Conference napalm::commusic_v1

    First you should float the room, dig it down under ground and
    ....
    (Just joking)
    
    However I seemed to remember reading a small piece about soundproofing
    in one of the last Keyboard magazine issues, you might check it out.
    
    I dont have any knowledge myself. Good luck
           
    Svein.
    

    Get your wife a job working nights.
    
    Edd

    
    	Sorry, only distance (ala "foot" or "yard") will diminish SPL.
    I learned that one early, when the (*^($# in the adjacent dorm room
    to mine insisted on playing his &*%%$#^ Banjo late at night. Those
    cinder block walls were like "not even there". Since the Ear responds
    to SPL in a log fashion, just to get a perceptable *change*...takes
    a lot!
    
    	Try encasing the room in 1" plate steel. She'll still hear you.
    
    	Joe Jas
    

    Don't use styrofoam unless the manufacturer says it's fire-retardant
    impregnated and permitted by local fire codes.  Ask the fire chief.
    the stuff burns like gasoline.

    
    Assuming there's noplace else you can move the studio to, you really
    don't have too many alternatives. One thing to try would be to deaden
    the bedroom, the less live the room is the less susceptible it will
    be to picking up stray sounds (Edd leave this one alone 8^)
    
    You could blow insulation into the studio walls. How effective blown
    in insulation is on sound reduction, I'm not sure.
    
    You might entertain the idea of building a subwall in your studio.
    This would involve insulating the existing wall, and building another
    wall external to the existing wall with staggered studs. This new
    wall would also be insulated. A subfloor could be done the same
    way.
    
    However, low frequencies are going to get through, to some degree,
    any way you do it.
    
    To the guy who mentioned concrete blocks, *unpainted* concrete is
    very effective in absorbing low frequencies, but doesn't do anything
    special with mid or high frequencies, like that banjo.
    
    CdH
     

    What about a white noise generator in the bedroom????
    
    Seriously, some people get so used to them they can't sleep without
    'em!!
    
    Edd

    The following is copied from KEYBOARD's special issue entitled 
    "The Art of Recording" from June of 1986 without permission.  A
    back issue can be ordered from Keyboard.  This is from the article
    entitled "Setting Up a Home Studio" by Ted Greenwald and is found
    on page 50 of the issue...
    
    "There are lots of reasons to keep the various sounds emanating
    from your studio contained - not the least of which is the neighbor
    who, inevitably, is trying to sleep whenever the muse taps you on
    the shoulder.  Unfortunately, there's no effective way of stopping
    low frequencies, short of turning the room into a bomb shelter.
    Unless you're ready to make a serious investment in isolating your
    studio, or you have survivalist leanings, it's most effective to
    sign a peace treaty with the folks next door.
    
    While sheer bulk is the only way to curb the bass, high frequencies
    can be absorbed or diffused.  This minimizes the effects of sound
    waves bouncing around within the studio's walls.  The less
    reverberation there is in your listening environment, the more you'll
    hear the sounds you're actually producing.  Ditto for recording
    with a microphone.  Unless you want to record room ambience, it's
    best for the microphone to pick up as much direct sound from the
    instrument as possible.  You can add artificial reverberation in
    a controlled fashion later.
    
    Materials made specifically for absorbing and diffusing sound, such
    as Sonex, are available, but generally they carry a hefty price
    tag.  Fortunately, many common materials will do the job, including
    some that you may already have in your home.  Drapes, rugs, and
    padded furniture are useful, though imprecise.  You can hang carpet,
    or some other cloth material, across the ceiling for additional
    absorption.  Acoustic instruments can be isolated by partitioning
    them within within an inclosure of curtains, or by surrounding them
    with baffles - absorbent vertical panels which can be moved around
    the room - that you can build yourself.  Sound-absorbent panels
    can also be constructed to hang from the walls, so that they can
    be removed to liven up the room for recording ambience.  The books
    listed in the For Further Reading on page 126 are full of tips for
    improving your home studio's sonic environment."
    
    Now, from page 126:
    
    KEYBOARD "Articles
    
    'Home Recording, A Beginners Guide,' by Jim Aikin, July '82
    'Home Recording,' by Craig Anderton, May '84
    
    
    Books on Recording
    
    Anderton, Craig, HOME RECORDING FOR MUSICIANS, Music Sales.
    
    Everest, F. Alton, ACOUSTIC TECHNIQUES FOR HOME AND STUDIO, Tab
    Books (Blue Ridge Summit, PA), 1978.

    Woram, John, THE RECORDING STUDIO HANDBOOK, Elar Publishing Co.
    (New York, NY), 1982."
    
    
	There's more in the references, but these look most promising.
    Hope this helps!
    
