Sound Proofing a Room

It seems that the smoother and harder the surface, the more it would bounce the sound. I would think that egg crating would work better in front of the wood. But then again, what the hell do I know?

In another vein, Rasta, you have to go to www.livefromdarylshouse.com. Daryl Hall and his band go to Jamaica for the Jazz and Soul Fest. While they're there, they hook up with Toots and his ugly son for a jam session. I think you'll find it worth the look and listen.

Thanks Barehand, but the fence boards are for looks. They would be old boards, so I think they wouldn't be too smooth. Would having that egg crate stuff behind the boards have any effect?

Anything you do is going to help. That should actually help quite a bit as you are creating a seperate space. I've heard that the best sound proofed rooms are built inside another room without actually touching the outer room. has something to do with transference. If the inner room isn't coupled to the outer room ... you get what I'm saying. Good to see you around these ugly parts. I hope things are settling down for you. Check out my bands new tunes and let me know what you think.

H

There is a pretty big difference between sound proofing a room and treating a room so it sounds good. Sound proofing involves double skinned walls with sand between (ideally) or loads of wadding (like a foot or more).

The knobbly foam is for treatment, cuts down on the amount of sound bouncing about in the room so it sounds better, which in turn means you need to be less loud in it, which helps the cause.

Smooth hard surfaces bounce of the sound and can cause null spots and such, and if you're stood in one, it's quiet there and you turn up more. Important bit to remember is the ceiling, everyone's ears are about the same height, so if there is a null at that distance from the ceiling, there is troubles.

It's almost impossible to keep sound from escaping a room.

Foam and egg crates will knock down the echo and sound bounces.

Put up some bass traps

check out these vids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX0ultNDx6E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRjKRqNrYrE&feature=related

they should help

If it's the rough cut fence boards I see used a lot, they should really help the room sound better, but make sure they're fastened tight and don't rattle.

I wish that I had that kind of space to make a man cave. What the other guys said is true, foam will only stop reflection. If you use it behind some other panel, then it will have little impact at all. The only way to truely soundproof, as mentioned above, is a room within a room design. Which, pending on your budget and level of construction skill, might be out of the question. If you are only going to treat the existing walls, then density is the key. Adding another layer of drywall will do more than eggfoam anyday.

I have been planning to turn my garage into a live room for a while now. This is a site that has been very useful.

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

These guys know there stuff. The more I read, the more I find out just how much I didn't know.

good luck!

Yeah what they said!

H

Right on, so would you guys say skip the egg crate stuff? I'm not looking to throw a bunch of money into the sound proofing, so I may just go with the fence boards.

depending on how much surface you need to cover

I believe it's better to have a number of different shaped surfaces to keep sound from bouncing or echoing

the boards might be good on one wall

foam or egg crates on another

along with bass traps etc

I'm assuming the garage is attached to the house.

On any walls shared with the house you want an airspace between your finished surface and the common walls.

Go to the local drywall supply company (not home depot) and ask for some resilient channel.

The channel creates an air-space of approximately 3/8 of an inch between the new and existing walls.

You want RC-1 for walls and RC-2 for ceilings.

You fasten the channel to the existing walls and ceiling and attach another layer of drywall to that.

That is the only way to effectively sound-proof a room.

Its not cheap but it works very well.

BTW I'm an ex-drywaller/home constructor.

Hope this helps,

LDD

If your looking to deaden the sound, I made a bunch of absorbers and bass traps using Owens Corning 703 Rigid Fiberglass mounted, and wrapped in burlap rather inexpensively. You can see pics on my studio website. Works and looks far better than egg cartons. (Which honestly are just this side of worthless) And it's cheaper than the foam fingers or Aurelux.

I think you guys aren't understanding what I was gonna do with the egg crate stuff. I was planning on putting it behind the fence boards. The egg crate is to be hidden behind the fence boards, but from what I gather from you folks, it wouldn't be effective. I may try some of that R2D2 stuff lowdown was talking about for the shared walls. Both of the kids rooms share that wall. I don't think I'd be getting loud when they are home asleep, but I'm sure there will be a few times. The fence boards may help a little, but they're more for looks.

Putting the eggcrate behind the fence boards will probably do nothing for sound isolation.

