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July 27

Home soundproofing for musicians

I'll be moving house soon. I play electric guitar and sing, and I'd like to be able to practice without disturbing the neighbours, so I'm looking for ideas on soundproofing. Google's not much help - I've found plenty of advice on soundproofing a home studio so no external noise gets in when you're recording, and some on making a room that a whole band, including drummer, can rehearse in, which is more than I need. Anyone have any thoughts, links etc on how to achieve my objective? --Nicknack009 (talk) 10:37, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Start here so you have a basic understanding of Soundproofing. A lot of the materials can be improvised. 196.213.35.146 (talk) 12:14, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

An electric guitar played through Headphones is hardly audible and won't disturb anyone. AllBestFaith (talk) 12:28, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

lol. Still a room in a big room 41.13.200.77 (talk) 21:39, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

That's true. I have an audio interface so I can play my guitar through headphones, or through my PC speakers, which are much better at low volumes than my guitar amp. Reducing the audibility of my singing is more of a problem. Singing quietly doesn't help me practice the kind of techniques I need to use when performing.

One thing occurs to me - I have a lot of books. Would a bookcase along the party wall, full of books, provide any useful soundproofing? --Nicknack009 (talk) 12:35, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

See Soundproofing#Absorption. Solid dense materials - like books - will actually transmit sound quite well - especially if the bookcase is against the wall. It may work if you used it as one of the walls in a (edit) room within a room - acoustic decoupling. 196.213.35.146 (talk) 12:49, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You could try something like this http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=338869 It is kinda a "rwar". Like I said above - you could improvise something like that with material from Lowe's or the like. I don't know who lives above/below you but I understand you share a wall with someone. So "the vibration passes directly through the brick, woodwork and other solid structural elements." It's not so much what to do but more what not to do. Mitigate the transmission depending on your setup. The poster aka 196.213.35.146 41.13.216.144 (talk) 18:05, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, to decrease structural transmission, OP can get the amp off the floor. I've seen some people hang their amps from the ceiling, but that can be tricky, depending on the size. SemanticMantis (talk) 18:22, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Check with an upholsterer or even furniture makers in your area, you might be able to get free foam scraps. Soundproofing foam can get expensive quickly [1]. SemanticMantis (talk) 18:22, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

We used to stick cardboard egg trays to the wall. You can buy them from ebay [[2]]. I don't know if it worked or not.--Ykraps (talk) 14:48, 28 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The egg-carton idea is intended to reduce echoes and reverberation from the walls beneath (a kind of cheapo Anechoic chamber) - I don't think it does much to prevent transmission of sound through the walls. When I worked in student radio back in the mid-1970's, we lined the walls of our studios with egg cartons - and the deadening of echoes and reverbs was quite impressive. SteveBaker (talk) 02:50, 29 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Although there are some high tech solutions like active noise control I don't think you will find it practical. One can get double glassing filled with sulphur hexafluoride and though it is less expensive than brick walls, it may again not be practical but worth looking at. Egg trays are great for diffusing the echo (and very cheap) but not for low frequencies escaping. Anechoic foam is great for the higher frequency but for the pedal drum and bass – no good at all. In our sound lab (not a studio but a R&D lab) we had walls filled with sand. There were notices on each wall warning that holes where not to be drilled into them (as the sand would pour out). Now, we did not do this ourselves. A contractor did it. Therefore there must be contractors that can advise on a sand insulated room. Finally, you say your moving house soon – is it a 'modern' dwelling with thermally insulated wall's? They are good, most of the sound escapes through the double glazing. Consider sulphur hexafluoride glazing or a builders 6 inch thick slab of expanded polystyrene behind the window (who needs daylight when you're playing a 2 am ?) and a portable air conditioner to take away the heat (when your drummer gets going he will be pumping out lots of heat, believe me). Hope this gives you some ideas. P.S. If you find this info useful, I would like a free download of your next opus.--Aspro (talk) 13:06, 1 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Must the Federal Reserves give me gold when I give them bucks and want gold?

If they don't have to give gold when they are given bucks, then why do they have to maintain so much gold? HOTmag (talk) 21:15, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The US hasn't been on the Gold standard for quite some time and hasn't had to issue gold to other central banks in exchange for dollars since 1971 (see Nixon shock). US currency is a fiat currency, backed solely by the full faith and credit of the United States government. As for your second question, the simple answer is: to help maintain world confidence in said "full faith and credit of the US government" (see Fractional-reserve banking).--William Thweatt ^Talk^Contribs 21:37, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with WT's answers, but it should be emphasized that the gold standard and fractional reserve banking are entirely different beasts. μηδείς (talk) 22:15, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed. The fractional reserve banking link was given as more of a "see also", informational link for a simple-answer analogy (store of value and gold reserve are also instructive). A more complete answer would be complicated and would have started by pointing out that the Fed doesn't "maintain so much gold" at all -- in fact, they don't own any gold.[3] The US gold reserve is owned by the US Treasury and the Fed acts as custodian for a very small portion of it.--William Thweatt ^Talk^Contribs 22:37, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

a fiat currency, backed solely by the full faith and credit of the United States government. What, if anything, does that mean? What claim does the currency represent? What does USG promise to do? —Tamfang (talk) 06:19, 28 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

1. Keep the value steady (with some inflation because it raises employment I think) 2. Let you pay taxes with it. That's about it I think. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 07:55, 28 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Money creation gets at some of this, and is also relevant to the OP. SemanticMantis (talk) 14:10, 28 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

And for a not-literally-correct-but-perhaps-fun analogy, consider every dollar as being a speech act of the Federal govt of the USA. They say "this is a dollar", and lo, it is, by merit of that claim! Much like when your boss says "you're fired", your job becomes terminated solely by the will of some person or agency. You can ask why, or by what right, but none of that really matters, you are still fired :D SemanticMantis (talk) 14:14, 28 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

What it means, @Tamfang: is that the government will accept your cash to pay fees, fines, and taxes. Unless it decides not to, in which case see hyperinflation. μηδείς (talk) 19:40, 28 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

"Faith and credit" is a strange way to say that. —Tamfang (talk) 22:25, 28 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It (the phrase) was written (in the US founding document) in 1787 when English was weird. Maybe that's why. And the government wouldn't destroy it's economy and currency and cause a Great Depression and probably a tax revolt to get at most a few years' worth of tax money in gold (until they get voted out at the latest). Also, the income is earned in dollars, it should be taxed in dollars. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 01:44, 29 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

"Full faith" would refer to item 3, "trustworthy" in Wiktionary here, but without associating neither the writer nor the referee together with the assorted meaning of a dependent state of servitude. But the currency dissociation from gold is quite recent. --Askedonty (talk) 18:25, 29 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Article IV begins, "Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State." That's the only instance of such a phrase in the founding document. What has that to do with fiat currency, or with USG? —Tamfang (talk) 03:40, 30 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You won't get gold, but if you take your old, raggedy bills to a bank, then you can get nice new ones. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:18, 29 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

See money: "Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a particular country or socio-economic context, or is easily converted to such a form." DOR (HK) (talk) 15:00, 30 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]