Magazine Archive

Home -> Magazines -> Issues -> Articles in this issue -> View

Shut Up! (Part 2)

Article from In Tune, February 1986

Success in Soundproofing


In Pt. 2 of his look at budget soundproofing, Tim Oakes goes up the wall and over the ceiling...

Last month, we looked at how noted local folk/rock band the Archdemons of Megadeath might start mending the relationship with their neighbours by soundproofing the doors, windows and floors of their hypothetical rehearsal room. Now, it's time to take matters a bit further...

Walls



Fairly easy to work on, a wall needs a covering that will absorb the sound before it can reach the solid surface. This way, the transmission of sound through the wall is cut down. And it's here that we come to the wonderful world of Egg Trays... Egg trays (the big ones that hold 144 eggs, measuring 24"x24") are made from a compressed paper fibre which is sculpted to hold the eggs in depressions, with ridges in between. Eureka! These seemingly innocuous depressions eat noise for breakfast, and the air gap behind them gives even more protection against sound transmission.

Table 2 shows the materials used on the wall. They have been chosen because of their capabilities in different frequencies. Mineral Fibre is so desirable because, in one material, you have the ability to absorb and stop transmission of sound over the whole frequency range. But we of the Frugalsville Spartan Academy of Cheapo Cheapo can use a lot of different, inexpensive materials, each one with a specific bandwidth activity, to do the same job.

First of all, plaster walls are better than bare brick. This is simply for the ease of mounting things on to the surface. Glue, and packs which will stick/pin readily into plaster, will not generally go into bare brick with any success. On to the bare plaster (or wallpaper) goes a layer of polystyrene tiles, which you can buy for about £1.50 for 25. That gives five square feet of coverage. The best way to hold them up is with thick Woolworth's wallpaper paste. If the tiles start slipping after you've stuck them, you can try dressmaking pins to hold them until they dry. Then, on top of the polystyrene go the egg trays. Prices for these vary according to source, but an egg or farm stall at a market will probably let you have them cheaply. Obviously you won't need egg trays on every wall - just those where the leak will be into another room. Allow, at a reasonable guess, about £20 per wall.

You could leave the egg trays bare, but they do look a bit unsightly (houseproud, eh? - Ed.) so a curtain cover is what you need. The curtain needs to be about 3"-4" away from the wall, so this will mean hanging from the ceiling (the curtain, that is!). Suggestions here would be either cheap secondhand curtains - they sell literally acres of 'em at jumble sales - or curtain lining material. This is a thin cotton sheeting, and if you use it, it's best to have two layers hung apart from one another. Suspend from bamboo poles, using curtain rings, and this can look very attractive, especially if dyed first.

Ceilings



If you have an upstairs room, the sound will leak into the attic and from there to other rooms on the upper floor. (In terraced houses you may share lofts too, and the sound will then spill into neighbours' bedrooms... dangerous!) Attack this either on the inside, treating the ceiling like the walls but omitting the curtains, or/and on the outside, by laying material on the joists in the loft. Damaged sheets of 8'x4' chipboard are about £3 each from woodshops like Southerns.

Even if you don't need sound insulation from the ceiling, you still need to dampen down sound in the room generally, so a minimum covering of polystyrene tiles should be used.

INSTRUMENT PLACEMENT



The first rule of residential rehearsal rooms is, DON'T let speaker cabs or drums touch the walls, and preferably insulate them from the floor. This is achieved by standing the cabs on a sound-absorbing surface. Placing cabs on flight-cases is no use, simply because the open cavity of the box will form a sound chamber. Instead, fill up the cases (or purpose-built boxes) with straw or polystyrene chips. While you're at it, it might be worth using plyboard and 2"x2" timber to make your own stage boxes, which can then double as flight-cases and also for drum risers/cab rests for rehearsals. Use a good plywood, though; hardboard/plyboard is just too thin to support a Marshall stack or your 18-stone drummer!

