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My best friend is moving back to the Milwaukee area from Baltimore in February and he and I are going to start making music again. We're wanting to turn my basement into a decent practice space. So here's the question....

Anyone have any ideas or tips on sound-proofing a basement? The floors are concrete, the living room is right above, and there's a few windows here and there. I don't have a lot of money to spend on professional sound-proofing materials. I just need something to make it quieter for my neighbors and roommates.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can come up with some creative solutions!

oh man, i have used egg carton inserts(the ones that hold like 36 eggs), carpet, layers of clothes tacked to walls, mattresses, foam cots( not that expensive), blankets, large pieces of styrafoam attached together, and probably more shit i can't think of. egg cartons surprisingly work really well, the way the shape kinda spikes to hold sound. go behind restaurants in the early afternoons and find their box recycling bins next to the garbage. around that time they are taking out garbage and recycling from breakfast and you can snipe the egg inserts if you are stealthy.

Stealthy is my middle name, my friend! Thanks for the reply. Definitely helpful.

I probably wont tack any clothes to the walls, but I'd like to see what that looks like. Kind of like keeping mementos from your victims. It would be good to have random locks of human hair hanging from the ceiling too.

starcastic wrote: Kind of like keeping mementos from your victims. It would be good to have random locks of human hair hanging from the ceiling too.

that works too!!

starcastic wrote:Stealthy is my middle name, my friend! Thanks for the reply. Definitely helpful.

I probably wont tack any clothes to the walls, but I'd like to see what that looks like. Kind of like keeping mementos from your victims. It would be good to have random locks of human hair hanging from the ceiling too.

Am I going to be seeing this on the news?

check to see if there are any plastics/foam dealers there.
You can get foam in bulk reasonably.

inexpensive carpet for the floors, or at least rugs under the amps will help a lot too.

MM

metalmariachi wrote:Am I going to be seeing this on the news?

You will not see this on the news. My middle name is Stealthy.

I'll definitely look into foam. The carpet idea is a good one for sure. Thanks, MM!

Thanks for the heads up, Dev... But, oof. Too expensive for me right now. My budget is more geared towards dumpster diving for used pizza boxes.

devi ever wrote:http://foamonline.com

On second inspection I see that I can get eggcrate foam here for SUPER cheap. Devi, you did it again! Thank you!!

Now to measure the basement!

i run a studio and have been in a few spaces at this point...
ideally you want a room-within-a-room, but without doing construction, make sure you build some baffles to go over windows (where you'll lose more sound than anywhere else).
egg crates and foam won't prevent the sound from escaping as much a deaden the sound within the room.
don't put drums in front of a window or bulkhead door.
keep the amps up at chest/head level since speakers cabs are very directional- aim them towards your head not your feet and legs and you won't have to play as loud. plus this isolates them from any other resonating surface.
do not let anything bass heavy (bass cab, drumkit, keyboards) couple with your walls or floor, since that will transmit the sound through the walls and floors of your house and they will then resonate.
a drum riser is an easy build project and does a lot for both absorbtion and making the room sound better. fill it with sand for maximum deadening.

this is what i tell my pals who try to use basements as jam (or show) spaces: the most effective thing is always volume control, since there is practically no way to completly soundproof your house (without major renovations) from a full band playing at stage volume.

i can give you some nerdy links if you'd like.

gobopierce wrote:i run a studio and have been in a few spaces at this point...
ideally you want a room-within-a-room, but without doing construction, make sure you build some baffles to go over windows (where you'll lose more sound than anywhere else).
egg crates and foam won't prevent the sound from escaping as much a deaden the sound within the room.
don't put drums in front of a window or bulkhead door.
keep the amps up at chest/head level since speakers cabs are very directional- aim them towards your head not your feet and legs and you won't have to play as loud. plus this isolates them from any other resonating surface.
do not let anything bass heavy (bass cab, drumkit, keyboards) couple with your walls or floor, since that will transmit the sound through the walls and floors of your house and they will then resonate.
a drum riser is an easy build project and does a lot for both absorbtion and making the room sound better. fill it with sand for maximum deadening.

this is what i tell my pals who try to use basements as jam (or show) spaces: the most effective thing is always volume control, since there is practically no way to completly soundproof your house (without major renovations) from a full band playing at stage volume.

i can give you some nerdy links if you'd like.

Thank you so much! That was a lot of really helpful advice.

I'd love to take a look at those nerdy links when you get a chance...

starcastic wrote:

gobopierce wrote:
i can give you some nerdy links if you'd like.

Thank you so much! That was a lot of really helpful advice.

I'd love to take a look at those nerdy links when you get a chance...

here's a few that say kinda the same things in different ways, but the right things.
http://www.soundproofing-tips.com/
http://soundproofingtips.blogspot.com/
http://soundproofingwithdave.com/ (check the archives of this one. tons of articles. some good, others idiodic.)
http://www.articlesrep.com/soundproofing-drums.html

sift through this stuff and you'll find what will work for you in your particular space.

You can not "sound proof" a room with foam. The "room within a room" is really the only way to do it if you don't want to line the walls with lead. Now, you can "sound treat" a room with foam. Treating a room is were you make the room sound better, whether you kill early reflection or diffuse bass frequencies, that is sound treatment. There is one way you can do both, you'll need access to s certain kind of fiberglass board and make your own baffels out of it, I forget the name of the fiber glass though.

In the spirit of necro bumping, I thought I'd bump this ancient thread. Heh.

I'm looking to not sound proof, but deaden the sound coming from my basement, which is where I play my bass. I find I don't even get to fucking enjoy playing because I'm so concerned about my wife and neighbors. I have a huge basement and lots to work with.

What are some of the easiest and relatively inexpensive ways to go about this. I tried the whole hanging blankets thing, bought fake walls...but all it's doing is moving the sound upward. I want to kind of trap it or stop it when it hits the walls. Or at least make it seem like that's occurring.

On a slightly related note. This will be my 20th year of playing bass and I think I'm going deaf from it! Yes!!!!!

What you need to do is make a false floor. To decouple the amp from your foundation. You make it out of a 2x4 frame mounted on Auralex U-Boats with R30 or higher density of housing insulation to fill the false floor between the joists. Put some Sound Choice followed by a sheet of plywood on top for the false floor's deck and there you go. No more bass shaking EVERYTHING. There's a video on YouTube, the guy doesn't like cats so i stopped watching but it's easy to find.