Soundproofing Advice

MikeyP

MikeyP

Well-known member
I have read the many threads about soundproofing, but my issue is a little different.

Im in an office building where I have a few offices and two Avid editing suites. My landlord decided it would be a good idea to rent the space next to me to a company that teaches piano. Now, every day at 2:30 the kids start strolling in and playing. You have no idea how much I hate 'star wars' as performed by 9 year olds. I have a long narrow office, the piano can be heard in every one of my offices (from the drop ceiling above?)

I beleive most of the problem exists because our walls go up 8 feet to a drop ceiling. However the cement slab abe us goes up 12 feet, my guess is that the crappy drop ceiling does nothing to hold the sound down from going up and radiating along the second floor slab. I am not sure that adding sonix on my side of the wall would do anything, since the sound is coming from them- is this correct?

My landlord does everything CHEAP with regards to construction. He is supposed to be hiring 2 guys to build a wall within a wall with green glue. I think most of the sound is coming from over the drop ceiling, Im sure they'll forget to build the wall up to the second floor slab. I emailed my landloard this membrane http://www.soundisolationcompany.com/sound-solutions/walls/barrier/. Anything anyone else can think would be appreciated.

Did I mention that in a few weeks she's going to start guitar lessons too?
 
I'll second the Recording Studio Design Forum, but just as a quick note, panels do almost nothing for stopping sound transmission. They prevent sound from reflecting off a wall, but it passes through them pretty easily.

A quick fix you might look at is tossing some pretty thick fiberglass into the drop ceiling. My guess is that sound is bouncing through the drop ceiling on the other side, bouncing off the real ceiling, and then coming through your drop ceiling. Absorption here could really help, but you'd need to use a pretty liberal amount depending how large the wall is.

If you really want to go all out nerd on the problem, bring a speaker of some kind over to where she teaches piano and play pink noise through it. Then on your side of the wall measure the levels changes with a RadioShack SPL meter ($20). That should help you quickly determine where the problems are.

And just be thankful you don't have someone learning bass next to you, as low frequencies are an expensive nightmare to isolate.
 
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I would bet money that your problem is 99% through the drop ceiling. You could roll out fiberglass insulation over their ceiling ,and yours. That would help the sound from getting up in the space and help what still gets up from coming back down. I have worked in post places where they had drop ceilings and the sound would travel all over the place. Some low frequency stuff would go for quite a few rooms and then just descend and make a room unusable, it was a BIG problem. Just waiit till she starts teaching electric bass ;~)
 
I would go out and find a person who specializes in dealing with your problem. Then at least it would eliminate repetitive methods that may cost you more on the long run.
 
I was looking on google for audio pro's in Chicagoland. I couldnt find any (maybe Im a dope). If there are any sound contracting companies here in the metro, please PM me.
 
Try places where musicians buy their equipment like "Guitar Center" and ask them..they usually will give a lead to where to go. Another is recording studio engineers. You might even try the local universities with film schools or decent music depts.
 
Mikey:

Sadly the only way to create a true soundproof room is to construct a room within a room with a floating floor that totally isolates the entire sub room from the main room. There are very specific methods also for enacting ventilation and HVAC within this room within a room. Expensive and a lot of work plus a sizable reduction in square footage available to you.

Can be done, but get out your checkbook, it's not cheap. I built my own many years ago when I had an audio post facility, it took me and a friend about two months of construction.

Dan
 
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puredrifting said:
Mikey:

Sadly the only way to create a true soundproof room is to construct a room within a room with a floating floor that totally isolates the entire sub room from the main room. There are very specific methods also for enacting ventilation and HVAC withing this room within a room. Expensive and a lot of work plus a sizable reduction in square footage available to you.

Can be done, but get out your checkbook, it's not cheap. I built my own many years ago when I had an audio post facility, it took me and a friend about two months of construction.

Dan
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2 months isn't bad Dan...It took me six months, but I did it for the most part alone. Resilient channels are a decent way to islolate dry way and dampen the vibration...nothing that will perform miracles but sound proofing is more about little things adding up. Seal every seem you can with calk, and build floating walls with minimal 6 inches of dead air in between. Double up on dry wall (use 5/8ths), and obviously insulation (insulation doesn't block sound but it does help condition it and takes the edge off) These are the techniques that will get you the closest, just don't expect miracles unless your willing to spend alot of $$.
 
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