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Moving to a Condo...Volume Issues

I feel as though I have a small situtation on my hands. My current living location allows me to play my records as loud as I want, but come June I'll be moving into a high rise condo. Needless to say I won't be able to pound out the tunes at the volume levels that I currently use.

So I'm looking for suggestions how to make DJ'ing work in the condo.
I guess I'm looking at headphone mixing or maybe a new set of speakers that will be ideal for lower volume levels.

Can anyone provide some insight as to the best way to tackle my problem?

Thanks

start collecting egg boxes mate!!!

serious, take a look at nunurg.it and look on the studio section, it obviously works!!!

max

I feel for you man, I live in a condo and am in a similar situation. First of all, does the condo have concrete walls (floor/ceiling as well)? That will make a huge difference. Unfortunately for me, I don't have concrete walls.

What I did though was talk to my neigbour... we did a sound test to see how loud I could have it before she could hear the kick drums through the wall. The only noise that travels through the walls for me is the bass. If you keep the bass down a little bit, you can turn up the music much louder. Speak to your neibours, they'll appreciate the courtesy.

When I buy my next condo, concrete walls will definitely be a priority.

Liam brings up some good points. It is the long waves of the low frequencies that make it through the walls. This is why I don't have a sub, I don't want to spend a couple hundred bucks on one and just have people complain whenever I use it. When I mix with just my bookshelf speakers (they only go down to ~45 Hz) I can have it go real loud and hardly hear it outside.

quote:

Originally posted by auujay When I mix with just my bookshelf speakers (they only go down to ~45 Hz) I can have it go real loud and hardly hear it outside.

So if I were to buy new speakers I'm looking for 45 Hz or lower? Afraid I don't know much about the science side of sound waves.

Liam, the walls are concrete, so maybe I won't have to worry.

I think your better off mixing in your headphones. You can go as loud as you can stand, and no one will ever hear it.

quote:

Originally posted by amartinathome Liam, the walls are concrete, so maybe I won't have to worry.

you lucky bastard.

quote:

Originally posted by DFOP04 start collecting egg boxes mate!!! serious, take a look at nunurg.it and look on the studio section, it obviously works!!! max

I wonder how they got the clock and the records secured on the wall of egg cartons, did they just nails through it?

btw the link is www.nunrg.it for anybody who had trouble..

just a crazy idea...but why not just turn down the volume to where its still listenable, but not too loud for your neighbors???

I had the same problem. I never found a good solution. I bought some really nice Edirol studio monitors (can't find them on their site any more) with just a 5 1/4 driver. My neighbors still complained all the time. I ended up renting a practice space. Now I have two Mackie 18s and nobody complains. It's more fun to practice with 1800 watts of base anyway.

Great info. Here's my plan:

-I'm going to look at getting some new speakers with a lowend response of 55Hz++
-I'm going to buy a bottle of Canadian Club for my neighbours
-I think the concrete walls will help quite a bit
-I'm ditching my friends and gonna start hangin' out with other DJ's who have the resources to rent pratice facilities

I think that about covers it.

Why don't you just murder your neighbors?

An older friend of mine just recently moved out of his parents house and purchased a condo, he has the same sort of problem except he said, he has never gotten a single complaint from his neighbours, but he got a very large complaint from the condo below him, beleive it or not. I dunno if its the design/construction of the condominium or what, because its not like he has subs on the ground or something, he just uses a fair pair of mackies. Maybe the people below him are just extremely quiet, and picky?

In band class you would have those projections on the walls that absorbed sound. Maybe you could get some of these to help you out. Just an idea.

First off bass will travel through to the floor before anything. I don't have any problems but with the downstairs neighbor. Now as I'm moving into another apartment I would like to get some foam to put on the walls and under the carpet, but after some research I found that its EXTREMELY expensive. And as for the egg crate foam, the biggest misconception is that it blocks sound. Most studios you see that are covered in it are mainly for better acoustics. But read what I read and look at all the options you have. Hope this helps, there's a lot of info on this site:


www.soundprooffoam.com


Good Luck,

-Steve

quote:

Originally posted by Steven Hays www.soundprooffoam.com

Thanks Steve. But the stuff on that site looks ultra expensive. I'd rather buy records.

Anyway, I think I'm just going to wing it and see what shakes out (kind of like my DJing style).

using carpets and having stuff on your walls is a good thing to absorb the sound a bit. if you have bare walls and floors, the sound will go thru much better. i've even heard of people hanging nice looking carpets on their walls, like huge modern paintings, just to absorb the sound.

talk to the neighbors first, seriously many people will put up with annoying noise for alittle while, then they get pissed and complain to the authorities or someone above you.....usually they skip you and try to get you in trouble.

If you talk to them first, tell them to come to you and you will adjust the volume as needed, or have them tell you bad days and times to pracitce.....


hopefully they are not all old people.

I just moved into an aparment, and i was suprised at the situation after i moved in.

The walls are thicker than you think and i think you will find that you wont have as big problems as you think.

Test it out for a while, and see how it works, ive blared music then went up to the next floor to a freinds house and you cant hear anything.

give it a couple weeks when you move in.

I'd have to agree with many of the others on the "ask the neighbors first" idea. If their not total dicks they wont mind.

Lucky for me I live in a college apartment across the street from campus, so my neighbors dont really mind. but then again I dont have a bad ass system to crank it really loud anyway.

i used to get tons of complaints from the girl downtstairs...

which was a complete surprise to me since I have my Alesis elevated about 6 ft in the air on stands...i even went the extra step to try and accomadate the bitch by putting some dynomat under the stands, but the sound is so awesome from them it really has little/no effect.



the girl moved out this semester (i may have had something to do with that) and now I try to limit my sessions to the afternoon instaed of 3 in the morning. haven't had any copmlaints yet this semester

it all depends on how you handle your neighbors i would suggest talking to them right off the bat also its a good idea to use some carpeting and the reason that the foam stuff is so expensive is because its probably studio grade stuff and they always charge tons for that.

I live in a condo on the 9th floor and I get complain from my neighbor just underneath me. She is nice enough to come to my door and tell me to turn it down. Really, I don't mind if she says it nicely. But If the situation gets worse, I'll just move out of the place.

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