hourly jam space...thinking about packing that much gear....everytime we wanted to jam...my drummer has a HUGE shop....but its still within city limits..and even though we're under the decible limit...everytime we play there it's a 250$ fine..they have laws that target music..it's only ok to have that loud of sound if its business related..or for lawn care. we have to jam in another city in a basement too.

also usually DI = shit tone...would rather use my amp for practicing...but you don't have to turn your volume way up for practice.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 2:31 am

where weare at is OK for the time being, but we gotta wrap up by 6 every night, and my drummer is working straight days, and i work in a bar only on weekends... so we are limited to weekends during the day, or if he doesnt have work. luckily what hes doing is carpentry so he can usually score a day or two between jobs. itd just be awesome to have more of a concrete schedule and not be constantly worried about pissing off my friend's neighbors...

ssh · Post by **ssh** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 2:52 am

http://www.whisperroom.com/

AoD · Post by **AoD** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:40 am

dude thats 32 THOUSAND dollars for an 8 by 15 room. i can build a house for that much money.

Pfl?yd · Post by **Pfl?yd** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:17 am

weonlywonfiveone wrote:
Kyle wrote:
weonlywonfiveone wrote:Oooor, you could do what the majority of normal folk do and pay for a rehearsal room each time you want to practice. Good gear, good setup, good sound, not too expensive (For us works out at Â£5 each ($10) for 3 hours practice).

as ideal as that sounds, i know of no services like that in my neck of the woods... i have a friend a few towns over who owns a full studio, but he doesnt realy have much equipment, and i dont kow how keen he'd be on us leaving our equipment there...
How about you record your riffs into yer pc, or tab them into powertab as best you can, send them to yer bass player and drummer etc, tell them to write stuff to it over a week and then you could arrange a fortnightly session of a few hours to tie it all together at yer mates pad.

That's pretty much what my band does. We use compositional software and it all ties together with a click track anyway since we do video-syncing as well. We just send each other files with demos and sheet music, if need be, and we convene once a month to go through the set and make sure it sounds okay.