Soundproofing a room - Does it actually work?
Discussion
Looking at options when I move in with my partner, who is a musician.We both WFH and some places don't have a garden big enough for an outdoor studio.
Her main weapons of choice are a piano and her voice (soprano). As you can imagine it gets very loud.
I've googled it to death but can't get a conclusion - is it actually possible to soundproof an internal room enough that if someone is belting out an aria, the rest of the house is workable? (It would be a more modern house so no solid walls).
Appreciate a lot of space will be lost in the room to second layers and insulation etc.
Her main weapons of choice are a piano and her voice (soprano). As you can imagine it gets very loud.
I've googled it to death but can't get a conclusion - is it actually possible to soundproof an internal room enough that if someone is belting out an aria, the rest of the house is workable? (It would be a more modern house so no solid walls).
Appreciate a lot of space will be lost in the room to second layers and insulation etc.
timbob said:
Beware of the difference between sound proofing a room and acoustic treatment within a room.
There are a great many things that people see as “soundproofing” - foam egg box panels on a wall, bass traps in the corners, acoustic panels here, thick curtains there… All these do is alter the sound inside the room, generally by absorbing the high frequencies within the space and making it sound terrible and boxy. I’ve been to many “soundproofed” rehearsal studios, recording studios and expensive university music departments - all the rooms are full of foam and sound terrible, and you can still hear bass and drums thundering down every corridor…
To actually soundproof a room - that is, to have a “normal” sound within it, and to not hear anything outside, you need depth and mass. Big thick walls (meters thick) filled with lead would be ideal… Anything else is a compromise of wallet vs soundproofivity.
In reality, a floating room built out of studwork within a domestic room, ply lined out and insulated with as much space as you can get away with or someheavy and high density material (rock wool??) will be your best bet if you actually want a room that approaches being anywhere near soundproofed.
It's more about stopping sound going out, rather than sound coming in! There are a great many things that people see as “soundproofing” - foam egg box panels on a wall, bass traps in the corners, acoustic panels here, thick curtains there… All these do is alter the sound inside the room, generally by absorbing the high frequencies within the space and making it sound terrible and boxy. I’ve been to many “soundproofed” rehearsal studios, recording studios and expensive university music departments - all the rooms are full of foam and sound terrible, and you can still hear bass and drums thundering down every corridor…
To actually soundproof a room - that is, to have a “normal” sound within it, and to not hear anything outside, you need depth and mass. Big thick walls (meters thick) filled with lead would be ideal… Anything else is a compromise of wallet vs soundproofivity.
In reality, a floating room built out of studwork within a domestic room, ply lined out and insulated with as much space as you can get away with or someheavy and high density material (rock wool??) will be your best bet if you actually want a room that approaches being anywhere near soundproofed.
biggiles said:
Anything is possible with enough budget, but if you're looking for a solution where you can't hear her, it will be ludicrously expensive.
Some alternatives are an electric piano for her (good ones are very good, have volume controls and headphone sockets) and decent noise-cancelling headphones for you. The microphones on noise-cancelling headphones are very good now, if you are in separate rooms your colleagues may not hear much on calls.
Yep, £300 headphones may be the answer! Some alternatives are an electric piano for her (good ones are very good, have volume controls and headphone sockets) and decent noise-cancelling headphones for you. The microphones on noise-cancelling headphones are very good now, if you are in separate rooms your colleagues may not hear much on calls.
Diderot said:
My wife is an opera singer, so I share your pain!
To properly soundproof (as opposed to acoustically treat) a room, though you'd need to do both ideally, will be expensive, but it can obviously be done. You'll need to build a room within the original room which is isolated from the main structure and stuff that full of rockwool or similar. It'll also need aircon because it will need to be as airtight as possible. You'll need an acoustic door, you'll also need to consider the windows too. Ideally too you'd have a lobby between the new room within a room and the original entry point, and both would have acoustic doors.
One of the other considerations is that she will probably hate singing and playing in it as it will be too dry in terms of ambience, so the room would ideally be large enough to give some kind of reasonable RT60 time.
What are the dimensions of the room?
We're just looking at houses and I'm keeping options open.To properly soundproof (as opposed to acoustically treat) a room, though you'd need to do both ideally, will be expensive, but it can obviously be done. You'll need to build a room within the original room which is isolated from the main structure and stuff that full of rockwool or similar. It'll also need aircon because it will need to be as airtight as possible. You'll need an acoustic door, you'll also need to consider the windows too. Ideally too you'd have a lobby between the new room within a room and the original entry point, and both would have acoustic doors.
One of the other considerations is that she will probably hate singing and playing in it as it will be too dry in terms of ambience, so the room would ideally be large enough to give some kind of reasonable RT60 time.
What are the dimensions of the room?
A posh shed in the garden sounds much more likely at this rate, especially as it doesn't need to be the same level of soundproofing!
You're absolutely right, it's not about recording - rather being able to use the house. So it doesn't need to be silent - I guess the measure is can I sit a few rooms away and watch TV or have a call without being disrupted. For that I wonder if windows are necessary? Sure it will spill outside but it will only ever be daytime anyway.
I'm not to worried about heat as she won't be going for hours on end so I imagine she can suck it up for an hour while she has a lesson or wants a jam! This will also be her office, so a lot of the time it will be window open, usual noise etc.
The house will most definitely be stud walls unfortunately.
I'm not to worried about heat as she won't be going for hours on end so I imagine she can suck it up for an hour while she has a lesson or wants a jam! This will also be her office, so a lot of the time it will be window open, usual noise etc.
The house will most definitely be stud walls unfortunately.
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