Apartment soundproofing

shiki · #1 10-05-2001

I live in an upstairs apartment with hardwood floors. I like to be a good neighbor but I also like to play/record late at night. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to cut down on the noise my neighbors hear? Remember I'm in an apartment so I can't really modify the walls too much. Should I hang rugs or blankets on the wall? The main thing seems to be the bass tones shaking the floor and walls.

Thanks in advance.

omodigamog · #2 12-17-2004

Hi buddy!
I'm no pro myself, but after quite some surfing on the net (acoustics forums and the like), i've come to the conclusion that for stopping sound from leaking out the following might help:

1) mass (physical mass between you and neighbours), especially on bass frequencies-they're much harder to tame

2) phisically decoupling sound sources (avoiding sound transmission through solid objects) i.e.: monitors transmit sound (vibration) to monitor stands, stands transmit to floor, floor transmits to neighbours-so for example, very thick padding might do some good between monitors and stands, and between stands and floor

I would warmly recommend a good pair of headphones-a good investment anyway, as you will always find a use for it in your "studio".
As for rugs and blankets, they will only stop primary reflections (unwanted reverberation,etc.) but i doubt they will do much to avoid leakage,especially on bass frequencies.
That said, you might try:

http://www.acoustics101.com/

It's actually more on "tuning a room" for proper listening (flat response) rather than real soundproofing, but you might find some things useful anyway,
such as monitor placement etc.

Try a googlesearch for similar subjects, you'll get a lot of response!
There's also a lot on do-it-yourself projects for sound absorption.

Also, try this:

http://forum.studiotips.com/index.php

Hope it helps-don't stop reading!

Blue Bear Sound · #3 12-17-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by shiki

I live in an upstairs apartment with hardwood floors. I like to be a good neighbor but I also like to play/record late at night. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to cut down on the noise my neighbors hear? Remember I'm in an apartment so I can't really modify the walls too much. Should I hang rugs or blankets on the wall? The main thing seems to be the bass tones shaking the floor and walls.

Thanks in advance.

Good luck with that... it will be very expensive and involve significant construction to soundproof an apartment so that neighbors don't hear low-frequency bleed.

Moving, recording during the day, or using headphones are your best bets in this case.