tiny studio advice?

[PaRaNoId]

Im moving to new 3-bedroom house and will be making one of the rooms a rehearsal space / project studio. My concern is how to isolate the high SPL levels of rock and metal bands from getting to the neighbors. So far, we are specifically looking for houses that aren't right next to neighboors and will be testing the acoustics and asking neighboors about their views before making the move. So far I plan on buying some rolls of insulation from Home Depot to use as Bass Traps. Ihave seen this on the slutz site a few times. Are there any other cheap tecniques to soundproofing a room? At this point I'm not worried about perfect reverbs and perfect frequency response, just attenuation. Eventually I will invest more and make it recording-friendly...

[littledoodler]

Move to the basement!

[PaRaNoId]

Here in Arizona, basements are very rare and expensive, otherwise I would man!

[Drumsound]

Move to the country?

[Jay Kahrs]

Bass traps and foam won't soundproof a room, they'll only treat it. If you want to soundproof you need mass. Lead, sand, 2 foot thick walls etc.

[joeq]

Jay is right. Certainly you want to treat your room, but you can foam away all you want and still end up bothering the neighbors. In fact, if you make the room too dead, it just encourages players to turn their amps up.

to prevent sound transmission you need mass- you also need decoupling and a tight air seal. You basically need to build a "room within a room". There are special thingies that will support an inner wall with minimal 'touching' of the original wall. Similar devices can support a new floor so that it only rests on a few points on top of the old floor.

Any cracks, however small, need to be sealed.

I would look for a room that is slightly bigger than you need, since it will get smaller as you build the room within a room. Ideally a room that was largely interior to the house would be better than one that was on the end or a corner.

[Jules]

If you make it air tight you will stop the iritating sound of cymbals.

I find the HF bleed through from recording areas helps 'define' whats going on in a building, without it you get an indestinct 'rumble'.

Of course at late at night this will become anoying when folks want to sleep.

A 'never past 10pm' rule could be a good idea...

[jbuntz]

Keep in mind bass and drums carry the most, and you don't always have to crank and Ampeg SVT to get a good bass sound. You can run your guitar amps at lower wattage if possible (anything more than 60 watts in a studio is just stupid anyway). You can remove two of the power tubes so long as there's two tubes on the outside or the inside and you should be able to crank the guitars a bit. Put THD yellow jackets in them and the amp will get even quieter and might even sound cooler.

Also facing amps away from your nearest neighbors helps more than you would think.

Drums....well, they are gonna be loud. Have fun treating your room.

I was in a band that actually built a wall behind a garage door and it didn't really have much benefit at all.

[PaRaNoId]

Thanx slutz! We looked at some houses today and I am getting anxious. Im gonna have our drummer slam 1/4 notes on the snare (in the possible rehearsal rooms) and i will sit near the nearest neighboors house to get an SPL reading. The lowest will win!

[Jay Kahrs]

It might be a better idea to have him play hat, kick & snare. The hats will tell you what kind of HF is leaking and the kick will give you an idea on low much low energy is being transferred to the outside world and that's what usually gives you the most problems with neighbours.

[PaRaNoId]

tested out an awesome house yesterday that not only retains the noise very well, but also has amazing acoustics. Ill be posting pics IF we get the house....

[Jay Kahrs]

Cool. Let us know what happens.

[PaRaNoId]

UPDATE:
tested out 3 more houses. I took turns w/ the bassist slamming "We Will Rock You" on our drummers kick and snare, while the other went near the closest neighboor's houses. The snare drum always carried the most, by far. Obviously the sound mostly emminatied(sp?) from the window and/or door frames of the room the drums were in. If we are lucky (we got f*#$@d on that last house), then we will be moving into this beautiful, larger house in Chandler, AZ. 15ft. vaulted ceilings will provide some nice natural reverbs, but will have to be tamed first (Snare currently sounds like a missle exploding w/ a 3+ sec decay). Wish us luck, as we need it this time! I attached some pics of the main recording room and backyard ...
http://armlspictures.marketlinx.com/...r2135410-6.jpg[/IMG]
http://armlspictures.marketlinx.com/...r2135410-5.jpg
http://armlspictures.marketlinx.com/...r2135410-4.jpg

[PaRaNoId]

WE GOT IT ! after weeks of waiting for the owner to do the retarted credit check....----> In the process of moving in and setting up the "studio" and rehearsal space. So far, we have carpeted the entire studio area (it was tile) and have hung some soundproofing. My current thinking is that the most leakage will come from the front window of the house and onto the street (a cul de sac). I have tested this with my own ears. Next step is gonna be proopping a llarge bed matress across the offending window, being careful to have no openings. Will have some good pics soon. I figured Id give y'all an update!