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depasqualem1
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Joined: 29 Oct 2007
Posts: 26
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 Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 8:16 pm Post subject: Soundproof Home Setup |
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Fellow Musicians,
I’m wanting to get a little creative/more soundproof with my home setup. My neighbors have been accommodating, and no complaints, but I want a setup where I can really play out and know that I’m not bothering them. So, a few questions:
1. Does anyone have any success hooking up a Silent Brass directly into the computer, and using it over zoom? If so, any ideas in terms of powering SB *not* through the battery pack?
2. Any success with another kind of practice mute + mic setup?
3. DIY vocal booth or soundproofing?
Any advice/ideas would be much appreciated! |
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jairo_saade
Regular Member
Joined: 18 Jun 2020
Posts: 55
Location: Panamá
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| Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 7:04 am Post subject: |
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Hi,
I have been dealing with a similar issue because I live in an apartment and bothering the neighbors is really a concern. I have divided the problem in 3 parts and dealt with each part in a different way.
Part 1. I assumed I bothered the neighbors, but normally I only play at full volume until 7 PM maximum. So far I have never gotten any complains about noise. I try to do the upper register practice and the volume dynamics between 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM which normally a lot of my neighbors are not around.
Part 2. Practice anytime later than 8:00 PM, I try to avoid it or if must I try to play repertoire and more lyrical stuff. If I must I use a practice mute and have some sound dampening material to improve the over all sound transmission to the rest of my place and to the neighbors. I have heavy drapery, a heavy wool rug, foam bass traps for the corners and some foam panels on the walls.
Part 3. improving acoustics of a small room where I record. For this I only use some random foam panels on the walls to deal with reverberation and a wool rug for general sound dampening.
The other day I ran into a neighbor and he was whistling some of my tunes, which made me think we should not be so concerned about the decibels, it is not noise, its music (except for the squeaks of the extreme upper register). Unless you go for a really expensive and time consuming endeavor, the trumpet is loud, it will cut through walls and there is not much to do about it.
hope it helps.
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LittleRusty
Heavyweight Member
Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 12657
Location: Gardena, Ca
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| Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 9:32 am Post subject: |
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I suspect that the majority of people are not bothered. But if your neighbor is one of the minority all bets are off.
In between those two ends of the spectrum are those that would appreciate us making an effort to keep the noise down.
Then there are those of us with misophonia. My personal symptoms are a mood swing from happy/content to anger when hearing bell or chime sounds or crunchy chewing sounds (KitKat commercials are a huge trigger). It is as if the hearing nerves are directly connected to the anger circuit skipping the rational circuit.
From the little research I have read this relatively newly discovered and named condition is not triggered by trumpet sounds, but if it is... good luck. |
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callee
Regular Member
Joined: 26 Dec 2020
Posts: 20
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| Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 11:13 am Post subject: |
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You didn't mention what kind of building you are in or how invasive you are free to be, but at the maximum you could renovate your practice room. Remove the existing interior drywall (or whatever your wall covering is) and fill all stud cavities with sound deadening insulation, such as roxul safe and sound. Then re-drywall, consider using resilient channels to attach the new drywall. A dense rubber membrane can be installed on the floor and covered with either carpet or thick vinyl tile. Change out the door for something solid and sound rated. Remember to install a rubber sweep on the door bottom.
Now, I'm a carpenter so all of that would be very reasonable for me. If that's beyond your reach, a quicker, easier idea would be to tack up sheets of rigid foam on all the walls and ceiling. These can be installed with just a few fasteners, e.g. nails with plastic washers. To make it feel less like you are trapped in a big beer cooler, wall paper the foam once it is up. If and when you move away, the foam can be removed fairly easily leaving you just some nail holes to patch in the walls. If you do this method, make sure you measure and record the locations of your wall studs before you install the foam - not only will you want to hit the stud with your foam fasteners, but if you want to install, say, a shelf or something to hold your mutes or metronome, you will have to use extra long screws to make it through the foam and hit those studs, so having those measurements written down will be a great help. |
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deleted_user_687c31b
New Member
Joined: 03 Apr 1996
Posts: 0
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| Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 12:29 pm Post subject: |
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| depasqualem1 wrote: | | 2. Any success with another kind of practice mute + mic setup? |
A while back I did some tests with mutes and the mutes that reduced the dB level the most were mutes that had the smallest gap in the bell. These were a cup mute with the cup against the bell and a harmon mute with the stem out. The straight mute for example, only has 3 pieces of cork and a lot of 'open gaps' and according to the dB meter, it let most of of the noise through.
| depasqualem1 wrote: | | 3. DIY vocal booth or soundproofing? |
Recently I too got some complaints from the neighbours and that made me look into cheap and easy to apply soundproofing...the short answer was: not possible. However, my intention was to find a way to avoid reodeling the entire room and I found that there are some ways to reduce the sound to more acceptable levels that are less impactful (and cheap).
