Need Help Eliminating Outside Noise

Unknown Child

New member
OK so I've moved and plan on recording in the only room available... the problem is, this room has a window that allows for LOTS of noise to come in. A bus passing by? Loud as **** recording wise. Cars whizzing down the street, loud. How can I sort this out? What, if anything can I do to ****in seal this shit permanently. I like to smoke, and wish I could open the window, but if thats not possible at the same time, **** it. Id brick the entire window up if I owned the house... so please help! Begging! LOL
 
There's nothing you can really do... just gotta deal with it really =/

Yep.

Isolation ("soundproofing") requires construction, and would likely include plugging up the window area (or removing it and constructing a new window assembly that blocks sound as well as your exterior walls).
 
If it were me, I'd duct tape an old mattress to the window when I needed to record.

Is it gonna eliminate noise? No, but it might reduce it to the point where you can at least record something enjoyable, if not professional.
 
If it were me, I'd duct tape an old mattress to the window when I needed to record.

Is it gonna eliminate noise? No, but it might reduce it to the point where you can at least record something enjoyable, if not professional.

This won't affect transmission by any considerable amount.
 
So I went and bought sound insulation, acoustic insulating board etc... plugged the window up aaaaaaand. Maybe made a 10% difference, not even sure of that. So money wasted there. Is it safe to say I'm pretty much ****ed? and should never dream of getting even close to a professional recording?
 
So I went and bought sound insulation, acoustic insulating board etc... plugged the window up aaaaaaand. Maybe made a 10% difference, not even sure of that. So money wasted there. Is it safe to say I'm pretty much ****ed? and should never dream of getting even close to a professional recording?

Unfortunately, this is what usually happens when people try to achieve isolation without fully diving into the subject (no offense, it just sucks that it has to happen!)

Also, when you "plug up the window" it will hardly have an effect unless its completely SEALED, and again, the assembly needs to be at least as strong (isolation wise) as your walls or it will be useless.

There aren't any real solutions for isolation in a rented house unfortunately. If the landlord is okay with it though, you could build a room within the room and get good results, but it wouldn't be cheap.
 
What kind of results could I expect if I were just recording vocals, and put say a Gate on them? The traffic is literally the odd car passing by at random times, more so in rush hour obviously. The walls are thin considering I came from an older home, which was actually built to last, not built to produce profit... I really wish I could fix this somehow, or at least get good unnoticeable results considering more than half my projects are pretty much done, minus a few additions here and there... I don't wanna get stuck in this position.
 
Would it be easier in a different room in the house? Could you instead, for example, switch your bedroom and the recording room (or just simply record in a different room)?

If it were as simple as putting up absorbers, blankets, or anything like that, trust me, I would let all of our customers know...I wish it were so. So do the hundreds of other people in similar situations. I live in a newer cookie cutter so I totally understand, but I'm not near a busy street luckily.
 
What kind of mic are you using? I'd probably try to find a suitable dynamic for this situation, as they're much less sensitive than LDCs in general.
 
The best advice I can give you is to buy a microphone that rolls of the frequencies or buy a longer cable to record in a different room. Eliminating noise is hard to do when you do not own the place you are recording in, however there are some good tricks to use.
 
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