Sound proofing a room.

xStephen

Junior Member
I'm not sure if this is in the right place, but I hope it is. Anyways, a friend of mine is going to use her spare room in her condo as a jamming room. So she needs to make it Soundproof, not 100% cause she wants a DIY, doesn't want to pay bucket loads of money. She needs it soundproofed so her neighbours don't complain. Is thick foam on the walls a good idea? Please help, thank you.
 
Sadly for her, in order to get complete sound proofing (especially in a condo!) Is to spend money. You'll need several layers of specially designed sound insulation and then cover this up with drywall to make effectively new walls for the interior of the room. Ideally you want a floating floor to avoid transmission to the flats below and unless it's a penthouse probably a suspended ceiling, these things take time and cost money. There are people on here who can explain this better than me though.


The acoustic foam you see on sale from brands such as auralex is really for controlling echo and excess bass building up in corners. It doesn't really do much to eliminate transmission to other rooms of a building/outiside although putting it under speaker systems can help. If you want to reduce echo then a cheap solution is to use egg boxes on the walls.
 
I'm not sure if this is in the right place, but I hope it is. Anyways, a friend of mine is going to use her spare room in her condo as a jamming room. So she needs to make it Soundproof, not 100% cause she wants a DIY, doesn't want to pay bucket loads of money. She needs it soundproofed so her neighbours don't complain. Is thick foam on the walls a good idea? Please help, thank you.


For a condo thick foam is not going to do it! Condo's typically have minimal insulation if any in the walls between units therefore sound will travel easily and quickly. If you are wanting it to work you are going to have to do some construction work building another set of walls (5/8 drywall). mineral wool insulation in between the walls, the list will go on and it will add up quickly!

Start here http://www.acoustics101.com/ and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Unfortunately there is no easy or cheap way to do this in a condo outside of buying a practice pad kit or an e-kit.
 
The previous posters are correct.

Making a room near sound proof is a very expensive under taking, and difficult (if not impossible) to do in a condo, at least if you hope to use real drums.

It would be easier to set up e-drums, plug everyone into a mixer, and have everyone use headphones.
 
I don't know how to soundproof your floor (a carpet may help, but not much) but my dad coated the walls of his recording studio with egg cartons, and pyramids of foamy material for the lower frequencies. I guess I recommend the egg cartons, and lots of soft, squishy stuff that can absorb sound. Oh yeah, he also stuffed the door cracks with foamy material.

Maybe Dad did it more to improve the acoustics of the room, but it's not easy to hear what's going on in there when the door is closed.
 
I don't know how to soundproof your floor (a carpet may help, but not much) but my dad coated the walls of his recording studio with egg cartons, and pyramids of foamy material for the lower frequencies. I guess I recommend the egg cartons, and lots of soft, squishy stuff that can absorb sound. Oh yeah, he also stuffed the door cracks with foamy material.

Maybe Dad did it more to improve the acoustics of the room, but it's not easy to hear what's going on in there when the door is closed.


All that stuff did was control the amount of room echo he had, it did not stop sound transmission from going outside. You need density/mass and air to stop sound, carpet, foam, egg cartons, blankets all have little mass and denseness to stop anything but to take out echo.

For instance take a room with hardwood floors and talk in it. Quite loud and lot's of echo. Now put carpet in there, quiets the interior of the room down by preventing the sound from bouncing around but does not stop the sound from going through the floor.
 
All that stuff did was control the amount of room echo he had, it did not stop sound transmission from going outside. You need density/mass and air to stop sound, carpet, foam, egg cartons, blankets all have little mass and denseness to stop anything but to take out echo.

For instance take a room with hardwood floors and talk in it. Quite loud and lot's of echo. Now put carpet in there, quiets the interior of the room down by preventing the sound from bouncing around but does not stop the sound from going through the floor.
Ah. I knew it was supposed to stop echo. I figured that if soft material captured sound and prevented echo, then it could also stop sound from going outside. Guess I was wrong.
 
I'm not sure if this is in the right place, but I hope it is. Anyways, a friend of mine is going to use her spare room in her condo as a jamming room. So she needs to make it Soundproof, not 100% cause she wants a DIY, doesn't want to pay bucket loads of money. She needs it soundproofed so her neighbours don't complain. Is thick foam on the walls a good idea? Please help, thank you.
Also, check with the Condo Association, and make SURE that is an acceptable change to make to the condo. There may be rules that would make it impossible. (one of the downsides of Condo Ownership is that you can't DO just anything to them.)

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Ah. I knew it was supposed to stop echo. I figured that if soft material captured sound and prevented echo, then it could also stop sound from going outside. Guess I was wrong.

It may prevent a minimal, at best, amount of sound transmission but not really anything that will help.
 
What about a sound isolation booth? Their like little soundproof sheds that you can stick in a room, I've no idea as to how expensive they are though.
 
What about a sound isolation booth? Their like little soundproof sheds that you can stick in a room, I've no idea as to how expensive they are though.

These can be very expensive, but could be less expensive than a complete room sound treatment depending to what degree this goes.

Clear sonic will reduce noise transmission but not eliminate it.
http://www.clearsonic.com/pricing.htm
http://www.clearsonic.com/IsoPacs.htm

The Whisperroom works very well but is extremely pricey.
http://www.whisperroom.com/pristdb.html

Keep in mind, if the condo owner is on the top floors, the neighbor below will more that likely here the thumping of the bass drum.
 
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