Makeshift Homestudio Soundproofing

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ambi

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I'm 18, and i'm attempting to scrape together a home studio in my bedroom, from whatever materials i can find, and whatever equipment i can afford. The music style ruffly resembles underground hip hop, but isn't typical, much more musical, if i dare say it... But anyways, i want to soundproof my room as best as possible, because my brother is right beside me, and my parents on the other side.

I was thinking of getting some thin strips of wood, and attaching them to the walls at the top, bottom, and middle, running horizontally across the wall. Then i would take some foam that i could find, and attach it to the thin strips of wood, so it would be suspended a few centimeters away from the wall, giving a small air buffer between the foam and the wall. i was also contimplating doing the old egg carton routine, and putting the eggcartons ontop of the foam, and on my ceiling, to provide even more deading. Now im not certain if this approach will actually help to sound proof my room at all, or if it will just provide slightly better accoustics for mixing and mastering. Or, it might do neither. Does anyone have any experience with this? or has tryed this? I don't know if there is a specific type of foam to use for sound deadening, but i was just gonna use whatever i could get my hands on, would anyone recomend a special type? And does anyone know of a better way to do a makeshift soundproofing/acoustics job on a small bedroom? If you could post up your experiences, and your methods to do this, i would greatly apriciate it.
 
None of the solutions you specify will help to keep sound from leaving your room, but acoustic foam will cut down (or kill) reflections inside and give you a better listening environment. There are all kinds of specific processes that would be done in an actual control room, but as it's just your bedroom, just start throwing up the foam temporarily and see what sounds best to you. After you're satisfied with the listening environment, put it up more permanently. Sometimes you need very little acoustic treatment to make a huge difference, so start small.

Skip the egg cartons completely.

To stop sound from exiting the room, you need mass. Extra layers of drywall, corkboard, plywood, etc., preferably with air space. This might not be feasible in your situation, so you might be out of luck.

In general, the lower the frequencies that you want to stop, the more mass you need to stop it, and it should be as non-coupled with the current walls as possible.

Ken Rutkowski
Outer Limit Recording Studio
 
hmm

ok, yea thanks. I guess unless i insulated the walls , or put up more mass like you suggested, it wouldn't make a difference. But i guess i'll go for accoustics then. Is there anywhere you can get accoustic foam for cheap? I don't want to buy an expensive kit from a company that markets it just for that, i'd prefer to just buy some foam, and attach it to my walls.
 
I haven't shopped for the stuff in a while, but this might not be as good a deal as it seems... That list price is the most inflated I've ever seen. It assumes that the smaller panels go for around $10 or $12 each, which is ludicrous. They're usually about $3 each. Search around - you may find a better price.

Use liquid nail as an adhesive - it's much, much cheaper and just as good. Pain an "x" on the back and hold it up for a few minutes, but be warned, you'll never get it off without ruining the wall underneath, so you may want to affix them to a movable panel.

Whether it's a good deal or not, it's the right stuff for you to use, since you won't need to go as far as covering a whole wall or walls. Remember, start with just a few pieces in the right spots, and stop when it sounds good.

Ken Rutkowski
Outer Limit Recording Studio
 
I'm looking to do the same thing in my garage. I was planning on doing it this weekend. My friend told me about this special wood at Home Depot called "sound wood" it cuts some 20dB or so. What kind of insulation do you guys mean???
 
also... a lot of sound will escape out your door(s) and winodow(s) You could try some heavy curtains for the windows. You could get a mini long sand bag for the bottom of your door. There are better ways of doing this, but this is a non-permanent way.
 
hmm

yea, well, i was just going to completely cover my walls in foam. everywhere, and shove some in my door as well. But, does it matter if its "accoustic" foam, like the stuff they sell on that site, or just some regular foam i can find anywhere, like some extra matress pad from wallmart. I mean, foam is foam isn't it? From what ive learned about companies and marketing, im assuming its just the same cheap shitty foam marketed as accoustic foam for 10x the price.
 
acoustic foam is denser and non-flammable. Tends to be better absorption (mainly from the density I assume). If you can't afford the acoustic foam, I'm sure normal foam would be alright (but maybe a fire hazard?). I agree that the stuff is overpriced and really isn't thaaatt much better.
 
