Cheapest Option's?

ClusterFck · Post by **ClusterFck** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:38 am

Hi, FIrst sorry if this has been covered my best search result's covered some of what i want to ask but not all, so if you can post's direct link's to the information i need would be great of course!

My problem is i have my drumset in the basement and the lady on the second floor work's from home so i need to eliminate the noise from traveling to her floor. The basement is unfinished, i was thinking about a building a booth so what material's i would need to do this and a price range would be great.(home depot is 6 block's away in chicago and menard's farther but not out of reach) The dimension's of the booth would be 9x7x6.5, my loriginal dimension's were 8x6x6.5 but i read one of the mod's said to go the uneven number route. (The ceiling isnt 7' but less and more then 6.5 so about 6.7-8)

I provided picture's, i was wondering if the vent's aid in sound traveling and if covering them up would really help or not. My budget i'm looking at $500-600 sound proofing isnt my biggest importance as long as my drum's cant be heard from the second floor is.
Once again if anything has been covered sorry please direct me to link's of relevant topic's. Thanx

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 9:04 pm

One of your pix is pretty dark, not much detail; room looks like it needs a LOT of help (holes, etc) - vents in normal construction are VERY likely to transmit sound, best way to find out is ask your upstairs neighbor to allow you to put a loud boombox in her place for a test; go downstairs and listen around the room, odds are the sound will come thru the vent.

Your budget won't get you very far toward keeping sound in, and your super-low ceiling will make it really difficult to get much of ANY isolation - for one thing, it's also likely you have flanking noise thru the walls and up into the second floor, fixing that would require a complete room-in-room construction which is "way over your budget AND headroom.

If you do the boombox test and post a better pic of the room (maybe don't point the camera at that lightbulb) we still might be able to help... Steve

Dan Fitzpatrick · Post by **Dan Fitzpatrick** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 5:38 am

ClusterFck · Post by **ClusterFck** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:51 pm

Though my room is on the first floor obviously closer to the 2nd, would it be better to TRY SOMETHING there? Ceiling is about 4 inche's short of 9' width and length are 9'.5 x 10'.5. One window, One vent, one hollow door leading out, i believe the closet door is full. For either situation room or basement what would be my FIRST cheapest option DISregarding my budget?

Sorry i havent spoken with the lady yet about the boombox idea.

Is there anyway to avoid this "flanking noise through the wall's?

Also i didnt search for this just yet this came to mind while typing, has anyone heard these booth's in person: http://clearsonic.com/isopac_s.html

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 9:36 pm

The ceiling isnt 7' but less and more then 6.5 so about 6.7

Ceiling is about 4 inche's short of 9'

Which is true?

And the clearsonic stuff won't do what you need, it's mainly to reduce felt volume on stage for the other players. Without a complete mass-air-mass envelope around drums, and a heavy one at that, you won't keep them from traveling in normal construction

Flanking noise is when sound in your room is allowed to strike the same walls that are hard-connected to the building frame, which conducts the sound upstairs (or next door) thru the framing, then the framing vibrates the wallboard/ceiling/floor in the other room and translates those vibes back into sound which is heard by the people in that room.

The only way to get rid of this is to build a separate room-in-room, which is heavy and expensive. You can, however, help things partially by REMOVING the existing wall/ceiling panels (ALL of them) and re-mounting NEW, DOUBLE layer panels, on resilient mounts. You could then, instead of doing a full-on floated floor, do a drum riser.

Depending on which of the two main paths your sound is taking to the neighbor's place, these two methods might work for you - but we need to know how LOUD the sound is in the other space, and as much as possible WHICH PATH is the most responsible for the leakage... Steve

Post by **sharward** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 3:08 am

Steve, there are two different ceiling heights because one height (the shorter one) is that of the basement, while the other height is that of the first floor. The telecommuting lady is on the 2nd floor.

2nd Floor: Telecommuting Lady
1st Floor: "Ceiling is about 4 inche's short of 9' "
Basement: "ceiling isnt 7' but less and more then 6.5 so about 6.7"

Either way, with a budget of only $500-600, I don't see it happening... Better to spend a fraction of that on drum and cymbal silencers and cool rods...

I realize it takes 97% of the fun out of it... But with that small of a budget and the sensitive neighbor being in such close proximity, is there any other realistic option?