So a few months ago it was brought to my attention that my neighbor 2 houses away can hear me when I’m mixing. Admittedly, I like my music loud but I didn’t think it was loud enough to be travelling through my walls, through an entire other house and into his backyard over 50 feet away.
I apologized and have taken steps to reduce the noise travel including playing my music quieter, lowering my subwoofer to 50% instead of 100% (I assume he’s hearing the bass the most since it shakes my house as well) and even ordering an Auralex Subdude for my subwoofer, though it’s been months and Amazon still hasn’t shipped it.
Without spending a lot of money soundproofing my room/house and compromising my own enjoyment by turning the volume down more than it is (right now I can have a conversation with others while it’s playing, as in it’s not very loud at all), is there any advice anyone could give? Also if someone could supply me with a link to a place that actually HAS Auralex Subdudes to ship, that would be much appreciated since Amazon has dropped the ball on this one.
NOTE: I’ve checked my city’s sound violation laws and I’m well within compliance of them. I also only mix between 12 PM and 4 PM so I don’t disturb people while they’re eating dinner or sleeping.
If you’re mixing where you can hold a conversation at a normal volume, I would call bullshit on their noise complaint. 50’ is a LOT of space for sound to travel.
That said, if you’re having to yell or talk louder than normal, you’re playing too loud. Bass goes straight through walls, there’s not much you can do about that. If your bass is shaking your house, IMO, it’s way too loud. I don’t see a reason to mix that loud unless you’re mixing for a party or something.
If you aren’t violating sound violations, I honestly wouldn’t worry too much about it.
I prefer to mix play my music pretty loud because I’m passionate about it and headphones aren’t as enjoyable to me. I have an oddly-shaped room that has phenomenal acoustics when music is played loudly, at least that’s my excuse to play it loud.
My house was also built in 1910 and has no insulation and it also built above the ground, so I imagine both of those contribute to bass travel. Even with the bass turned up all the way and my volume at my preferred level, it doesn’t shake the floor in the front of the house, only my room and the adjacent room.
I’m positive I’m not violating sound laws, but I still want to be courteous and at least try to accommodate my neighbors a bit.
Yes. I’ve turned it up to my preferred level, opened the sliding door to my room and walked to the wall in my backyard (approximately 40 feet). At that distance I could hear it, but not enough to where I think it would be bothering neighbors. At that distance I definitely can’t hear bass either.
I wouldn’t bother you have to pay serious money to actually soundproof something, if you rent insider moving if you own your own place call up your local studio and ask for advise on studio sound proofing.
Damn, even if you can have a conversation, it must be loud to be heard to the second house next to you! Are you talking or shouting ?
Honestly something you could do is changing room, for some unknown reasons to me, some places in my house lets a lot of noise go, but some others don’t or just a little !
Maybe you could also mix I’m your headphones at certain periods of the day, like late night !
I have my studio in my basement, so my neighbors can’t hear anything thru 30meters of solid ground, but i used to produce at very high levels in my room, and i only once got a complaint by a girl that’s really mental about noise (once called the cops to stop a concert in the city)
The only thing i can suggest without spending a fortune is putting foam on the wall behind the sub(if it’s rear-ported).
I live on the 3Rd floor of a 3 story apartment, and djing isn’t an issue at all. What is though is my double bass. I play psychobilly, so it’s fast and has a LOT of slapping. The girl in the apt below me loves when I play it
Okay Wherewolf, one way you can minimize the sound leak is by making these panels, check these videos to see how you can do it cheap on your own,
A friend of mine told me about why most isolation pads are ridged. It’s so that the makers can take a single 2" foam piece, and cut it into two pieces and sell it as two. The idea is that sound gets trapped between the ridges better. But in reality it doesn’t matter. So yeah take a 2 inch thick foam, and cut it into two layers. The ridges make it technically “2 inch” foam, but really it’s just half of a 2 inch foam thing. So better make your own, if you’re paranoid about using glass wool stick with cotton that’s tested, no VOCs or chemicals.
Look up your local ordinance in terms of noise levels. Im in central NJ, and the law states that in a NON-shared wall dwelling (i.e a house, and not a townhouse/condo) you are permitted to play any sound (from 20-30,000Hz) as long as the sound levels do not surpass 70dB IN a neighbors home (from 7am-10pm).
Most of the time, especially with a 50’ buffer area, there will be no chance that your music is anywhere close to 70dB INSIDE the neighbors home.
The only way, at least where I live, to enforce this is to get the local noise pollution sector of the police force to come and take two separate readings in the neighbors home.
Oh I can guarantee it’s not over 70dB in their house. He complained that the bass is shaking the cement in his backyard over 50 feet away and making his dogs go crazy but I seriously doubt that as my single 12 inch subwoofer isn’t nearly strong enough to do that.
The guitarist in my band booted down his neighbour’s door wielding a hammer and threatened to smash his skull in with it if he didn’t turn his music down. Play by the law all you want, there’s no bureaucracy going to stop that hammer!
Bass traps in corners. Neighboors are most likely hearing the reverberation from the bass frequencies
“Bass travels through walls” Thats hilarious lol. No, no it doesnt, but it does vibrate certain materials and create tonal shockwaves. What they are technically hearing at that point is you shaking the foundation lol. That ist mostly due to bass being TRAPPED and reflecting repeatedly inside corners
If you mix loud, just stand in one of your corners, and imagine that amplified x10 to anything on the other side of that wall.
DIY bass traps can work just fine, there are a few acoustic companies that sell a box of three for 150 and they improve the overall experience inside your room anyways.