I've seen bands hang their PA cabs in midair, using chains from hooks screwed into ceiling joists. This is a possibility, as it keeps them right out of contact with anything, but if you plan to do it, it's vital to get a builder to check the joists first! In fact, getting a builder in is almost a prerequisite when soundproofing. While you may have to pay for their time and advice, it's better - and a lot cheaper! - to fork out the tenner or so than have the floor collapse under a ton of carpet and plywood.

FIRE DOWN BELOW



And while on the subject of caution, we must face the horrible idea of fire in the room. All electrical equipment is susceptible to catching fire, and heating and cigarettes increase the risk dramatically. If you can afford one, get a fire extinguisher (even the little car ones are good), but a bucket of sand is better than nothing. With all that straw, foam rubber, polystyrene and cardboard around, it's quite obvious that your neatly soundproofed room is a big fire risk. In addition, the fact that the room is also closed up could also be creating a fire trap.

To try and avoid fire, start at the most obvious place - and ban naked flames from the room. Don't use anything that looks remotely like a paraffin heater, or any electric and gas fires. They're lethal at the best of times, and in the enclosed space of a studio it'll only be a matter of time before a curtain drapes itself across, and the place goes up. All that soundproofing material should also be heat-retaining, so a short blast from an electric fire should warm it up and keep it warm for long periods. It's interesting to note that we humans give off roughly the equivalent of a single bar electric fire, so cuddle up!

Obviously, smoking is a big risk, and when the excitement reaches a peak and the session is going well no one has time to keep track of where the fag end went when you dropped it! If inhabitants of the room have to smoke, then use cheap metal waste cans half filled with sand and have a penalty system for miscreants who use them as waste paper bins. Paper and dog-ends DO NOT MIX!

Next, of course, come the wall coverings. Now, well-packed straw won't burn all that well, but on no account should loose strands of straw be visible. We'll come back to this in a moment. Curtains and padded cloth can be treated with any of several solutions designed for tents and marquees. This will make the cloth flame-retardant, but NOT flameproof. It also stinks, and will continue to smell for a considerable time afterwards - but I'd prefer a pong to being roasted! The straw that's used should be covered in cloth of some sort, and this treated too.

Apart from the above, you should also look into some form of warning system. Tandy offer a number of smoke alarms at inexpensive prices, which will ring bells, flash lights, and generally cause mayhem if there's too much smoke about. This is tremendously useful, since most of your soundproofing material will smoulder rather than burn. (You may also find that too much cigarette smoke will set them off.) We've already mentioned fire extinguishers, but perhaps a look at the various types will explain their different functions. Anything with a label that reads 'Water Type' is basically a big soda syphon with water under pressure, so that when the handle goes down, out shoots the water. These are unsuitable for any electrical fires - in fact they're lethal in this respect, especially if you have mains power from a variety of sources in one room (such a multisocket extension from downstairs). You might trip the fuse for the upstairs circuit, but the other may well just throw 240 volts at you in a fit of malice...

CO2 extinguishers are mostly powder based, and the action is that of starving the fire of oxygen by 'blanketing' it with carbon dioxide. These are good for electrical fires, but they may also blanket you in CO2. Keep your mouth shut! This type also needs checking regularly by an appointed dealer to ensure it's working O.K.

Foam extinguishers are common in garages and airports, because the foam will smother petrol fires in moments. They also make one hell of a mess, are expensive, and are really most efficient for actual flames, as opposed to smouldering. Finally, fire blankets. These are heavy cloth, either based on an asbestos-like substance or impregnated with flame-retarding solution. They are mostly used for wrapping burning people in, and aren't much use in a studio where their efficiency in cutting a flame off from oxygen is spoiled by obstructions like equipment.

