Soundproofing a Garage ?

LÃ³s Kasinoâ€” · Thu Oct 20, 2005 1:58 am

Just moved my gear into the garage (with thin walls & a concrete slab floor)

and its killing me.... sounds bouncing all over the place !!!! reverb galore !

any cheap suggestions on closing in the sound ? Ive been told to hang some sheets from the ceiling ? anyone tried this with sucess ?

aspekt · Post by **aspekt** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 2:46 am

any sort of padding you can get i guess

paulblackout · Post by **paulblackout** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 8:21 pm

i just recorded my band using sleeping bags.

Dave Grohl recorded the last 2 foo fighters albums in his basement using sleeping bags (hence where i got the idea)

it's great. doesnt soundproof for your neighbours much, but stops the bouncing and echo/reverb.

i just squared off part of the garage with 4 sleeping bags, put the drumkit in there and recorded him, then he bumped out and we put the other guitarist's stack in, then my stack and recorded that. turned out great.

when matt was playing his parts i went and stood in front of his amp in the soundproofed section, and it sounded awesome.

the short answer - sleeping bags. esp if you get the ones that zip right out flat.

LÃ³s Kasinoâ€” · Thu Oct 20, 2005 9:04 pm

yea cheers paul, rekon sleeping bags would work alot better than plain old sheets !

Scholtzy · Post by **Scholtzy** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 9:16 pm

If you can be bothered, cover you walls with these:

I have heard that wool really absorbs sound well, maybe just get some wool blankets and hang them up instread.

Shadowgames · Post by **Shadowgames** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 9:55 pm

density is the key to soudproofing.

so sleepingbags, matresses etc are great.

egg cartons and sheet will do fuck all

Scholtzy · Post by **Scholtzy** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 10:05 pm

Shadowgames wrote:egg cartons and sheet will do fuck all

hahaha...it did sound like a bs urban myth

aspekt · Post by **aspekt** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 3:05 am

Shadowgames wrote:density is the key to soudproofing.

so sleepingbags, matresses etc are great.

egg cartons and sheet will do fuck all

it's the shape of the egg cartons that does it. only works with higher frequencies i guess? i think one of the big things when designing a studio is to avoid parallel walls and stuff.

but yeah, i guess your main aim is deadening the sound rather than soundproofing.

Shadowgames · Post by **Shadowgames** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 10:43 am

aspekt wrote:it's the shape of the egg cartons that does it. only works with higher frequencies i guess?

they work to some extent as high frequency diffusers, but as far as 'deadening' or sound proofing they would be useless.

Fents · Post by **Fents** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 10:58 am

I can just see scholztys room now - walk in and its covered in old egg cartons. hahahahaha!

Mum can u buy a slab of eggs each week...

safire · Post by **safire** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:21 am

density is the key to sound proofing, remember though that sound proofing is a different thing to sound treatment and u dont always want a completly dead sound especially in a control/monitoring room. the best way would be to deaden the part of the garge that u might be recording anything (if u are recoring stuff) and the other part no as dead.

hehe egg cartons is sholtzy's paradise room

as for the egg cartons though, they will work as a diffusers, so if u ware goin to use them use them in the monitoring part of the room

Scholtzy · Post by **Scholtzy** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 12:03 pm

Fents wrote:I can just see scholztys room now - walk in and its covered in old egg cartons. hahahahaha!

Mum can u buy a slab of eggs each week...

For you to even mention that I have put myself through 6 months of eating nothing but egg omeletes for nothing makes me very upset.

SoulWhiteMan · Post by **SoulWhiteMan** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 7:51 pm

I came across these when I was making my dog a new bed:

carpet samples.
I shite you not!!! Rubber on the bottom, plush pile wool on the top, and dollars from a factory for 1m x 4 metres.
could prolly do a whole garage for a hundred bucks
(put them in front of the sleeping bags, and other padding.)

Also:
(this is pretty expensive)
but resiplex construction joint foam (it's the same shit that you use as underlays when camping) and it comes in rolls. 60 bucks a 8 m roll though, and it's only 15 cm wide however.

strategem · Post by **strategem** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:43 pm

hehe, it may sound weird but sound deadening is one of favorite subjects. Acoustics and psycho-acoustic effects are so interesting. Someone mentioned that density is the key- this is not entirely true. for deadening the trick is trapping, and trapping is done with 'pockets' of dead air of varying sizes to trap varying frequencies. This is why sleeping bags work well, amongst all the down is little pockets of trapped air, randomly shaped and sized. My favorite trick is (as someone else mentioned) carpet. Which can be 'sourced' late at night from construction sites and their dumpsters. Put one layer down on the floor to stop the bounce off the concrete and then double or tripple layers on the walls and ceiling. make sure two layers have the pile (bit you normally walk on) facing each other. do not stretch them tight, hang them loosely. As a bass trap get two rolled up carpets and tie them together with rope reall tightly in the middle. Stand this in on corner of your garage.
It sounds like a fair bit of effort but it really isnt that much. I probably shouldnt say this as I sell acoustic foam products, but geez its cheaper than acoustic foam...

