SOUNDPROOFING

Radius

Radius

Full Spectrum Selection
VIP Junglist
Joined
Sep 29, 2005
Location
Somewhere over the flyover
As opposed to acoustic treatment , which is what you do on the inside of your studio..... I'lll explain in pictures as we build, how to soundproof a place. I'll also tell ya what materials you need to keep your beats inside teh studio rather than annoy ya neighbors. Its not cheap, but it ain't as expensive as you might think, and well if you just want to reduce teh sound, you can reduce the number of skins of plasterboard you'll need......
 
Well good morning my friend...as it goes, I am about to accept delivery of 190metres of wood. My mate is arriving with a chop saw, and we gonna chop stuff up. No lumberjack business going on. He is rightly scared of the dogs...pictures later...
 
celebrity-pictures-christian-bale-lumberjack.jpg
.
 
a guy at work has his whole room lined with mattrasses, even one in front of the door and i have to say they do soak up the sound really well. other than that rockwool in wooden frames with the bubbly foam boards on top, bookshelves and carpets. been loooking into this recently too.
 
Reality Check said:
Buy loads of eggs and stick the trays to the wall*.




*This might be bullshit.
Click to expand...

It is, they'll only absorb some high frequencies which arent the problem when trying to keep sound contained.

To have a room completely soundproof you need a lot of mass, and changes in density, air gaps do a good job as long as theyre sealed, sound doesnt like traveling through changing densitys and it loses more energy doing so than it would traveling through something thats the same all the way through.

Sound isolations easier to achieve, actualy completely sound "proofing" a room doesnt come cheap or easy and takes up a fair amount of space, which is obviously another problem if you dont have a huge space to work with.
 
It's complete bollocks, it was a piss take post :)

Remember if you are treating and soundproofing your room, don't neglect the acoustics in the room.
Once soundproofed, a room can sound really dead, which you don't want. It's an unnatural sound that you don't come across. Reflective/tiled floor, bass traps in the corners if it's a box room and foam or whatever you want to use on the walls at the side. Leave the back wall untreated.

You seem to know what your doing radius so I'm sure you will know what I'm saying already.
 
Reality Check said:
Once soundproofed, a room can sound really dead,
Click to expand...
soundproofing wont affect how sound behave within the room, it just contains it within it. but yes, a lot of sound absorbing materials will make the room close to sounding like an anechoic chamber, which isnt desirable for a mixing/writing environment.

Reality Check said:
. Leave the back wall untreated.
.
Click to expand...

not sure about this man. the first reflections are all the points in the walls that your speakers look at, and thats generally the sides, behind and above the listener, and behind the speakers. the classic trick of finding these spots is to sit in the listening position and have someone move a mirror around the walls. if you can see the speaker's cone in the mirror, you have a first reflection point. most studios prefer to put a large soft sofa that spans the back wall, and above it a few diffusers instead of absorbers, as to make it a bit more live than the mixing position.
 
OK ....well your all mostly right ( with the exception of eggshell boxes) ....a room with in a room , this is the way. Thing to do is build a stud wall ( show ya later as I get to that ) ...you need aluminium resiliant bars, these stop the vibrations getting through . You need underlay ( I found some at £15 for 14 m squared, much cheaper than rubber matting at £55 for 10 msq).....Rockwool works better than celotex, but if you know a builder, this will do an OK job and might well be free. Pplaster board..your gonna need some of this shit too. Silicon, carpet tape, and contact adhesive.
build ya stud wall, but if your clamping to exisiting wall, you need to glue up first layer of underlay, then glue your stud to this ( then screw it in )...pack out with rock wool ( acoustic std) , next layer of underlay. resilant bars on this, hang first skin of plasterboard. Silcon all the seams, then glue up last layer of underlay. Attach your last skin of plasterboard. now all you need is your acousitc treatment . of course if your not buiding on a conctrete bass you are gonna have to work MUCH harder at keeping in your beats....anyway. I build a studio in a stable, and after 2 years, half the people don't even realise we were there. Time to move on, so hence the photot story over next few weeks.

Thing is plan, and plan again, work out your materials, cos if your on a budget, worst to find out you can't afford it halfway through.
 
Reality Check said:
It's complete bollocks, it was a piss take post :)

Remember if you are treating and soundproofing your room, don't neglect the acoustics in the room.
Once soundproofed, a room can sound really dead, which you don't want. It's an unnatural sound that you don't come across. Reflective/tiled floor, bass traps in the corners if it's a box room and foam or whatever you want to use on the walls at the side. Leave the back wall untreated.

You seem to know what your doing radius so I'm sure you will know what I'm saying already.
Click to expand...
I do, I am kind of only on about soundproofing..acoustic treatment you need a big room to allow teh bass to develop and a whole load of groovey shit , but I ain't going there ..you'll get an inkling what this is for as we go along... :)
 
GorDo said:
not sure about this man. the first reflections are all the points in the walls that your speakers look at, and thats generally the sides, behind and above the listener, and behind the speakers. the classic trick of finding these spots is to sit in the listening position and have someone move a mirror around the walls. if you can see the speaker's cone in the mirror, you have a first reflection point. most studios prefer to put a large soft sofa that spans the back wall, and above it a few diffusers instead of absorbers, as to make it a bit more live than the mixing position.
Click to expand...

Sorry I'm mixed up, by back wall I mean the one behind your PC, rear wall the one behind your back. Would have been better saying that the other way round.
You DO want to have the wall behind you treated. As for the wall behind your PC, I have seen people leave it completely untreated or have a small area behind the speakers treated. Personally I would leave it untreated.
 
Sooo.. first you need to plan you materials...it really helps to draw a to scale plan, and work out how your stud wall is gonna measure up etc. from there in you can work out how many sheets of plasterboard and rockwool you'll need. Although its better to order it all in 1 go, its better to order alittle less and get the rest later, if you have to. careful materials planning and design of strcuture will save a lot of problems long term. After all we ain't playin bo the builder, we wanna make noise !!!

Once you got your material, its best to chop the wood up to sections..this will really speed it up. Hire a chop saw, its very accurate, and if you are too, then it will be much much easier....so heres a pile of wood ( I promise it'll get more interesting)

Image235.jpg
not my belly in that one LOL
and here's it all chopped to size...
Image237.jpg
 
The empty room
Image238.jpg

Next up you need to build your stud walls. we build them in sections, before we attach to a "plate" ( bit of wood anchored to the floor/ ceiling)

Its easier to assemble on teh floor, just make sure its FLAT
Image239.jpg
 
Back
Top Bottom