bass traps or murder?

[feyshay]

Late last night, I decided to play a little acoustic guitar (through the monitors at a low volume). The room is a pretty good one. However, I hear a thumping on the wall (which is an indication that my wife can hear the rumble of bass). I'm thinking... do I get rid of her or not. Or could bass traps help the rumble. I've got some nice book cases in the two other corners, but the corner and wall below the master bedroom has little bass absorption.
Will bass traps seriously help my situation or do I have to look at divorce or some sort of freak accident?
Your advice would be appreciated.

[SRS]

You need either dense mass or separation from the area you want to isolate. Those are your two other options. Bass trapping will generally only help you with the actual acoustics within the room by flattening out the bass frequency response of the room itself. It will do little to keep the low freqs inside that room though. I say get rid of the wife. It's easier...

[neekolas]

Definitely kill her......

[octatonic]

Originally Posted by feyshay

Late last night, I decided to play a little acoustic guitar (through the monitors at a low volume). The room is a pretty good one. However, I hear a thumping on the wall (which is an indication that my wife can hear the rumble of bass). I'm thinking... do I get rid of her or not. Or could bass traps help the rumble. I've got some nice book cases in the two other corners, but the corner and wall below the master bedroom has little bass absorption.
Will bass traps seriously help my situation or do I have to look at divorce or some sort of freak accident?
Your advice would be appreciated.

In short, no.

Acoustic treatment is different from sound isolation.
The only way to really attenuate the amount of bass going through the walls is to physically decouple the room.

[No4PCs]

Maybe double drywall with fiberglass inside...to separate the rooms !Cheap and funcionability. Peace

[Ethan Winer]

I vote for "freak accident" because murder is too obvious.

The advice you got is correct - acoustic treatment and bass traps are not effective for sound isolation. Even though sound treatment and sound isolation both fall under the umbrella of "acoustics" they are very different. Mostly opposite in fact.

--Ethan

[mtstudios@charter]

Headphones for you, earplugs for wife.

The vibration is one problem of bass escaping that can only be fixed with floating floors ceilings and walls.

good luck

www.bluethumbproductions.com

[SK1]

You haven't trained you're wife to be cooperative yet ?????

tutt tutt tutt tutt


O noooo .........
Mine is standing behind me right NOW.

If I don't buy her a convertible ........

I'M DEAD

[Slater]

Your all forgeting the most important detail... everything depends on:

WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE!!!

[feyshay]

Originally Posted by Slater

Your all forgeting the most important detail... everything depends on:

WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE!!!

Of course, it doesn't really matter what she looks like when she is sleeping or trying to sleep.
Thanks for the advice. I'll try to keep the bass turned down. Bass traps are in my future anyway, but one thing at a time. It really isn't too much of a problem when I'm mixing since I tend to keep the volume down, but when I'm playing, that's another thing.

[u b k]

i know this is crazy, but maybe when your woman is sleeping, you could just play the acoustic guitar... acoustically? out of respect and consideration for her?


gregoire
del
ubk

[tINY]

There's a reason for the term "woodshedding".

Make all efforts to build a separate structure for the studio/jam shed.

In the meantime - a nightcap for wifey, a HPF on the system, or (God forbid) turn it down....




-tINY

[Tube Trap Guy]

Spare your wife her life. Isolation can be easily achieved with some minor decoupling and simple construction. Bass trapping is essential in any room where music is being recorded or played back. There are some DIY bass trap designs on here, although many are way less efficient than well designed purchased bass traps. Keep in mind that foam IS NOT a bass trap, unless it is so thick you don't have any room left in the room once it is installed. Check out Acoustic Treatment and Soundproofing for High End Audio Applications

Chris Klein
Acoustic Sciences

[Cornvalley]

If it's your own place you could add a couple of dissimilar thicknesses of drywall layers with Green Glue in between each. That's the easiest fix without decoupling the the drywall altogether.

Green Glue is your soundproofing and noise reduction material

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by SRS

You need either dense mass or separation from the area you want to isolate. Those are your two other options. Bass trapping will generally only help you with the actual acoustics within the room by flattening out the bass frequency response of the room itself. It will do little to keep the low freqs inside that room though. I say get rid of the wife. It's easier...