    Steve    
        

    
    	It depends how far you are willing to go and how much you are
    willing to spend.  At the low end just softening up the room by
    adding thicker rugs, drapes, etc will help.  If you're considering
    construction then at least build partition walls with staggered studs,
    i.e. use a 6 inch (OK, 5 1/2) top and bottom plate with 4 inch studs
    (yeah, 3 1/2) nailed alternately toward the inside/outside edges
    of them
    
    	Sheet rock    V		Outside
    ============================================================
    	I		I		I		I
		I		I		I		I
    ============================================================
	Sheet rock	^	Inside
    

    	There is a duct work material now from (I think) Owings Corning
    that gets away from the sheet_metal_pipe_organ problem, it is all
    in one duct and insulation made in large sheets that you cut and
    tape together.
    
    	There's a very good article in Fine Homebuilding magazine, about
    a year ago, specifically on music room design (from the construction
    viewpoint).  I'll try to dig it out.
    
    	Reg
    

    
    Edd...great idea, the white noise generator! Cheap and very effective
    for masking the low level sounds.
    
    How much land ya got, Karl? I've seen some pretty neat studios built
    in small outbuildings. Solves all your problems.
    
    CdH
    

    re .9	I've seen music rooms like that up north.
    

    Staggered studs works pretty well; if you can put a layer of lead
    foil (called shealead, forget who makes the stuff) in a zigzag you
    do a lot better.  
    
    Take out the heating duct to the music room; that is, physically
    remove it!  Any truly dedicated musician will not notice the minor
    chill resulting!  :-)
    
    Weatherstrip the door of the music room- and do a good job.
    If you get the sheet lead, crinkle it a bit and staple it to the
    inside surface of the door along the edges.
    	
    
    The general name of the game here is to provide the greatest number
    of impedance MISmatches for sound to go from the music room to the
    bedroom.  An impedance mismatch happens any time the vibrations
    have to go from a medium of one density into a medium of another
    density.  The effective density of a medium decreases as the medium
    is stressed; a thin, taut sheet of steel will transmit sound from side
    A to side B more effectively than a crinkled and limp sheet of the
    same steel.
                         
    So whatever you use, clump it, crinkle it, bunch it, drape it, and
    don't clamp or stretch it.
    

    Two other things; plug the hole where you took out the 
    heating duct, and hang the speakers from the ceiling on pieces
    of old inner tube.  Not having any old inner tube, get a couple
    of milk crates and some cheap pillows from Sears, put the milk
    crates on the rug (you *do* have rug, right?), put the pillows 
    on the milk crates, and put the speakers on the pillows.
    	
    Make sure the speakers are a foot or so from the walls, too.
    

    well ! others have been down this cul-de-sac as well...
    
    thanks, Steve, for typing that stuff from Keyboard in. I'll check
    it out.
    
    Chris re land.. I have a very large back yard, LOTS of room for
    another structure. It is an Arizona tradition to have a one-room
    'guest house' in back. However, as we just recently moved in, the
    budget requires I situate the studio in the back bedroom.
    
    There is a hallway between the rooms, no common wall, and I've
    determined that it's the heating duct and the cardboard doors doing
    most of the sound conducting. Yesterday I went to a foam supplier
    (thanks for the foam combustibility tip, TJ) and intend to get a
    2inch thick pad slightly larger than the studio door, which opens
    inward. I will somehow affix the pad to the door and then attend
    to the (removable) covering over the airduct. 
    
    There already is carpeting on the floor, and on the back wall facing 
    the speakers.. so it's reasonably acoustically dead. I do little 
    (or none) recording with a microphone, and I certainly am aware of 
    the advantages of close-miking and later adding digital ambience.

    thank you for your kind input !
    
    karl    

    Uh, you could just wear headphones (instead of sunglasses) at night,
    and confine your speaker-blasting to the daylight hours when she's
    not around.  I know it's not as much fun, but it's a lot cheaper
    and easier.  My 8 track studio is in an apartment!
    
    len.
    

    I thought that down in the land of Agua Caliente they didn't have
    heating ducts?
    
    Cooling, on the other hand is something that most musicians can't
    do with out, just by merit of the fact that they can't stand to
    hear their equipment sweat.  Of course if everything in your studio
    is digital (this means no motors, of any sort are allowed), including
    the musician, you can bear the 115 but its a dry thud.  :-).
    
    Don't negect the summer (I'm sure you probably wouldn't).
    
    Steph
    

    
    
    Did you try removing the air from the studio...or better yet, get
    your wife a scuba tank and mask and suck those annoying molecules
    out of the bedroom.                          
    
    
    
    						Just A Thought....
    
    
    

    
    
    re -1
    
    A more reasonable approach would be to remove the air from the hallway
    in between the studio and the bedroom.  That way, at least he could
    hear what he was recording, and his wife could still breath!  :*)
    
    ralph
    
    

    
    
    
                               ..comedians..

My experiences are more based on Edd's white noise generator idea.  In the
warm part of the year we put one of those three speed utility fans in the 
bedroom window.  The sound of this will tend to mask the late night diddlings
emanating from the studio.  In the winter, we have put a humidifier in the 
bedroom.  This, of course, has the same masking effect and does wonders
for my dry skin.

