 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2023-02-01 21:00
Most here in the U.S. I'll bet remember the ubiquitous commercials of the first decade of our millennium where a certain spokesperson boasted of the reliability/coverage of a phone network, using this catch phrase. Eventually his contract ran out, he went to do commercials for a competitor, and the public got to realize that many mobile phone plans tend to share a communications infrastructure where boasting about superior reception became more hype than substance.
And yet, I'll bet you can guess it has nothing to with why I write, in fact the opposite: where not hearing me is the goal.
Over the past few weeks, as posted here, I've investigated mostly home grown ways of reducing the sound levels of my practice, with I admit, less than lackluster results. My layperson's research finds that the best results come from the use of different materials (as no one material excels at all forms of sound reduction,) the creation of spaces between these materials that thwart sound transfer, and the incorporation of good old fashion solid walls of substantial weight.
The goal is to have a plan in place to permit my at home practicing, while respecting the rights of neighbors more likely to hear my unfiltered play as I transition from my current stand alone house living to a more townhouse/ apartment paradigm.
I find myself left with two options. The first is to build something once the layout of future living spaces are known, my knowledge of doing so pretty good, if not the shape of my knees. And the second far more expensive route is to purchase a kit, like a Whisperoom.
Does anyone own, or know someone who owns such a soundproof space that can speak to the pros and cons of either them in general, or a particular brand of same?
TIA
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2023-02-02 02:48
Hardly inexpensive, but I love the looks of those old hardwood telephone booths. Perhaps a tight fit for practicing, but they'd make quite statement in an apartment/townhouse.
Fuzzy
;^)>>>
Post Edited (2023-02-02 02:49)
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Author: johnwesley
Date: 2023-02-02 08:18
I agree with you Fuzzy. I used to work at my friends antique shop where we rebuilt, refinished truckloads of period furniture. One truck brought us a half dozen phone booths from the 30s. Built with care and extremely sturdy. Most were Oak and when refinished looked absolutely awesome. I really wanted one, but didn't have a home big enough to accommodate it. Now that I have room for one I can't find any under a thousand dollars, and in pretty rough shape. Never thought about utilizing one as a practice "room" for clarinet but now that I think about it, it would be really cool. As for size. Consider the orchestra clarinetist sitting in that single chair with people to the left, the right, behind and in front. Not any size difference than sitting in a phone booth. Damn. Now I'm talking myself into antiquing and finding a "booth".
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2023-02-02 09:51
Clarinet play aside, I can appreciate the antique phone booth's (think the kind that were found in classy hotels or a Grand Central Station in NY of days gone by) allure as a collector's piece, complete with its bifold doors.
Perhaps, with the thinness of today's digital screens, perhaps inlayed into one of the booth's interior walls, and the musicians willingness to use digital music in lieu of paper, something might be able to be done to repurpose such booths, and still have enough space in them to play clarinet, provided better soundproofing of their doors into blocking more than hushed conversations is effected.
The reality though that I'm finding is that materials science, while not a substitute for the sound blocking abilities of mass (as stated initially) so well found in such dense wood antiques, has produced materials that on a sound attenuation/weight basis, are orders of magnitude better at blocking sound than that "Ma Bell once created."
The addition of such materials on the booth's exterior might defeat the very cache of the item.
Post Edited (2023-02-02 22:55)
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2023-02-02 16:36
I once worked in an amatuer broadcasting studio which we effectively soundproofed using nothing more hi-tech than pressed cardboard egg cartons. We would have a 5-piece rock group in the studio and you could barely hear them in the office on the other side of the wall.
Tony F.
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2023-02-02 17:13
Hi Tony,
Would that be this kind of stuff?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385068913127
I thought about soundproofing a few years ago and it seems to be very doable just by fitting insulation to the inside of the wall.
I am planning to get internal insulation for heat-proofing and that is quite a normal thing here now.
Jennifer
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