YOUR MUSIC PRACTICE - SOUNDPROOFING TIPS For Musicians

You should give careful thought to the selection of a place to play your music!

Soundproofing should be done as a last resort. It can be expensive and time consuming.

Commercial locations are best because people go home around 5PM, just when musicians may start to be creative!

If playing locally, try to anticipate conflicts. Neighbors who may complain, either next door or even way down the street may cause you lots of grief. Before you start playing, go and meet whoever could be a problem and make it clear that you have consideration for them. This advice alone can save you lots of soundproofing dollars! Mentioning that you plan to soundproof if it needs it is a real plus. Give them your phone number to call instead of the police. Once they start complaining, real expensive soundproofing effort may not be enough! A little "PR" will go a long way!

No neighbors nearby or at all would be the best solution of all!

If you can’t take your practice someplace where the sound will not be a problem for someone, try to choose the best place for your practice room where the level of annoyance will be at a minimum. The basement is best, followed by a room (or building) located as far from a potential complainer as possible. Masonry makes the best soundproofing material, especially for low frequencies, like drums. Garages are difficult because of the large door opening. Our portable sound booth could be placed in a garage or even a room.  A mobile sound practice studio may fit your needs.

Windows are your enemy because they pass sound so readily. Hollow core doors are also almost transparent to sound. (Any door that’s unsealed will pass sound easily). Don’t think carpet and egg-crate material will help soundproof anything, they’ll just make the music room "dead", seemingly soundproof. Sometimes, adequate sound reduction can be had with a "Double-Drywall" technique where a layer of drywall is applied over the existing wall, (and/or ceiling) with visco-elastic coating, suspended on resilient metal channels,    or sound clips with a layer of thin acoustical absorbent mat in between. This provides more mass, vibration isolation and absorbency with one technique.

In many cases, the best solution to a very high volume of noise is a "Room-within-a-room" with the inner walls a foot or so from the existing walls. Covering the walls with acoustical mat will certainly help, but it's hard to predict to what degree.  Perhaps a floating drummers pad or even a full floating floor or room will help. This means some knowledge of sound control and carpentry is needed to do some non-structural construction. Careful attention to certain details (not mentioned on the site), could mean the difference between success and failure of your sound reduction project!  (You'll get these vital details when you become our customer!)

A typical practice room would have sound barrier material applied to the old walls before building a false wall and ceiling out from that wall a foot or two.  The airspace between must be sealed off with caulk and be a complete compartment of itself.  (Each wall, ceiling and floor). Another layer of barrier, resilient channel and a layer of "Homasote" or "Green Glue" and drywall would complete the walls and ceiling.

For a door, use an exterior door, or better, two doors opening opposite ways. More on doors.

Specifics about these methods and materials, including illustrations and detailed instructions on construction can be had from our  Internet web pages.  Our soundproof booth may be of interest.  We have panels that can be simply hung on the existing walls, too.

    "Soundproofing Secrets".   The DO-IT-YOURSELF Handy Man!

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