These two electrical appliances tend to keep me out of a lot of hot water...

Todd.

    
    ....and she's cozily involved with a torrid romance novel,
    her breath quickenning and small drops of perspiration
    starting to form....and....
    
    ....and he's heavily involved with a torrid midi novelty,
    his breath quickenning and......
    
    ah, such music.....

    
    	I dug out the article from Fine Homebuilding magazine.  It is
    entitled, "Soundproofing a Music Studio, Some practical solutions
    to noise polution"  (Original, huh ?), by Gene De Smidt, from Oakland
    California, describes himself as a builder by day and a
    singer/songwriter by night.  It was in the October/November (bi
    monthly mag) 1986 issue, pages 60 - 63.  This is an "all the way"
    article, floating floors, isolation between floors and walls, double
    and triple sheetrock, staggered studs, the whole bit.  I have made
    a few copies, unfortunately I couldn't get colour copies, but they're
    good enough.  Anyone who wants a copy can send me a mail request,
    if you *HAVE TO* see the colour versions, well just go to a local
    library.  Karl, I assume you want a copy so I'll mail it out
    today.
    
    	Someone said "lead" (as in Pb, not lead guitar or lead sheet
    or lead line).  Anyway, I have heard about it from another source,
    it is used in some music schools and recording studios.  There is
    a company somewhere in Mass that applies it to sheet rock for exactly
    this purpose (Oh, and radiography rooms in hospitals too) and sells the
    sandwich panels.  I think it comes out to about $60 a 8' x 4' sheet.
    They use 1/64" thick lead, it isn't *THAT* heavy, about 1lb per sq ft
    if I didn't screw up the mental arithmetic too bad.  [ sp gr ~ 11.9; 1
    cu ft water 62.5 lbs; 1 sq ft lead 1" thick ~ 62lbs;  1 sq ft lead 1/64
    thick ~ 1 lb, QED] 

    	Reg
    

    re .21..
    
    thanks Mr. burgess !!
    
    karl moeller (you still have my address, yes?)

    re .22	Address ?,  I think I still have your old home address.
    I thought your note implied a change of home address;  sooooo, I
    used TU0.   If you have recently posted a change of home address
    to this conference then I missed it, if not then I suggest you do
    so, for all (y)our benefits.

    	Reg
    

    A word about monitors :
    
    You should get (if not already done) high quality speakers which
    give you good dynamics at low level. Some speakers need to be pushed
    up in order to hear anything ! With JBL's Control One monitors you'll
    be able to hear everything at a reasonably low level. It sure helps.

    What I've done: 
    
    I measured the door and purchased some 3" thick hidensity foam just 
    about 2" larger than the studio door, and attached it with several
    clever plastic hook/eye thingies.. no holes in the door or glue.
    
    The heating/cooling vent was only slightly worse, I got some velcro
    strips and glued the hook side (does Velcro have gender??)  all around 
    the vent and the loop side to a slab of foam.. also I glued a small
    hookpatch to the wall next to the vent so it can stay up and out
    of the way when not in use. Lowtech, huh?
    
    thanks, Reg, I did indeed receive the article on studio soundproofing..
    but 'floating' the walls/ceiling seemed a bit much.
    
    thanks, all/karl

    When you're running the heater, let's hope a stray spark or superheated
    dust doesn't ignite the vent cover.
    Tom

    
    
    
    This looks about as good a topic as any for my request....
    
    Does anybody know where I can find a supplier of Sonex in
    the Boston area?  So far, all I've found was convoluted foam
    (the stuff they line boxes for magtapes with) at Wurlitzers, and
    they want an exhorbitant amount.  I figure if its gonna cost, it
    might as well be the real thing.
    
    Ralph
    
    

    
    You CAN order direct from the manufacturer, but if you want to pick
    it up yourself, try Kessli and Morse, in Worcester. 752-1901.
    
    CdH
    

    
    Thanks Chris...the only place I found so far was in Chicago.
    Worcester would be a much easier ride! :^)  
    
    Ralph
    
    

    
    Ralph....
    
    If you're buying mass quantities and you can't fit it into your
    S-10 then give me a call and we'll make a run in the Barge II.
    
    CdH_have_barge_will_travel
    
    

    sonex buyers:  How much does that stuff cost ?
    

    
    
    I got some literature in the mail last week from Illbruck Corp.
    in Minnisota...they're the manufacturers of Sonex.  To order
    from them, its $2.25 sq/ft.  Thats for the thinnest stuff.
    Add money for thicker backing, colors other than silver (really
    more of a grey/white) or Super Sonex (their top of the line design)
    At those prices, I think I'll search out some of that convoluted
    foam.  Last price I had was $.41 sq/ft...but then who knows what
    the exact coefficients are for that stuff.  With the Sonex, everything
    is published.
    
    Ralph