What you want to do is beef up the STC (sound transmission class) rating of your wall. The average drywall/stud/drywall construction wall will only stop about 33Db of sound. Considering that most bands are probably over 100Db, you're looking at 60 to 70Db of sound going through your walls. The resilient channel R2D2 idea mentioned earlier is a good, cost effective, way of approaching beefing up the stc rating. Even better would be another layer of drywall green glued on top of that.

Rest assured that there is no easy, quick, or really even cheap way of truely soundproofing. But if you have the budget, time and patience.... it can be done.

good luck!

I get what you are sayin bro. The sound proofing would have been a byproduct of the cool looking boards. Just hang the wood and roll with it my brotha!

H

If you really want to stop sound transmission do this:

___________ existing wall
WWWWWW sound board
HHHHHHHHH resilient channel(RC-1or2)
___________ new wall surface

That should do the trick.

With this wall system you won't hear sh!t on the other side.

LDD

+1 to everything so far. The best way to minimize transmitted sound is to physically break the sound energy transmission path. A second wall inside the existing one that is not connected to the outer wall is the best thing. All of the fancy energy absorbing materials are ideal but expensive if you have to buy new. You may be able to find a deal though if you look around. A simple new wall/ceiling system built as a freestanding unit with standard materials will still give you a lot of what you desire. Mass is your friend because it absorbs energy and doesn't transmit it to the air in between the two walls. My first choice would be separate interior stud walls with drywall on it (heavy as you can find) with standard insulation between the inner and outer walls. The wood decoration will also add to the mass to the wall which is a good thing. It won't be sound proof, but it will still be much quieter outside the room, not to mention warmer inside. The egg crate type foam would work best as acoustical treatment inside the room, but won't give much benefit between the walls over regular insulation.

I get to minimized the sound but not totally..
arizona adult community

I have a cheaper solution:

buy a bulk case of earplugs, put them in a decorative basket, perhaps something with ribbons on it... then skip around your neighborhood, knocking door to door and giving the folks therein earplugs with little bows on them! Tell them you are the earplug fairy and that they will need these... tell them they will know when the time is right... skip away humming a happy tune... frolic in thier driveway and do the windmill on their front porch. Then when you go to rock out, they will remember that the earplug fairy told them to use thier earplugs when the time was right! They will be so excited to open up the tiny earplug boxes you so lovingly wrapped with bright colored ribbon! They will happily insert the squishy earplugs into their ear cavities and you get to rock out as loud as you like. Problem solved.

rock.

DDD

How'd things work out? did you finish the room? whadya come up with? Its been months, and I see this thread got resurrected by some......one. Anywho...DDD usually has the simplest solutions..so...I would go with his. T-bag out

Well, I'm waiting to come up on some fence boards to use as a waynescoating, but as far as the sound proofing goes, it ain't going to have much effect I believe. I can't believe how hard it is to find 45' of used fence boards. I've called fencing companies, but they say take it all or nothing.
We're going to do my grand mother in law's fence soon, so I'll just use those. I'll post pics when I get 'em up.

how do they manage to post ads on an old thread...

do people create a name and password just for spamarific reasons?

if so, why take an old thread?

o well.

Makes sense...

Odds of a community opening a new thread from an unknown person are not that good. But revive an old thread, and the community will at least take a look.

Nobody is stupid enough to click the link, so it's a waste of time overall.

Some days I jsut want to find all the spammers an internet theieves. And then have a massive 6-pack-in-the-pillow-case party on them.

Ha! Sean Penn style?

I see the new posts are being seen by everyone.

Webby had it fixed so only mods got to see them for the first few posts to determine if they should stay or get tossed

gone now

sure had fun smashing those bottles in his face...

LOL..I love DDD's idea! 

I have to do something myself like that Rasta!  Great question and I like what LDD says for my own stuff cause my garage at the moment is boarded up without drywall, only heavy plywood without any insolation in the spaces, on tar paper...I wanna sound PROOF my area cause the houses are too close together and the neighbor on that side is a nice old man who is rather deaf, but can hear low tones very well...

I've had the room done for awhile, but I barely put them on photobucke

Before

Same Corner

Ugly Area

Random

Getting Some Stage Time:

She's the vocals, and he's the hype man, ala flava' Flav'

I've had the room done for awhile, but I barely put them on photobucke

Before

Same Corner

Ugly Area

Random

Getting Some Stage Time:

She's the vocals, and he's the hype man, ala flava' Flav'