My ghetto studio :) Question about sound proofing

GRK · Jan 20, 2008

The room is pretty small and isolated. It's next to the laundry room so I can turn it up real loud without annoying other people in the house. Only thing is, the wall that's at the back of the amp/cab is the outside wall, which is next to neighbor's house (like 10/20 feet away from their house).

So I kinda wanna do some sound proofing on that wall. Does that make sense? I know there's a lot more to setting up a good room to record but for now, all I care is that the sound doesn't go out much so I can do loud recordings. The sound is actually pretty good. No sounds leak in the room while I'm recording (strumming strings, backing track noises from my headphones, clicks, etc.) Any websites that sell soundproofing material?

Gainiac · Jan 20, 2008

GRK":16gohvuu said:
The room is pretty small and isolated. It's next to the laundry room so I can turn it up real loud without annoying other people in the house. Only thing is, the wall that's at the back of the amp/cab is the outside wall, which is next to neighbor's house (like 10/20 feet away from their house).

So I kinda wanna do some sound proofing on that wall. Does that make sense? I know there's a lot more to setting up a good room to record but for now, all I care is that the sound doesn't go out much so I can do loud recordings. The sound is actually pretty good. No sounds leak in the room while I'm recording (strumming strings, backing track noises from my headphones, clicks, etc.) Any websites that sell soundproofing material?

Plenty, but My experience is Egg crate sound proof only deadens the room, is expensive per sq. ft., an bang for buck, doesnt really adequately soundproof S#!t... How Ghetto you need to go? imho spend the cash an break out your Home Depot credit card, get proper sized sheetrock, spackle, tape, sound blanket insul. an drywall screws....
The thing I did was isolate the offensive wall by creating an 'inside-wall within a wall', another layer of drywall in front of the existing drywall, the idea is, run 2x4 studs, measured 16 in. apart ('on center'), from floor to ceiling to hang the new 'rock' on, an sandwich noise supressing insulation between the two walls with 'sound blanket' insulation... dont overpack, but use enuff to convincingly fill the space between the studs....an screw the new rock over it, tape an spackle all your joints, floor to ceiling an any gaps in between... should kill off most of the unwanted vibration an noise on the important wall in question. Did it for a friend of mine a few years ago, worked wonders for killing off vibration on that outside wall, made his wife an their neighbors quite happy, ( an quiet!!) :lol:

thats my best info....good luck!!... :thumbsup:

trey85stang · Jan 20, 2008

I would remove the sheet rock on the exterior wall and make a new frame about 1-2" off the old frame, add some type of sound proofing above the ceiling while you are in there and then re-rock the wall to your new frame and have fun.

edit: you will still lose sound in the home.. and probably outside that wall.. but i bet the levels, outside the wall, are cut more then in half of what you are getting right now. Which is what you're trying to do

GRK · Jan 20, 2008

Some good ideas folks. Actually, the whole house is gonna be painted soon so this would be a great project while that's being done. Don't have to worry about messing shit up

Damn this is gonna be fun

I actually took some more stuff out that room and put it in my actual room (had some extra space) so It's become a whole playing room inside! I don't know why I haven't thought of this before.

chalnger86 · Jan 21, 2008

Here's a neat little trinket of info I came across: http://www.soundproofing101.com/ There's some good info to go along with what Trey and HGaniac said. How's the room for reverberation? Pretty live? If so, you might consider some absorption materials as well or some diffusers. I guess it all depends on what kind of quality you're after!

Good luck with the painting project too..I hate painting. :thumbsdown:

shredhead666 · Jan 21, 2008

Know what dude? I'd build a little egg-crate baffle around behind the mics to enclose the recording space. Sorta like when you were a kid and made forts out of blankets and boxes and such? Do that, but build it around the cab and mics. You'll get less of the room's sound in the mic's that way. Seems you get a much tighter sound doing that.

UVguy · Jan 21, 2008

Can I ask what kind of amp mic stand you have there?

GRK · Jan 21, 2008

chalnger86":uujlaebk said:
Here's a neat little trinket of info I came across: http://www.soundproofing101.com/ There's some good info to go along with what Trey and HGaniac said. How's the room for reverberation? Pretty live? If so, you might consider some absorption materials as well or some diffusers. I guess it all depends on what kind of quality you're after!

Good luck with the painting project too..I hate painting.

Ah! Will be reading that.
The room is very quiet and "dead" which I like. I noticed that I lost some highend and some unwanted boomy lowend when I recorded in the small room. Now I can turn the treble up a bit without sounding too harsh. I love it. My initial idea was to put absorbtion material all over the interior side of the exterior wall so that the neighbors don't hear much when I crank. We'll see

What I'm after is pretty much the pure amp and not the room and it seems like I'm gonna be achieving that!

GRK · Jan 21, 2008

UVguy":354v6y4q said:
Can I ask what kind of amp mic stand you have there?

Z-bar! I love it.

http://www.performanceaudio.com/cgi/pro ... ts_id=5469

or

https://cgi.ebay.com/Z-BAR-Guitar-Amplif ... dZViewItem

GRK · Jan 21, 2008

shredhead666":1vnx67ca said:
Know what dude? I'd build a little egg-crate baffle around behind the mics to enclose the recording space. Sorta like when you were a kid and made forts out of blankets and boxes and such? Do that, but build it around the cab and mics. You'll get less of the room's sound in the mic's that way. Seems you get a much tighter sound doing that.