So there they are. All of them useful, but some have specific applications and you should be aware of these before you ever have to pick the damn' thing up and aim it. That horrible moment when you realise your room is on fire will be traumatic enough, so some measure to cut down the risk are needed. Try to get all your mains power routed through a central on/off switch. This will allow for fast isolation of the mains in case of accident, and also means you can turn the whole place off when you leave.

Finally, make everyone who uses the room aware of the dangers, and if possible put a notice on the door stating the nature and location of the fire-fighting equipment, the mains isolation point, and the nearest phone (apart from your own) to the place. Most fires are caused by negligence - not accident. It's worth remembering that most local Fire Brigades have a Fire Prevention Officer who will advise you on your fireproofing, and some will also inspect and help to organise your defences - these guys are pros, and are definitely worth listening to. They've seen more burn-ups than you've had hot valves!

(I'd like to express thanks to Officer Nash of Kettering Fire Station for his help in compiling the above).

AND FINALLY...



On a last note, sound will cause particle board to break up. For this reason - think of the health risk - DO NOT USE ASBESTOS. And, to be on the safe side, avoid glass fibre: quite a few people are allergic to it.

If you do attempt to soundproof a room, please let me know how you get on, and perhaps we can update this feature in a future issue. If you really can't afford even cheap sound insulation, then there are a couple of tricks you can try that'll help reduce the volume. As well as making sure all the gear and drums are isolated from the walls/floor (ceiling?!), try to block out some of the direct sound from the cabs. This can be done with an Acoustic Screen, which is basically a board with acoustic damping padding affixed. They cost about £135 each from commercial office suppliers, but you can knock one up from plywood and straw or foam for about £5. A soft chairback will help reduce sound a bit, but if you are down to this, then try boxing the amps into an area enclosed by padding, chairs etc.

Finally, we all know that guitar amps don't give of their best unless they are motoring a little - valve amps especially. But a nifty little device is the Hot Box, which is connected between the amp and the speaker. What happens is this: the amp can be turned up to monstrous proportions, giving all the sustain etc. that you require, while you turn down the Hot Box, which 'absorbs' some of the power and feeds a reduced volume to the speakers themselves. It won't prevent the drummer's right foot from disturbing the locale, but it might stop the Archdemons of Megadeath chainsawing their way through the wall...


Series - "Shut Up!"

This is the last part in this series. The first article in this series is:

Shut Up!
(IT Dec 85)


All parts in this series:

Part 1 | Part 2 (Viewing)


More from these topics


Browse by Topic:

Acoustics

Construction / Build



Previous Article in this issue

Yamaha 8000 Tour Series Drums

Next article in this issue

Fret Frenzy


Publisher: In Tune - Moving Music Ltd.

The current copyright owner/s of this content may differ from the originally published copyright notice.
More details on copyright ownership...

 

In Tune - Feb 1986

Topic:

Acoustics

Construction / Build


Series:

Shut Up!

Part 1 | Part 2 (Viewing)


Feature by Tim Oakes

Previous article in this issue:

> Yamaha 8000 Tour Series Drum...

Next article in this issue:

> Fret Frenzy


Help Support The Things You Love

mu:zines is the result of thousands of hours of effort, and will require many thousands more going forward to reach our goals of getting all this content online.

If you value this resource, you can support this project - it really helps!

Donations for March 2024

Please note: Our yearly hosting fees are due every March, so monetary donations are especially appreciated to help meet this cost. Thank you for your support!

Issues donated this month: 0

New issues that have been donated or scanned for us this month.

Funds donated this month: £194.00

All donations and support are gratefully appreciated - thank you.


Magazines Needed - Can You Help?

Do you have any of these magazine issues?

> See all issues we need

If so, and you can donate, lend or scan them to help complete our archive, please get in touch via the Contribute page - thanks!

If you're enjoying the site, please consider supporting me to help build this archive...

...with a one time Donation, or a recurring Donation of just £2 a month. It really helps - thank you!
muzines_logo_02

Small Print

Terms of usePrivacy