How to stop rumble coming through

[Jaacobrs]

I've just moved into a recording space next door to a storage room/warehouse where trolleys are being wheeled around causing a rumble to be heard from time to time. The unit is adjoined to my building, so i'm thinking the sound transmission is structural, i.e coming through the floor to my room.

I have seen inside, and there is no matted flooring just a hard floor, so i'm thinking the vibration is just coming through the floor. I know the people who own it, so i'm considering offering to install them some matted flooring and obviously covering the costs myself.

My understanding of acoustics is there's little I can do on my end to stop the low frequencies from coming through, but if I can try and minimise the 'rumble' on their end, would this be an effective solution, or would it be a waste of money, or are there any alternative solutions?

Thanks friends!

[MOF]

I imagine it’s quite a large space nextdoor and so quite expensive to cover and you’re assuming they’ll be happy to put down matting.
If you’re renting I would suggest moving to somewhere quieter if building a room within a room is not feasible or cost effective.
If it’s just very low frequencies you might be able to get away with bass roll off on the microphone.
Is nextdoor a 24/7 operation, if not then maybe you could do recording sessions when it’s quiet.
What size of room and what are you recording are two things that would be useful to know.

[RichardT]

My guess is that the neighbours would not be willing to install matting.

If so, and you’re committed to using that space, then you’re into remediation.

It’s much cheaper to find a way of working with the current noise levels than to try to reduce them, particularly if the noise happens only from time to time.

The first thing you could do is record a sample of the noise and have a look at its amplitude and frequency characteristics.

If it’s mostly low frequencies then high pass filtering is definitely an option. Depending on what you’re recording, it could well be possible to remove low frequencies (using low cuts in your microphone, pre-amp or DAW) without problems, particularly in the context of a mix where it’s common to remove low end from most instruments.

But it does depend on what you are doing. If you’re recording solo acoustic instruments, spoken word, or small acoustic ensembles then things will be much more difficult than if you’re producing rock or electronica. Can you let us know what you’re using the space for?

[Wonks]

How large is your studio space? And how long do you plan to use it?

If you have a decent budget and plan to use the space for several years, then one solution would be to build a room within room construction with a floating isolated floor, but it certainly wouldn't be cheap. And the bigger the room is, the more costly it's going to be.

You could build a smaller internal room just for recording in, whilst mixing in the main space and suffering the occasional noises as they won't be recorded. But even then, you don't want too small a recording space or it's going to naturally sound boxy.

[ef37a]

Is the rumble getting into mics 'acoustically' i.e. 'in the air' or being transmitted to the mic's body by the stand?

If the latter there are some very effective shockmounts available (name escapes old brain atmo!)

Do not forget however that a chunky mic cable will defeat the best of mounts so make up some thin, flexible 500mm extensions and put a loose knot in them at the mic.

If acoustic noise, best you can do I fear is work when they don't!

Dave.

[Drew Stephenson]

If the latter there are some very effective shockmounts available (name escapes old brain atmo!)

Rycote.

If the rumble is coming in via contact transmission rather than air, it might be worth thinking about building your own suspended floor or recording platform.

[Kwackman]

Probably scientifically unproved - but some softish foam under the legs of the mic stand help might reduce transmitting any vibrations coming through the floor.

[Mike Stranks]

Probably scientifically unproved - but some softish foam under the legs of the mic stand help might reduce transmitting any vibrations coming through the floor.

Back in the day - i.e. over 50 years ago! - I regularly had to record at a place where the participants were on a hard, hollow stage with no floor-covering of any description. My one mic stand had solid metal feet with no rubber isolators. The 'through the stand' footfall noise was horrendous. Fixed it by cutting some of that white packing polystyrene into 2" cubes - one under each leg of the tripod.

Aesthetic? Nope! But it removed the problem completely...

[Kwackman]

Probably scientifically unproved - but some softish foam under the legs of the mic stand help might reduce transmitting any vibrations coming through the floor.

Back in the day - i.e. over 50 years ago!

When we were doing it 40 years ago - we used the foam out of microphone boxes which was spongier!

[Hugh Robjohns]

Polystyrene and foam? Eh, you were lucky!

We 'ad to suspend our gert ribbon microphones from knicker elastic with fish hooks sewn on to the ends....

[Folderol]

Polystyrene and foam? Eh, you were lucky!

We 'ad to suspend our gert ribbon microphones from knicker elastic with fish hooks sewn on to the ends....

You 'ad micro-fones? Luxury!
We 'ad to rest one stick o' carbon on 'nother an' get folks to shout.

[RichardT]

Carbon? etc

[The Elf]

O' course, we 'ad it rough.

We didn't have mic's, so we had to listen and remember it for when we got 'ome, or our dad would slice us in two wi' t'bread knife.

[Hugh Robjohns]

[ef37a]

Polystyrene and foam? Eh, you were lucky!

We 'ad to suspend our gert ribbon microphones from knicker elastic with fish hooks sewn on to the ends....

You 'ad micro-fones? Luxury!
We 'ad to rest one stick o' carbon on 'nother an' get folks to shout.

Sticks! You 'ad ready made sticks o' Carbon?? We 'ad to go darn'pit and hew out our own bloody sticks!

Dave.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Aye, but you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'....

[Eddy Deegan]

I've now got a strange desire for an article in Sound On Sound explaning how to make a cardboard box soundproof!

[Fishnish]

Cardboard box? You should be so lucky...

Our studio used to be in a paper bag in t'septic tank...

[Martin Walker]

Cardboard box? You should be so lucky...

Our studio used to be in a paper bag in t'septic tank...

Would that be The Slurry With The Fringe On Top?