soundproofing a loft apartment?

[mike vee]

I am getting a loft with 11 foot ceilings. The wall that I want to put my desk and equipment up against is perfect size, only one problem. On the other side of that wall the the next unit's bedroom The wall is 10 feet wide and 11 feet tall. I have Yamaha hs80m monitors (8 inch woofer.)

What is the best way to block the sound from hitting their bedroom as best as possible? The built wall in between the 2 units is about a foot wide and double insulated. The floor is concrete and the ceiling is thick timber, with concrete on top (the unit above's floor.)

I was thinking of doing auralex bass traps in both corners, 8 feet up, and then 4 inch wedge foam covering the remaining 8 foot wide section, and 8 feet up as well. My monitors would be about a foot and a half away from the wall.

I do electronic music and record hiphop for clients, so its pretty bass heavy..but i'm getting rid of my sub and hs50s to trade for the hs80s because i think that;s a good first step so having less bass traveling through the walls.

Any suggestions?

[SAC]

Absorption used for interior room treatment will do NOTHING for sound transmission between spaces.

Mitigating sound transmission requires MASS.

[mike vee]

mass loaded vinyl?

[localhost127]

sounds like my loft .. (concrete floor/ceiling, but just double drywall on the common/shared wall) really demotivating

bass traps/panels, like stated, will do nothing for containing the sound from leaking into your neighbors unit.

is your common walls drywall? if so, check where the drywall meets the ceiling and verify it is caulked properly ... if not, use some acoustic caulk (never fully hardens, so it stays a little flexible) and caulk all over where the drywall meets the ceiling/side wall/ etc...

i didn't have much sound leaking through the wall itself (besides bass), but since the concrete ceiling isn't perfectly uniform - where the drywall met the ceiling, there were slight gaps and filling this with acoustic caulk helped a bit (that's where mid/high freq sounds were passing through)... but i still have a lot of work to go as well.

can you add another layer of drywall?
pics?

[Weasel9992]

Originally Posted by mike vee

mass loaded vinyl?

Nope. Not enough. You're talking about adding another stud wall layer with double sheet rock on iso clips on one side, preferably with Green Glue between the layers. Then you still have to deal with any flanking paths you may have. There's no way to do it cheap or easy. Sorry.

Frank

[mike vee]

Do you guys think if i moved the setup across the loft there would be any problems? all 3 walls have no contact with other units (except concrete floor and ceiling, like 4 layers thick of wood and concrete. it would be 40 feet away from the wall i first discussed.

[Weasel9992]

Originally Posted by mike vee

Do you guys think if i moved the setup across the loft there would be any problems? all 3 walls have no contact with other units (except concrete floor and ceiling, like 4 layers thick of wood and concrete. it would be 40 feet away from the wall i first discussed.

It would be better than it is now, that's for sure. How much better is hard to quantify...but better.

Frank

[mike vee]

thanks for the input