sound proofing

[DHW]

Just about time to start looking at houses... I have a couple things that I need to do.

1. get a proper office for work
2. have a place for my "stuff"
3. have a place for the guitars, piano, possibly drums...

Now... I would be cool with this being all the same place. I think it would be pretty awesome to work from the room with all my toys in it so I can just grab a guitar between conference calls and rip through something. I've been practicing pretty much totally through headphones lately as to not annoy everyone else in the house but you just don't feel it the same. Without spending a small fortune is it possible to sound proof a room to the point that my future Archon and 4x12 can be rocked out at enough volume to get the air moving without my wife wanting to kill me? Anyone have any example pics or more details on their sound proofing?

 

[bodia]

I posed a similar question awhile back. There's some good info here:

http://forums.prsguitars.com/threads/sound-proofing-a-common-wall.16169/#post-238677

 

[DHW]

Thank you, that is some good info. Fortunately my situation is a bit different. We will have a house in the middle of 10-100 acres with no neighbors within ear shot so at least I won't get the cops called on me lol. Just looking for a way to knock it back a bit but sounds like that won't be terribly effective. Guess she will just have to live with it...

 

[veinbuster]

Thank you, that is some good info. Fortunately my situation is a bit different. We will have a house in the middle of 10-100 acres with no neighbors within ear shot so at least I won't get the cops called on me lol. Just looking for a way to knock it back a bit but sounds like that won't be terribly effective. Guess she will just have to live with it...

With that much land, I would consider a separate structure.

 

[coyote]

With that much land, I would consider a separate structure.

This. Keep a guitar in the house just for practicing, but make noise 500 feet away.

 

[DHW]

I very well may do that at some point... Telecommuting is great, don't get me wrong, but there are plenty of times I wish I had somewhere to go to work instead of a room in the house.

 

[Buildermike]

Here's a good primer on sound proofing a studio:

 

[bodia]

I very well may do that at some point... Telecommuting is great, don't get me wrong, but there are plenty of times I wish I had somewhere to go to work instead of a room in the house.

Me too. The dogs don't even pay attention to me anymore. Well, unless I use peanut butter.....

 

[ozboy]

I recently did a house renovation where a new kitchen was built on top of where i practice. My wife is an artist, likes music, but doesn't want to hear me practicing. My studio was originally a garage and is part of the laundry acesss so had low ceilings and other limitations. The staircase leading to the kitchen is like an amplifier.

Basically we put in some internal double doors, heavier internal doors with seals. We stuffed the ceiling with sound proofing including a membrane layer and double thickness acoustic gypsum board. Part of the internal partition was gypsum board and we put sound proofing in that. I put a bookcase in front of the bricks in another part of the wall. We retrofitted double glazing to the external doors and windows. Double glazing is still uncommon in Sydney.

It basically works reasonably well although very occasionally I still get the odd raised eyebrow. On a Saturday morning I will be playing at 90 db. During week nights more like 80 db.

I won't get the money back when I sell the house, but I'm very pleased with making the effort and the result. I took advice from an acoustics engineer in the process.

 

[mmarshburn]

On a smaller scale, would it maybe be an option to build an isolation box for a cabinet and mic up the amp to be played through a mixer and monitor it? I'm just curious because I'm about to do some renovations to my home, as well, and I'm considering this option for use when I have my family here. My recording is done with family not at home mainly due to sound interfering with whatever my wife and son are doing.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

They sell those. So yes, I'm sure you could build one yourself.