Klarinet Archive - Posting 000753.txt from 1996/02

From: Fred Jacobowitz <fredj@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Soundless practising
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 1996 12:04:26 -0500

Tim,
Any recording engineer person should be able to tell you how to
sound-proof a room. I'll detail a few of the cheapest ways here.
1) Carpet the room (including the ceiling). This will almost do the
trick by itself. If you can't do that, carpet as much as you can (any old
one will do) and put wall hagings, such as tapestries, blankets, etc. up.
Anything to absorb the sound, Of course, this will also kill any reverb
you could have and make your sound thin and dry to the ear, sooo...
2) On top of that, put up replective surfaces such as pictures.
This will help immensely.
3) Experiment with just putting up some amount of very absorbent
material such as a foam sleeping pad (like for camping) on the wall. If
you visit recording studios you always see them with this stuff that
looks like the inside of egg cartons on the wall. You could get that
stuff too although it is a little more expensive than camping pads.
4) Now the easiest: try to practice when they are not around.
Good luck.

Fred Jacobowitz
Clarinet/Sax instructor, Peabody Preparatory

On Thu, 22 Feb 1996, Tim Wilson wrote:

> A friend has just moved into a new apartment block, 2nd floor, and does not
> want to make too much "noise" until "good relations" have been established
> with the neighbours. Is there any system (technique, gadgets, etc) for
> practising without making a lot of noise? Please note its -20 in the garage
> at the moment so that is not an option :-)
>