Bass Traps: Blocking Bass going into other Rooms?

[Mr. Dreq]

Hi!

I'll have to work in an appartement for the next time, so there may be problems with neighbours if I'm composing/mixing at louder volumes.
Bass traps etc are needed for soundproofing of course, but how much can they help to block (bass) sound going into other rooms if I would install many of them? Or would the effect be insignificant?

Markus

[covert]

Originally Posted by Mr. Dreq

Hi!

I'll have to work in an appartement for the next time, so there may be problems with neighbours if I'm composing/mixing at louder volumes.
Bass traps etc are needed for soundproofing of course, but how much can they help to block (bass) sound going into other rooms if I would install many of them? Or would the effect be insignificant?

Sound proofing, to keep sounds in or out, is very different from sound treatment, to minimize the effect of the room on sound heard in it. In very few cases will the same physical items work for both.

[Glenn Kuras]

Bass traps are only going to help with the sound inside of the room. Which is a good thing and I highly recommend getting some. Will it help keep sound out? Well in theory yes, but nothing you or the person in the next room will hear. That is not how they work.
Sound proofing and room treatment are totally 2 different things.

Glenn

[Cojo]

Stone, rock, concrete and plaster will keep sound from spreading to your neigbours but unfortunatly keep the sound in your room and you will end up having to add even more basstrapping.

What goes around comes around, i guess...

/Cojo

[RedWallStudio]

Yep. I own a commercial building which houses my studio, and I have cinder block walls between units. Anyhow I have a new neighbor moving in and he is doing some light construction (hammering and sawing etc)... I can hear everything he is doing- through the cinder block walls.

Bottom line, if you have an apartment that you either a) cannot or will not make serious construction modifications or b) cannot move to an interior room that does not share a wall with neighbors... plan on mixing with headphones, or at low volumes, or while no neighbors are home.

Sound proofing requires lots of mass, and air tight sealing of layers upon layers of mass.
Go to www.johnlsayers.com for tons of info... but you will NOT find a warm & fuzzy solution to your problem.

[TEMAS]

The acoustic treatment that you make to your room (bass traps etc) will help a little.

The bulk of sound insulation/isolation treatment done to a room general involves preventing 'airborn' sound and 'impact' noise escaping (and entering).

This is usually acheived by sticking to the principle of MASS-AIR-MASS, for example building a 'room within a room.' The outer room is one layer/leaf of mass, the inner room is the other.

The airborn sound will be reduced by how HEAVY and how AIR TIGHT each leaf is and by increasing the SIZE OF THE AIR SPACE between the two rooms which should be insulated with ROCKWOOL.

The impact noise is reduced by physicaly ISOLATING the 2 rooms from each other as much as possible, so that the sound can not TRAVEL between the layers.

It will cost twice as much as you estimate and take five times as long.

Go to John L Sayer's forum for more headaches.

Good luck

[Jack Pettit]

I think the phrase your looking for is "sound transmission"

A different kind of sound treatment is used to stop sound from
moving through a structure.