motske · Post by **motske** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:32 pm

strategem
as you prob know there is absorbtion, then there is isolation. To sound proof you need to isolate. To make the room sound nice you need to absorb. i think you may be a bit mixed up. putting carpet up may increase the STC (sound transmission class) of a wall/floor/ceiling a tad, but it wont really "sound proof" the room (nor will anything really) and it won't absorb well either. The idea behind absorbtion is to soak up the sound by turning it to heat and trapping it (usually in corners where the most bass builds up. wool or nylon (i.e the materials in carpet) aren't that great for this. Also it is not reccommended anywhere to try to stop reflections from the floor. in all proper recording spaces/ monitoring studios the floor is almost always a polished surface.
putting carpet up will only give you a moth breeding ground, not much absorbtion compared to other materials (such as fiberglass), and negligable isolation. but it is cheap i guess.
to isolate you need density and you need vibration control, usually building a room within a room. have a look at auralex and their acoustics101 website. it is a goldmine

I recently treated my room with fiberglass boards. I went to my local mitre10 and ordered lots of 48 kgm3 density 50mm thick panels. i then wrapped them in muslin and cheesecloth, then attached to the wall using brackets. even though this was to help absorb lower frequencies, it has also helped clear up the whole spectrum, and stopped flutter echo. it has not made my studio dead though, which is a problem for a lot of foam users.
Go to www.recording.org and look in the acoustic design section of the forums. much help in there.

What i found as a bonus was that the fiberglass has lowered the sound leakage out of the room, even though 48kgm3 isn't that dense. The bass transmission hasn't really fallen, but mid and highs have alot. this fiberglass is very similar to the material used in the realtraps bass traps, yet instead of costing $400 a panel (2 feet by 4 feet), it only cost me about $40 (60cm by 120cm)

Cubist · Post by **Cubist** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 1:16 pm

Great info dudes. Cheers

strategem · Post by **strategem** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 1:02 am

motske- i thought we were talking about deadening, not proofing.... the carpet wont sound proof (may well drop out a few db and will def remove high end) but the sound inside the area will be a lot deader. as for the reflective, yes most studio live rooms do have a polished parquetry floor, but it really depends on what you are trying to achieve. My understanding of the original post was the he was trying to deaden the space and remove a lot of the reflection.

motske · Post by **motske** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 7:58 pm

woop my bad

still don't think carpet is the best material for absorbtion though... testing data that ive seen suggests no absorbtion at low frequencies from carpet, although at high freq it's more efficient. bass is the tough one to solve.
maybe i'm just trying to justify my excessive spending on room treatments heh

strategem · Post by **strategem** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 6:43 pm

no its not the best, but it is often free...

motske · Post by **motske** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:08 pm

no doubt it's free,
fiberglass is dirt cheap yet it is one of the best materials to use!! 'ave a geez
http://www.bobgolds.com/AbsorptionCoefficients.htm

CSR/bradfords and Insulation solutions use a similar manufacturing technique to Owens Corning fiberglass, so the data also stands for stuff made here in Aus somewhat

these figures are also similar somewhat to realtraps LF and HF absorbers...

here is some info...

Manufacturers of rigid fiberglass:

http://www.bradfordinsulation.com.au/br ... ata+sheets

http://www.insulationsolutions.com.au

Aluminium framing (to frame the fiberglass boards)

http://www.breakwatermetaland.com.au/default.htm

materials to wrap boards with (muslin/cheesecloth/burlap)
http://www.clegs.com.au/ in the city

The Cloth Shop in Heidelberg

just some places that came up

strategem · Post by **strategem** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:35 pm

way to do the homework...

Post by **lynt** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 5:31 pm

Great thread, excellent info.

SoulWhiteMan · Post by **SoulWhiteMan** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:35 pm

also, if you're interested you could esentially make your garage a "room"

by building timber frames around it using pine-like house frames.
Then, when it comes to plastering it, you could use "soundcheck" plasterboards by Gyprock.
Aparantly they're SO good, that for houses with wooden floorboards, if you're in the "soundchecked"
room, you can't hear anyone walking around.

