Adding Soundproof Foams to the Tabletop Gaming Room and Lessons Learned
Greetings everyone. For a few days, there was a lot of echo in the recordings we tried to make with my friends. There was nothing on the walls in the room and there was very little in the way of furniture, so the sound was not coming in the quality we wanted.
We want to record Dungeons and Dragons podcasts in this room. We even want to publish the games we play on YouTube and we are fighting hard for this project. But sound is really one of the most important things. So after a lot of research we found the most affordable soundproofing foams and we went and bought them.
We bought 10 square meters of sound insulation foam.
They were not of the quality I expected and not as thick as I expected, but the shopkeeper where we bought them said they would work. We told him the size of the room etc. and he gave us the right one. In fact, he could have sold us the expensive one if he wanted to.
After we saw that some parts were defective, we quickly understood why you sell them cheaply.
After we bought them, we glued the backs with tape, but there is a lesson here.
Lesson 1: Use as much tape as possible!
Yes, we did. If you are thinking of taping it to the wall or even to the ceiling like we did, if possible, cover the whole back strip with tape and leave as little space as possible. I recommend covering at least 2/3 of it with tape. The weight of what we did in the pictures was light so it held on the wall, but I don't think a few strips will be enough, especially with better quality and thicker insulation materials.
Late Design Stage
Lesson 2: If You Can, Cut Aesthetic Shape!
After gluing the big 1sqm pieces, we realized very quickly that the room looked like a music studio and it started to bother us. Then we took the remaining 2 square meters of insulation material and since my friend also does this laser cutting work, we went to him.
We cut it as a hexagon. My advice to you is this, if you have an acquaintance who does laser cutting, work with him and cut it in the aesthetic way you want. If you do not have an acquaintance, you can cut it yourself with a utility knife and scissors, but it will not be equal. Therefore, if you do not have a very sensitive hand and if you are doing this job for the first time and want it to be aesthetic, I think you should visit a place that does laser cutting. If you have no aesthetic concerns, there is NO NEED for this because there are also leftover materials.
And a video of this process!
Measuring and Adhesion Phase
And then my friends and I started the process of designing. None of us are architects and there are only some artists. But it was very difficult to save the aesthetics because we had already covered it with big black ugly and bulky soundproofing materials. So we tried to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible while using the leftover materials. I think we succeeded a little bit in that. The room didn't turn into a completely dark studio and it looks a little bit nicer now.
At least if we can save some more money next year we can buy better things and try our luck again!
What we learned in a nutshell
- When buying your sound insulation foam, make sure that it is of high quality and inspect it. There should be no tears and cuts.
- Plan before gluing and measure it twice if you want it to be pleasing to the eye.
- If the shapes do not look aesthetic, try cutting them with a laser cutter or do it yourself. But be very careful.
- Always use plenty of tape when gluing. Actually, there are also liquid adhesives, but I do not prefer them because of their smell.
I hope you liked what we did. Thank you very much for reading. Although the room looks a bit messy, I'm obviously happy with the final result and I can't wait to record it here and share it with you.
Goodbye.