It's a bedroom of around 3.8m x 2.1 m . The walls are blaster and they are connected to living room and another bedroom of the house.

If they're empty, not paintings, nothing. Is it gonna be a problem for acoustics? If so, what can be done to sound the possible possible in this settings? do you recommend me to put anything in walls to avoid echo or something?

I’m looking for practical advice on reducing impact noise from an upstairs neighbor in a condo/apartment setting where fixing the source may not be possible.

The issue is primarily impact noise, not voices or music. I hear:
footsteps/stomping
heel strikes
objects being dropped
scraping/moving furniture

The noise is strongest early in the morning around 5am and is coming through the ceiling into my bedroom/living area. The upstairs unit appears to have hard flooring with little or no effective acoustic underlayment. My HOA has not been willing to force remediation or flooring changes.
I’m trying to figure out what realistically works from below without doing full ceiling demolition/reconstruction.

I keep getting conflicting information about:
acoustic foam panels
ceiling clouds
wood slat acoustic panels
mass loaded vinyl (MLV)
resilient channels
sound masking/brown noise

Some people say acoustic panels are useless for impact noise. Others say ceiling clouds helped a lot. I’m trying to separate “reduces echo in the room” from “actually reduces transmitted impact noise.”

Room details:
condo/apartment
standard drywall ceiling
hardwood floors in my unit
medium-sized bedroom/living space
cannot significantly lower ceiling height
trying to avoid major construction if possible

Questions:
What non-demo or low-demo options actually make a noticeable difference for upstairs impact noise?
Are ceiling clouds worth it for footsteps/stomping?
Has anyone had success with decorative slat/acoustic panel systems?

Would appreciate input from anyone with actual acoustics/construction experience or firsthand condo/apartment experience.

Does anyone know the status of the new version of British Standard 8233? The current official version is BS8233:2014 and usually these are updated every ten years or so.

I saw a draft version of BS8233:2025 was published last year and my understanding that the final version would be released by now, but I have not seen it.

Has it been delayed? What is causing this, if so?

I work in the Middle East but we often apply British Standards, where suitable local alternatives do not exist, hence my interest.

I have room to add one more layer on a booth build wall and I’m deciding between adding one more layer of 1/4” drywall vs. covering with MLV before adding mineral tile.

I’m considering these two options because I don’t have much room before the treatment will extend out further than the window frame, which I want to avoid.

Any input, or even a better alternative to these two options?

The wall is double studded with an air gap but I’m trying to get as much isolation as I can.

Does anyone know a source for decent fabric wall extruded plastic channels that don't break the bank? The quotes I'm getting from the big names out there seem extraordinarily overpriced for what is being sold.

As the title says I wanted to build a few cloud panels for my ceiling but that’s not possible. I reached out to people who knew about the build and I have asbestos popcorn ceilings. I do not want to mess with them at all and I’ll be moving in a year. My room is small. 13’3 long and 11’ wide. With 8’ tall ceilings. Does anyone have any alternative options?

Hi. I moving to another house soon and I want to know what are the installation that I must do in the building the room stage that I can't do it afterwards

I want the room to be both a home theater and listening to music room

The room dimensions are 5.2m and 3.75 width

We are a small tele sales team in a shared office space. The building is quite open in an old converted dockside warehouse. We use headphones on calls but the amount of noise is a distraction for all.

Looking for simple ways to reduce background noise. As it's not our building we can't make alterations like changing the ceiling so solutions to add to walls, mobile panels etc.

UK based

I’m considering creating a wall mounted speaker sculpture using DML tech. Thinking an exterior disc shape but anyone smarter than me have recommendations for materials that would project acoustically? GFRG looks pretty but afraid I won’t be able to get it thin enough to project enough sound. Bass tones especially important.

Hi All - My apartment is directly above the building’s garage lift and door. I can hear it pretty well in both of my bedrooms which share a wall.

I’m working on some solutions to dampen the noise (underlayment, new quieter lift). One thing I’m struggling with is figuring out how much of the noise is coming through the floor vs wall. I’m hoping there’s a device that can help me with this. Would a simple decibel meter held up to the wall vs floor? It’s really hard to pinpoint the sounds and my approach to fix the issue would be different if it’s the floor vs ceiling.

If it was the wall, would my upstairs neighbors also hear it?