SWM has returned to concreting and is down with the builders lingo.

motske · Post by **motske** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:33 pm

^^ good idea

a cheaper method rather than plaster is to sandwidge a dense layer of vinyl matter between two sheets of MDF or gypsum board.
http://www.musicianswarehouse.com.au/de ... Code=AU526

a cheaper equivelant (and also autralian) for limp vinyl
http://www.soundguard.com.au/htdocs/wavebar.htm

motske · Post by **motske** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:49 pm

http://www.acoustics101.com/
a very helpful site

JoyRiderz · Post by **JoyRiderz** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:53 pm

Wave Panels-WPBT1-Bass Trap (2 x pieces) - Acoustic Foam Bass Trap Treatment-$249
Wave Panels-WPCR2 -Corner Trap (2 x pieces) - Acoustic Foam Corner Trap Treatment Pack-$249
Wave Panels-WPPT12-Pyramid Tiles (12 x pieces) - Acoustic Foam Wall Tile Treatment Pack-$159
Wave Panels-WPSP4 -Speaker Pads (4 x pieces) - Acoustic Foam Monitor Isolators-$60
Wave Panels-WPST12-Standard Tiles (12 x pieces) - Acoustic Foam Wall Tile Treatment Pack-$159
Wave Panels-WPST6-Large Standard Tiles (6 x pieces) - Acoustic Foam Wall Tile Treatment Pack-$249

http://www.wavepanels.com/

Shadowgames · Post by **Shadowgames** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:56 pm

JoyRiderz wrote:Wave Panels-WPBT1-Bass Trap (2 x pieces) - Acoustic Foam Bass Trap Treatment-$249
Wave Panels-WPCR2 -Corner Trap (2 x pieces) - Acoustic Foam Corner Trap Treatment Pack-$249
Wave Panels-WPPT12-Pyramid Tiles (12 x pieces) - Acoustic Foam Wall Tile Treatment Pack-$159
Wave Panels-WPSP4 -Speaker Pads (4 x pieces) - Acoustic Foam Monitor Isolators-$60
Wave Panels-WPST12-Standard Tiles (12 x pieces) - Acoustic Foam Wall Tile Treatment Pack-$159
Wave Panels-WPST6-Large Standard Tiles (6 x pieces) - Acoustic Foam Wall Tile Treatment Pack-$249

http://www.wavepanels.com/

they are all for sound treatment, not sound proofing.

still necessary though

Ag3nT[]0raNg3 · Post by **Ag3nT[]0raNg3** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 2:04 pm

you need a mate who is in IT somewhere that has jsut orderd a shitload of hardware.

all HP hardware comes with this mad black/gray foam that is perfect for soundproofing.

Little Evil · Post by **Little Evil** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:35 pm

SoulWhiteMan wrote:I came across these when I was making my dog a new bed:

carpet samples.
I shite you not!!! Rubber on the bottom, plush pile wool on the top, and dollars from a factory for 1m x 4 metres.
could prolly do a whole garage for a hundred bucks
(put them in front of the sleeping bags, and other padding.)

Also:
(this is pretty expensive)
but resiplex construction joint foam (it's the same shit that you use as underlays when camping) and it comes in rolls. 60 bucks a 8 m roll though, and it's only 15 cm wide however.

Shit yeah.
When I played in bands years agao, we carpeted off a whol room in the back of one of my mates houses, for our practice room.
The whole room covered in two layers of carpet, with cheapo foam in between. One layer soft, one layer hard.
Hardly any leak on the outside, when we were cranking it.
And we were knocking out Melvins covers, and the like.

Little Evil · Post by **Little Evil** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 3:30 pm

Found some good stuff on these sites...

http://www.drumdojo.com/tech/soundpro.htm

http://soundproofing.org/infopages/apartment.html

I have to build a room in the next two weeks, so I'll let you know what works, and what doesn't.
I'm going to make it so it's free standing and removable, and this seems like the go.
As all the reading I've done says you should build them out from an existing wall anyway, as you often can get sound transference through walls, pipes, etc.

factory worker · Post by **factory worker** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 12:50 am

build a room within the pre-existing space. false floor included. it will be smaller but worth it. your pretty shorty any way, and I doubt you'll be standing up while you programme beats and cut up samples. check out trapzoid room shapes as well.

Little Evil · Post by **Little Evil** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:49 pm

factory worker wrote:build a room within the pre-existing space. false floor included. it will be smaller but worth it. your pretty shorty any way, and I doubt you'll be standing up while you programme beats and cut up samples. check out trapzoid room shapes as well.

I'm not that small. I'm 5'10 and a 1/2.

(But I think you were talking to someone else

)

Will have my decks in there too, so will be standing up lots.
All the space in the world to build it though.
It will end up being thre size of a big bedroom.