Whisper Room Question

[IGWright]

Hi,


I've got a 7' X 7' Whisper Room. I use it for vocals, guitar and I've got my Roland V-Session kit set up in it to reduce the amount of noise coming from the kit.

I have two situations going on here:

The last couple of days I've been Tracking a lot of drums and my neighbor has started pounding on the wall. I haven't spoken to him yet, but I'm assuming it's the vibration from the Bass Drum Pedal and High Hat Pedal, 'cause the actual physical sound of the sticks hitting the pads is inaudible when the booth door is closed. I bought the optional caster package when I ordered my booth, which is supposed to reduce the vibrations sent to the floor. What I was wondering is if there might be something I could put under the casters to help futher reduce the vibrations. That said, I don't know how the Hell I would make that happen since the booth weighs 3000 Lbs.

The other thing that's going on is that when my upstairs neighbors walk across the floor it creates a booming sound in the booth that my mic picks up. There is a 7.5" space between the ceiling of the booth and the ceiling of my apartment. Is there something I could put in that space that would get rid of this problem?


Thanks for your help,


Ian:cool:

[MrM]

Give him a ticket for a holiday...

[IGWright]

I hear ya. I live in Hollywood. I feel like going over and asking him what he's doing here if he's that sensitive.


I

[Sonic Valley]

Alot of sound proofing that is done at home studios like yours and mine IG only treat the room how it sounds from within and it does help to keep some sound from escaping however what's needed is some construction for actual isolation. The room within a room effect comes into play here. That being said it's hard for you to do that. I would put the booth on patio stones with some heavy density foam under the booth and pack the top of the booth to the ceiling with medium density foam. That may help.

[IGWright]

I'm gonna start looking at options. That sounds good. In the meantime I'm just keep the rockin' from 11:00-17:00 and hopefully that will keep everybody happy.


Ian

[KX]

As said by SonicValley sound isolation is different than soundproofing. Add weight (mass) when you need sound isolation, that's the 1 of the 2 element that prevent sound to leak, the other is distance!

[IGWright]

I looked at the Auralex stuff and I'm afraid that I'll go to all the trouble to install it and still get the neighbors pounding on the wall.

My goal is to be able to Track Vocals and Drums 24/7. So far the Vocals are fine.

I was thinking of putting a bunch of these on the bottom of the booth.

http://www.kineticsnoise.com/hvac/fds/fds_specs.html

The first inclination is that the booth would start bouncing around the room, but they come in various tensile strengths up to 3000 Lbs each. Since I have space to install 16 of them under the booth, I figured it just a matter of buying at a strength that would prevent bouncing. One thing for sure, I think this would eliminate any vibrations going into my neighbor's place.

Wadda ya think?


Ian

[MamaHead]

Like one of the guys said. You have 2 ways to soundproof a room.
1) Mass Density - Filling the walls with sand etc..
2) Isolation (Distance) - Air is you best friend, but the negative is you need lots of space to make a drum kit silent at 4am.

I have tried the SoundFoam and 3/4" drywall with 1/2"Soundbar and another 3/4" Drywall and Insulation and 1/2" drywall and its still unbareable for the wife when we are tracking drums.

Your best bet is to rent a rehearsal space somewhere out in the boonies and record everything there then come back and track your other stuff.

my 2 cents
peace

[IGWright]

One thing I should clarify is that I'm using a MIDI Kit, so the noise is not the problem, it's the vibrations. I found some springs on the internet for mounting heavy machinery that I think will do the job, but for now I just confine my drums tracking to day time.


Ian

[JesseM]

December 30 2004

Among other sound reducing projects:
We have a 2nd floor dance studio. The noise on the first floor is occasionally loud. Mostly the use of the first floor is during the day,....

But, we have been testing, and researching noise reduction stuff.

We tried some gooey, dense, wrestling matt type, 1" foam with a 1/2" plywood topping. not effective.

Next we intend to try the Auralex PlatFoam Isolation Foam strips with a 1/2" homosote layer topped with a 3/4" plywood.
(http://www.auralexelite.com/sound_isolation_platfoam/sound_isolation_platfoam.asp)

This foam is not high density, but it is stiff, like the mopads.

You can put in a layer of the foam/ply inside the booth.

To start: try a few layers of packing-blankets/quilts covered with a piece of homosote and then a plywood layer.

Doing this will provide some info on outgoing vibrations.

The incoming booming is more difficult. It could be the noise is entering the booth the same way the low frequency noise exiting the booth.

And now time for more science:
Do some frequency analysis with a 1/3 octave SPL meter.
Have the upstairs neighbor bounce around while you measure inside and outside the booth.

And, the have the other neighbor measure while you play some drums, on the quilts.

The foam strips will be more stable than the quilts, but the quilts/blankets are quick.

And of course it may be necessary to create an isolated platform beneath the booth.

The springs look cool. But they will have to be attached. And depending upon the way the springs are connected to their mountings low frequency vibrations may still be passed.

Items like the Auralex U-Boat Floor Floaters are made just for this purpose.

And so on.

J

[IGWright]

I just purchased 20 Siesmic Isolation Springs from Kinetics. They will reduce any vibrations to 4 Hertz, which I gather is below human perception.

It will be a month or so before I have time to retrofit them, but I keep you posted.


Ian