Will Acoustic Foam Soundproof a Room?

One soundproofing question I get asked often is can you soundproof using acoustic foam or acoustic panels? In this video, I answer many popular questions regarding sound proofing and sound deadening.

You might be surprised by my answer, especially for "can you soundproof a wall with acoustic foam?" because there is one caveat when answering this question that might surprise some.

Here are links to all the products I talk about in this video. These links are from Amazon That I chose for best quality and price.

TWO FULL ARTICLE with many more links and sound proofing tips to help you even better!

Bear in mind that some of the links in this video are affiliate links, and if you go through them to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

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[diziax]

So there’s basically no way to soundproof a room in a shared house for cheap. Watched so many of these videos and it seems impossible to do anything affordable as a broke student in a shared house who can hear housemates talk even at a low volume from their room and they can hear if I talk quietly because of how thin the walls are 😕

[yanb.]

An image I like to use when people don't get this is: trying to soundproof with sound treatment, is like trying to fix a water leak with a dehumidifier and some towels.

[hanten]

To perfectly blocking a sound is almost impossible especially for a very loud situation like a jamming/practice room but it's ok to have some noise going through outside because I think no one ever expected to have 0 decibel passing through outside. Thank you for the explanation.

[Hentai_Akuma]

I just want something to actually make my room soundproof so that I don't have to worry about my neighbors hearing my girl and I doing the Ogre swamp wrestle.

[kevindarroch]

My problem is from noise above in another apartment. They radiate into a bedroom and living room. Closing and opening of a door, footsteps, running, moving of furniture, someone dropping things on the floor above which is made of reinforced concrete. The walls in the apartment are also solid concrete.

[othinus]

I saw a video from Doug Zed where he plastered Futon(thick Japanese bedding) on every wall and ceuling of a room and covered them up with thick moving blankets/black out curtains. He did before and after tests using various sources(shouting, full blast studio monitors, ect) and noticed a massive improvement.

[GoneDying]

Didnt see this question. Does the shape of acoustic foam matter (diamond, wave, eggshell ect?) If so what is best in your opinion

[ayonsg]

So true, everywhere people are misunderstanding room acoustics treatment with soundproofing.

[bartmuz]

"echo" in the room is nothing else, than wall reflection. The Sound and its reflection add up - so when U even use only absorber to reduce "echo", the sound becomes slightly quieter.

[LottimusMaximus]

This channel should be called “how to not sound proof anything ever”.
Best option for studio guys: Go to a mattress store. Ask them if you can get the foam out of the disposed of mattresses. Bring a box cutter with extra blades. I got 3-6” thick foam out of like 12 queen and king sized mattresses. (Most mattresses are hybrids now). Hang it everywhere, glue it where you can. That room was so quiet I could hear my heart beat.

[fedayeentaqx]

Everyone says fiberglass is only good for sound treating a room and won't cut the noise, but there's a clear diff between walls with insulation and those without when it comes to cutting noise. I need to reduce the noise from my half stack, as much as possible.

[malibustacy]

So if I'm using "sound absorbing" materials does the material itself actually "hang on" to the sounds it's been absorbing and then allow me to recall those sounds in the order they were stored by simply squeezing the sounds out of the material when I want to re-hear what I've stored.

[plywoodcarjohnson]

One thing worth noticing is that acoustic guitars can resonate with certain frequencies and almost amplify tones coming from electric equipment, so put a strand of rope between the strings if you are not using the guitar and think it looks great on the wall.

[georgieo.]

Hello there, thank you for the informative video. It outlined a lot of things that don’t work for sound BLOCKING. Do you have any recommendations for something that would work for that specific need?
To be more specific I’m not doing any recording or hiding echos, just don’t want the people in the apartment above me to hear the tv and other things coming out of my bedroom, it’s bad for them and weird for me knowing they can, I don’t mind spending money on this so any ideas that would show some noticeable improvement are welcome.

Thank you

[Rosh-Kyoto-Japan]

I love singing and i still live with my parents, night time is definitely the time i want to express myself, i used to want to get these acoustic foam but now i guess i'm gonna wait for couple years ahead after finishing my college and live in my own house

[KLienne]

This doesn't make sense on a physical perspective. You say it is absorbing sound, but at the same time it won't stop sound transferring to the other side of the wall. It just doesn't make sense. Whenever sound is absorbed by material it loses some of its energy, thus yes, it does prevent some amount of the sound transferring to the other side of the wall. If you're gonna attempt to describe it from a physical perspective, then at least do it right.

[venomclown]

5:04 "YA KNOW IT'S HARD OUT HERE FOR A PIMP..."

[virgxslatt]

so what would be something good for sound blocking?

[imsgoalie]

The way those foam panels work is in the complexity of the shape. it creates a shitload of internal reflections within the foam and there's a ton of destructive interference. This is "absorption". This is also the same principle behind how those wooden break-up panels work...it's just diffusing a wave away from direct reflection as well as encouraging some destructive interference.

If you want to block sound transmission and deaden a room, a thin layer of mlv behind a stack of thin materials of differing acoustic impedance is extremely effective. More effective than the same thickness of a single material with one acoustic impedance (say MLV itself). This is because of all the interface reflections and destructive interference you can create within those layers. Imagine a twenty layers of tinfoil and newspaper and some acoustic foam on top...that will block sound far better than you ever might expect. Put a little acoustic foam in front of it and you're doing about as well as you can without adding a ton of mass.

[travisschofield]

I think before you made this video you should understand the difference between sound proofing and sound treatment. Proofing is completely removing all sounds coming from outside your room. Foam absolutely CANNOT achieve this. As far as sound treatment goes foam is still a terrible option. Rockwool is the way and only way to go