Soundproofing

[redrum]

Has anyone soundproofed a room for jamming in? We have a basement room with 2 thick concrete walls, but two walls and the ceiling would need the soundproofing. The room is right under our living room. I guess any suggestions for material to use, cost, and how well does it work?  Thanks.

[chillumpuffer]

We soundproofed our bedroom from our (weird) neighbours. What we did was make a frame out of wood with batons about 3 foot square. We filled the frame with acoustic mineral wool blocks. Then used soundproof plasterboard - which was extremely heavy, attaching it to the frame

Once that was up we skimmed it and painted it. It works really well. To really soundproof it well, it is best to do both sides. Here is a UK site that explains how to do it

 

www.soundservice.co.uk

[Dirty Work]

I know I haven't had much luck with it. My best effort reduced the volume of a Ludwig drum set about 50%, no more. 50% of a loud drum set is pretty loud. The best effort I've seen first hand was a friend who made a small jam-room/drum booth in his garage. He lived in a subdivision with houses lining both sides of every street, so he really went over the top to make sure he could jam at any hour without bothering his close neighbors. He built walls inside the garage, and essentially made a room inside a room, and it has a narrow hallway all the way around it. SO basically he took his garage, and made a smaller room within it, and having two walls soundproofed things pretty well. Standing in his driveway, it sounds like an 80% reduction in volume. Wonder how he got building permits for that! 

 

I'll add that it was a terrible eye-sore, inside, and definitely did it himself on a rainy day or something. and if his wife wasn't so cool, it probably would have ended his marriage. 

Edited November 21, 2015 by Dirty Work

[redrum]

Thanks guys. I'm still mulling it over. Too damned bad the whole room wasn't solid concrete like a bank vault.

[Patrycja]

This thread seems tailor made for woz70. If he doesn't see this thread, you may want to PM him.

[Mithril46]

Yeah, this is a great topic. I have a friend in construction who once tried to soundproof a 12' by 20'

cement-floor wooden frame shingles-roof shed 15 ft from the house, a bit more from neighbors.

As mentioned before, everything else but the drums was taken out 90-95 %. But that's not good enough,

and my friend was sued, etc. All I can say for sure about this from talking to studio owners,etc. is that

if you are attempting to do this on the cheap, you better have a expert knowledge of acoustics and even

physics. That's a main reason why when you walk into a pro studio you pretty much see the same 

stuff on the walls , huge doors,etc. I myself want to completely soundproof a room on the cheap--

but until I can visit such a place and know for sure it "works", I am wary. Of course my standard would

be playing R&R, by Zep, pretty loud. THAT'S a problem.