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Home mixing without agitated neighbours?
Hey
I just joined this forum and I was hoping someone could help me with one thing right in the beginning.
I have a gorgeus home studio in my living room, with to MK5's and a DJM600 mixer all plugged into a great pioneer amp and four speakers. well, now my neighbour is pissed off
!
I will not stop playing music and he will not stop bugging me. He's so stupid that he has his bedroom under my livingroom He's the chairman of our house board of dierctors so he's threatened to kick me out although I own the flat.
So now guys help me out! How can I make my flat as soundproof as possible without having to soundproof the walls, floor and ceiling with thinck boards? Is there any good tricks you know? My spekaers are currently situated on a shelf, fixed to two walls and one is standing on a table. I know it sopunds a bit messy but it works, and the great thing is I have cables to them going under the floor.
But to make this problem even more challenging for you to solve:
None of my speakers are directly on the floor, the only one you could call being on the floor is one of the speaker that is fixed/standing on this shelfthing, it's like a lower wall standing out from the rest of the place that creates like a shelf close to the roof, it used to be a fireplace I think..
-and-
I HAVENT EVEN LINKED MY SUBWOOFER TO THE SYSTEM YET!
My speakers are really small, I have two JBL control 1 spekaers that aren't bad for home mxing and two old pioneer bookshelf speakers so to say..
I messed up the problem even more didn't I?
So please please please, *puppyeyes*, help me guys, I really really really don't want to destory my homestudio 
Well there are afew things you could do, the simplest being having your music turned right down, but you don't wanna do that, if these speakers you are using are floorstanders, this is your main problem as since they are on the floor, the vibrations travel threw the floor alot easier, your best bet is to have them raised off the ground somewhat, but this is probably not something you want to do either, or you could buy some nice monitors and have them on some stands, the stands will dramatically reduce the vibrations threw the floor, but this means spending alot of money, and not using your current sound setup.
Theres not much as far as I know for soundproofing the floor, like I said before, the best bet is to have as little contact between the speakers and the floor to reduce vibrations.
My final peice of advice, which I have personal experience with, is when you have someone complaining about the music, you turn it up or add more speakers to the mix, I suggest a nice big ass bass bin, something like this 60 inch woofer below..
then you can show that ****** what is really LOUD music.
Thats the way I have dealt with people when I think there complaining for music that really isn't very loud, it has been effective and fun.
^^^ Amen!!! 
lol @ Danny's reply 
I used to have a neighbour who used to get really bad migraines a lot... she was very polite about it, never complained about the music as such but the kind thing to do was obviously to keep noise to a minimum.
I just learnt to always mix entirely in the headphones and just left my monitors turned off nearly all of the time when having a mix. It's a good skill to have (it improves your ability to differentiate between tracks and means you can get by fine if you have a gig on a setup with shite monitors or weird acoustics) and it means that you don't piss your housemates/neighbours off.
Even though I don't live next to her anymore, I still always just mix in the headphones and don't even turn my monitors on when I'm just having a practice mix, recording a demo etc. Means I can have a mix at 3 o'clock in the morning and my housemates don't even know, let alone get pissed off with the noise, it's just a bit fairer to them
Obviously when a mate comes round we crank it up a bit 
why do you need your music turned up loud if your only playing to yourself? stop being selfish and turn it down problem solved.
Also why did you buy loud speakers you must of known before you bought them that you couldnt have them up loud.
to sleepydragon: Yeah I knew that, but both you and I know that trance is not meant to be played at low volumes. Now I'm playing it at around 35 decibel, which is lower than human normal talk.. My speakers aren't that huge But yeah, I get your point, but you get mine too I hope and my problem remains, coz I won't turn the music down to minimum minimum..
There is no way you're getting complaints if you're playing your music at 35db. No way in hell. The sensitivity of those speakers is probably over 100db @ 1watt/1meter. Add the fact that you have more that one watt and you're well above 100db.
Hm okay, well thats what my neighbour said, coz in finland the rules of the houses is that you cannot play music louder than 55 db, measured from the other apartment, meaning my neighbours apartment, and he said the sound was about 60, so I lowered it, and now it travels through the walls to his apartment, and he says he can hear it as clear as if me and my friends would be having a discussion.. not very nice eh? I think he's a bit of a freak, have a feeling he's listening all the time.. Feel abit sorry for the goy
tell him to start listen to some fuckin music and stop complaining
LOL go over with a radio shack meter and adjust until you hit 54db. But yeah what everyone else said put the speakers on stands should help a lot.
go down to your look supermarket, get tons of egg cartons..."recapret" your floor! 
Move somewhere else where you don't have a neighbour.
