We succeeded with the practice mute in lowering the dbs. transferred to the outside of my house. Unfortunately, I hate playing with one stuck in my bell so we must move on to another alternative.
One highly recommended piece of equipment is the sE Electronics Reflexion Filter PRO Portable Vocal Booth which isolates your sound using a wrap-around partition with acoustical foam. After studying this product, I thought that I might be able to improve on the original design and out came some of the moving boxes currently lying around my garage floor.
After about an hour, I was able to construct what I thought might be a way to cut down on the volume produced during my practicing. Sound absorbent foam placed strategically within a box, surrounded by a yet large box seemed to me to be the solution, but after repeatedly sending my wife outside my window while playing, it was decided that my perfect solution fell miserably short of it intended goal.
My design was so bad, that my wife could not tell the difference between open horn and “boxed in” horn. DARN!
The next night was spent on line searching for alternative ways to reduce my noise level and in my next post; I will share with you still another brain storm of mine as we continue our search for the perfect sound deadening solution.
Since a few years, this is my solution:
http://s1070.photobucket.com/user/kandor_1/library/?sort=6&page=1
I built it starting with a round plastic garbage bin, about 37 cm. diameter and 60 cm. deep (depth is very important to dampen the trumpet’s sound!). First layer, orange color, is mineral wool. Internal coating is soft polyurethane foam to be found in Hi-Fi shops as sound absorbing material for loudspeakers. Actually no glue is need, the “expanding” force is enough if cut a bit longer than needed. The bottom is made with the same two layers.
Opening diameter is 23 cm., about one foot, comfortable for trumpet/cornet but not flugelhorn.
This homemade device has put an end to my problem with the neighbors, at the same time gives no backpressure at all.
Only still unsolved issue is… finding a comfortable place for the printed music.
Fantastic! How much sound were you able to reduce with this setup?
Thank you, Bruce. The sound reduction is actually variable, it all depends how deep you insert the bell flare. I normally play for the maximum effect, that is the 1st valve flush with the border. If don’t live in a sensitive condo (unfortunately that’s my case) you could just go in to the spit valve. But still 50 more cm. of empty tunnel are needed before the end reflection, for the thing to be really useful.
Please do not expect this setup to stand the night test, against the wife sleeping in the next room beyond the door.
Maybe tomorrow I could give you some rough measurements with a dB-meter software. If I manage…