1) Pick a room with as little direct contact with the adjacent houses as possible. In my case, second floor dormer: there's at least 1 room between each side wall and my practice room, and this helps reduce direct noise. Since people spend most of their time in the downstairs living room, there's 2 floors of concrete and concrete sidewalls between the noise and the neighbours.
2) Seal the door: this really helps a lot. If there are holes in your practice room, a LOT of noise will leak out. Foam draft strips are perfect for this: cheap and easy to apply. Modern doors have a gap beneath them for ventilation purposes, to seal this use a rubber door gap strip (the brush variants leave gaps trough which the sound can travel). When you're not in the practice room, just leave the door open for ventilation.
3) If your practice room exits directly into the house stairwell, seal any other doors for rooms to adjacent to your neighbours and the stairwell. Sealing 2 doors is a lot cheaper than adding a double door to your practice room (which will be more effective though).
4) Try to reduce echo in your practice room and the stairwell. This won't reduce the actual noise level, but helps in making it less irritating. Foam panels will work well for this, as do drapes, laundry lying around, etc.
5) Compared to walls, doors are a weak spot. If the doors are hollow and lightweight, replacing them with heavier doors will help reduce the noise without you needing to rebuild the room. A cheap alternative is to add some rubber mass plating to the door, but make sure the hinges will support it.
6) If you have ventilation grills along the windows (or even open windows), close them. Again, gaps are the biggest sound leaks and both the easiest (if you can see them) and the hardest (if you can't) to fix.
In my case, the doors from my practice room to the room next to my neightbour's bedroom had gaps beneath them, and the air grills on both that room and my neighbour's bedroom were open. Basically it was as if there was no barrier whatsoever between my playing and his bed...sealing the doors. closing the ventilation grills and reducing echo in the stairwell made a big difference.
Applying all of the above won't soundproof your room, but it may reduce the level enough to be aceptable to your neighbours without breaking either the bank or your house. Trumpet has a lot of higher tones which means it'll be relatively easier to stop by walls and doors than say, a bass guitar (which means you may just get away with a few tweaks rather than thick, heavy walls, doors and windows).
Hope this will be useful to you. |
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depasqualem1
Regular Member
Joined: 29 Oct 2007
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 9:36 pm Post subject: |
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This is great, thanks for sharing! Yeah, my neighbors don't mind, but I feel like if I can hear them talking in their apartments, then my playing must be pretty loud, and I just feel like enclosing the sound a bit. Sounds like my best bet is to set up some panels/blankets so the sound is at least not traveling out as much.
| jairo_saade wrote: | Hi,
I have been dealing with a similar issue because I live in an apartment and bothering the neighbors is really a concern. I have divided the problem in 3 parts and dealt with each part in a different way.
Part 1. I assumed I bothered the neighbors, but normally I only play at full volume until 7 PM maximum. So far I have never gotten any complains about noise. I try to do the upper register practice and the volume dynamics between 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM which normally a lot of my neighbors are not around.
Part 2. Practice anytime later than 8:00 PM, I try to avoid it or if must I try to play repertoire and more lyrical stuff. If I must I use a practice mute and have some sound dampening material to improve the over all sound transmission to the rest of my place and to the neighbors. I have heavy drapery, a heavy wool rug, foam bass traps for the corners and some foam panels on the walls.
Part 3. improving acoustics of a small room where I record. For this I only use some random foam panels on the walls to deal with reverberation and a wool rug for general sound dampening.
