best wall material for $$

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 10:46 am

pretty basic question here -I'm looking for something to cover the walls of a practice room that is sometimes used as a recording room, so it would be great to find a foam to cover the walls that would soundproof but not muck up the sound, and would hopefully improve it. soundproofing would be big here, hopefully in something I could buy by the foot at a hardware store, HD, Lowe's, etc. Thanks in advance!

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:07 am

Soundproofing a room requires that no air can pass through the walls what so ever. I'm not trying to correct you, I just stating that soundproofing a room is almost impossible unless you start from scratch, OR do whatever it takes! And "doing whatever it takes" requires some real $$$$$. You are just trying to cut down on the loudness, or maybe trying to get better isolation.

In past bands I was in, we used carpet. And smaller pieces from jobsites of people's leftovers (new carpet going in the bedroom room). Carpet worked pretty good as far as dampen-ing the LOUD-ness. Using 2 and 3 layers helps too.

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:13 pm

Sorry, there is not a basic answer to your question.

Quote:

best wall material for $$

>Availabel from HD: drywall, 2x4's, acoustic caulk with backing rod all resulting in:
>Mass Air Mass construction or "Room within a Room"

Floor carpet on walls is a fire hazard, against code, should be avoided.

2 to 3 layers off carpet on a wall might be called a DEATH TRAP

Wall carpet meant for a wall is OK.

Any material put on a wall that is not fire rated for a wall (including foam) should be treated for fire resistnace, not everything can be treated and there are two different standards... one for material such as a drape off the wall and another for material directly on a wall such as wall carpet.

Remember those 2 clubs burning down a few years ago from fire spreading rapidly from improper foam sound instalation?

Carpet will do very little to sound isolate, will not absorb low end and will make the room sound dead and acoustically un even.

Do a search for Room In Room. Consider upping your budget if sound isolation is what you desire.

Other wise just treat the room for acoustics and don't expect any sound isolation.

Marc

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:34 pm

Let's get a few things clarified first, please.

There is a MASSIVE difference between soundproofing and acoustical treatment. (pun intended)

Think about the word soundproof. It means that sound cannot penetrate in/out.

Acoustical treatment is a means of adding different materials to change the audio response of a given enclosure.

To soundproof a room is to stop sound from entering or leaving a room. The way that this is accomplished, in practical terms is to have enough mass and controlled air-flow to minimize sound entering/leaving the room.

Low frequencies are generally the hardest to control as the primary way to stop, or at least attenuate these frequencies is through mass. e.g. dense, heavy materials that make up the enclosure.

To think that there is anything at your local home center, by the foot, that will accomplish what you want to accomplish is at best, folly.

Typical examples of myths to providing soundproofing include; egg crates, matresses, carpet, foam or any kind of thin, lightweight material. Think of it this way... hold a pice of carpet up to your ear... can you hear anything? Now put a brick up to your ear... can you hear anything through the brick?... See? Mass is what is stopping the sound. The carpet is only modifying the sound. Yes, it's attenuating some of the frequencies... just the high frequencies... NONE of the low ones.

An example of methods to actually provide/improve soundproofing can be found here: Rod's Sticky at the top of this forum. Follow the link and download the whole PDF. VERY usefull information!

If you just want to improve the acoustics of your room, you should first attempt to get some numbers together about your space... HxWxL is the first place to start.

There are "thingy's" called nodes. Every room has them. To over-simplify, the nodes are the frequencies that are the mathematical points, that can physically become either additive and subtractive. The dimensions of your room will dictate your nodes... thereby giving your room it's sonic character.

It's generally accepted that an ideal room has all of it's nodes minimized so that there is no one dominant frequency. Easier said than done... So much so, that it's become a whole science unto itself.

The process of minimizing the effects of these nodes will be accomplished through either absorbtion or defraction. Depending upon the dimensions of the room, it's not unusual for there to be both absorbtion and difraction. This is where foam products, Open Cell Structure Foam, not closed cell foams like matress toppers, come into play. Foams that are designed for acoustical treatment are what you might consider, but just because they are designed for acoustical treatment does NOT mean that they are usefull for soundproofing.

So, in either case of soundproofing, or acoustical treatment, you should begin to understand that you can go to the absolute extremes in accomplishing what you want, but it usually just ain't as simple as buying a few feet of something and slappin' it up on the wall.

Post the dimensions of your room as a start. There's PLENTY of knowledgable folks here who can begin to accurately point you in the right direction.

Max

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