mshilarious
Banned
OK, here's a fourth opinion, coming from someone who has designed and had built two studios after tearing off drywall to bare studs: absorption will do very little to provide transmission loss between rooms. Some, yes, but that some isn't much. If you covered the entire ceiling with 4" thick rigid fiberglass, it might be about as good as a layer of drywall, but it would cost a lot more (it would greatly improve acoustics inside the studio however). Anything short of that, I would not be expecting much.
Let's try some math: 4" of rigid fiberglass has an absorption coefficient of less than 0.75 at frequencies less than 125Hz. How much is hard to say; the published numbers include edge effects and are measured in a reverberation chamber, you are trying to stop sound that is an octave lower, etc. But let's say 0.75 is accurate for transmission loss (which it probably isn't). dB = 20 * log (1 - 0.75) = -12dB. That's absolute best case scenario of covering your entire ceiling with 4" of rigid fiberglass.
So if your existing ceiling has transmission loss of say 40dB, now you have 52dB. The kick drum hits will probably sound at least at 50dB above. That's not really a problem in the daytime for people that aren't bothered easily, but maybe your neighbor will be one of those type that likes to complain. In any event, it will be too loud for sleepytime.
As for hanging panels or partially covering the ceiling, try this experiment: crank some tune with pumpin' bass through your sub. Get a pair of earmuffs, or maybe some headphones that aren't plugged in. Hold them about 1" off of your ears, and compare that sound with the earmuffs off. Hear much difference in the low end? That's about what absorption will get you.
Since you are mainly concerned with transmission upwards, what mainly matters is how the ceiling and ceiling/wall joints are constructed and what the floor material above is. You cannot change either of those, so you'll just have to see how bad it is.
The plexiglass shields are for live use; they keep other musicians from getting deafened by nearby loud instruments. They really only need be effective in the 1kHz and up range, because we aren't particularly bothered by loud low-frequency sounds; it's the high-mids to highs that are especially damaging to hearing. A plexi shield will do nothing to increase transmission loss of low frequencies upwards in a studio.
Let's try some math: 4" of rigid fiberglass has an absorption coefficient of less than 0.75 at frequencies less than 125Hz. How much is hard to say; the published numbers include edge effects and are measured in a reverberation chamber, you are trying to stop sound that is an octave lower, etc. But let's say 0.75 is accurate for transmission loss (which it probably isn't). dB = 20 * log (1 - 0.75) = -12dB. That's absolute best case scenario of covering your entire ceiling with 4" of rigid fiberglass.
So if your existing ceiling has transmission loss of say 40dB, now you have 52dB. The kick drum hits will probably sound at least at 50dB above. That's not really a problem in the daytime for people that aren't bothered easily, but maybe your neighbor will be one of those type that likes to complain. In any event, it will be too loud for sleepytime.
As for hanging panels or partially covering the ceiling, try this experiment: crank some tune with pumpin' bass through your sub. Get a pair of earmuffs, or maybe some headphones that aren't plugged in. Hold them about 1" off of your ears, and compare that sound with the earmuffs off. Hear much difference in the low end? That's about what absorption will get you.
Since you are mainly concerned with transmission upwards, what mainly matters is how the ceiling and ceiling/wall joints are constructed and what the floor material above is. You cannot change either of those, so you'll just have to see how bad it is.
The plexiglass shields are for live use; they keep other musicians from getting deafened by nearby loud instruments. They really only need be effective in the 1kHz and up range, because we aren't particularly bothered by loud low-frequency sounds; it's the high-mids to highs that are especially damaging to hearing. A plexi shield will do nothing to increase transmission loss of low frequencies upwards in a studio.