If I moved to the countryside...
- Thread starter spitzer
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grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
Someone used to play saxophone at 2 and 3 am in these flats in my sister's block, when she lived on the Isle of Dogs {now fashionably called 'Docklands'}. I often thought of moving their corpse to the country.......
Gtoboy
Well-known member
I lived at an apartment in the city with a small green space in between four building groups. After being awakened by a rooster several times i finally located the owner and informed him that if they didn't eat that bird , i was going to.
On the other hand i recorded live electric guitar with a combo tube amp and occasional acoustic drum bits in a rather shi shi apartment complex with no trouble by simply getting the cooperation of the neighbors. Not to put too fine a point but obviously I kept it to daylight hours
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
I take the rooster was not heard strutting his vocals again !
But did the owner eat it ?
That has tended to be my preferred method. I still play lots of live instruments but I have very good neighbours. For the guitar, I built an isobox some years ago and that's great for keeping down the noise of guitars. When there's any drumming to be done, I try to inform the neighbours and be sure to be done by 7pm.
What I'd really like is one of these. There's a few interesting videos and articles knocking around about them. If I had a spare room and a few thousand £££s, I'd get one installed. Forthwith.
Gtoboy
Well-known member
Very cool. Luckily for me where i now live i have no noise restrictions. I still wouldn't mind having a dedicated ISO booth though.
One problem is that those that live in the very quiet countryside tend to want to KEEP it very quiet!
The amp Co I worked for did a test, 100W valves, 4x12 at full chat and the business 50mtrs away, behind two double glazed windows said "but we can STILL hear the guitar". Even when I pointed out that the fans in the printers and PCs in their comms room were putting out the same level in dBA as the distant amp they were not happy. Just the fact that the COULD hear the 'Devils Music' was enough. Clearly they were always going to be PsITA so the company kept looking!
Dave.
The amp Co I worked for did a test, 100W valves, 4x12 at full chat and the business 50mtrs away, behind two double glazed windows said "but we can STILL hear the guitar". Even when I pointed out that the fans in the printers and PCs in their comms room were putting out the same level in dBA as the distant amp they were not happy. Just the fact that the COULD hear the 'Devils Music' was enough. Clearly they were always going to be PsITA so the company kept looking!
Dave.
I always thought the Thames was a great disposal facility?
Gtoboy
Well-known member
This is very true Dave. Long ago a man I knew who lived in a rural cottage had a transport firm open up on adjoining land. No problem except the mechanics worked into the late night and had the doors open to the workshop playing the radio music loud as they do in workshops.
The man in question politely asked them to turn the music down........... twice.
He never bothered the third time but there was no more music as the speakers ended up in many pieces blown off the walls by a 12 bore.
People in the country do not live by townie ideals.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
Trouble is, bodies get washed up occasionally and as my sister's flat was right on the banks of the Thames, the pressure from the police enquiries may have led to a confession......
In those days I was too pretty for prison and Mr Big !!
bluesfordan
Member
I keep seeing these tiny distances of 100 and 50 meters as if people think that's far away. 
That's barely the suburbs around here. In the country means kilometer or more away from the neighbors and in this state, that means many trees and hills between. No real need for soundproofing. It also means driving for 25-30 minutes for the slightest bit of groceries and necessities. So there's a trade off, for sure. After living in this apartment building for 2 months, I'd be willing to take that tradeoff.
That's barely the suburbs around here. In the country means kilometer or more away from the neighbors and in this state, that means many trees and hills between. No real need for soundproofing. It also means driving for 25-30 minutes for the slightest bit of groceries and necessities. So there's a trade off, for sure. After living in this apartment building for 2 months, I'd be willing to take that tradeoff.
gecko zzed
Grumpy Mod
I keep seeing these tiny distances of 100 and 50 meters as if people think that's far away.
Well, yes . . . . It depends very much on where you live as to what constitutes 'far away'. In SE Asia, the average farm size is about 1.3Ha, which is about 3 Acres. That means your neighbours are not going to be all that distant, and even closer if you live in a rural village).
Where I live in Tasmania, the average farm size is 445Ha (1,100 acres), so you could expect your nearest neighbours to be a couple of kilometres away.
On the other hand, the average farm size of Australia as a whole is over 4,000 Ha, i.e. 10,000 Acres. But Supplejack Downs, a station of 3,800 square kilometres (about 1,500 square miles), is pretty remote: 760 kilometres south of Darwin and about 127 kilometres south west of Lajamanu in the Northern Territory.
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
That sounds real nice...always been intrigued by AU and NZ, and Tasmania definitely looks like a cool place to live. Do you guys also have the large variety of deadly snakes, like mainland AU?
gecko zzed
Grumpy Mod
There are three species of snakes, and all are venomous, though not all are deadly:
Tasmanian Snakes | Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, Tasmania
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
Shame there's no rattlesnakes you can utilize as a percussive shaker on occasion! 
bluesfordan
Member
funny, I had a dream about a snake aggressively attacking me and I got bit. I returned the favor by smashing it to paste. I'm normally not afraid of snakes and truth was I wasn't scared in the dream, just pissed off that I couldn't outrun a snake
I had a service call to a very nice Kiwi lady staying here in UK and as I was working she asked me, very calmly about the spider on the wall. About 50mm across and as big as we get here, often called "harvest spider" totally harmless bit I said "you get some nasty jobs back home I understand?"
