Soundproofing?

The Lounge General Discussion
#41

Jup.

@shigginpit about the foam: to be frank it is a bit a waste of money really. It will dampen high frequencies and flutter in the room but that’s about it. Not completely useless but it’s quite expensive for what the results are.

Edit: sorry I thought you didn’t get these yet. If you have them already it of course helps :). Mounting options were already given. Should’ve read a bit better my bad. Another solution could be sticking them on perforated panels that you can hang on the wall.

Another solution to consider for better mic recordings and to breath new life into your current mic is the SE mic reflection filter :

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#42

This is how I fitted my absorbers without any damage to the walls or celing in my appartment.

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#43

Another thing that helped me a ton was when I realized—duh!—that I was singing in the wrong part of the room.

It was my wife who noticed it. She asked why I assumed the best place for the mic would be right by the mixer. I hadn’t even thought that far; I only set up the mic there because it’s convenient.

So then we walked around the room slowly, singing into the mic “I’m by the northeast window noooow . . . now I’m by the dooooor.” Sure enough, when we listened back, there was a place on the other side of the room where our voices sounded much better. That’s where I try to record now.

I keep saying I’m going to get a footswitch or something. But for now I just hit “play” and then walk over to the mic.

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#44

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for your positivity and considered input. I’ll try and factor in all of your advice using the items at my disposal. I do have a vocal shield and a bunch of acoustic foam, I’ll do my best with what resources I have available to deaden the space a bit. As this thread already existed in the search, I thought it best not to start a new one and make more work for the mods. Thanks again for everyone sharing experiences and best practices.

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#45

well, someone has to be longwinded… might as well be me :wink:

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#46

:smile:you know my steeeeeez

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#47

Takes a bit to calm the ticker when you wake up to the sound of breaking glass, even once you realise it’s from a picture falling off the wall.

Funny, me too. We checked a few spots and she was adamant that out the back door at the bottom of the garden sounded best.

I have one of these but I found the difference wasn’t as dramatic as I’d expected and positioning in the room is still important.

I’m no expert though and I don’t play guitar well enough that it’s worth recording, or sing well enough that it’s not embarrassing to be overheard recording, so I can’t say I’ve used it as much as I thought I would.

I think on reflection for home recording I would have been better off getting a nice dynamic mic than the handful of condenser mics I have.

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#48

Sorry if I came off that way at all, that wasn’t my intent. I just hope I gave good info for you to make better decisions about what to do if you wanted to dig deeper. I’m not an acoustician or anything, just having been there myself and going on my own journey with this I figured it could help :wink:

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#49

Definitely positioning is always important :slight_smile: . It’s not a magic bullet. On its own in an untreated “bathroom” it won’t make much difference. But in combination with some foam on the walls and positioning it near a foamed wall or corner will definitely make a difference.

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#50

You did not, I was grateful for all your input. I’m sorry if it appeared I was speaking toward your contribution, I was not.

I know you’re only referring to the one specific clause, and the described bathroom is a bit of a joke, but from the beginning after being in and around other people’s much better studios and gear for more than 25 years, I felt that this was the most evident thing to me. There is no magic bullet in transforming the functional acoustics of any given sound-space. I’m a bit too accustomed to hearing my voice in a neutral space on a neumann mic, but that doesn’t mean I can’t get an acceptable result in a less ideal space on a shure mic.

I was initially just looking for a non-destructive way to place the acoustic foam, but I’ve now gotten a much better picture in mind of how I can use those and some other items I already have (or can probably still afford), in order to build a little bit more desirable of a result through a better, more deliberate design and some non-destructive partitioning of the room probably using these aforementioned bookshelves.

This dialogue with everyone was very productive for me so again, thank you.

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#51

Acoustic glass is good for cutting down traffic noise from the window, it’s about 30-40db reduction.

It works very well according to feedback given to me personally, you don’t need to replace the frame if your window is double glazed just the units

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#52

Super curious what solutions you come up with. Would be cool if you could share the result :).

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#53

Agreed!

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#54

I’m listening as I’d love some treatment but in the same boat. Don’t want to ruin the walls I spent a year finishing. But I do need something badly!

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#55

Not as aesthetically pleasing, but on a budget you can tame reflections and bass.

I’ve seen a friend just fill some old pillowcases with rockwool batts, tape or staple them together, and use thin nails to hang and offset them from the wall for an airgap. Seems to work great.

You can get one pack of 12 rock wool batts for like $70, and a pack of 12 large pillowcases for around $25. For under $100 you can do this.

If you want it to look more finished and have a $10 handsaw and a hammer, you can get some 2" wide, 3/4" thick pieces of wood and saw to the length of your batts to build frames for them. You could possibly even use your cheap extra large pillowcases for fabric covering, or shell out another $30 or so for a little roll of burlap. In that case, you’re adding maybe $30 at most total to make your panels look legit.

So for 100 quick dirty and very effective (for acoustics, not necessarily outside sound)
For a little more you can make those look decent.

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#56

Can confirm it makes a huge difference, had the front of our townhouse done a couple of years back and it’s so much quieter now. Don’t know if it’s the most practical solution for a lot of people, but if you need new windows anyway you may as well.

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#57

Here are my initial thoughts regarding some solutions for you, but I’m giving away half of my own plans here so don’t waste it as the magician rarely reveals his tricks to the public.

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#58

That’s fucking awesome!

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#59

what an amazing room :thup: :thup:

#60

I love the grungy simplicity. It reminded me of the first studio I ever recorded in when I was in high school. They had a bunch of gobos that were 2x4 frames holding old (and suspicious looking) mattresses vertically. It was just a little studio/ label in the back of a record store in a nearby town but they cranked out a lot of good stuff. At the time those mattress gobos seemed to me to perform acoustic miracles though I was used to recording in an untreated cinder block building (when it wasn’t raining I’d record outdoors).

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