What's the best way to soundproof a room on budget

I had Tony Manasian (of Tonian Labs) over at my apt. after I bought a pair of his speakers. His main gig is professional high end installations and consulting and he told me that bass is the hardest to control and advised me to hang some natural fibre mats or rugs behind my speaker to keep sound from transferring down to my neighbors below me.

It worked, to a point, depending on how loud I play my music. The bass is another problem since my speakers roll off around 40Hz. As for the courtyard and when I forget to close the windows, that is another matter.

Good luck,
Nonoise

If you can, stagger the studs in the wall so a stud is only connected to one panel of sheet rock. Then fill the wall with fiberglass insulation, snaking the insulation between the adjoining studs. That keeps the wall from becoming a drum, and damps out higher frequencies. We did this when building the house and it's amazing how well it works. Of course, your room will be two inches smaller :-)

Agreed - if you can do an isolated second wall that is a great solution. That option is discussed on the website I gave above. It is a great solution, although not always the easiest and less expensive.

You should also look at the resilient channel solutions, although they can be somewhat complicated to install.

C'mon guys (Dtc, Electroslacker); the man said he's on a budget. No way he's going to rip out and re-build his wall to install staggered studs for $500 - $600! And using resilient clips and/or channels to 'float' the drywall surface works best in new construction.

Trust me B_limo, adding another layer of sheetrock to the existing wall will get you 90% there without extra hassle/expense -- to say nothing of minimizing the 'noise inconvenience time' to your neighbors while you're doing the work ;~)

Nsgach - sorry, just providing ideas. If you do it your self, you can do these projects pretty cheaply. But I do agree that double walls and the like can be expensive if you have to pay someone to do it. In fact, I said that a double wall was not inexpensive. But also, this is not a very big wall.

My first recommendation was dry wall with green glue. Did you read the website I referenced? One level of drywall gives a STC of 40, adding a second level goes to 42, adding a second level with Green Glue goes to 52. Using Green Glue with drywall will do a lot more than just adding drywall. Green Glue is not cheap, but it really is effective. Mass is great, but isolating the surfaces is very efficient. Green Glue does a good job of that, by essentially turning the sound into heat, as I understand it. If you have not used it, you should look into it.

1 Layer of Drywall STC 40
2 Layers of Drywall STC 42
2 Layers of Drywall with Green Glue STC 52