Anyone have thoughts on sound proofing a bedroom in an old house for a studio? We have a fair amount of road noise. I can spend $400 ish but I can’t put many holes in the wall or make any saw cuts. Thanks!
get a good pair of in ear monitors. you’re not going to block out much sound for $400.
maybe if you seal up any windows in the room w/insulation and foam and tape the seals w/duct tape it’ll help some. when i replaced the windows in my front room it got way quieter because they’re double layer glass w/an airgap.
if the house has good insulation then the windows may be the weak point.
if you’re recording using mics your best bet is to record when the road isn’t busy… so late night/early mornings i guess.
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I’ve built a few studios including a commercial facility back in 2012. Acoustics and sound isolation in general are the most difficult part. Gear is easy.
There are a lot of things that “seem to make sense” with acoustics and sound treatment/isolation that just don’t work the way you think they would.
Basically, there is no such thing as “soundproofing”. In order to reduce sound transmission in or out, you require mass or air gap, preferably both. Unless you’ve got a big enough budget to seal up the room with layers of drywall, or build a “room within a room”, you’ll never get close to any kind of useful isolation. That’s just the tough reality of physics.
This is it. Use your $400 for in-ears or some really good isolating headphones.
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You basically need a room within a room to be able to moderately soundproof your space. It’s extremely difficult and I don’t think it’s worth the hassle. I agree that a pro level closed back headphone is your best bet.
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I’d like to briefly revive this topic.
Anyone have a “least destructive” method of wall mounting acoustic foam? Every time I’ve ever done this I end up ruining paint or putting holes in walls.
The use is more for getting acceptable mic recordings for guitar / instruments / voice so some “soundproofing” but mostly acoustically deadening. The windows have already been updated with double pane. I can’t build a booth in the space but I may be able to convert half a doorless closet. I would prefer to keep noise bleeding into the rest of the house or outside of the windows to a minimum but I won’t be turning my amps up to 11.
The room has hardwood floors, so I know I’ll need a rug of some kind. I hate to do something ghetto like hang a comforter from the ceiling, but I’m on a budget so it may come down to those sort of shenanigans.
Does anyone have some ideas or productive input because if not I’m gonna resign myself to the fact that someday I’ll need to possibly strip the old paint before repainting the room (from experience, I would prefer not to be stripping any paint). I’ll have plenty of acoustic foam but it’s not the adhesive backed kind because I hoped to find a better way, I do have some spray adhesive or 3m double stick tape if that’s what it comes down to. I’m really trying to avoid using nails.
Anyways, any input would help. It’s like a medium sized guest room, standard height ceilings. Thanks.
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no bonding issues with the foam or just that foam isn’t heavy enough to have that matter? I’ll pick some up if that’s gonna work, thanks a bunch
you might have to use some extra adhesive to stick it to the foam, but they work really well on walls.
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I’d encourage you to look into building some free standing gobo panels using owens corning oc703 or oc705, or rockwool depending on what part of the world you are in rather than sticking foam to your walls. This will allow you to move the panels around using your ears to select placement as needed. You can build frames out of 1x poplar boards, or any cheap lumber. If you have more time than money, are willing to do your homework and build a relationship with known sources, you can harvest some very usable wood from pallets, which I commonly see offered for free in my area. But note @obscurerobot ‘s valid concerns below.
Edit: added some safety qualifiers regarding sourcing second hand wood.
ReStore may also may be a good material source to investigate, although I have only them for stone.
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Do NOT do this. If the pallets come from the international supply chain, they are pumped full of highly toxic pesticides for trade with Australia / New Zealand. Better to avoid pallets entirely in human spaces unless you are VERY SURE.
Also don’t burn them at your anarchist squat either, for the same reason.
Edit: Please 
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Good call for those not in the know @obscurerobot
Some info on pallet stamps.
https://jbpallet.com/2020/12/18/what-do-the-stamps-on-wooden-pallets-mean/
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Also a problem with 40’ shipping containers - they all have treated wood floors. They are substantially more expensive to remediate for human use than just building standard / prefab construction. The hype can kill.
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These do work ok and will remove without much damage (tip: use a hairdryer for stubborn ones) but if it gets hot in your house they can let go unexpectedly after a while.
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I’ve been in the middle of treating my basement studio for a bit. Last weekend I had 15 acoustic panels/bass trap frames arrive and bought the rockwool. Waiting on the acoustic fabric to arrive so I can assemble and hang everything. I’m pretty psyched!
What I’ve learned at this point after dabbling and experience in treated rooms and studios is that the foam stuff isn’t worth the trouble or perceived benefit. You might break up high freq reflections - and any treatment is usually better than none - but absorption (panel or bass trap) at the points of reflection would probably be marginally more expensive and reap substantially more benefit.
It can be a rabbit hole but if you have clearly defined goals you can make a room sound really good without much cost.
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my budget is more of a puddle than a pond so I’m probably going to have to do a fair amount of compromise, I appreciate the insight. As for points of reflection are you thinking general natural room acoustics or factoring in fixed placement of sound emitting devices?
Basically, are we talking traps in corners or do you have another schematic you follow?
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As much as you can, wherever you can basically because anything helps. But the most important spots would be where the sound from your speakers would reflect from a wall/ceiling into your ear. You can determine where those spots are using a small mirror with another person. Have the person hold the mirror on the wall and sit in your listening position. When you can see the speaker in the mirror, that’s where you need to treat and break up the sound waves. Worry about those spots first, then probably the corners of the room. A bookcase filled with books at the back of the room, or a filled record rack is a good diffusor!
Don’t focus on soundproofing (which isn’t possible really, and a bit of a misnomer) but focus on treating the room to eliminate standing waves, primary reflections, etc. If you can measure using a mic and a tool like REW (Room EQ Wizard, which is a free Mac/WIN app) you’ll know the basic problems of what you’re dealing with but again don’t obsess too much over flattening the room’s EQ just use it to understand what you’re dealing with. If the measurement shows you have a big bump at like 200Hz then you can expect it and try to compensate or treat it.
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Omas Keith studio is not even treated, and on top of that he doesn’t use a vocal booth
