Soundproof/Treat Apartment Bedroom

[kmc310]

Hi everyone,

Im trying to turn a room in my apartment into an acoustically treated, soundproofed recording/mixing studio. My goal is to soundproof one wall and the ceiling, but not completely kill the acoustics of the room.

1. Whats the cheapest way to effectively soundproof a wall?
2. Is there any way to acoustically treat the room after soundproofing?

I'd like to be able to contain audio within the room while I'm producing, but still be able to mix in an accurate room (in terms of audio reflections)...

I have almost no knowledge sound physics, and I have less than no idea what I'm doing.

Thanks,
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Tarekith]

1. You can't sound proof a pre-built room, even with 4 feet of Owens 703, some bass is still going to leak out. So forget that idea and move on, it's much cheaper too.

2. GIK Acoustics makes some Room Kits that are a great deal. They will even help you decide which you need, and where/how to place them, all for free. If you're serious, let the pros help you, it'll do wonders for what you hear.

[kmc310]

1. You can't sound proof a pre-built room, even with 4 feet of Owens 703, some bass is still going to leak out. So forget that idea and move on, it's much cheaper too.

Is there any way to even slightly sound proof it? Its pretty hard to hear sound from the apartment upstairs so just a little sound absorption would probably be enough...

2. GIK Acoustics makes some Room Kits that are a great deal. They will even help you decide which you need, and where/how to place them, all for free. If you're serious, let the pros help you, it'll do wonders for what you hear.

Aagggh thats way out of my price range Sorry, I should've specified. Ideally I would spend less than $200 (idk if thats even possible?)

Thanks for the advice!

[Patch]

Egg boxes. Lots of 'em.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150-CARDBO...item27cd04f7fc

[Tarekith]

That's a waste of money and a massive fire hazard, don't use egg boxes.

Maybe some cheaper Auralex kits will help you out for now, unfortunately acoustic treatment is not cheap, so I don't know what else you could use for $200 unless you wanted to make your own. Plenty of good ideas out there if you google broadband acoustic absorber.

You will never be able to keep bass from leaving your room though, so, I'd say get used to monitoring at lower volumes. It's better anyway

[madiman1]

Let me start by saying this is purely theoretical, but the idea of creating a room specific EQ for your master track has crossed my mind more than once.

I'm in a similar situation as you both physically (2nd story apartment), as well as having little knowledge of sound design.

The core issue of having a "neutral" sounding room, is that everything in the room as well as the room itself has a resonant frequency. A flat surface like a wall, will usually reflect high frequencies and absorb low ones, giving your song a boost in the higher frequency range.

I don't know much about difference between wall material's specific frequency ranges, but it should be irrelevant with this trick.

The setup would involve a microphone (I always imagine stereo, but it shouldn't be necessary) placed in the center of where your head would be when mixing. (directional mics would probably need a specific angle) Inside your DAW you will need a track with a basic synth (anything with a sine oscillator) and a track to record from the mic. Then, while recording with the mic, and trying to be dead silent, you would sweep through the oscillator's entire frequency range.

If my theory holds true, the recorded track would show different volumes throughout the frequency range when viewed in a frequency analyzer. EQ the recording correctly, then that EQ preset could be used on the master channel for any project.

all that being said, your nieghbs are still going to be pissed, but you could have sound as good as any recording studio (assuming any of this is based in reality).

Also, tapestries. everywhere.

[Tarekith]

You mean like this?

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/arc/

[soundinmotiondj]

1. Whats the cheapest way to effectively soundproof a wall?

Headphones. (Seriously.)

2. Is there any way to acoustically treat the room after soundproofing?

Acoustic treatment in an apartment ranges from ineffective to expensive.

Some acoustic foam on the walls at common reflection points is good. Some "bass traps" in the corners (including the corners made by the ceiling and the walls).

[madiman1]

Ha, thats awesome. The product description hit all the main points that I had imagined.

Specificaly applying delay to the left or right speaker, in order to compensate for non symmetrical speaker setups.

Looking back though, my first post was fairly off topic. The thread just got that thought process rollin again.

So coming back the original issue of angry nieghbors, take the concept of the room specific EQ.
Forget sound's interactions with the angles and planes of the room (although they probably have the greatest effect on your mix). You then have the interactions between the frequencies emited, and the resonant frequency of any object in the room (this having a larger effect on the structure around you). The lowest frequencies will be the biggest factor in residual noise.

A good example of this is my old room, bare hardwood floor with wood 10 pound monitors resting flush together. I one day very specifically hit the room's resonance, ultra fine tuning of the frequency created a light rattling throughout the room.

If you can find the resonance of your room's surfaces, as well as its framing, you can reduce them in a master eq. I can only geuss at the proper frequency width from building to building, but perhaps yours is one that requires only a small frequency range to be cut. You would have the optimal balance between inter-apartment noise blocking and overall quality.

I guess it would be imortant to know what your system is used for, buisness or pleasure, ya know.

[Tarekith]

Or you can just turn it down and not monitor so loud