sound proofing?

willz

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Hi first of all, sorry if i have placed this in the wrong forum, anyway, i have had a complaint from the council regarding my loud music as my next door neighbour has complain, its proberbly the bass that annoys them the most, anyway, i was wondering, is there anyway thats prefrebly cheap to stop the bass and the vabrations from traveling into the house nextdoor? i like loud bass and loud music, i sometimes play music loud, but not for long as i dont feel comfortable playing it loud as i am scared that nextdoor is going to call the council or somthing again and then i will loose my speakers and computer etc.., my parents seem to think that my neighbours are overeacting, but they pretended to be out the other day becouse they knew if i knew they were going to be out i would have my music loud, but i want to be able to play my music loud or with quite loud bass, so i am thinking of sound proofing, any ideas?, would a concrete slab stop the bass from traveling next door?
 
nothing stops the bass unless you build a room within a room...lol

sorry but council buildings are notoriously bad for construction...sound travels....

almost literally the only way to prevent is to build a suspended floor and walls, with plate glass double glazing between the building wall/floor and the suspended wall/floor.....somehow if you living in council accomodation i doubt you'd be able to afford to get this done professionaly....if you have any building experience though you might be able to do it yourself, however you'll need to get the council to approve it as its a significant change to the property....

otherwise you'll simply have to live without the bass.......although it might be worth asking the neighbours which part is actually annoying them, the bass vibration or the normal musical sound side.....or both.......if its the bass or both your out of luck....if its just the normal side, well, you might well be able to soundproof the room using slightly cheaper methods, ie insulation materials and thick hanging rugs etc.....still wont make a whole lot of difference but will deaden the sound a bit...
 
How about headphones?

Sorry, not meant to be flippant, but bass is a hugely difficult thing to kill.

It's because if it's loud and powerful it vibrates the walls, floor and ceiling which resonate and act as a speaker themselves.

It'll be made worse if you have a suspended wooden floor as the cavity underneath acts as an air spring.

If you have a concrete floor, then no amount of slabs under the speaker will help as it is already as rigid as it s going to get. That means the transmision is through the wall. Not an easy, or cheap, fix.

Unfortunately, when we were young (ahem...now I feel old) we all had the same problem, with neighbours you have to be tolerant. I listened to music on 'phones for years before I got a place where I could do my own thing.

Sorry can't be more helpful.

K
 
Thanks guys, really apreciate the help :)

My house is an ex council house, my parents own it now, in the morning and night i either play music out of my speakers really quiet, or i use headphones, sometimes in the day i would like to play loud music, but i think next door get angry at the smallest sound of my music, i mean non of my other neighbours care, i have to shut my windows now just to play music becouse if there outside and hear it, they will shout at me, its music and bass that annoys them, but bass is the worst :(, its really annoying that neighbours wont tollerate any bass at all :(
 
well, strange as it might sound to you, some people really cant cope with bass, i dont mean they dont like it, but it causes discomfort in their mind hearing/feeling it.........so it may not be a case of your neighbours being picky, but perhaps it gives one of them headaches.....ok it kinda sucks for you, but we all have to do our bit to live in harmony....

me personally i like music and bass regardless, in fact i actually find when i have a headache if i put on some DJ Krush (intelligent/jazz drum'n'bass) it actually soothes me...lol...whereas my mum gets a headache and prefers complete and total silence....each to their own...

dont worry, one day when you move out, make sure you find a place where one of the rooms is not sharing a wall with the neighbours and you should be able to pound it out, just be patient ;)
 
I lived in a council flat years ago and was consistently annoyed by a downstairs resident who liked his music loud and bassy. I can't emphasise enough how depressing and annoying other peoples taste in music can be when it's at their convenience and it invades your living space. There's nowhere left to run to when it's your own house that is being invaded.

As you will see from my signature, I like it loud and full bandwidth, but when you live in close proximity to others, their needs MUST come first. There is no arguement against this.

Turn it down and be patient until you have a place of your own where you can turn it up. Loud music is a priviledge, not a right. Otherwise you'll have a neigbour on your hands, kicking your front door in and then your speakers, when they finally snap. Just like mine did.

Russell
 
buy a gheto blaster and go sit in the park :thumbsup: the ducks may attack you if there's too much bass mind :devil:
 
Heh, my neighbour wont be kicking my door down, he rings the council, he wouldent dare kick come around, infact he bangs sometimes to annoy me, ummm i am lucky my speaker system aint too powerfull, but i do try to keep it down, but when there out i max the speaker system out to were the point the sub is bottoming out, i have the logitech z5500, sometimes, usually 5 mins a day i play really loud music, but even quiet music will sound loud next door, i go to the wall, and the bass is like 3 times louder to were i sit :(, and its not even loud, my problem proberbly could easilly be solved by moving to the other side of the house, but my parents wont swap the bedrooms, then i could have my music as loud as i want when i want, because no one is bothered exept my nextdoor neighbour, my house is semi detached so there is no one on the left, and the room has ummm a little like cupboard hole or somthing i could put the sub in, i know most people can easilly cope with listning to quiet music all the time, but i cant :(, i wish i would, i hate the fact i love bass, i wish my old neighbours still lived there, they wouldent be bothered, they had 3 children, i was freinds with one of them, used to shout through the walls at each other :p, so they wouldent mind bass :D
 
willz said:
Thanks guys, really apreciate the help :)

