Cheap, effective ways of soundproofing needed!

So Glad

Right, I live in a suburban estate and have neighbors both sides of me who complain about anything. I can't scratch me arse without getting knocked into (may be an exaggeration). I am going to convert one of the rooms into a mini-recording studio, and need cheap, effective ways of soundproofing the room. I am prepared to have a mixture of home-made stuff and soundproofing sheets off Thomann.

Any ideas?

Voodu Child

Egg cartons. Fix them to the walls.

So Glad

voodoo_child wrote:

Egg cartons. Fix them to the walls.

Contrary to popular belief, that doesn't work.

And it takes ages.

Voodu Child

It does what it's supposed to do, which is cut down on reflected sound waves.

So Glad

Yeah but I don't eat eggs that fast :P

How would I get so many boxes?

Voodu Child

A recycling place might have some, or you could probably just get them off whoever makes them dead cheap.

If you just want to cut down on sound getting out, anything like carpet and mattress's would do the job. Depends exactly how DIY you want to go, and how much you care about looks.

What instruments wil you be recording?

So Glad

It'll be guitars, bass & a drum kit, not at the same time though, obviously. I can put towels or dampeners on the drums as well. I'm using an upstairs room for this, so would I need to soundproof the ground too?

Voodu Child

I'd imagine most of the sound next door is getting through the walls. Soundproofing the floor will obviously make a difference to whoever is downstairs, but i wouldn't imagine it'd make a huge difference to the neighbours.

I suppose you can't have too much soundproofing though...if you've got a hold of cheap carpet, id double it up under the amps and drumkit.

I'd say the best thing you could do is just put something thick and heavy on the walls.

I'd make up an iso box for your guitar amp too. One of my mates knocked one up with a Celestion and a shure, and it actually comes out great.

So Glad

To be honest, the guitar amps are never a problem, I've played them until the ground was rumbling and never heard a complaint, I'm just talking mainly about the drums. I've got a load of old carpets lying around, so I'll be sure to put that under it.

What do you think of a few bits of this stuff on the walls?

http://www.thomann.de/ie/takustik_noppenschaumstoff.htm

(German not included)

Voodu Child

Im not an expert on the stuff, but that material looks to me to be more aimed at cutting down sound reflection (same as the egg cartons i suggested).

Its cheap enough that i'd forget the egg cartons idea , but i'd probably still put something good and thick underneath it. The more material you can put on the walls the better.

Strings.ie

There's no way you are going to achieve a good result on a budget. With drums you are talking about powerful low end frequencies and these are hard to control.
You're going to need a room within a room which will have a floating floor. In other words a lot of work and a lot of € in materials. You could look at building a floating platform for your kit to stand on. You could do that pretty cheaply. Otherwise use an electronic kit. Forget egg boxes, you might as well use paper posters.

Strings.ie

So Glad wrote:

What do you think of a few bits of this stuff on the walls?

http://www.thomann.de/ie/takustik_noppenschaumstoff.htm

(German not included)

Wall treatments are about controlling reflections within your room to improve the acoustics. This is a different science to keeping sound from escaping. The energy from a kick drum will travel through your floor, the joists of your house and resonate through your walls. Bass is powerful stuff. The platform suggestion would reduce the surface to surface transmission which is part of the problem. However, it's far from a perfect solution.

crosstownk

Don't forget that you will also need to stop sound escaping through the ceiling - especially if it's an upstairs room. You can soundproof the walls til the cows come home but it will be a waste of time if the ceiling allows the sound to escape.

Rustar

Of course, the best egg boxes are handmade in the U.S. and come at a premium price +VAT.

An electronic drumkit sounds like it'd solve 90% of your problems, have you considered that option?
Then pretty much everything can go into computer/mixer and be monitored through headphones. They might not even know when you're recording!

Johnny Storm

You might get some ideas from this article:
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2007/06/soundproofing
although it's very US oriented. Sheetrock - eh?



....and MIJ eggboxes are just as good as those American ones

Voodu Child

Our total labor and sheetrock costs were around $4,000, with an additional $3,000 for materials. (We also invested $1,000 to have fiberglass insulation pumped into our walls to give the apartment a smidgen of sound isolation before the real work began.)

I doubt that satisfys the 'cheap' part of the OPs requirements

Savman

Egg cartons and other stuff will not satusfy Bass frequencies unless you do it properly, which usually means spending accordingly. If you are already having trouble with the neighbours, this idea of building a studio will only create more problems.

BostonB

Probably cheaper to rent some where else more suitable.

So Glad

Yeah....after doing the research I don't think it'll worth it.

I suppose it's better just renting out proper recording studios.....oh well......at least my neighbors'll be happy!

Voodu Child

Savman wrote:

Egg cartons and other stuff will not satusfy Bass frequencies unless you do it properly, which usually means spending accordingly.

Well, that daft egg-carton suggestion was before he said he had a full drumkit in and upstairs bedroom:D and fwiw, it's a pretty common DIY bodge for deadening a room..

But yeah, maybe the home-studio idea just isnt to be.

Rustar

Regardless of where or how often you record, you still need to practice.
I've heard it's a good idea to do that, especially before recording.

Come on, m'sieur, are you sure you won't have just one waffer-thin E-kit?


Johnny, I've got 3 vintage '57 U.S. eggcartons that would make you drool. And they're not all scratched up!

So Glad

I would but an electronic kit, but I'm ****ing broke! GOOD DAY TO YOU SIR!!!

*walks out*

slavedave

Soglad,
Forget egg boxes, and forget diy quick fixes 'cos there aren't any. Soundproofing (as opposed to sound treatment that get's your recording environment as "neutral" as possible) does not come cheap. In a domestic situation you are going to spend big bucks to come up with a suitable fix. A room within a room is probably your only solution that will work in an existing building to any effect. If you are handy with DIY and have access to suitable and cheap materials then you could do it on a reasonable budget (100's not 1000's) but it needs to be done properly or you wouldn't get sufficient isolation. Otherwise, Esmono make sound booths that at recommmended by Studiospares (in London). They are also similarly expensive.
SOund travels through most mediums very well but, in general, the denser the material the better the power of absorption across the sound spectrum. I am no expert in this but a quick search on the web soon throws up the task ahead of you if you want to go down this route. The best solution I have seen in Dublin was a guy who built his own studio out of block in his garden and THEN he treated it with appropriate solutions but it still wasn't totally soundproof.
I ended up building a set of electronic drums so that I could play without waking up the kids!
Good luck!