somewhat off topic but related to all musicians..

Agent47 · Post by **Agent47** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 11:46 pm

I was just wondering what all of you do as far as living situation- do you have a home studio and if so do you rent or own a house or do you live in an apartment. It seems musicians/DJ's like ourselves need to be pretty loud and this can obviously cause problems with the neighbors.

I am deciding if I should try and rent a house or just soundproof an apartment for my home studio. Any ideas? Its hard to have booming house bass at 3am in an apartment!

drush · Post by **drush** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 11:58 pm

for some reason i was always really lucky with neighbors when i had a apartments, but now that i have a house... get a house

Agent47 · Post by **Agent47** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:12 am

Yeah I really should...its just more expensive...and I hate roomies!

kennerb · Post by **kennerb** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:17 am

I built a room within a room studio in the second floor of my addition. I put an exterior soundproof door on it and have the inner room hanging from rubber gaskets. It takes the sound down a lot but it's not perfect. My wife reminds me of that a lot. I own my house so it was worth it for me.

Agent47 · Post by **Agent47** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:33 am

I miss having a basement. I had one when I lived in New England, you can be loud as hell with a basement!

zizi · Post by **zizi** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 11:00 am

I rent a house, but it's in a row. Noisy as hell. You can even hear the neighbours snease or scratch their asses. You can imagine what happens when I would turn the subs up...

I still have my sennheiser 25 pro from my dj-ing time, works well.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 11:04 am

My house is half a mile from the nearest neighbor!

And with a son who's a drummer/bassist, it's a damn good thing...

spiderprod · Post by **spiderprod** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 11:29 am

i have a soundproof room but i did it because i got all the materials for free .
also i have been very lucky ,none of my neighbours have had the balls to knock on my door to tell me i was too noisy (in this case i would turn down a bit ) they always bang the walls or the roof or whatever they can beat up to get their frustration out ,in this case i just turn up a bit .
also in uk there is no laws on noise polution ,the only place where you are at risk of being in trouble are government estate where the council is pretty much in power & can evict you when they want .
one day my neighbours called the police ,they simply asked me to turn it down ,i didn't & they just went back to where they come from .
i am not trying to be anti social but i find peoples pathetics when they don't have the guts to come & talk to me .

funk313 · Post by **funk313** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 11:39 am

yeah..experienced the same kinda shit with my upstairs neighbor. he started
throwing yoghurt down on my window, instead of just commnig down and talk with me. So i decided i couldnt give a fuck, and unlucky for him i have an 808 and a airbase 99, in the end he just gave up and realized that aggression
wasnt the way forward, so now he comes down and politely asks me if i can turn it down because he has a headache or whatever..

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 11:52 am

I rent a townhouse and have a studio in the basement. I don't think it HAS to be loud to make music though, in fact since I started turning it down my mixdowns have been sounding better than ever.

Loud = Fun sometimes, but not always better.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:11 pm

This topic applies to DJs and drummers, too.. not just musicians.

quandry · Post by **quandry** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 1:11 pm

hambone1 wrote:This topic applies to DJs and drummers, too.. not just musicians.

go easy on the drummers yo--I started on piano, moved to guitar, then bass (my main axe), and then to drums. Still trying to get proficient at drums--easily the hardest to of these for me to get decent at playing. Four different patterns going at once (two hands, two feet) ain't easy--good drummers are as musician as anybody-c'mon.

Back on topic, most good engineers and producers mix at conversational volume levels--they do this to go easy on their ears for long sessions, and because loads of volume can cover up detail and interaction amongst parts in the mix. Sure, when you're tracking live drums, or want to crank the arrangement up loud as you go for the lead keyboard part, its gonna be loud. But for the late night stuff where neighbors get pissed--just save your mixing for nighttime, and keep it at a reasonable level--it'll help your mix and neighborhood relations.

Ryan

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 1:45 pm

'Twas tongue in cheek, Ryan... I'm a drummer, too. Just not a very good one!

quandry · Post by **quandry** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 2:14 pm

right on, thought it might be. sorry to get offended, but good drumming ain't easy as I'm sure you know. It does take a special type though, seems like the most "interesting" character in every band I've played in has been the drummer

Sales Dude McBoob · Post by **Sales Dude McBoob** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 2:17 pm

I'm on the 4th + top floor of an old town house. My roommate + I are both musicians so our living room is a practice space/studio. The guy under us is a DJ. The guy under him is likes to blast Cher at full volume and sing along with his high pitch operatic tenor voice as loud as he can. We are all very very lucky, we are all loud freaks! Plus we've all been living in the building for the past 5 years, so it's been a really long spell of lucky urban squallor.

I sell pro audio at work so I can blast Ableton there too.