Music Room Setup

theAeronought

theAeronought

New member
Hi guys, how's it goin' -

So here's the deal, right: I'm working on setting up my bedroom for an acoustically decent (not excellent) music room. I probably won't be using it to record, just practice and occasionally jam with a few partners. The thing is, I want to keep the sound INSIDE that room. I don't mean there can't be a trace leaking out, but for the most part I want to soundproof the rest of the house from my terrible singing, my fuzzy, no-tone guitar with the cheap amps, and the other noob musicians in my makeshift band.

My first guess is that acoustic panelling won't do that to the extent I'm looking for, but then, I don't know much about acoustic panelling. I'm pretty sure it just kills reverb, right? That would certainly help, but again, I'm looking to keep the sound inside that room, and do it on a tight budget. I'm talking eye-of-the-needle tight budget. Help if you can, thanks!

Aero
 
Re: Music Room Setup

Find another room. Physics dictate that soundproofing can't be done on a budget.
 
Re: Music Room Setup

Put the money that you might have spent on your room towards hiring a proper rehearsal space.
 
Re: Music Room Setup

Not to sound like a smartass, but about the only thing I can think of that might even remotely work for that would be to look for old nasty mattresses on the side of the road that people have thrown out. However, I can't think of anyone that would really want to line their walls with those.
 
Re: Music Room Setup

get an electronic drumset and this:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/jamhub-greenroom-7-section-system/620797

if it is in an apartment, the electronic drumset will be like chopping lettuce sounding, so if you can hear that or coughing from your neighbors then it may be too loud. it is too loud for my apartment but I daily sing for 1-2 hours then put on headphones and play guitar and no complaints ever. just use amp modelers for recording.
 
Re: Music Room Setup

Is this an apartment, or a room in a private house?

Most landlords won't let you so much a hammer a nail in a wall for hanging a picture frame without their up-front consent.
If you're in a private house, the owner(s) will have to pitch in, or you'll get a bunch of construction workers walking all over the gardenias.
In either case, the "find a rehearsal space" advice is valid. "Tight budget" won't begin to cover all the things that need doing for a quiet space.

Sound is vibrational energy moving through the air, and moving everything else (walls, beams, etc).
Keeping vibrations from escaping is a major deal in a residential room.

If you absolutely must do it in the room specified, everyone will have to get wired up for headphones, e-drums and amp sims.
For that, I recommend JamHub. $300 @ Sweetwater.

 
Re: Music Room Setup

I'll just throw my 2 cents in... My basement is unfinished, and I thought it would be cool to finish part of it as a "soundproofed" (loosely speaking) studio area. Holy crap, talk about $$$ and effort. Essentially you are building a floating room inside a another room that is acoustically insulated.

If this is your house and you truly want a dedicated music space, you'll need to pull out the drywall, stuff the studs with soundproofing insulation, then rehang drywall with insulating anchors. The floor will then need some insulation (maybe from below) and isolation in the form of a floating floor.

Again, if this is your dream house and you've got the budget and time, it's really cool. If not, a rehearsal space is much more effective.
 
Re: Music Room Setup

ginormous said:
Is this an apartment, or a room in a private house?

Most landlords won't let you so much a hammer a nail in a wall for hanging a picture frame without their up-front consent.
If you're in a private house, the owner(s) will have to pitch in, or you'll get a bunch of construction workers walking all over the gardenias.
In either case, the "find a rehearsal space" advice is valid. "Tight budget" won't begin to cover all the things that need doing for a quiet space.

Sound is vibrational energy moving through the air, and moving everything else (walls, beams, etc).
Keeping vibrations from escaping is a major deal in a residential room.

If you absolutely must do it in the room specified, everyone will have to get wired up for headphones, e-drums and amp sims.
For that, I recommend JamHub. $300 @ Sweetwater.

Click to expand...

yes! this is what I recommended in my post above. good luck finding a drummer that will touch edrums though! many drummers cannot be enlightened in this aspect even with vdrums.
 
Re: Music Room Setup

everdrone said:
yes! this is what I recommended in my post above. good luck finding a drummer that will touch edrums though! many drummers cannot be enlightened in this aspect even with vdrums.
Click to expand...
True. A real pro, though, won't mind so much.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk
 
Music Room Setup

So it can't be done, soundproofing a room on a tight budget. That's okay, good to know! It wasn't a necessity, I just wondered if it was possible to reduce the affect my playing had on the rest of the house. (It's just me and my family, they won't mind so much.)

On the subject of edrums, I don't really want anything to do with them. I've got a good drummer that I plan on jamming with frequently , and that's enough for me. Edrums are too expensive and too artificial for me to waste my time on them.

The JamHub idea, now that's something that might be worth looking into. I don't know anything about recording equipment (none AT ALL, I'm not kidding), but it seems to me like, if it could be used for a PA system, it's possible this could be used as a substitute for one of those great big multi-thousand dollar mixing boards if you didn't have too many microphones going on. Maybe if you had a lot of separate drum mics, you could set up an additional summing board between the drums and the JamHub? Like I said, this is an area in which I'm sorely lacking, so don't bash me too hard if I'm way off.

Thanks for the info! Please, keep talking, I learn more with each reply.
Aero
 
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