Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Nivim]

A genuinely quiet place. I am alright with still hearing the sound my body makes, but it would be nice to muffle that too, even if I can't stop it without serious reprocussions.
 No engines, or the things they power, no ringing pipes, no flows, no creaking wood, no rain patter, no wind, no weather, and none of the movement and voices of life. No soft rumble beneath my feet, no whine or buzzing in the distance, no excessive heat or radiation, no crinkling of fabric, no dust settling...et cetera, et cetera.
 This place should exist somewhere...how do I make it if not?

[Neonivek]

I believe they have invented devices that actually drown out all noise.

Mind you some are torture devices...

But I am sure there are some noise deprivation devices out there somewhere.

[Max White]

Silence is a lot more a state of mind then you think. You should be able to almost not notice background noise after getting used to it.

But, if you want silent, try a cave. You just need to sit very still and you can hear the blood in your ears.

[Angel Of Death]

There's no such thing as pure slience. For me at least. I swear if you stand in a silent place for too long your ears ring.

[Heliman]

I've heard of certain rooms some psychologists use for therapy that have you floating in a pool in a soundproof room with noise-canceling earmuffs. other than that I got nothing unless you go beneath the sea in a submarine and turn the power off.

[Nospherat]

Your ears DO ring if you stand in a silent place too long.
Just as your eyes may start giving you hallucinations in perfect darkness. Your body is not used to total sensory deprivation and as such ... it starts producing false readings.

While I totally understand someone craving silence in today's mad mad world, I do feel the need to warn them that total silence is overrated.
I work in a server room, assaulted by hundreds of cooling fans. To that, add the AC units and the fact that we are close to an emergency hospital with lots of ambulances passing by.
Let's not forget about the dogs. Brain dead moronic creatures, forever barking.

So yeah, after some time, i do crave a little silence myself.
Lucky for me, I work in a TV station, so I can simply lock myself into a voice recording room which is totally sound-proofed. I usually read and have my lunch breaks there but I never found myself able to hang around for more than an hour.
Not hearing any sound is only fun for so much.

Ok, now to the advice part.
If you are interested in testing sensory deprivation once, you could either look for a research program needing volunteers, or even go as far as renting (bribing someone if needed) 60 minutes of Chamber R.E.S.T. or Flotation R.E.S.T.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_deprivation

If you feel the need to do this daily, and you are ready to spend some cash, I am quite positive you could use soundproofing materials for a small room in your house.
If you are really determined about that, you could either research or I could ask our Chief Sound Engineer about exactly what you need to achieve that.  Be warned, some materials are really expensive.

[Neonivek]

There is always the meditation route.

When your mind is focused you will not hear a thing.

[IronyOwl]

You're pretty much stuck with soundproofing a room, or otherwise finding something specifically built to block sound, like the aforementioned sensory deprivation tanks.

Various soundproof materials are available, though they're not cheap and are generally intended to be built into a wall, not just placed over your windows or something. Putting mattresses up against the doors and/or windows might work somewhat in a pinch.


Or you could just buy earplugs and earmuffs, if you don't mind being deaf more than being in a quiet place.

[Neonivek]

The problem with uttar soundproofing is there is this eerie noise with very quiet places. It is like "nothing" is a sound.

[Mindmaker]

You can buy a device to generate white noise.
While it drowns all other noise, you'd have to get used to it.

[Neonivek]

You can buy a device to generate white noise.
While it drowns all other noise, you'd have to get used to it.

I don't know... I've seen some White Noise generators...

Some of them are such garbage you would litterally get the same result as turning your TV onto a channel with static and turning the volume down.

[Nospherat]

Various soundproof materials are available, though they're not cheap and are generally intended to be built into a wall, not just placed over your windows or something.

While this is is the ideal case, one can soundproof any room, regardless of existing walls and/or windows.
Windows are usually bricked shut. Then, it's all about using a combination of materials over the existing walls.
I saw them built the recording rooms. They used one layer of mineral wool, perforated drywall, a special soundproofing paint/resin substance, a second layer of different mineral wool, a non-metallic net/webbing and a second layer of different paint.

To give you an idea of how well this works, a few years ago, a gas tank exploded just 500 meters away, in the street. The explosion shattered most of our windows.
There were people in a rec room, and all we heard on tape was a pen rattling on the table.

Afaik, there is a way of going beyond the above combination of materials and adding some kind of phonoabsorbant cones to the walls, that are meant to break echo and muffle sounds created inside the room.

And again, if OP is serious about building this, i can get the exact names of the materials used.


As for white noise and noise cancellation devices... I'm sorry to say this, but it's still noise.

[ILikePie]

If you have a bomb shelter near by, try that. They used to build one for every street over here, so there are tons all over, but I guess they don't have that many in America/Europe.

[Muz]

You can buy a device to generate white noise.
While it drowns all other noise, you'd have to get used to it.

I don't know... I've seen some White Noise generators...

Some of them are such garbage you would litterally get the same result as turning your TV onto a channel with static and turning the volume down.

Eh, TV static is white noise. That's exactly what a white noise generator is supposed to do.

I don't think you can easily find a sound-free place, though, aside from the mentioned recording studio. Just get your brain to filter out the noises. My brain's doing just great at filtering out the refrigerator hum and the sound of my breathing.

[Neonivek]

Eh, TV static is white noise. That's exactly what a white noise generator is supposed to do.

Right, I am just saying that there is a quality thing involved.