Just wondering how many people have made there own sound proofed recording or practicing studios and how you've done it? I don't have allot of money to spend and the damn neighbors next door have already called noise control on me when I had some people come over and jam. I play drums so I need something that will absorb the low end frequencies of the bass drum. Ive already hung heavy blankets over the windows and doors which helps deaden the sound. Any suggestions would be helpful thanks.

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Sweet thanks man

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Just remember the mass law. The more mass the object has, the better it will soundproof. Blankets will do little for noise reduction. They will help "deaden" the sound. But only to your ears from the inside of the room. Not your neighbors. They will help the reverb within the room, but not a whole lot for sound going through the walls. The denser the material, the better it will isolate sound.

Unfortunately, soundproofing is much more difficult and expensive than putting blankets up. And don't waste your money on acoustical foam, that will do nothing except change the way sound is reverberated off your walls. So you're going to need add lots of mass to your walls. The denser the material, the better.

In my basement, I just nailed thick pieces of wood to the rafters and the windows. It helped a lot, but it was a lot of hard work. But it didn't cost me any money. I live in a college city, so around move-in week I just wandered up and down the streets looking for furniture that people threw out. So I took many desks and couch cushions. I just cut up the couch cushions and stuffed them up in the rafters and then nailed a piece of desk to it. The desk helps with the high/mid range and the cushions with the low. That was just a half-assed budget fix though. You can still hear my band practicing from the street.

You might want to call an acoustician to help you out if you are getting noise control called.

Raise your drumkit off the floor. You won't create a soundproof room that will kill all the sound, so you're going to have to make do with little solutions. If you have the money, go for a multi-layered approach- fill the wall cavity with rock-wool or similar, then put some plywood over that, then repeat, and then leave a gap of a couple of inches, and hang some thick drapes. That'll kill the mid and high somewhat, but the low end is something that, unfortunately is the hardest to dampen, and the one that is most likely causing the neighbours to complain.

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i was actually talking to my mom about this a while ago (shes an interior designer)... her favorite trick is lead foil. Yeah, its heavy metal, it kills ya if your eat it, tastes sweet like sugar (yeah i've licked it before) , but it apparently murders soundwaves. Other good things for reducing the noise is hanging thick blankets about an inch or so away from the wall to keep them from vibrating into the wall, and egg-carton foam. The cones on the foam break up sound waves all badass like.

Oh, and lead is only dangerous if its pure, lead oxide is harmless. How do you make lead oxide you ask? let it sit in a room for a week
I'm sure the foil will already be treated to be oxidized though.

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if you live in america its just slighlty illegal to put lead in your walls.

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Uh, I believe the only thing lead can do is deflect radio/magnetic waves, like the ones that cause interference in amps and stuff.

Raising the drumkit(and amps) off the floor is definitely a good idea.

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it does sound too. Google it. Everybody regards it as one of the best sound proofing solutions, but with that obvious problem that its lead.

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I second raising the drumkit, and egg cartons.

Egg cartons are..probably the most done and popular 'cheap' solution over here.
Though either you have to be very creative, or eat a lot of eggs in a shoty time to get enough of 'em

I've heard you could also buy those sound dampening pads for on your tom's and snare, though I also heard it kinda sucks playing with them.

No need to ask, but you already put a blanket or pillow in your base drum, right?

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Egg cartons do not work for 'sound proofing'. Inside the room, they will diffuse the high frequencies a little, but outside, they'd do next to nothing... the time and money that would be spent installing them would be spent better with proper sound proofing materials.

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True, not the best solution. But when on a very tight budget, or not having a lot of other options, it's much more prefferable then keeping your walls bare.

I don't expect -Exile- to completly go the home improvement way, and add a extra wall or something.
Unless that was his intention, offcoarse

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