HI all.

I have a studio, but due to injury, and a limited ability to travel, i find myself working more and more from home. 90% of the time now is from home. When i say home, i mean my apartment.

I know how to "treat" a room, and am already happy with the sound of my home setup. Its a good sounding room, etc. My question is, is there a way to "isolate" the sound from my neighbor's, without putting up sound absorbing drywall, or permanently altering the apartment.

Can i build a little raised platform for the monitors that sits on rubber and is filled with sand? or something like that? Any other ideas? Any input greatly appreciated!

I dont really mix loud at all, but still want to limit the amount of bleed into the neighbor's apartments.

 

Just kill them

 

i said i want to eliminate bleed, not have more blood !

 

LOL, you said bleed and i got violent!
I was talking about using headphones.
Or may be isolating w/ acoustic foam on the walls, but is a mess to clean the dust.
Carpets, cushions, drapes...

This video has very good answers

 

Last edited: Mar 13, 2024

i used to have the same problem. i tried a lot of things, and i believe there's no easy fix.
acoustic material will help, but theres still gonna be a lot of bleed.
now i've moved to a house it helps a lot.

 

I moved into a +40 condo.
Most of my neighbors are over 70 and stone deaf.
One old lady next door complained about the vibrations but then she went to a nursing home

 

Thank you! will take a look

Yah i figured theres no easy fix. Im still going to try though.

LOL, unfortunately my neighbors all have their hearing. Im on good terms with all of them, but still want to try and minimize noise

 

You're just gonna have to use headphones, man. I'm in the same boat.

 

I'm a bit confused, you want to isolate sound from your neighbors or going out from your apartment to your neighbors? Because if it's the second, are you sure it's even a problem? Like, what exactly are they hearing if anything at all?

 

isolate sound from going out to them. I work on a lot of sub heavy music, trailer sound design, trap etc. I havent had much complaints, but i do get some here and there. im assuming its the sub bleeding through

 

low frequency will travel farther in general, and if its being conducted by dense material like concrete or steel it will travel even farther.

You might trying isolating your subwoofer(s) from the floor, using dampening material. you could start with a moving blanket and see if that changes your sound much, pay some guy from fiver, 5$ to stand outside your building and see if he can hear it.

 

Though one. I'd still try to pinpoint what the problem is exactly though, maybe simulate a session and go to your neighbor's apartment to hear in person what the issue is. It's very likely the sub, although since you're not mixing loud it could be something else entirely (like sound going from window to window or reflecting off something, like the street or any building that could be in front of yours). The reason i'm saying this is because it would be a lot easier to do something with a window than an entire floor or wall, and if it's not the floor then building the sand filled platform thingies won't really do much to solve the problem.

Another important factor here is probably time of day. If the problem is not too bad, it's possible that your neighbors only notice it at certain moments, like when they're trying to sleep. If so, you could just use headphones during those hours and use the main setup in more active hours.

 

it's always the sub.
as our friend @Kluster said earlier, his neighbour could feel the vibrations haha.
most night clubs where i live suffer from sub leakage
my problem was mostly the sub too, higher frequencies are easier to contain

 

here i was thinking someone wanted to copy/reproduce beck's famous intro which was a recording of his gay neighbors when 1 of them went on a coke bender for several days

 

I would consider a subpac if I had this to worry about. It's a main part of why they were made. They aren't "perfect" or cheap, but it would definitely solve your neighbor problems.

 

good idea, ill try with some simple steps first

its the floor for sure. I dont have neighbors on the sides, well, on one side i do, but its in the other room. The only neighbhor who really complains is beneath me. I do use headphones late at night, but still get complaints during the day from time to time.

ah hahah. sorry to let you down

 

i tried one in the past and it didnt click with me. maybe they have gotten better?

 

I haven't tried the newer ones either. I think it is something you would need to get used to, and how your bass translates from it to normal subwoofer or monitors. Buying from somewhere with a good 30-day return policy would be ideal. If I had a neighbor problem and my only other other option was headphones, I would consider it.

 

Get all your neighbors together on a zoom call at the same time, crank up the sub bass and begin to high pass, and when the last person says, "Now", that's where you need to work with your monitors. If you make your neighbors part of the process they'll feel "heard" and will most likely have a higher threshold of acceptance to your cause. My friend Woody used to have big parties at his house and would always visit them beforehand and invite them to come over, for example. To fine tune get a pair of headphones that you trust to inform you of the low, low end.

Sand filled monitor columns will help too for your monitors, and for a sub something like this IsoAcoustics' Aperta Sub. It should also help tighten up the low end in your room a tad.

 

great advice and ideas. thank you!