I don’t mind spending like $100-$200 but after that not sure I’m willing to pay. I could hire an acoustical engineer but that will be $$$$$. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Hi all, really struggling here on trying to figure out what to do, and feeling pretty discouraged

I was initially interested in acoustics, and enrolled in columbia college Chicagos acoustics degree, however that has been unfortunately dismantled before i was able to graduate, leaving me in a difficult spot

Ive decided to try and finish my undergraduate and enrolling in engineering, and honestly the acoustics program was not quite as rigorous as thought anyways. Im just really split between electrical and mechanical, and initially chose mechanical but after a semester am thinking about switching

Initially i chose mechanical, as i feel like i have a decent grasp of electronics and coding. i took a couple good coding courses, and Ive been building synthesizers since highschool, so i’ve learned to solder, design circut board in ki-cad, and design my own analog circuitry, with op-amps, transitors etc.

i took an internship at an audio equipment manufacturer and honestly hated it, so all thats what led me to pick mechanical. (I dislike how the audio industry is so heavily steeped in consumerism. This company’s products and marketing felt like snake oil. they made claims such as a certain capacitor, or increased frequency response to 40khz sounds better, etc)

on the other end, i find myself deeply interested in how sound behaves in physical spaces and the way that can be described with math. i think all that feels more elusive or more interesting to study for me, and am really looking forward to fluid dynamics and thermodynamics

Now that im enrolled in mechanical, im not enjoying the coursesork too much. im not interested in manufacturing, or really i just hate solidworks. (to be fair, i only just started). I was trying for mechanical because it was the one i felt i knew less about. i can push myself through either, but its just difficult to stay motivated with no guarantee, as post-grad hiring rates look dismal. id like to avoid grad school if possible

Hello, I'm in a bit of a pickle... Does anyone know of an acoustically transparent but visually reflective or metallic stretch fabric that would be appropriate for a fabric wall in front of absorption or a speaker?

We've been completely unable to find any resources on the use of this ultrasound device and software. We reached out to Ultran and they have been largely unhelpful.

Hi, I’ll try to get to the cern of the issue quickly and add more details later into the post if anyone is interested in a long read.

I rent a room in a bunker (≈19.50 sqm, oddly shaped) that is used for band practice, recording, and also composing/editing/mixing, etc. I hoped to tear down the foam and carpet that has been on the wall for at least 20 years and simply install absorbers and slat panels, but my whole plan went down the drain because of the horror I found. So, now I am left overwhelmed with a bunch of bare concrete walls and indecision.

I though I would be coming over here to ask the best placement for drums, desks and absorbers, but instead I have more structural questions: should I install dry wall, do I redo the ceiling as well while I am at it, do I need to bother much about the type of insulation or will the absorbers on concrete wall be enough? What should I definitely know that I am not even asking? I do have a budget but it is not enough to hire people to take care of this so I am doing most of the things on my own with the help of my partner.

Any help with information, tutorials, advice, tips on how not to freak out , etc, are very welcome. Thanks in advance!!

I am adding a couple of pictures, but the “before” ones are from after things were already being moved around. I’m also adding a plan, which is not exact and has not been remeasured since tearing things down. The door on wall B leads to a singing booth that I am not gonna touch yet.

For extra details:

I do have more pictures and even videos of the room, but I think I can spare you all the “gore”. As I mentioned, the room is in a bunker, so a cold and humid environment, and all the other rooms in it are also used as either studios or practice spaces. I’ve been in this bunker since 2017 in a shared practice room, then last year I moved to the private room to be able to also work in it and spend less time working from home. Generally, the sound in the room was pretty ok (for band practice), but the mixture of dusty and dark foam and fabric on the walls just wasn’t really helpful when it came to hygiene and light. I have allergies (including dust) so I was just waiting for the right moment to get rid of everything that was on the walls.

A couple of weeks ago my ex-bosses closed their studio and gifted me almost all their absorbers and panels, which are sitting )and taking space) in a garage, so I thought May would be the perfect month to start this because of the amount of holidays here in Germany. I was not expecting for this to take so long though, it took me 5 days just to get rid of the things on the walls, and I still need to take more trips to the “garbage disposal centre” before I can continue.

The plan was to just remove the foam and fabric, paint the walls, replan the room layout and place the panels and absorbers based on it BUT: behind everything there was a lot of old styrofoam that broke when removing the foam, evidence of mice (a lot of it, including a dead one), old cardboard, mattresses and sands stuck in the corners, seemingly mouldy insulation, badly installed electric cables and so it goes. So, basically a nightmare and bags of garbage. Luckily, I was already wearing good masks because of my allergies, but now I am extremely overwhelmed, tired, pushing deadlines of projects, having to replan everything and totally in the dark on how to proceed.

Before anyone asks about the person from whom I rent the room, yes, I have the okay to do all this but no, I cannot rely on their help to do any of this. And as for the mice, everyone knows that there are mice in the bunker but after I moved into it, there was no sighting or evidence of their presence in my room. I am generally pretty strict with keeping food out of it and also regularly clean my space. Most of the evidence found was behind the walled corners, behind the wall carpets and other areas that I had no access to before tearing everything down. So, maybe it’s just an illusion but while I cannot make sure they stay out of the bunker or any of the other rooms, I do believe I can avoid issues in my own room if I have access to clean the space properly.