My house is an ex council house, my parents own it now, in the morning and night i either play music out of my speakers really quiet, or i use headphones, sometimes in the day i would like to play loud music, but i think next door get angry at the smallest sound of my music, i mean non of my other neighbours care, i have to shut my windows now just to play music becouse if there outside and hear it, they will shout at me, its music and bass that annoys them, but bass is the worst :(, its really annoying that neighbours wont tollerate any bass at all :(

As a neighbour going through this from the 'other side', I think unless you actually go inside your neighbour's house and hear for yourself how much the bass intrudes in their house then you won't be able to understand fully.
Is your neighbours house adjoing to yours? Maybe that's why they complain. We have adjoining walls (livingroom, our bedroom and the kids bedroom) with the neighbours we are having problems with. I think our neighbours feel as you do and that we're OTT and that 'nobody else complains' That is because nobody else has 3 adjoining walls with them and nobody else has to listen to the bass through the walls when they have their music on in their living room so they can hear it in the garden!
When they have their music on loud (sometimes like they're in a nightclub, which fills our whole house) it really does hurt my ears and my head throbs like I have high blood pressue.
Also as we put up with it for almost a year before compling to housing (the neighbours got aggressive when we tried to tak to them) my nerves are shot. the sound of a truck going along the street sounds like their music starting up.

I'm looking for soundproofing also, so we don't have to endure the noise.

Please, try to take on board when your neighbours complain, it might be really awful from their house. We all have to get along enough to live so close together, so getting rid of tension is best for everyone.

I hope you can find a neutral ground with them.
 
willz said:
Heh, my neighbour wont be kicking my door down, he rings the council, he wouldent dare kick come around, infact he bangs sometimes to annoy me, ummm i am lucky my speaker system aint too powerfull, but i do try to keep it down, but when there out i max the speaker system out to were the point the sub is bottoming out, i have the logitech z5500, sometimes, usually 5 mins a day i play really loud music, but even quiet music will sound loud next door, i go to the wall, and the bass is like 3 times louder to were i sit :(, and its not even loud, my problem proberbly could easilly be solved by moving to the other side of the house, but my parents wont swap the bedrooms, then i could have my music as loud as i want when i want, because no one is bothered exept my nextdoor neighbour, my house is semi detached so there is no one on the left, and the room has ummm a little like cupboard hole or somthing i could put the sub in, i know most people can easilly cope with listning to quiet music all the time, but i cant :(, i wish i would, i hate the fact i love bass, i wish my old neighbours still lived there, they wouldent be bothered, they had 3 children, i was freinds with one of them, used to shout through the walls at each other :p, so they wouldent mind bass :D

The bold bit in your post certainly won't help your cause, you're probably overdriving everything which will throw out all sorts of noise. I realise you said when they're out, but it's probably being heard outside by others and you know how people bitch behind your back. There are possibly other people moaning, but they haven't taken steps.

Some better kit might help, I don't mean that nastily, but more powerful kit, run at lower settings will probably sound quieter to neighbours and still give the same output. The only downside is you get tempted to turn it up, which only exacerbates the problem.
As for cutting down the sound to them, standard practice is a partition wall.
DIY, it needn't cost mega money, just some 4X2 battons, some plasterboard and then fill the gap with Rockwool. This can give massive reduction in sound and may be worth considering.
As has been said, making the peace and actually going round their house and listening would be invaluable. It also indicates to them that you're not doing it on purpose and want to do something about it.
Otherwise, you're going to have to live with it, in which case I understand your frustration. There is nothing worse than putting some music on and worrying about whether it's too loud, even though you know you're being reasonable. I've been in that situation.
Now they've complained, they can instigate proceedings quite quickly, which involves keeping logs of any noise over a given time period, before a prosecution. In these days of confiscation and ASBO's etc I don't envy you.

Having said that, I've also been on the receiving end of noise and it definitely isn't funny.
Best of luck mate
 
Thanks, when my room gets wall papered i will ask my parents about a using rockwool and all that to reduce the sound, i do want to sort it, i feel like i am a bad person now just because i like to play music loud :(, next door must think of me as scum, i suppose i dont need to go around to see what the noise is causing, i just go to the room at the other side of the house, shut all doors, and that give me a preety rough idea, and i think when its loud, it's preety bad, but on days when i do play loud music, its really all combined into about 30mins :\.
 
And you think 30 mins of loud music is ok? If someone has complained about it then obviously it is a problem for them and you need to deal with it, i.e stop doing it until you get your own place. Its called respect....

As has been said before your house should be your haven where you can relax and forget about the outside world, not have to listen to next door blast their music out. Why not where headphones then you can have it as loud as you like. Also, from reading your posts above it seems you need x amount of loud music just to make it through the day.....
 

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