Acoustic insulation

[presward]

My practice space is my living room which is separated from my neighbour's house by a brick wall. The neighbour is an old woman (living with adult son) given to complain about a lot of things, but her ire of the last year is focused on my trumpet practicing. About 6 months ago I put a 3 inch layer of mineral wool and covered it with a thin, hollow brick wall. This definitely helped but she has started griping again. I really don't want to be a nuisance even though I feel here complaints are a bit exaggerated. Can anyone recommend specific products that specifically cut down the frequencies of the trumpet? I don't want to spend an arm and a leg, but I would like to be comfortable about practicing. Thanks in advance!
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P. Mauriat 700
Yamaha 2330II
ACB Doubler's Flugel
Kanstul 1510 C

[Don Herman rev2]

Rockwool or similar is as good as anything, though I would not have covered it with brick but rather a fabric (cloth) cover. The key to acoustic isolation is to isolate all sonic outlets, and that usually means building a "room within a room". You could try absorbers on stands, like many studios use, that you play into. I suspect the biggest sound transmission in your case is through the ceiling and roof (is this a duplex or are the two houses stand-alone?) and through the HVAC ducts if any are common and/or the sound gets into an outside air duct (almost impossible to prevent).

You could have a friend play, or just run a vacuum cleaner in the room, and go outside to see what the likely transmission path(s) is(are). That will dictate how to improve the isolation.

Could you practice in a different room more separated from her?
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"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music" - Aldous Huxley

[RandyTX]

The usual way to try and do sound isolation in a theater room (other than sub-bass which really can't be stopped but shouldn't matter for trumpet) is to do what is called a stagger-studded wall. You put sheetrock on both sides, but the studs only go half-way across the air-gap.



It ends up looking like the above photo, with every other stud touching either the front or back side, but none of them touching both.

There is also some sheet vinyl acoustic sheeting which you can put between the studs and the sheetrock to kill more sound. You probably make do if you want to save some cost by using that plastic sheeting landscapers put under flower beds.

They key is that the studs don't touch on both sides, it keeps them from coupling and you ending up with a big drum instead of a muffler. The air gap is key.
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"Music is like candy, you throw the (w)rappers away."

[murph66]

Any reason why a practice mute might not solve the problem at a minimum of expense. I use one every time I practice and there is no problem with the neighbors or the wife who is usually watching TV down the hall. I have used one in motel rooms while the wife was watching TV with no problems. I usually use the Yamaha practice mute with out the earphones, but they can be added to give better sound to the player. I also use one to warm up in church when I am playing there.

[LittleRusty]

you can always create a box out of mover blankets or some similar heavy sheet type material. If you use PVC pipe you can just press fit the frame together and then drape the blankets over the frame.

Or create a smaller version that you play into.

This will create an acoustically dead space so it will not be ideal.

[presward]

RandyTX, the staggered studs makes so much sense. I do wonder if the wall is less a problem than the ceiling at this point. Thanks for advice.
_________________
P. Mauriat 700
Yamaha 2330II
ACB Doubler's Flugel
Kanstul 1510 C

[presward]

Murph66, I have a good practice mute. It is good in the sense that it is quiet, I just don't like playing for very long with it. I feel like the excessive back pressure can't be good. It is ok for occasional use, but I feel like I need to blow an open horn for best practice.
_________________
P. Mauriat 700
Yamaha 2330II
ACB Doubler's Flugel
Kanstul 1510 C

[Don Herman rev2]

I went with Kinetics IsoMax clips to isolate my media/practice room. Much less work and much higher isolation than staggering and floating wall studs.

http://www.kineticsnoise.com/

and

http://www.kineticsnoise.com/arch/isomax.html

Staggered walls work but in my recent experience more construction uses clips or similar from Kinetics, Mason, or one of the other noise-control leaders.
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"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music" - Aldous Huxley