Will Sound Blankets Work in my bedroom?

rickyogima

I have done a lot of research to find a way to keep down the sound of singing practice in my bedroom. I bought some really cheap towels and sewed them together to cover my door which does help to block some sound. I learned this from watching a youtube video.

I have been thinking about buying a few of these sound blankets. One of them costs around $150.

Has anyone heard of these or have other ways to contain sound within a bedroom that is cheap? I have considered building a telephone booth box that I can assemble and take down but haven't really figured out how to do it. I live in a huge apartment complex with thin walls. Moving is out of the question right now. Renting space is way too expensive but I'm still looking around the town for a cheap spot. Also I don't like going out much during the Winter months because of the extreme cold temperatures.

https://audimute.com/pro-sound-absorption-sheet-kit

[Deleted User]

There are a lot of ways to soundproof an area. If you're just doing it to sing you really don't need a large space.
You can make a cheap sound booth by making a square frame out of small pvc pipe 1" - 1 1/2", and drape blankets over it. The heavier the blanket the better. Just don't smoke in it lol.

Peace, Tony

highmtn

Those sound blankets are really thick and heavy but they're really expensive. There are "surplus" stores like "Harbor Freight" in the U.S. that sell kind of cheaply-made tools. You can buy "moving blankets" from them for pretty low prices. They are just used to cover furniture in moving vans, to help keep furniture from getting scratched while in-transit. A few of those might work as well as a "sound blanket" for less money. Most "sound-proofing" schemes I've tried over the years never quite did what I had hoped they would do. Egg cartons, fiberglass batting on the walls, acoustical tiles... It's hard to find anything that really works. One of the best things I ever saw, that was relatively small was called "Hear Here". I was working in loud refineries and factories. The noise level was incredibly loud. At various locations there would be a "hear here" and you could put your head there and hear a telephone to carry on a conversation, or someone could come there and the two of you could hear one another in the midst of the roar of the factory, at conversational level. It was just a small corner of perforated metal, with sound-absorbing material behind the perforated metal covering. It just sucked all of the noise into the absorbent material and didn't let it come back out. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dLvjjepWqR4/TxCgBd_pahI/AAAAAAAABus/5Oiql50Q2v4/s1600/IMG_0220.jpg I guess behind the perforated metal was a mini anechoic chamber. It was amazing. The decibel level just got dropped about 30 dB between those perforated walls. I think if you sang into the center of that Hear Here, nobody ten feet away would hear much of anything, let alone someone next door.

rickyogima

thanks @highmtn and yea will check out the prices of moving blankets: I never heard of the hear-here box but looks interesting

highmtn

Probably building something along the lines of the Hear Here would give you a way to really cut down the volume of your voice to others. You could also wear headphones and use a mic and mixer with a headphone jack, within the home-made Hear Hear to help you hear yourself and the playback of your workouts without others hearing so much of it. It's the shape of the enclosure and the absorbtive qualities of the inside material that help to create the acoustics of it. One of the good qualities of something like that is that you aren't enclosed in a box. You might be able to make a table-top version to use at a desk or shelf.

I don't think those microphone shields that they sell for 2 or 3 hundred dollars really enclose you enough to do what a Hear Here does. You could Build one out of plywood with hinges that let you fold it up or put it together with velcro straps. The anechoic material would probably be the most expensive part, but egg-crate mattress material MIGHT work. Or Fiberglass insulation with burlap to keep it contained.

Might work as well or better than an expensive sound blanket.

rickyogima

I discovered this vocal booth that looks similar to that workstation you described @highmtn . Looks great but and only $1000 and for that money I can build an entire booth.

https://www.isovoxbooth.com

[Deleted User]

Go to your local thrift store that sells clothing, furniture, and see if they have some cheap heavy blankets, and just build a frame for it.

bennybestin

Yes, I am using [url=https://www.acousticalfencing.com/product/acoustical-blankets/]acoustical blankets[/url]. These are sound blocking and sound sorption barriers that combine mass, flexibility, and limpness to block noise from transmitting from one area to another. They are available clear, non-reinforced, and reinforced in a variety of weights and styles to meet a multitude of applications.

robi17

Yeh, It is really good to block any type of sound I like these sound blankets but I use a noise barrier. It protects the house from the hands of all the words that come from the outside.