Sound isolation booths... How effective?

[enricoromanielo]

Hey guys, wonder if you could help me out...

I live in an apartment in Sao Paulo, Brazil, so that means I can't really get good volumes out of my amps. I mean, I actually can get good tones in a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, but I can't play like I would like to play during the week, since I get home from work kinda late at night.

A guy who lives in my building is a professional musician playing in an orchestra here at Sao Paulo. He soundproofed one of his rooms, kinda like built a room inside a room. Very nice job, but extremely expensive (and not something I would consider, since I rent the place).

So I came across these sound isolation booths... Not overwhelmingly expensive, and it is portable, meaning I can just take it with me whenever I decide to move to another place... The company that builds it says it reduces up to 60 db.

It seems like a great solution to play in an apartment, but I am not sure if this is a realistic option to avoid annoying my neighbors (specially the one living downstairs). Do any of you have any experience with that?

Thanks!

Cheers

[everdrone]

bass travels, not effective

consider for that price axefxII and jamhub / Roland Vdrums and your whole band can jam as quiet as your singer sings!

[Ddjembe Mutombo]

It all depends on the construction of the building. You need to see how your building reacts to the volume you play at. Do your next-door neighbors complain? Do your upstairs neighbors complain? Most people just experience the issue of sound traveling through the ground, windows, and under the doors. If that is the case then you just need to do some basic stuff.

First, the cabinet needs to be isolated from the floor. Primacoustic and IsoAcoustics make the best isolation stands in my opinion. Putting towels under the door will help sound from entering the hallways of your building. I wouldn't worry about windows because people outside should care less.

Power attenuators help, but the main issue is the speaker has to start working hard enough to create some sounds that we consider desirable. Also, getting the amp loud enough to hear it bounce off the walls adds in desirable sounds to the average player. It's hard to get a sound you love in a shared building, but it isn't too difficult to get a sound that still makes guitar worth playing.

[MikeD]

I´ll probably get crusified for this but seeing that my 212 lives in my rehearsal studio and I haven´t gotten around to getting one for my home I´ve been using amplitude through my PC and out through my studio speakers. And honestly....no it´s not that awesome orange tone.....but it reminds you of it in some odd way and I end up noodling with my guitar for hours and without complaints from the other family members.

It will never be the same thing....but at low volumes it´s really a good alternative.

Mike

[Ddjembe Mutombo]

I´ll probably get crusified for this but seeing that my 212 lives in my rehearsal studio and I haven´t gotten around to getting one for my home I´ve been using amplitude through my PC and out through my studio speakers. And honestly....no it´s not that awesome orange tone.....but it reminds you of it in some odd way and I end up noodling with my guitar for hours and without complaints from the other family members.

It will never be the same thing....but at low volumes it´s really a good alternative.

Mike

Amp sims are through good studio monitors is the best solution for low volume environments. It is what I do. Ever since moving out of my parents house almost a decade ago, I haven't played my amps outside of the studio, a gig, or band practice. If I need to work on a part, then I just open Pro Tools and play though Eleven. I do the same thing when I write if I need to use the electric.

[enricoromanielo]

Thanks guys.

It all depends on the construction of the building. You need to see how your building reacts to the volume you play at. Do your next-door neighbors complain? Do your upstairs neighbors complain? Most people just experience the issue of sound traveling through the ground, windows, and under the doors. If that is the case then you just need to do some basic stuff.

First, the cabinet needs to be isolated from the floor. Primacoustic and IsoAcoustics make the best isolation stands in my opinion. Putting towels under the door will help sound from entering the hallways of your building. I wouldn't worry about windows because people outside should care less.

Power attenuators help, but the main issue is the speaker has to start working hard enough to create some sounds that we consider desirable. Also, getting the amp loud enough to hear it bounce off the walls adds in desirable sounds to the average player. It's hard to get a sound you love in a shared building, but it isn't too difficult to get a sound that still makes guitar worth playing.

The building is kinda old, big walls. The next door neighbor never complained. I had one complaint from the upstair neighbors in the past year, but had more than a few from the neighbor downstairs... I though about getting thick windows because I think that is where the sound is getting out, since the cabinet is not directly at the floor.

I know isolation booths are not the greatest solution in the world, but I figured they would considerably reduce the noise and the complaints, and they are not THAT much expensive...

As far as Amplitube goes, it is a good alternative, but I miss playing my amps... It is not the same thing, it is not the same feel, and I only rehearse like once a week. That's the reason I thought about the isolation booths getting more out of my amps and maximize the guitar playing experience at home...

[enricoromanielo]

Another thing... I sing as well, so the booth could help isolating that too...

[Hubaxe]

Unfortunatly for you, the only way to have something soundproof is to make a "floating" box in the box.
And the bridges between the box have to be really well made. Otherwise, as someone already told, bass travels.

I built a "cheap"soundproof room in my farm with the right principles (Air layer, 20 cm of rockwool, inside panels on silentblocks.
It's ok because it's a farm made of 60 cm wide stone walls, but if I had to do this in a flat, would be much more expensive to reach a true efficiency.

[misterfolkertsma]

Have the complaints only been about the sound of guitar-playing?

[everdrone]

I sing with headphones on as I listen to my guitar through tech 21 oxford pedal modeler, into IR impulses from recabinet

no one ever complains; I am in second story apartment thin walls