Would rigid foam insulation help to deaden sound?

[Tonelover]

Looking to attempt a few band practices here at home. I am already in pretty good shape due to having an isolated location, it's not like I have a neighbor on the other side of the wall. But, just to minimize the bass and drums from carrying outside I am thinking about just covering some of the windows. Unfortunately, 2" closed cell foam is very expensive, one of my windows is quite large. So I was looking at Lowes/Home Depot stuff and about the most workable cheap stuff I could see is rigid foam insulation. I am wondering whether a wood frame, with two layers of rigid insulation and a small gap in-between the layers, to put in front of the wondow would do any good at helping to deaden the exterior noise. I don't know what the sound properties of that stuff is but it's basically styrofoam. Or if anyone has a better suggestion for inexpensive material I'm all ears. Thanks!

 

[jlbaxe]

A soft open cell foam like in studios or sound attenuation fiberglass insulation(Really Dense) would work better. Hard foam would bounce sound more, we use to use a mattress leaning against the walls back in the day.

 

[ronjhoser]

Hard foam is not much help. You need to diffuse (scatter) the sound or absorb it, or both. You would do better hanging a few moving quilts over the window, maybe cut a piece of light plywood to size, wrap a blanket around it and stuff it into the window opening. If you have flat, hard surfaces in the room, they will reflect sound, so try to get a softer surface material or at least break up the flat surface somehow.

 

[Ventura]

Hard foam is not much help. You need to diffuse (scatter) the sound or absorb it, or both. You would do better hanging a few moving quilts over the window, maybe cut a piece of light plywood to size, wrap a blanket around it and stuff it into the window opening. If you have flat, hard surfaces in the room, they will reflect sound, so try to get a softer surface material or at least break up the flat surface somehow.

Yep, part of this is why walling in studios, vocal booths and the like are large-ripple or diamond patterned. Believe it or not, egg containers were something I used back in the day in my 'yoot' and it worked wonders. Since then, soft density ripple foam, sonic absorption pads, and rubberized medium density platforms under the drums and cabs makes for less sound transference through the bones of the building.

Mo

 

[Bob Savage]

Keep in mind that for deadening bass frequencies, the bigger the air gap the better. The foam itself will make virtually no difference in and of itself.

 

[BeZo]

My buddy's barn has the windows covered with moving blankets. It works just fine.

In fact, when I helped him paint his barn, we put music on his PA and opened the windows. We couldn't hear shit until we moved the blankets though. It gave us a pretty good idea of what the blankets do if you couldn't hear much with them up and the windows open. I mean, you could hear noise, but couldn't make out anything, and we had the mains pointed out the windows.

At my guitarist's house, he just covered the walls and windows with carpet, but we are still loud. Luckily, he lives in the ghetto, where noise is a competition and not a complaint.

 

[Tonelover]

Cool, I'm looking in to the moving blankets. Seems the best recommended are called Producer's Choice moving blankets and they are pretty heavy duty, something like 8 pounds. Seems that Lowes and Home Depot have el cheapos but Harbor Freight tools here locally has some five pounders for about $9 apiece. Think that might be good enough to give me a run for my money? We're not looking to blast the walls off here if I do it. Thanks!

http://www.harborfreight.com/72-inch-x- ... 66537.html

 

[NS10Fan]

moving blankets will deaden a room but won't do jack for bass\kick stuff...especially bass. maybe a couple db...it'll help high freq stuff a lil bit. if you can create a room inside a room that'll help. you really need space and\or the good stuff. ;-)

 

[BeZo]

Cool, I'm looking in to the moving blankets. Seems the best recommended are called Producer's Choice moving blankets and they are pretty heavy duty, something like 8 pounds. Seems that Lowes and Home Depot have el cheapos but Harbor Freight tools here locally has some five pounders for about $9 apiece. Think that might be good enough to give me a run for my money? We're not looking to blast the walls off here if I do it. Thanks!

http://www.harborfreight.com/72-inch-x- ... 66537.html

Harbor Freight is where we acquired the blankets I mentioned.