DIY soundproofing your home

nice post, prof... this same issue has been killing me since we got here. nakatira kase kami sa townhouse na multiple units in one building. alam mo naman na hilig ko talaga music and video so restricted talaga to enjoy my HTS. kaliwa't kanan kase kadikit-bahay ko... and you know how building owners get too fuzzy with how we, tenants, do something to alter anything within the house. ang form of acoustic ko na lang eh thick drapes sa walls to absorb the sound. hindi naman lahat me drapes kase nga di naman applicable.

try this link
[url]http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/sound_proofing_in_the_home.htm[/url]

Basic information:
Sound is a form of energy. The more energy produced in one place, the greater effect that energy will have in another if it is allowed to get there.
Example:- Throw a stone = Energy expelled
Get hit by a stone = Energy received !!
The harder the stone is thrown, the more it hurts !
There are three ways of stopping the stone hurting. 1:- Wear something very dense, the stone will bounce off. You may feel the dent where it hit, but its effect will be reduced 2:- Wear something very thick and soft, the power of the stone will be absorbed by the softness. You may still feel the stone, but the force will be greatly reduced. 3:- Get to the joker with the stone.
The same principles can be applied to sound. Unfortunately its a little more complicated because differing frequencies ( Bass, etc) of sound, produce different energies and need to be dealt with in slightly different ways...If the stone above was very sharp, small and pointed, it may well pierce the protection, whereas a larger, flatter stone would not.
The two sound control options come with many variations, basically they can be divided into the areas below.
Passive Absorption:
When sound passes through an acoustically absorptive material like mineral wool insulation or acoustic foam, the sound waves are forced to change directions many times and travel great distances before the sound passes completely through the absorptive material. Each time a sound waves changes direction, a portion of the energy is absorbed by conversion to heat. When there is a reflective surface behind the absorber, (such as a wall) the sound which passes through the absorber will be reflected back and through the absorber once again. Absorbers work best when there is some sort of a reflective surface behind them. For some sounds (low frequency) an air gap is ideal between the absorber and the reflective surface or wall.

Barriers:
A noise barrier can be constructed from almost any non porous material. Since sound is energy, an effective barrier must have enough mass (weight and density) and a low resonant frequency to stop (or reflect) this energy. As sound pressure levels increase so does the sound power (energy). High sound power levels will excite any surface they encounter causing the surface to vibrate at its resonant frequency which inevitably makes the walls shake. Low frequency sound contains more energy, because a larger volume of air is being displaced to produce the long wavelengths associated with bass and sub bass frequencies. These low frequency sounds easily excite most common building materials like wood and 12.5mm thick plasterboard.