Basic Rehearsal Room Treatment

[GreenAsJade]

ok how do you stop sound from going through a ceiling that only has sheet rock and NO insulation!!! how do you keep the upstairs neighbors happy with out breaking the bank..

 

It depends how big your bank is.

 

In another thread closeby I shared the costs of doing the sound proofing and acoustic treatment you can see pictured above.

 

But I think I read elsewhere that you are renting? If that's the case, then you pretty much can't do squat, because any sound blocking has to be structural. As others have observed, soundproofing just _is_ expensive.

 

It's worth being clear on that actually: there are two things to worry about: sound proofing (stopping the sound going out) and acoutsic treatment (stopping the sound you've trapped inside from bouncing around too much). They are separate. This thread was really about acoustic treatment: I'd done the sound proofing before I got to this thread (first picture) and needed the treatment to cure the ringing (second picture).

 

The better of a job you do of sound proofing, likely the more desparately you'll need acoustic treatment

 

Anything you "stick on the walls" is really about acoustic treatment, not about soundproofing. Soundproofing is a structural things: doing things _to_ walls not _on_ them. And ceilings of course.

 

GaJ

[mrbrown49]

That looks like a great space greenasjade.

[coyote-1]

Have you ever been inside an empty house? Everything echoes, and even as the low freqs go up in volume the mid & high freqs go higher; the whole sound gets distorted as it pings around off the bare walls.

 

As you put furniture in, the sound gets more normal. Often there is carpet or an area rug, and furniture frequently finds its way toward corners thus creating sound traps. Contrast that with an average rehearsal room, where there's nothing but music gear and perhaps a small seating area.

 

If you insulate the walls/ceiling and carpet the floor, you'll go a long way toward damping the sound to an acceptable point. In addition, take your amp stacks and angle them out from the corners of the room so they do some of the trapping for you. Any seating not used for playing ought be upholstered to further absorb sound.

[Phil O'Keefe]

The room looks good greenasjade.

[GreenAsJade]

Thanks to you guys! (Especially Ethan's page on acoustic treatment etc, and all the people who posted their own projects)

 

By the way, for the record, for anyone planning to build a shed and make it into a studio/rehearsal room.

 

*** Build it out of bricks ***

 

It might seem like it's going to cost more, but believe me it will be soooo much better, and you won't have to do a soundproofing project to achieve less-than-perfect sound proofing.

 

I love my shed now, and am thankful for the 20db sound-damping I get, but I wish we had better so we could just simply not worry about the volume inside!

 

GaJ

[Rimmer]

It's been quite some time since I started this project. Thanks so much for all your help in this thread and others. Here's the result: became If you want to browse through pictures of steps along the way, you can clik on that picture to see the whole set. GaJ

 

Well done. Lighting looks a little harsh though.. !!

[GreenAsJade]

Heh heh - I think that's just my photography skills (or lack of).

 

It's pretty pleasant in there.

 

Cheers,

 

GaJ