"No, it's Australia that has the dangerous stuff not New Zealand."
I offered to remove it for her but she was quite happy for it to remain in the house now she knew it was safe.
Dave.
spitzer
New member
Back to this... the log cabin in question, with no extra treatment whatsoever, provides sound reduction in excess of 35 dB looking from less than 10 metres away, and that's almost exactly straight through a large window on that side. ("Virtually zero sound attenuation"? I see...)
My theory is that what makes this very different from a "typical concrete garage" type situation is that here, there is a LOT more "free air" around in that sound pressure is free to escape just about anywhere, including down through the floor, behind you and so forth. Would that make sense? There would seem to be a lot less reflection and a much more uniform, "airy" absorption and or dissipation thing going on. The place (not the one room, but the entire place) is also much bigger in volume than a garage, which I guess could explain why the sound doesn't seem to even just go straight through the windows like you'd expect. Since there's more air inside, it has other and maybe easier paths to travel... I guess? Who knows. I certainly expected the windows to be a serious problem but for whatever reason they aren't. Holding the SPL meter at ear height inside and stomping on the kick, it easily maxes at well over 120 dB, but place it outside and take the reading from right behind you - through glass... - it's about 75 dB. That's very interesting since as I've been told, that'd "not be supposed to happen".
I don't have enough data points to figure out how the inverse square law applies here... going farther out, like 30 metres or whatever, makes the SPL meter register a variety of other noises from closer to the meter that interfere too much.
P. S. If I never answered that before, "why don't I just"... I can't, generally speaking. Just hanging around with an SPL meter costs nothing, but I can't make all the world FIT in my car and drive everything back and forth for hours and hours. That's a lot of trouble ONLY to try something out. In case that needed explaining.
My theory is that what makes this very different from a "typical concrete garage" type situation is that here, there is a LOT more "free air" around in that sound pressure is free to escape just about anywhere, including down through the floor, behind you and so forth. Would that make sense? There would seem to be a lot less reflection and a much more uniform, "airy" absorption and or dissipation thing going on. The place (not the one room, but the entire place) is also much bigger in volume than a garage, which I guess could explain why the sound doesn't seem to even just go straight through the windows like you'd expect. Since there's more air inside, it has other and maybe easier paths to travel... I guess? Who knows. I certainly expected the windows to be a serious problem but for whatever reason they aren't. Holding the SPL meter at ear height inside and stomping on the kick, it easily maxes at well over 120 dB, but place it outside and take the reading from right behind you - through glass... - it's about 75 dB. That's very interesting since as I've been told, that'd "not be supposed to happen".
I don't have enough data points to figure out how the inverse square law applies here... going farther out, like 30 metres or whatever, makes the SPL meter register a variety of other noises from closer to the meter that interfere too much.
P. S. If I never answered that before, "why don't I just"... I can't, generally speaking. Just hanging around with an SPL meter costs nothing, but I can't make all the world FIT in my car and drive everything back and forth for hours and hours. That's a lot of trouble ONLY to try something out. In case that needed explaining.
spitzer
New member
Yes indeed. Yes, the "different standards" are very true also from a purely scientific or empirical point of view. On a calm, quiet night if you go outside in the so-called countryside you can see the SPL meter stay in the 30's... something that's guaranteed to NEVER happen in any urban area. This also explains in pure numbers why I, and others, are under those conditions well able to hear clearly just simple regular speaking voices from several hundred meters away. It's not any kind of myth or anything that would violate the laws of physics, it's simply the consequence of a very low noise floor. I'm surprised this wasn't understood as such when I mentioned it some time earlier, and that no one else was familiar with this then.
Now then, reducing sound TO that 30's range certainly DOES require a loooong distance no matter what inverse law anyone'd like to invoke... or possibly a bit of sound reduction work.
Any structure will absorb and and reduce 'some' sound. It all depends what is around at the time of your test. If a tractor pulling a load goes past 50 yards away, you may find your windows shake. Even with lots of thick insulated walls this sound will still get through and you will see it on your recording meter.
The only way is to build a purpose made insulated sound room/booth to stop 'most' noise. Your test just shows 'some' noise has been reduced. In the summer when the trees and bushes are in full leaf, noise from traffic will be reduced by absorption and deflection. When there is thick snow on the ground but no leaves on the trees the same thing happens...........with 'some' sound.
The only way is to build a purpose made insulated sound room/booth to stop 'most' noise. Your test just shows 'some' noise has been reduced. In the summer when the trees and bushes are in full leaf, noise from traffic will be reduced by absorption and deflection. When there is thick snow on the ground but no leaves on the trees the same thing happens...........with 'some' sound.