[Trombone-l] Soundproofing a room

[Daryl Burch]

In high school I worked at a truck stop diner as a short order cook. 
Over the course of a month I saved every egg carton tray I could (that 
wasn't too covered in gunk) for just such purpose. Imagine the amount 
of eggs a diner goes through in a day. It adds up quick.

Anyway, yes it does work. But if you befriend some hapless schmoe 
working a diner, I strongly recommend lettin' 'em air out for a few 
weeks. Otherwise, you'll never get any practicing in, you'll become an 
insomniac AND you'll put on about 50#'s. Because as soon as you sit 
down with the horn, you'll find yourself drawn almost-zombi-like to 
your nearest waffle shack where you'll have an 4-egg Denver omelette, a 
half a pound a bacon or sausage (links or patties) with a full pot o' 
"road dope"--coffee so thick an' black it'll keep you awake for 6 or 7 
states... Then you'll stumble home and spend the rest of the day 
watching Springer reruns.

Or at least that's how I spent the summer of '89. But I digress.

Kidding aside....

I've seen the egg cartons & hi-density foam (Auralex) baffles in some 
of the dank&stanky rehearsal spaces I frequent in SF. Mainly they 
provide deflection points for the sound to bounce off of, and also 
absorption. Thick, heavy drapes--like the weight of a stage 
curtain--can do alot to dampen sound, too.

In the Dolby5.1 studio at 'Xpression in Emeryville (A/V college), the 
studio is built so that no two walls directly face each other and are 
covered with dampening baffles. The ceiling has extra dense foam blocks 
that look like an upside model of a city--all to provide deflection 
points thereby defusing echo and dicipating the sound waves.

The bigger music supplier sites (Music123, SamAsh, etc.) have 
"acoustical treatment" sections on their sites. Or your local Guitar 
Ctr.

I had a friend in Cinti, that built his studio in his basement and 
filled the walls with sand. As much as this sounds like a good idea, 
you better own the house you do it to.

So you don't have to fall prey to the diner addiction completely.       
  ......if you don't want to.

Sorry to ramble. Apparently I still had some remnants of that last pot 
o' road dope left.

-D-
www.radionoise.com




On Nov 23, 2005, at 11:26 AM, BJMCHAFFIE at aol.com wrote:

> Adrian, you are correcy on the Egg carton thing.  A restaurant in 
> Monticello
> Indiana, known as the Beaver Dam, had noise problems and stapled egg 
> cartons
> to the ceiling and walls and the noise was cut by at least half.
>
> beldon wade
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