I'm more ore less onboard with this, except maybe the final point of advice. That's a more complex and multi-layered issue.

The one place where bass traps could help a little would be if you have a nasty standing wave that's really lighting up the room with one or more boom-frequencies. (Although it's a lot easier to imagine with a louder/bassier source than an acoustic guitar.)

In my old house, the fifty dollar Yamaha 8" bass bass reflex speakers in the dining room would sound more or less normal in that room -- but in the bathroom, at the end of the hall from the dining room, you'd get this crazy low, low frequency boom (it actually seemed to be below the normal range of the speakers as they sounded in the dining room)... the boom blossomed out much louder than the main signal in the bathroom making it really annoying.


As others note, sound isolation and room treatment may dovetail, but they are remedies to different problems that tend to have different solutions.

[bentwookieesound]

Cake or death?

[Surbitone]

Wife = Bye bye. thumbsup Then soundproof and treat your room - you'll get to enjoy a whole lot more of it.

[zvenx]

Originally Posted by bentwookieesound

Cake or death?

lol


rsp

[studiostuff]

Just say to her, "Honey, that's the sound of money!"

Repeat it until you start getting some checks for your picking.

That's when the bad thumping stops and the good thumping begins...

[Lemontree]

Does your wife have tubes?

[Stevil]

you might try deafening your wife. the penalty is less steep than murder.

[SeniorityFedup]

your wife " tutt "
you " "
her
any questions?

[John Eppstein]

Bass trapping is for taming room modes, not transmission problems, so it won't work for your problem. You need to add mass to the walls and ceiling - multiple layers of sheetrock. If you also add a layer of something like Auralex Sheetblock or thin sheet lead it will help a lot.

In the mean time I suggest that rather than resorting to murder, which is rather drastic and permanent, you simply apply a medium sized lemon and a roll or two of duct tape.

[elan]

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

I vote for "freak accident" because murder is too obvious.

The advice you got is correct - acoustic treatment and bass traps are not effective for sound isolation. Even though sound treatment and sound isolation both fall under the umbrella of "acoustics" they are very different. Mostly opposite in fact.

--Ethan

ok, but i have to say that, for example, my room is full of rockwool, and if i close the door no one hear anything, i mean they here something but very far and very low level, which isn't disturbing.

i've not decoupled the room, just a lot of bass traps and a wall full of rockwool :P i have around 35/40 db out of my door.

[ddageek]

Originally Posted by elan

ok, but i have to say that, for example, my room is full of rockwool, and if i close the door no one hear anything, i mean they here something but very far and very low level, which isn't disturbing.

i've not decoupled the room, just a lot of bass traps and a wall full of rockwool :P i have around 35/40 db out of my door.

you need mass and a good seal for Isolation ! in other words 2 layers of sheetrock limp mass a ton of caulk! plus the ceiling and le floor have got to be sound proofed as well as great windows and doors! It always seams like its all or nothing!

[Wayne]

My wife runs a 6-ten SWR rig.

[elan]

Originally Posted by ddageek

you need mass and a good seal for Isolation ! in other words 2 layers of sheetrock limp mass a ton of caulk! plus the ceiling and le floor have got to be sound proofed as well as great windows and doors! It always seams like its all or nothing!

i'm not saying isn't true, i'm just saying that in my case if i close the door i don't disturb anyone, because the rockwool i used for acoustic treatment, absorb enough to keep low the levels and don't disturb people.

just reporting my situation, i agree about how sound isolation should be.

[Syncamorea]

OP: What I want to know is how she survived this long?

---

Originally Posted by Wayne

My wife runs a 6-ten SWR rig.

I bet that jiggles your whammy bar.

[mingustoo]

um....earplugs? ambient noise on a cd player? Whiskey?....much cheaper than green glue
QUESTION: Why don't they make earplugs out of Green Glue?

[harry_seldon]

The correct answer : Zolpidem Tartrate

Solve all your problems cheaply and safely.