Any ideas on the best way to improve sound proofing
- Thread starter Murphyco
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This is not meant to be funny, but you need mass to insulate low frequency sounds, which is what comes through walls. So I doubt foam will make much difference. A wall of bricks would help, though it's not the only way of doing it.
Acoustics is one of the most complex and difficult matters affecting buildings. So much so that there are engineers who specialise in dealing with nothing else. I tell you this merely to highlight that even I (a Chartered Building Surveyor) can only offer you vague advice and a simplistic explanation of sound transmittance.
Sound is merely changes in air pressure that cause our eardrums to vibrate. Sound travels as waves through ALL materials. There is no such thing as a sound proof material. In buildings low frequency sounds tend to travel through walls and floors by causing those elements to vibrate. High frequency sounds tend to travel through the air.
In order to reduce sound transmission between buildings (or flats) meaures need to address both low and high frequency sounds. Low frequency tranmission is best reduced by:
A) Providing barriers with good mass and density between the buildings (Solid Brickwork or Concrete for example). Lightweight materials such as foams, quilts, and the like will have no effect.
AND
B) Physically separating structural elements from the dividing wall. So ensuring that joists etc do not connect to the dividing wall.
High frequency sounds require an entirely different approach. Foams and quilts that inhibit air movement can be effective, as can addressing flanking transmission through windows, airbrick, and other openings.
Because "normal" sounds comprises a mixture of low and high frequency sounds effective measures require both approaches to be incorporated into a design solution.
There have been products on the market for years claiming to to reduce sound transmittance, and indeed they do that, but only over a limted range of frequencies and in practice the benefits are barelely noticable.
Short answer. Try what you like and you may be lucky. The cost of addressing the problem fo certain will be prohibitive.
Sound is merely changes in air pressure that cause our eardrums to vibrate. Sound travels as waves through ALL materials. There is no such thing as a sound proof material. In buildings low frequency sounds tend to travel through walls and floors by causing those elements to vibrate. High frequency sounds tend to travel through the air.
In order to reduce sound transmission between buildings (or flats) meaures need to address both low and high frequency sounds. Low frequency tranmission is best reduced by:
A) Providing barriers with good mass and density between the buildings (Solid Brickwork or Concrete for example). Lightweight materials such as foams, quilts, and the like will have no effect.
AND
B) Physically separating structural elements from the dividing wall. So ensuring that joists etc do not connect to the dividing wall.
High frequency sounds require an entirely different approach. Foams and quilts that inhibit air movement can be effective, as can addressing flanking transmission through windows, airbrick, and other openings.
Because "normal" sounds comprises a mixture of low and high frequency sounds effective measures require both approaches to be incorporated into a design solution.
There have been products on the market for years claiming to to reduce sound transmittance, and indeed they do that, but only over a limted range of frequencies and in practice the benefits are barelely noticable.
Short answer. Try what you like and you may be lucky. The cost of addressing the problem fo certain will be prohibitive.
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I used to work for a national nightclub chain as a DJ, and we had to agree to health and safety requirements which included our wearing of foam (or our own) ear plugs whilst working.
Wthe ear plugs it is possible to hear what the customers can hear, but not what you are lining up to play next.
Surprisingly no one wore them, but perhaps oilman could try his hand at DJing with the head phone lookie-liky units shown above. As "slow and expensive", he'd fit in well.
Wthe ear plugs it is possible to hear what the customers can hear, but not what you are lining up to play next.
Surprisingly no one wore them, but perhaps oilman could try his hand at DJing with the head phone lookie-liky units shown above. As "slow and expensive", he'd fit in well.
GwaiLo, you wil know, and XJD you may know, that hearing has a logarithmic response to sound level, and effectively reaches a limit so that an increase in volume is difficult to distinguish. If you use some form of attenuator (plugs or muffs) you can distinguish changes in level which is otherwise difficult. Therefore, if sound is loud at disco, it's difficult to the extra sound of someone talking (shouting), but, by using plugs etc it is possible to hear this difference more easily.
I may have an advantage here, as I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of discos I have been to, my hearing may not be as damaged as yours, so I can make use of this technique. This drives my son nuts, as he can't understand how I can hear his "music" in a distant part of the house, while he claims it is not loud in the room he is playing it in.
I may have an advantage here, as I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of discos I have been to, my hearing may not be as damaged as yours, so I can make use of this technique. This drives my son nuts, as he can't understand how I can hear his "music" in a distant part of the house, while he claims it is not loud in the room he is playing it in.
My range of hearing is still about 30 hz to 16khz, and I often register noises others can't, but I can't remember when i was last able to clearly understand speach from moderate background noise. I know I'm being talked at, but have to turn my head to understand. Very annoying.
Moral of the story is be a customer in a club not the DJ, as your exposure to excessive sound pressure is far less. Of course with mobile discos the opposite is true as the DJ hides behind the speakers and blasts them outwards.
Moral of the story is be a customer in a club not the DJ, as your exposure to excessive sound pressure is far less. Of course with mobile discos the opposite is true as the DJ hides behind the speakers and blasts them outwards.
They're under ya hoodyoilman said:
They were, but you couldn't hear
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