Cheap sound proofing............

[Meathead]

One of the most effective methods for sound proofing are air gaps. The room in a room methodology is very expensive, but very effective. Bigger air gaps equal better reduction on the outside. There are simulation methods using staggered studs, risilient channels, etc., but it must be done right otherwise you'll transfer sound right through the walls.

Did this in my old house. Totally fished a room with Roxul insulation behind drywall, then framed again with 2x4's a room inside...drywalled both sides of the inner room's walls and ceiling, again used Roxul insulation above and in between walls and ceiling, used resilient channeling,
Was a pain in the butt and probably won't do that again, but my wife could read a book directly above the drum room and not hear a thing.

 

[glpg80]

if you do it this way it works amazingly. its in his basement which was unfinished, concrete walls on 3 of the 4 walls.

we built a partition - then enclosed the room ceiling and all with particle board. the partition was just your average 2x4 wall with 16" studs. for the concrete walls, we centered the particle board pieces and used washers/tappet masonry screws to secure the boards to the wall.

after we had all of the wierd shapes cut out of the rest of the pieces and the 1 or 2 pieces thick of the matress/memory knock off foam glued, we screwed those pieces staggered on the walls and ceiling.

on the ceiling we just glued/tacked leftover foam to the pieces we hung. we didnt put anything inbetween the rafters, we figured the particle board and all of the foam would do more than what we need.

the cutout squares and triangles let us move/re-arange them to our needs. wasnt hard to rescrew them where we wanted - also the thicker boarding behind the foam helps a bit to rotate the foam squares.

you can have a conversation up stairs and be playing drums or be playing at band practice volumes and its basically like a low volume radio. it really cut down on the noise/vibration and for such a large room we have a full 8 piece mapeg drumset, 1000W bass head, 1x15, 4x10 bass cabinets, my 2 4x12 cabinets, a third 5150 cabinet he uses, and both of our heads. we spent maybe $650 for all the parts/nails/screws/tacks/wood/glue/foam

if you do it, i should let you know that everyone else is right about building a room inside a room. i think we ended up with about 31 pieces of 4'x8' in the back of the truck. the concrete was TERRIBLE for PA feedback - we had to put wood up on all of the walls before we could screw our memory foam pieces anywhere. but it works great for what it is.

anyways good luck. thats what we did and it worked out pretty good. but hanging 4'x8' sheets on a ceiling is far from fun. i still remember doing that

 

[MichaelG]

One of the most effective methods for sound proofing are air gaps. The room in a room methodology is very expensive, but very effective. Bigger air gaps equal better reduction on the outside. There are simulation methods using staggered studs, risilient channels, etc., but it must be done right otherwise you'll transfer sound right through the walls.

Did this in my old house. Totally fished a room with Roxul insulation behind drywall, then framed again with 2x4's a room inside...drywalled both sides of the inner room's walls and ceiling, again used Roxul insulation above and in between walls and ceiling, used resilient channeling,
Was a pain in the butt and probably won't do that again, but my wife could read a book directly above the drum room and not hear a thing.

The fact that this is a pain in the ass is an understatement. I went whole-hog on a room within a room, complete with isolation techniques that reduce the flanking noise to pretty much nothing. I cringe at the thought of all of the labour and materials I have put into it. Sure is mighty effective though... I would probably do it all again if I had to.

It doesn't look like you want a full-blown engineering project on your hands because thats what it can quickly turn into, as I discovered. My sound-proofing project started when I read through a lot of the John Sayers site, the introduction http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3231 and the reference section are very useful http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2125. I then bought the Rod Gervais book on building a studio and then designed my room. The green glue site also has links to studies and formal STC tests http://www.greengluecompany.com/transmissionLossTests.php.

I think that you have to start by using your total budget to help you choose your target STC (see http://www.greengluecompany.com/understandingSTC.php). Then come up with a design.

Things like egg-cartons, mattresses, heavy blankets etc help to dampen sound but will not deal with serious considerations such as flanking noise, and will also not be very effective at blocking the lower frequencies as has been said above.