The other day I ran into a neighbor and he was whistling some of my tunes, which made me think we should not be so concerned about the decibels, it is not noise, its music (except for the squeaks of the extreme upper register). Unless you go for a really expensive and time consuming endeavor, the trumpet is loud, it will cut through walls and there is not much to do about it.
hope it helps. |
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depasqualem1
Regular Member
Joined: 29 Oct 2007
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 9:38 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, I am in a rental apartment with zero carpentry skills, so I think the first part is out haha
Thank you for the tips on the panels! I think that might be my way to go for now.
| callee wrote: | You didn't mention what kind of building you are in or how invasive you are free to be, but at the maximum you could renovate your practice room. Remove the existing interior drywall (or whatever your wall covering is) and fill all stud cavities with sound deadening insulation, such as roxul safe and sound. Then re-drywall, consider using resilient channels to attach the new drywall. A dense rubber membrane can be installed on the floor and covered with either carpet or thick vinyl tile. Change out the door for something solid and sound rated. Remember to install a rubber sweep on the door bottom.
Now, I'm a carpenter so all of that would be very reasonable for me. If that's beyond your reach, a quicker, easier idea would be to tack up sheets of rigid foam on all the walls and ceiling. These can be installed with just a few fasteners, e.g. nails with plastic washers. To make it feel less like you are trapped in a big beer cooler, wall paper the foam once it is up. If and when you move away, the foam can be removed fairly easily leaving you just some nail holes to patch in the walls. If you do this method, make sure you measure and record the locations of your wall studs before you install the foam - not only will you want to hit the stud with your foam fasteners, but if you want to install, say, a shelf or something to hold your mutes or metronome, you will have to use extra long screws to make it through the foam and hit those studs, so having those measurements written down will be a great help. |
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depasqualem1
Regular Member
Joined: 29 Oct 2007
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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Thank you for this thorough reply! Seems like reducing the sound, as you mentioned, is my best bet. Thank you for the tips, I will try to apply them.
quote="hibidogrulez"] | depasqualem1 wrote: | | 2. Any success with another kind of practice mute + mic setup? |
A while back I did some tests with mutes and the mutes that reduced the dB level the most were mutes that had the smallest gap in the bell. These were a cup mute with the cup against the bell and a harmon mute with the stem out. The straight mute for example, only has 3 pieces of cork and a lot of 'open gaps' and according to the dB meter, it let most of of the noise through.
| depasqualem1 wrote: | | 3. DIY vocal booth or soundproofing? |
Recently I too got some complaints from the neighbours and that made me look into cheap and easy to apply soundproofing...the short answer was: not possible. However, my intention was to find a way to avoid reodeling the entire room and I found that there are some ways to reduce the sound to more acceptable levels that are less impactful (and cheap).
1) Pick a room with as little direct contact with the adjacent houses as possible. In my case, second floor dormer: there's at least 1 room between each side wall and my practice room, and this helps reduce direct noise. Since people spend most of their time in the downstairs living room, there's 2 floors of concrete and concrete sidewalls between the noise and the neighbours.
2) Seal the door: this really helps a lot. If there are holes in your practice room, a LOT of noise will leak out. Foam draft strips are perfect for this: cheap and easy to apply. Modern doors have a gap beneath them for ventilation purposes, to seal this use a rubber door gap strip (the brush variants leave gaps trough which the sound can travel). When you're not in the practice room, just leave the door open for ventilation.
3) If your practice room exits directly into the house stairwell, seal any other doors for rooms to adjacent to your neighbours and the stairwell. Sealing 2 doors is a lot cheaper than adding a double door to your practice room (which will be more effective though).
4) Try to reduce echo in your practice room and the stairwell. This won't reduce the actual noise level, but helps in making it less irritating. Foam panels will work well for this, as do drapes, laundry lying around, etc.
5) Compared to walls, doors are a weak spot. If the doors are hollow and lightweight, replacing them with heavier doors will help reduce the noise without you needing to rebuild the room. A cheap alternative is to add some rubber mass plating to the door, but make sure the hinges will support it.
6) If you have ventilation grills along the windows (or even open windows), close them. Again, gaps are the biggest sound leaks and both the easiest (if you can see them) and the hardest (if you can't) to fix.
In my case, the doors from my practice room to the room next to my neightbour's bedroom had gaps beneath them, and the air grills on both that room and my neighbour's bedroom were open. Basically it was as if there was no barrier whatsoever between my playing and his bed...sealing the doors. closing the ventilation grills and reducing echo in the stairwell made a big difference.
Applying all of the above won't soundproof your room, but it may reduce the level enough to be aceptable to your neighbours without breaking either the bank or your house. Trumpet has a lot of higher tones which means it'll be relatively easier to stop by walls and doors than say, a bass guitar (which means you may just get away with a few tweaks rather than thick, heavy walls, doors and windows).
