If the word isn’t soundproof, what is it

Click here: If the word isn’t soundproof, what is it?

Digging holes and installing metal rebar, rolling out thick plastic sheeting, controlling 5 foot tall wire mesh in the attempt to place the wire in the concrete form. Controlling cracks in the concrete is what the wire does so tie it up good.

Think the roof is just a roof? As they say, think again. The roof is typically part of the building envelope that you are trying to gain control over. Every sound outdoors will come in through the roof and walls and windows and doors.

In the end a wall is a vertical ceiling and a floor is just a horizontal wall, not quite a roof but yet not a ceiling either.

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The acoustical treatment phase is the fun part everyone wants to be involved in. It is the pretty part, the shiny bobble that gets every users attention. Many young minds will attempt to learn acoustics and fail because they “attempt” and do not learn. They learn just enough and then go off and try to make up things that have no basis in science. Things that as new to them as the shiny bobble that is small room acoustics. They are untested acoustical treatments. Untested and often will never work. But still this is the phase, after the construction phase, that helps the listener to tune the room so it is enjoyable to experience the sound that it contains.

A typical residential bedroom, the kind you are most likely trying to make into a musical production room, is not sound proof. As a matter of fact, what ever you do in an attempt to control sound will not make it sound proof. The word “soundproof” is a marketing term that the Internet forums have turned into a part of daily lexicon. People want to make their room soundproof, and they want to do it cheap and FAST.

As soon as you realize that the word soundproof is made for the consumer, you will recognize that cheap and fast are made for the consumer. Neither of the 3 exist in real life (IRL).

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If the word isn’t soundproof, what is it? Well it can be a few words, new words, but words specific to the acoustic language. Rather than try to use these words in a paragraph, I will make a list with definitions, fair enough?

Isolate – To control the sound that something makes. When you isolate a frequency you are aiming directly at that frequency with materials tested and methods designed at either stopping the frequency from getting in or from getting out of the environment.

Transmission Loss – The ability of assembled materials to stop sound from going thru the constructed assembly. Transmission loss or TL, uses the entire frequency spectrum that the human ear can hear. From 20Hz to 20,000Hz.

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A high transmission loss wall means the wall is designed with materials to prevent sound from leaking through it. In order to define how high the transmission loss of the assembly is certain criteria has to be established.