New appartement, one wall needs to be soundproofed for music room + home theater

S

soulgolem

Audiophyte
Hello all ! I'm very new here, and new to the world of soundproofing, I spent a lot of days on forum research before posting here and now I just need to cover specifics.

Here is a drawing of what the apartment I just moved in looks like, I chose this one in particular because of many reasons, but the most important one being that I intend to make music (jams, record music, mixing projects) and the room that will serve this purpose in not adjacent to any neighbors, downstairs being a business closed on evenings and the outside world + other apartment rooms on other sides.

The living room and kitchen are one big room only separated by a little corner.



I also intend to throw the occasional party in the living room and enjoy a home theater setup with considerate volume and don't want to disturb the neighbors at night so I will be covering the music room and living room with acoustic panels to attenuate echos and unwanted reverberation, I'm hoping this will help reduce volume in the apartment.

After reading a lot about soundproofing, I realize this will not be enough so I'm considering soundproofing the living room wall (Wall (A)) that is adjacent to the neighbor's master bedroom. The windows in the living room extend all the way from one wall to the other, so I only have about 3/4 of an inch that I can use to add mass to the wall before getting onto the windows' frames. I also cannot open the wall and place mineral wool or fiberglass in between the wall studs so I'm hoping there's already something there to help with that.

Considering all this, here is what I thought of doing to help with the situation :

1 - Get green glue and add another layer of drywall on top of the existing one
2 - Since I won't have space left to add any other layer of mass because of the window frames, I thought of covering the entire wall surface with 2" Roxul Rockboard 40 mineral wool and just covering the whole thing with a big blanket, would that help at all ? if so how much worth ?

Since I'm mostly concerned with low frequencies, I know rockboard 60 or 80 would be more appropriate, but it is much more expensive, I could go for it if it'd really make the difference but I'm just not sure with the whole concept of a wall of mineral wool, it's the only extra thing I can think of anyway because of the window frames limitation.

3 - maybe a layer of exposed thin mass loaded vinyl in between the roxul and the new drywall ? (it's getting really costly now).

In summary it'd go like this : sound -> layer of rockboard -> new drywall -> green glue -> old drywall -> whatever's inside with the studs -> neighbor's drywall -> neighbor's bedroom.


I would really appreciate any knowledge and opinions on my project, so please let me know all your thoughts.
Thank you so much.
Francis.
 
S

soulgolem

Audiophyte
I understand complete soundproofing is not possible with this setup, but how much can I expect from this ? bass could be lower in the living room, but I expect to be a little louder in the music room.
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
The ultimate answer, if it were me and I wanted to make music, would be to move. Even the level that you are talking about is going to be more work than I would ever do in an apartment unless I OWNED it. You might just consider non-permanent room treatments to reduce the amount of sound getting to that wall, but realistically, in an apartment I don't think you will achieve a level that LOUD music will not be heard by your neighbors.
 
S

soulgolem

Audiophyte
The ultimate answer, if it were me and I wanted to make music, would be to move. Even the level that you are talking about is going to be more work than I would ever do in an apartment unless I OWNED it. You might just consider non-permanent room treatments to reduce the amount of sound getting to that wall, but realistically, in an apartment I don't think you will achieve a level that LOUD music will not be heard by your neighbors.
I guess i can't expect complete soundproofing, but now I'm wondering if doing what I want would have a mattering impact, I mean, if I can get a couple more decibels on my side, it would do some good.
 
just-some-guy

just-some-guy

Audioholic Field Marshall
try out what you have. perhaps you can get away with more than your think. ya never know until you try.
 
D

Daveguy

Audiophyte
Panels!

Big spacious apartment! Do you rent or own? If you own, then I would certinaly use Peacemaker on the shared wall, with 5/8" thick drywall. Easy, effective and affordable, you'll be sure to notice a difference of the sound transfer from one room to the next.

In the music room and living room, utilize some Absorption.. like Acoustic Panels. Panels by Audimute are so sweet looking - they have unlimited amounts of images you could place on them, standard or custom colors too! Having these in the space will help decrease the loudness inside and will eliminate the echo and bounce.

Dave
 
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