Hope this will be useful to you.[/quote] |
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deleted_user_687c31b
New Member
Joined: 03 Apr 1996
Posts: 0
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| Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 10:45 pm Post subject: |
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| depasqualem1 wrote: | | This is great, thanks for sharing! Yeah, my neighbors don't mind, but I feel like if I can hear them talking in their apartments, then my playing must be pretty loud, and I just feel like enclosing the sound a bit. |
If the walls are that thin, soundproofing the doors won’t be enough. Since you’re in a rental apartment, a practice mute (or one of those muffling stands you play into) seems like the most viable option. |
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depasqualem1
Regular Member
Joined: 29 Oct 2007
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2021 1:07 pm Post subject: |
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That seems to be the way to go! Thanks.
| hibidogrulez wrote: | | depasqualem1 wrote: | | This is great, thanks for sharing! Yeah, my neighbors don't mind, but I feel like if I can hear them talking in their apartments, then my playing must be pretty loud, and I just feel like enclosing the sound a bit. |
If the walls are that thin, soundproofing the doors won’t be enough. Since you’re in a rental apartment, a practice mute (or one of those muffling stands you play into) seems like the most viable option. |
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bagmangood
Heavyweight Member
Joined: 26 Feb 2009
Posts: 1352
Location: SF Bay Area
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| Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2021 1:27 pm Post subject: |
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I live in an apartment building and use a Marcus Bonna Studio case. Most of their US dealers can order it for you (if they don't have it in stock).
Pretty thoroughly reduces the sound with less distortion/resistance changes than a practice mute. Not cheap, but is quite nice.
old TH thread on them
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More than one trumpet
A "few" mouthpieces |
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depasqualem1
Regular Member
Joined: 29 Oct 2007
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2021 8:27 pm Post subject: |
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Oooh, very cool idea! I will check it out.
| bagmangood wrote: | I live in an apartment building and use a Marcus Bonna Studio case. Most of their US dealers can order it for you (if they don't have it in stock).
Pretty thoroughly reduces the sound with less distortion/resistance changes than a practice mute. Not cheap, but is quite nice.
old TH thread on them |
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CRoberts8
Heavyweight Member
Joined: 08 Feb 2006
Posts: 833
Location: Chicago, IL
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| Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2021 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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| depasqualem1 wrote: | Oooh, very cool idea! I will check it out.
| bagmangood wrote: | I live in an apartment building and use a Marcus Bonna Studio case. Most of their US dealers can order it for you (if they don't have it in stock).
Pretty thoroughly reduces the sound with less distortion/resistance changes than a practice mute. Not cheap, but is quite nice.
old TH thread on them |
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+1 for this recommendation. I have used one of these cases for a few months and it has done a very nice job of cutting volume. In a thin walled rental apartment, I could teach and practice in the next room over from somebody else on video calls all day without becoming a nuisance. Happy to answer any specific questions about it.
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Charles Russell Roberts
Trumpet, Gaudete Brass Quintet
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trumpetangel
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kehaulani
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Joined: 23 Mar 2003
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Location: Hawai`i - Texas
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| Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2021 7:52 am Post subject: |
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Have you used it, trumpetangel? What were your results?
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"If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." Bird
Yamaha 8310Z Bobby Shew trumpet
Benge 3X Trumpet
Benge 3X Cornet
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michelletaylor
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Joined: 03 Mar 2021
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2021 4:16 am Post subject: |
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| Soundproof Home Setup must be cool! kindly share your experience and let me know the total expense of it? so that I will also think about it. |
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Skanker
Regular Member
Joined: 10 Feb 2021
Posts: 24
Location: Isle of Man
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| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:02 am Post subject: |
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Inspired by the Mute Tube, I spent an hour and zero cash on this -
https://youtu.be/snF2xOuFTos
I made this video to show it to my trombone-player son. Quite pleased with the sound reduction - the aesthetic, less so  |
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depasqualem1
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Joined: 29 Oct 2007
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2021 12:41 pm Post subject: |
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Hey, not bad! Looks like a baffle like this will be the way to go for now.
| Skanker wrote: | Inspired by the Mute Tube, I spent an hour and zero cash on this -
https://youtu.be/snF2xOuFTos
I made this video to show it to my trombone-player son. Quite pleased with the sound reduction - the aesthetic, less so |
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Skanker
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Joined: 10 Feb 2021
Posts: 24
Location: Isle of Man
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| Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2021 3:18 am Post subject: |
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| Function over form |
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