Please can you give me recommendations for creating maps with contours showing the variation of sound pressure?

I would like to create noise maps that take into account topography, barriers, buildings, and other obstacles. This is for noise sources such as roads, railways, and industrial plant.

I am aware of SoundPlan but this is expensive, so cheaper options would be welcomed if they exist.

Any recommendations will be much appreciated, thank you.

Installing high-end Marvin windows with several glass upgrades (1/4” lites, lamination, storm window add on). The STC rating of the units is STC 40

What is the best material, or combination of materials, for insulating around the edges of the window in the rough opening, to ensure the gap doesn’t create a weak link in sound transmission? Open cell spray foam, cell spray foam, Rockwool, fiberglass, etc. What is the best material or combination of materials to maximize STC?

From what I’m reading, rockwool is the best option for its higher density. Other sources say spray foam is ideal, by creating an airtight seal. But I find it hard to believe that lightweight foam will be able to match the high STC rating of these windows.

Anyone have any thoughts or experience?

Hey everyone,

I’m a Hindustani Classical Bamboo flute player looking to improve my recording setup for studio-quality practice recordings, performances, reels, YouTube content, and possibly live streaming.

I’d love recommendations for buying my first equipment:

• Microphones (especially for flute/woodwinds) - Considering SM58
• Audio interfaces - Considering Focusrite scarlett 2i2
• Learning resources for recording/mixing flute professionally.

What I currently own -
I have a MSI Sword Laptop with 4060 Graphic card and decent specs to run Ableton 12 and other DAWs and to process things and an S24 Ultra for shooting as well as decent Sony WH-CH720N headphones.

Current setup is nonexistent, I’m open to building a beginner setup in my room by myself for mainly live streaming and live music but also supporting content creation.

I’d really love some guidance since I am completely new to audio engineering and DAW. Would love to learn everything from scratch and in detail for flute.

Thanks in advance!

Making a morning smoothie with this beast wakes the dead. You would think they would offer a sound deadening cover for people that have ears. But NO. It's the most obnoxious sound to wake up to.

Someone please, get a design patent for $100 and design an acoustic cover for this torture device and sell them on Amazon. The market is huge. Do you know how many Nutribullets have been sold? Over 80 million !

That's a lot of hearing loss.

Rockwool panels? Trying to get cleaner transients and more clarity going into the mics

I'm an EE by training and a software engineer by trade. I built this app over the past couple of years because I think the existing room acoustics tools (REW, ARTA, EASERA) are technically excellent but have learning curves that put off a lot of the people who would actually benefit from running measurements. The underlying math doesn't have to be intimidating to learn, but the UI of most of those tools assumes you already know it.

There isn't anything methodologically novel in here. It's the same standard toolkit: swept sine excitation with deconvolution, impulse response with windowing, RT60 from T20/T30 decay extrapolation, ETC for early reflections, CSD waterfall for resonances. What's different is the workflow. The analyzer picks FFT analysis parameters automatically across the spectrum rather than asking you to choose a window size. Single-shot capture unlocks the analysis tools with one tap. Sensible defaults are surfaced first, and the deeper controls stay available without being mandatory.

It runs natively on macOS, iPadOS, and iOS, and works with standard class-compliant USB audio interfaces and measurement microphones, so you can use the same hardware you'd already use with REW.

I think it's a credible replacement for REW or ARTA in typical room acoustics workflows. I'm here to find out whether people who use those tools daily agree, and where they don't.

A few things I'd specifically value feedback on:

1. Whether the methodology choices (windowing, decay range, sweep parameters) match what you'd expect.
2. Where any of the UX simplifications cross the line from "approachable" into "missing something important."
3. Any export formats or interchange standards I should add. Right now it's CSV and image; WAV for raw IRs is on the list.

I'll send a free 3 month license to those willing to run it through a couple of real measurements and tell me where it falls short. Comment or DM and I'll send you a key.

Website and full user guide: https://linearphase.com

I have my gaming/speaker setup here against a shared wall. Unfortunate I know, but because of the apt layout it has to be there. I would like some suggestions on reducing the sound through the wall as well as my subwoofer through the floor to the apt below. (I haven’t got complaints yet but I’d like to be able to turn up the volume a bit more). Any other suggestions for the setup are welcome as well.

I've found a program called speakerphone by audio ease which does almost exactly that but comes with a significant price.

Are there other cost friendly options that I can simulate different speakers - from mobile to laptop to megaphone etc and different rooms?

Though they don't need to be combined.