Do bass traps soundproof?

[NewSc2]

I'm going to be moving out of a house into an apartment soon, and I'm trying to prevent neighbors from complaining about sound. I'll likely be setting up my music equipment in the living or dining room, and not a spare bedroom, to distance my equipment away from people's sleeping quarters as much as possible.

I'm currently using 8 2x4' 4" bass traps stacked on the corners, and a couple 2" ones at the first reflection points. I'm probably going to buy 4 more 4" bass traps to stack around the wall-to-ceiling corners, but I'm not yet sure how my apartment room will be set up.

Anyway, do bass traps soundproof, i.e. prevent the vibrations from traveling through walls/floors/ceilings? Is there anything I can do to soundproof my room even further?

Which should I be more worried about -- sound traveling downwards through the floor, or going upwards through the ceiling? (Should I pick the 1st floor or 2nd floor to move into) Is there anything I can do to prevent one or the other?

[wesarvin]

Bass traps don't soundproof. I'd recommend the first floor. We had trouble with neighbors when living on the 2nd floor. They hated our "pounding footsteps."

[m_gant]

Think Carefully before you sign that lease. Even if you were not recording, sharing apartment noise is a drag. I've been there. There was a kid that lived in an apartment on top of me, with a mom never home and the noise drove me to not go home and stay out instead.

You will not be able to do any organic recording there (microphones) maybe vocals sometimes, and you may have to get used to h phones and amp sims. I mean think about it, who in their right mind is going to want to hear you mixing or recording? I bet your lease will even have something about noise in it.

Just be careful not to make a COMMITMENT you may regret.

[jinksdingo]

Good advice.
You also have security concerns on the ground floor.
Depends on what the floor and ceilings are made of. Often they are cement in units. Often they have rendered brick internal walls.
This is preferable to internal drywall and wooden flooring in a unit. forget it.

If you are only recording a vocal or acoustic the traps are necessary but in a block of units only if it is solid (brick) and you completely traps all walls and ceilings to be relatively undisturbing to others you have a chance and only if you can put up with the resonance of closing doors, toilet flushes, elevator clicks and rumble.etc.