Sound problems & Neighbours

[Round Eyes]

I'm a DJ and a music producer.

I'll be moving to the Tokyo area next year, and I'm wondering, what can I do to reduce the sound coming out of my apartment?

I can afford about $1,500 usd a month for an apartment, so I think I should be able to find at least a 2dk. So, I can put my studio in the second room. And I'm thinking, mabey I can erect some sort of makeshift room within a room. And then somehow insulate the walls.

I think I remember seeing a story about a modular room that you can buy for things like studying and such. Mabey I could purchase one of those.

Either way, I'm looking for the most efficient way to cut down on bass and treble permiating through the walls.

Any ideas? I'm open to all suggestions at this point.

Thanks.

[Caustic Saint]

Either way, I'm looking for the most efficient way to cut down on bass and treble permiating through the walls.

Any ideas? I'm open to all suggestions at this point.

Get some really nice headphones. Seriously.

Tokyo apartments are about the furthest thing from soundproof. The best way to cut down on sounds going through the walls is to keep the volume low.

Either that, or try and find a neighborhood where nobody cares.

[Mike Oxlong]

When looking for an apartment, check places that allow pets & musical instruments. Those places are usually insulated better than average. Friends who have rented such places have had more peace & quiet than me, who has always rented places claiming to be nice and quiet, only to have paper-thin walls and neighbours who beat futons at 5 a.m., fight with their spouses/bf at 2 a.m., vacuum for an hour after beating the futon...

Another thing to look at is construction material. In this case, concrete can be your friend! The cheap tinfoil & plastic places billed as clean & modern are no more soundproof than a tent!

[mr. sparkle]

You can find a cheaper place than 1,500, no? With the savings, you can rent a rehearsal studio down the street from where you live and crank it up as loud as you like. Many Tokyo 'hoods have such a place close by. Where I usually stay, you always see kids with guitar cases coming and going from such places. Otherwise? Go with Caustic's advice and get some good cans.

[IkemenTommy]

Concrete built apartments tend to be better sound insulated than the traditional balsa wood walled apartments. The sound penetrates the walls and resonates in a wooden house. I have a subwoofer speaker at my concrete apartment and it gets pretty loud but I never get complaints from the neighbors.

[ibiza]

Wrong post.

[Round Eyes]

Headphones arn't an option. Yes, using headphones is an integral part of producing. But being restricted to only headphones for monitoring is like telling a pianist he can only use one hand to play. Yes, it CAN be done, but it's not a good idea.

Renting a studio is not an option. Not unless I can move all my equipment there and have unmonitored 24 hour access.

I'll definitely make sure to take a look at the construction material used for the apartment. I hadn't thought of that.

I know that I'll somehow be able to build an isolation room within a spare bedroom (or tatami room). The problem is just trying to find the best way to go about it.

I don't want to spend too much money. But seeing how my move to Japan will be a semi-permenent one (yes, I've lived there before, I know what I'm getting myself into), I don't mind shelling out a few grand. My studio is the most important thing to me next to oxygen, so I'll spend everything I can afford.

[omae mona]

600,000 yen and upwards can get you one of those. Should do the job nicely!

Your local Yamaha Shop can help you out with one of these soundproof rooms you can tuck in the corner of your apartment. I've seen it work quite well on a grand piano.

[Taro Toporific]

...I think I remember seeing a story about a modular room that you can buy for things like studying and such. Mabey I could purchase one of those....

The Japanese novel "Box Man" by Kobo Abe has the best way to deal with this problem.



Otherwise, I've posted about Yamaha's MyRoom(tm) before here on the FG and again today 3yen.com

[omae mona]

Damn.. when will I ever learn it is pointless to look for info on the web because it is ALWAYS guaranteed to have been covered on taro's 3yen.com page already!

[fatslug]

find a Japanese `MANSION` not apartment !!! seriously......i use to crank up my electric guitar ...played for 2 yrs...no complaints....and cant hear much from the outside.

[vince]

Living in this aparto in Tokyo and partying on real late and noisy and the guy from downstairs knocks on the door - chugging a kirin he says (in japanese) "I have to get up at 5 am and go to work to support my family, but joining you in partying on makes more sense - kampai!"

Somebody there could understand his Japanese (not me those days) and also understood that this was a hint to "keep the noise down".

[Charles]

Oh joy, just what the world needs, another obnoxious noisy neighbor. Maybe he would deserve a break if he was a musician, except he isn't, he just records and spins other peoples' music.
What Mr. DJ has failed to recognize is that REAL musicians in Japan go to extreme lengths to NOT produce noise, so as to not disturb their neighbors when the practice. As an example, here is the Yamaha Silent Violin:

Get some headphones. There's nothing you're doing that your neighbors should be forced to deal with.

[Charles]

Living in this aparto in Tokyo and partying on real late and noisy and the guy from downstairs knocks on the door - chugging a kirin he says (in japanese) "I have to get up at 5 am and go to work to support my family, but joining you in partying on makes more sense - kampai!"

Somebody there could understand his Japanese (not me those days) and also understood that this was a hint to "keep the noise down".

That is absolutely right. I remember the strangest Japanese lesson I ever had, back in my school days in Hakodate. It was a lesson on how to complain in Japanese.
The scenario was the noisy neighbor playing music too loud at night. We were taught that we should not directly confront the issue, but instead take an almost inverse tactic. You should go over to the neighbors while their loud music was playing, and tell them that sometimes you play your own TV and music too loud, and inquire if this noise was bothering them. And of course they would say that your noise was no bother. But your neighbor would realize his own noise was getting out of hand.

[FG Lurker]

Headphones arn't an option. [...]

Renting a studio is not an option. [...]

Then it looks like living in an apartment in Tokyo is also "not an option".

If you really must come to Japan and be loud in your place of residence, find an inaka country house somewhere and be several hundred metres from your neighbours. Cheap rent too.

Otherwise I hope you have neighbours with Yakuza contacts. It'll be great fun for you to come home to a trashed apartment.

[dj-nosehair]

I iz a dj too, so I know da deal.

I used to live in dis apaato in Tokyo, an' I woz bashin' out fat beatz on my hi-fi 24/7 so da crackheadz knew where to come for dere fix, I just say on da fone, "listen out for da Mobb Deep album "hell on earth" on volume 10 an follow ya lugz."

once some fool came up an' knockin', somefink abaat da noize, but I cant hear nuffink cuz da beatz woz so loud...

seriously tho, in apartmentz, most people be out 9 ta 5ing in some shit salaryman job so you can play it az loud az you want.

No yakuza are gonna be comin' neeva, an' if dey do jus' give em a couple ov natsume's to shut em up.