Or make a deal with the guy. You'll only play music at certain hours if he stop the whining.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Kixx have a feeling he's listening all the time.. Feel abit sorry for the goy |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by DannyO Well there are afew things you could do, the simplest being having your music turned right down, but you don't wanna do that, if these speakers you are using are floorstanders, this is your main problem as since they are on the floor, the vibrations travel threw the floor alot easier, your best bet is to have them raised off the ground somewhat, but this is probably not something you want to do either, or you could buy some nice monitors and have them on some stands, the stands will dramatically reduce the vibrations threw the floor, but this means spending alot of money, and not using your current sound setup. Theres not much as far as I know for soundproofing the floor, like I said before, the best bet is to have as little contact between the speakers and the floor to reduce vibrations. My final peice of advice, which I have personal experience with, is when you have someone complaining about the music, you turn it up or add more speakers to the mix, I suggest a nice big ass bass bin, something like this 60 inch woofer below.. then you can show that ****** what is really LOUD music. Thats the way I have dealt with people when I think there complaining for music that really isn't very loud, it has been effective and fun. |
I don't know how relevant this'll be - but how many speakers are you using?
I had a similar problem years ago when I lived at home with my Mum. Played music WAAAY too loud, and got a couple of complaints about it. But, instead of turning the music down, I just unplugged everything except a single monitor that played into my right ear. As that took care of single ear monitoring, and something to listen to with the headphones off - it worked perfectly.
And the bonus was, as I was only using one speaker (instead of 7) I could still play it just as loud from the amp - the perceived volume to me was exactly the same, but the actualy dB level was a lot less.
Oh, and when I was just 'mixin' intead of recording, I switched the output to Mono - so I wouldn't have to worry about loss of stereo info. (Though God knows if that made much of a difference).
Good luck with it though - the only thing more annoying than being told to turn your music down is growing up, living in a flat, and having to go upstairs and ASK someone to turn it down...
Turn your bass down.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by epdarks Turn your bass down. |
Thnx DJ Recess for ur help. I've got four speakers, and I usually use all of them, but I'll try with having only the monitor on. I'm getting a sound expert called in soon, coz I AIN'T MOVIN', N' I won't stop playin' either 
I'll let you know what solution I came to. I might try and settle a little with the guy but I just heard he's a lawyer, and he sued a family because they're daugther practiced playing the tuba during the day.. uh-oh
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Orbital32 go down to your look supermarket, get tons of egg cartons..."recapret" your floor! |
Before it gets any nastier between you and your neighbour try talking to him, finding out when he's not home and you can practice without annoying him. Once the relationship sours too much he's going to be a prick about everything.
Also show consideration, it doesn't take much of a beat from next door to really piss you off, especially if your doing quiet activities yourself. Maybe set something playing at what you consider reasonable volume and ask if you can go into his place to hear how loud that goes through.
I have to say that the attitude that you won't stop either making the noise or move to a more suitable location really won't leave him many options other than to proceed with noise complaints. You might see him as unreasonable, but he's certainly going to see you that way, and with noise complaints he is going to win if he pushes it
Is your house made out of paper?
post up your neighbours address on a canibalism forum website and hopefully he dissapears soon
do you have carpets on the floor or anything on the walls? i know those really absorb sound. also i'd suggest playing music like you normally do and go listen outside your apartment how it sounds like. go into the guy's apartment too and listen how it sounds and if i can get a dB meter somewhere then do and measure the sound levels. sometimes placing the speakers someplace else will reduce the noise that travels through the walls and floors substantially. also try to get along with the ****** downstairs and come to an agreement with him about times and sound levels etc.
i know shitty neighbors can be drag. i've had my share of them too. and for some people nothing is enough. in those cases you just have to be like a "normal person" and ignore the ****** next doors (though this might not work in your case if the ******'s a lawyer).
| quote: |
| Originally posted by DannyO My final peice of advice, which I have personal experience with, is when you have someone complaining about the music, you turn it up or add more speakers to the mix, I suggest a nice big ass bass bin, something like this 60 inch woofer |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Kixx he's a lawyer, and he sued a family because they're daugther practiced playing the tuba during the day.. uh-oh |
Trance android: He is a prick! good thing you noticed, some seems to blame me for everything I am a good girl, I really am, and I don't play loud!
I've tried to settle with him, I put a note in his mailbox trying to settle an appoitment so I could go into his flat and listen and see what I could do, but he never rang although I saw him few days after and asked him he just said that he'd call me. Never did. All people hate him here
My house is really old, like 1906 or something, and the walls are made fo stone but since I live in the old attic the floor between me and him can be thinner than the other ones..
But I talked to a guy at work who knew about stuff like this and he said that the best way is to build "a room in the room" so that you put boards up with some material that kills sound up on the orginal ones with some space in between so the walls become so called "flowing". Same goes for ceiling and floor. He said it basically should kill all the sound that currently flows through the walls, it's a larger project to do but, hm, worth having a thought..
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