My favorite is just plain old pink fiberglass insulation, turned pink itchy side out, then covered with cheap cloth to keep you from breathing fiberglass. May not be pretty, but it works, and its cheap.
 
hmm

yea, thats a really good idea. it would make my room a lot smaller! My dad told me the only way to really soundproof my room would be to insulate the walls between bedrooms, and other peeps here say more mass. i can't really tear apart my walls, but if i could put it on theoutside... hmm..
but its my Bedroom, i need to sleep in there, itchy pink stuff might be passed on...
 
Re: hmm

ambi said:
yea, thats a really good idea. it would make my room a lot smaller! My dad told me the only way to really soundproof my room would be to insulate the walls between bedrooms, and other peeps here say more mass. i can't really tear apart my walls, but if i could put it on theoutside... hmm..
but its my Bedroom, i need to sleep in there, itchy pink stuff might be passed on...
Click to expand...

Well, you cover the itchy pink stuff with cloth, Just go to a cloth store and get whatever leftover crap that had on sale. In my vocal booth, I used some dark blue stuff that my mom found on the sale table at a cloth store, and Just stapled it. An electric staple gun is a good investment if you are going to be doing this. Also wear one of those cheap disposable face masks. You dont wanna breath it. And yes, it does take up more space than the foam stuff.
 
"And does anyone know of a better way to do a makeshift soundproofing/acoustics job on a small bedroom?"

I think there are basically two ways to work the acoustics in a room: the full monty, with saws and sheetrock and double angled windows and all, and the makeshift way. You mention the makeshift way. It depends partly on what kind of music you're gonna do. Makeshift's fine if you're not doing drums and amped guitars.

Makeshift: you want to deaden things a bit, and absorb sound. Carpets on the floor for a start. Bookshelves about a half a foot from the wall are good. Books absorb sound and diffuse reflections. Something I use as well is big, heavy blankets suspended on poles hung from the ceiling about half a foot from the walls. Positioning stuff half a foot from the walls nails sound twice: once on its way through to the wall, and the second time on its reflection from the wall back into the room. Not only that, but that half a foot of air works well too.

Another thing: do what you can to break up the reflections off parallel walls and surfaces, which enhance reflections. Styrofoam, absorbent furniture and materials - whatever.

One more thing: you can use movable baffles with an absorbent surface to create a kind of 'extra dead space in the middle of the room' and cut down on the reflections coming at the mics. If you sit when you play and sing, then they don't have to be very high either.

Finally, *listen* to the sound of your stuff as you proceed with each step of the advice in this thread. It's a blast. You might find that you don't want your room to get TOO dead.
 
hmm

ok cool. Yea i think i might try a bunch of those techniques. I don't have drums, but quite possibly amped guitars. But not really really loud, just a clean, low volume, for reording samples for songs. The style resembles hip hop, but its not. Its not any of that rock rap. Just softer, with real instruments and drums and things played for it, with some samples and constructed beats. And the vocals are kinda half singing rapping. Hard to explain, but we're still working on it, trying to get our skills up. Every heard josh martinez?
 
One thing you might want to keep in mind, is that treating a room to make it "soundproof" (i.e. stopping sound transmission) and treating it to make it sound good in the room itself (treating sound reflections) are two very different goals.

Also, remember that an anechoic (reflection-free) chamber invariably sounds pretty horrible as a place to record music.
 
hmm

ok, good point. So whats the best solution for this bedroom of mine. I don't want to give it good acoustics? should i just try to sound proof it? How can i make it sound good for recording?
 
To make it sound good for recording, deaden it a bit. Sound will still escape the room and bother anyone outside the room who doesn't like electric instruments, but for you, that's not a problem, right?
 
you know what I have done with guitar amps... is put the amp in my closet. Cuz I have a alot of clothes and stuff in there. So I angle it up about 45 degrees, and its pretty dead. If I want more isolation I sometimes just throw a sleeping bag over the amp and stuff.
Doing this I almost can monitor thru speakers.. not using headphones at all.

xoxo
 
littledog said:
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Also, remember that an anechoic (reflection-free) chamber invariably sounds pretty horrible as a place to record music.
Click to expand...

I keep a reverb unit hooked up for the headphones for this reason. The reverb doesnt get recorded, but you hear it through the phones so it sound more natural. Then Im free to ad whatever I want on the finished project.
 
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