That was my initial idea. I kinda wanna do the same thing but for that whole room (it's pretty small room so it's not gonna be that expensive I'm hoping) instead of just the cab/mics. You pretty much get "pure amp tone" without any interference I suppose.

guitarslinger · Jan 21, 2008

the false wall will be perfect for hiding contraband. :thumbsup:

GRK · Jan 21, 2008

guitarslinger":3clqqdtw said:
the false wall will be perfect for hiding contraband.

Not much to hide in my case but hey. You never know when you may need a fake wall :lol:

OneArmedScissor · Jan 21, 2008

It takes a heck of a lot more mass than egg crates or those little foam tiles to stop low frequencies. That stuff goes right through walls as it is. Rigid fiberglass will absorb it, but I'm not sure how you'd fit enough of it in there, or that it would really even help achieve what you're trying to accomplish. Unfortunately, you'd have to remodel it to actually be sound proofed to really accomplish much of anything.

GRK · Jan 21, 2008

OneArmedScissor":28smaugc said:
It takes a heck of a lot more mass than egg crates or those little foam tiles to stop low frequencies. That stuff goes right through walls as it is. Rigid fiberglass will absorb it, but I'm not sure how you'd fit enough of it in there, or that it would really even help achieve what you're trying to accomplish. Unfortunately, you'd have to remodel it to actually be sound proofed to really accomplish much of anything.

Well even closing the door is cutting down the volume by half and to be honest, I think covering the wall facing the neighbor will indeed help a lot. I don't have to sound proof the whole thing. The room is in a REALLY isolated place to begin with. It has walls next to my room, laundry room and outside.

MARK1970 · Jan 21, 2008

Go to http://www.controlnoise.com. They sell db-Block, It kind of looks like magnetic tape. It comes in rows the size of roofing paper. Since you only need one side done it will not be too expensive. It was metioned on another reply about two walls. First put the db Block on your existing wall. Second build another frame with studs for another wall . Leave about 6 to 8 inches between walls, On the second wall I would put 3/4 dry wall, mud it up and paint it. Then put some good quality egg crates. The denser the material, the more it will absorb. Place these where you feel the sound is going to bounce around against each other. These are not for sound proofing just for acoustic purposes. The reason you have the space in between walls is because the sound has to pass the first wall, then travel through space where it kind of gets lost since there is nothing to conduct the sound to the second wall. By the time the sound hits the 2nd wall the db-Block will kill almost all the noise. If you can, do a double door and the same procedure. I did this to a room I built in the garage a few years back. It was very expensive. I even did the ceilings. Being that the material is only 1/10 of an inch, the stuff really works. I was shocked.

trey85stang · Jan 21, 2008

MARK1970":2378rq1x said:
Go to http://www.controlnoise.com. They sell db-Block, It kind of looks like magnetic tape. It comes in rows the size of roofing paper. Since you only need one side done it will not be too expensive. It was metioned on another reply about two walls. First put the db Block on your existing wall. Second build another frame with studs for another wall . Leave about 6 to 8 inches between walls, On the second wall I would put 3/4 dry wall, mud it up and paint it. Then put some good quality egg crates. The denser the material, the more it will absorb. Place these where you feel the sound is going to bounce around against each other. These are not for sound proofing just for acoustic purposes. The reason you have the space in between walls is because the sound has to pass the first wall, then travel through space where it kind of gets lost since there is nothing to conduct the sound to the second wall. By the time the sound hits the 2nd wall the db-Block will kill almost all the noise. If you can, do a double door and the same procedure. I did this to a room I built in the garage a few years back. It was very expensive. I even did the ceilings. Being that the material is only 1/10 of an inch, the stuff really works. I was shocked.

I think you're slightly off on sound traveling through airspace. Im pretty sure it travels through solid materials by vibrating. The idea by building a second wall is it allows the first wall to vibrate... but since its not physically touching the second wall its unable to vibrate the second wall as much. Now, im not saying you're wrong.. im just saying the vibration is what allows sound to travel through solid objects like a wall.

MARK1970 · Jan 21, 2008

trey85stang":3avglkzh said:
MARK1970":3avglkzh said:

Go to http://www.controlnoise.com. They sell db-Block, It kind of looks like magnetic tape. It comes in rows the size of roofing paper. Since you only need one side done it will not be too expensive. It was metioned on another reply about two walls. First put the db Block on your existing wall. Second build another frame with studs for another wall . Leave about 6 to 8 inches between walls, On the second wall I would put 3/4 dry wall, mud it up and paint it. Then put some good quality egg crates. The denser the material, the more it will absorb. Place these where you feel the sound is going to bounce around against each other. These are not for sound proofing just for acoustic purposes. The reason you have the space in between walls is because the sound has to pass the first wall, then travel through space where it kind of gets lost since there is nothing to conduct the sound to the second wall. By the time the sound hits the 2nd wall the db-Block will kill almost all the noise. If you can, do a double door and the same procedure. I did this to a room I built in the garage a few years back. It was very expensive. I even did the ceilings. Being that the material is only 1/10 of an inch, the stuff really works. I was shocked.

Click to expand...

I think you're slightly off on sound traveling through airspace. Im pretty sure it travels through solid materials by vibrating. The idea by building a second wall is it allows the first wall to vibrate... but since its not physically touching the second wall its unable to vibrate the second wall as much. Now, im not saying you're wrong.. im just saying the vibration is what allows sound to travel through solid objects like a wall.

Yes you are correct. One of the other purposes of having the space is the sound dissipitates before it hits the second wall. It loses direction. Sort of like two cups and a string. Without the string the sound goes in different directions. I apoligize by no way am I a physicist. I am going by the info that I had research on at the time. In fact that is how I came across the db- Block. That stuff is very heavy, it's like trying to hold a 30ft. wet towel off a building. Not that I tried that. :no: