I was wondering good techniques for soundproofing (so my neighbors don't get as pissed)
The room is like 11x17 concrete walls, concrete floor with a little carpet over it.
Hello JustScott. Well, this is one of those situations where it's impossible to tell you what to do about "soundproofing". Without knowing a multitude of facts, suggestions are useless. Although, concrete walls and floors are in your favor as far as soundproofing is concerned, but are your worst enemy for recording. So is the size of the room.
At this point I would suggest you do the following.
1. Draw a plan showing your room, doors, hallways, adjacent NEIGHBORS rooms and tell us the whole situation of the DORM. Is this on a ground floor?
2. What is the ceiling made of and how high up is it? Is there a suspended cieling from a concrete floor above?
3. Are there HVAC ducts common to other spaces, such as your neighbors?
4. What are the doors made from? Are they hollow or solid?
5. Any exterior walls, or are all walls adjacent to other spaces, and who is in these spaces.
6. Have you even talked to neighbors about what they hear? Or have they complained? Have you listened to hear how loud the sound is in their space?
Try having a friend play some drums in your space while you listen in the neighbors if thats possible. Even then, communicating to us how loud this is is impossible. Only by measuring the sound level in your room is while drums/bass are playing, and then measuring the sound in adjacent spaces while the drums/bass play, would you be able to tell the difference in SPL. This is the problem with suggesting solutions to "soundproofing". Not to mention solutions that are cheap, portable, lightweight, and take no construction. They don't exist.
Understand this. Soundproofing takes MASS. And its expensive. And it takes a preexisting environment that is condusive to ALTERING, which a DORM is NOT. It takes tools, skills and a budget. And in some instances, it takes massive remodeling measures.
I won't go into the acoustic side yet. Untill you meke decisions on soundproofing solutions, it makes no sense. Once you know whether or not "sound proofing" solutions can in fact be done, then you can address the acoustic solutions.
At this point I will offer this though. Soundproofing is difficult under the best of circumstances, and may be impossible under some such as yours. Your best bet is to play quieter use a headphone system and connect the bass/guitars direct to the mixer(no amps), use electronic drums or other solutions. Or simply find another space to use if these are not viable solutions and your neighbors simply won't tolerate the volume.
fitZ
