Soundproofing house door - any advice gratefully received!

Denalihighway

Hi lads n lassies,

Below is a picture of a door This 'ere door I'm trying to soundproof as best as possible. I realise there are limits to what I can achieve, but I'm treating my room for mixing and recording and as well treating it acoustically, I'm trying to stop noise escaping through that door. There is a living room about 2.5 metres away...

I've looked a few tutorials online and I'm going to do it in due course. I just wondered if you guys had any do's n don'ts? - a lot of the tutorials are for the US etc - different door and lock types etc.

- can I use rubber seals that go on the door and seal over the gap, or must a shave the door and have the seals between the door and the frame?

- I plan on swapping out the handle / lock for something circular that will stop that flow of air also.

- I'll probably go the acoustic foam route on the side of the door on view in the photo - then will probably hang a curtain over it to finish it off.

Sounds easy when I say it like that....

Any hints or pearls of wisdom, most gratefully accepted.

Many thanks,

PaulBrewer

That's probably going to be tough !

The issue may not be the door alone.

If the problem is mids (or highs) alone then sealing up all the holes around the door edges and lock will help.

My situation is that I have a control room on one side of a hall space and a recording room on the other.
I've put rubber door seal around the door and blocked of keyholes and put 2 brush strips at the bottom of each door - which has reduced the mid/high stuff a lot - so much so that when recording drums I'm unaware of any spill, though some can be heard when I mute speakers.

Also taking it that there's a hall and another door to living room - anything you do to your door, do the same to the living room one .i.e. seal .

The really tough issue is the bottom end, as that well may be going through the door but is also likely to be going through the house structure .


No amount of anything on the door will solve that one .

Denalihighway

Cheers Paul - actually the low end isn't my primary concern - its more the mid, vocal range. I just want to reduce as much as possible, the noise of me roaring in to the mic, coming out of the room

I don't monitor loud enough to be really bothersome.

I sounds like I'll go for what your saying, then some foam on the back of the door, seal the lock as much as possible and then might even go for curtains over the whole thing at the end for a bit more absorption.

We'll see how she goes

Denalihighway

PS...did you use regular aul seals like you'd pick up at a builders providers etc or something special?

ZV Yoda

Rather than trying to sound proof the room, could you build a (relatively) soundproof vocal booth inside the room? Ideally far from the door.

Denalihighway

Decent suggestion dude, thanks. I did consider this before, but I definitely don't want to go that route.

PaulBrewer

I'm anti vocal booths in general - you can't make a space that small sound good and while there are obvious gains in isolation it's at the expense of sound quality.

Have a read of this -

http://www.jhbrandt.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The-Myth-Of-The-Booth.pdf

PaulBrewer

I've used regular off the shelf rubber self sticking seals.

Denalihighway

Cheers Paul

Yep - same deal with vocal booths. Would even shy away from the reflection filters from what my cohorts (some very experienced) say. Unless the room is a nightmare. My room is fine. Could be better but I've gotten good results.

Right off to find the rubber seals and some foam. Phase 1.

Thanks for the input lads
Gar

The Master

I have some of these ordered for some doors I'll be building

Haven't used/tested them yet but they look good

http://www.soundinsulation.ie/door-soundproofing/13-acoustic-door-seal.html

PaulBrewer

What sort of doors ?

The science of the door is quite interesting and its necessary quality is often decided by what it's mounted in .

There's little point in mounting a 40 dB attenuating door in a 20db wall !

Generally the weak link of a door is the bottom which is why most studios I've been involved in, particularly in the UK, have metal doors that come ready built in metal frames covering both elements of a successful door namely mass and airtightness.

Also the BBC don't have a standard door they use ( which surprised me being the Beeb) as they have so many variables in their studios - each is a bespoke solution .

The Master wrote: »

I have some of these ordered for some doors I'll be building

Haven't used/tested them yet but they look good

http://www.soundinsulation.ie/door-soundproofing/13-acoustic-door-seal.html