KVR Audio

Rany · Post by **Rany** » Sat Nov 03, 2012 7:48 pm

I want to completely sound proof my home studio ! i do not own the apartment so i cant remove the drywall and replace them with isolating fiberglass! i'm a house music producer which means i need to keep all the high freq and low freq in the room! i found some acoustic treatment such as pyramid shape foam (2 and 3 inch thick) and bass traps but im not sure if they would do the job! any advice ? Thank you!

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sat Nov 03, 2012 7:58 pm

soundproof? No...Sound treat yes...

Rany · Post by **Rany** » Sat Nov 03, 2012 8:07 pm

ok sound treat !

Rany · Post by **Rany** » Sat Nov 03, 2012 8:10 pm

i just want to keep the sound from getting to my neighbors! HELP! what should i buy!

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 10:12 am

Sorry but that just ain't going to happen. Soundproofing is hard and really expensive. Like Bentley-expensive. And you will need plenty of constructing,just putting up some basstraps isn't going to do anything for soundproofing. Treating a room and soundproofing are 2 completely different things. One is pretty simple and cheap and the other one isn't.

The only real alternative is headphones i'm afraid.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 5:47 pm

jupiter8 wrote:Sorry but that just ain't going to happen. Soundproofing is hard and really expensive. Like Bentley-expensive. And you will need plenty of constructing,just putting up some basstraps isn't going to do anything for soundproofing. Treating a room and soundproofing are 2 completely different things. One is pretty simple and cheap and the other one isn't.

The only real alternative is headphones i'm afraid.

+1 though it depends on the sound source, for instance I can do a good job of keeping my neighbors from hearing my guitar amp with an iso cab.

The thing is that the best way to stop sound is a room within a room (which you cannot do in an apartment, and it does require thicker than usual walls, ceilings an floors), the air between the "two" rooms as long as both rooms are completely isolated from each other is one of the keys to soundproofing. I see this on a smaller scale with the iso cab, while I can still hear it a little in the same room I am in if I go into the next room or in the common hall in my apartment building I really hear it at all...more important to me is I dont pick up outside noise.

Rany, you say you are producing house music so I assume basically you're talking about the sound coming out of your monitors so unless you can afford an isolation booth I think you're stuck with headphones and keeping the volume down when using monitors.

toine6 · Post by **toine6** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 6:21 pm

Rany wrote:i just want to keep the sound from getting to my neighbors! HELP! what should i buy!

Soundproofing is different than Sound treating.

Soundproofing is keeping the sound from going out or coming back in.

Sound treating is what you do to TUNE the room so that the way you hear it in the room is as neutral as possible so that you make decisions that traslate normally on other people's systems.

People often wrongly thing acoustic foam is for keeping the noise from going out, but it's just to keep the sound more neutral sounding. Soundproofing is a completely different thing.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 6:25 pm

Cover every square inch of your room with thick foam then put carpet over the foam. I've seen this done for a home made vocal booth and it worked pretty good.

toine6 · Post by **toine6** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 6:28 pm

V0RT3X wrote:Cover every square inch of your room with thick foam then put carpet over the foam. I've seen this done for a home made vocal booth and it worked pretty good.

That will only deaden some of the high frequency, which may be okay for a vocal booth, but not good for a listening environment (maybe a smaller amount would be okay, depending on the rooms needs), and not going to keep much of the sound from traveling elsewhere.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 6:31 pm

Yah I just thought that after i posted haha

It would probably mess with your mixes if you had your entire DAW in that environment.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 7:53 pm

I am 53, I have lived in apartments or condos since I was 18 pretty much so this road I know well. Walk in closets are good for vox but I didn't have one for a good ten years before I moved here in 2010.

The bottom line for me is to use my monitors at lower volumes and just working closer to them (of course having very good headphones is key as well).

You can put mouse pads under your monitors to cut down on the vibration...but if you're using a sub it wont help much with the bass bothering neighbors.

Living and making music in an apartment is challenging

Rany · Post by **Rany** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 8:11 pm

Thank you guys for all the information!! looks like i will have to keep it at low volume while mixingdown! one quick question ! what will happen if i cover my room with Fiberglass Owens corning 703 (3 inch thick). will it at least help reduce the amount of db coming out of my room ? i was thinking of making fiberglass panels, and just put them all around the room! i will also buy for monitors acoustic foam isolator to prevent vibrations!

toine6 · Post by **toine6** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 8:26 pm

Rany wrote:... one quick question ! what will happen if i cover my room with Fiberglass Owens corning 703 (3 inch thick). will it at least help reduce the amount of db coming out of my room ? i was thinking of making fiberglass panels, and just put them all around the room!...

It will absorb some frequencies and mess with your room acoustics (absorb: as in, act like an EQ where the volume is close to the same, but you've now eq'd out some high and mid frequencies), but it's probably not going to keep a whole lot of the sound out. Part of soundproofing is making things airtight, having different sized mass in the way, decoupling vibrations, using air gaps etc... I mean, there are a few various ways to go about it.

The idea is to have a whole room within a room (including a floating floor), as bass vibrations are just going to carry through the floor to the next room.

I'd just stick to headphones, and switch to monitors at low volumes during the day, crank it up here and there during the day for short periods.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 8:27 pm

Rany wrote:Thank you guys for all the information!! looks like i will have to keep it at low volume while mixingdown! one quick question ! what will happen if i cover my room with Fiberglass Owens corning 703 (3 inch thick). will it at least help reduce the amount of db coming out of my room ? i was thinking of making fiberglass panels, and just put them all around the room! i will also buy for monitors acoustic foam isolator to prevent vibrations!

Careful with fibreglass, its dust can be awful for your lungs.

I found this website which could give you some ideas.

http://www.acoustimac.com/acoustic-insu ... materials/

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 8:31 pm

it's that pesky bass...someone needs to design invisible noise canceling walls or something like this

Soundproof Home studio !