Noise Frequency of Ball Impact

ndakotan

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Can someone put a computer/mic by their pool table and tell me the frequency range for tip/ball impact and ball/ball impact? I'm designing soundproofing for my pool room.

I'm guessing it is a relatively low freq, making it more difficult to prevent transmission through walls, but can somone see what their computer tells them?
 
Can someone put a computer/mic by their pool table and tell me the frequency range for tip/ball impact and ball/ball impact? I'm designing soundproofing for my pool room.

I'm guessing it is a relatively low freq, making it more difficult to prevent transmission through walls, but can somone see what their computer tells them?
There are break speed apps that record the sounds. They may or may not display the sound with sufficient time resolution to pull out the frequencies. Since the sounds are "impulsive" (in the technical sense) they likely will include a lot of frequencies.
 
Can someone put a computer/mic by their pool table and tell me the frequency range for tip/ball impact and ball/ball impact? I'm designing soundproofing for my pool room.

A pool ball making contact with another pool ball will make a sound of an impulse function. This 'sound' is not easily represented as a "range of frequencies" but is broad spectrum noise.

For all intents and purposes the ball-to-ball contact lasts around 1-2 millisecond. So 500Hz to 1000 Hz is where the primarly frequency would be expected and expect harmonics up through 10 KHz.

Anechoic absorbers would work well, acoustic dampers would not (they need the continuous frequency not the impulse event frequencies.)
 
i'm an audio pro, full time for 15 years, and Mitch is right on the money.

just from ears, without even looking at a sample, i can tell you that the low frequency content of either a break or an individual object ball hit is very small compared to the mids and highs. that's good news for you, because it's cheaper to deal with -- although not necessarily easy. focus on absorption in the room, as Mitch said, and also on making sure the doors & other potential gaps are sealed; Really sealed. don't waste your money on mass in the walls, etc.
 
... For all intents and purposes the ball-to-ball contact lasts around 1-2 millisecond. ...
From measurements (see Wayland Marlow's book) and theory the contact time is down around 0.2 milliseconds (or 200 microseconds).
 
another question

I thought the impact of hard materials would have a bass effect. I did not know there more mid-high range frequencies. I am buying good sound doors, but my walls are standard 2x4 construction. Is it worth buying stud/sheetrock insulators (rubber clips for stud framing and sheetrock isolation, adding more layers of sheetrock, or installing sound absorbtion panels on the finished walls/ceiling?
 
if you're trying for complete sound proofing, that's very expensive and unlikely to succeed without professional help. did i mention it's expensive?

if you're after the more reasonable goal of sound reduction, you have to decide how much is acceptable in the situation. unless there's a baby sleeping in the next room, i've gotta think that you don't need to go to the trouble/expense of special studs, etc.

sure, you can go crazy and isolate walls, offset studs, etc. but again, unless you're trying to set it up so you can practice after everyone's asleep, just mitigating it should be fine.

sheetrock isolation is primarily for bass. i'll say it again: there is very little bass content to deal with here. you Do have large amounts of high mids and highs to deal with. isolating the sheetrock isn't going to affect that much.

absorption panels on ceiling and walls will certainly help. you don't need anything fancy, if you google sound absorbing panels you'll come up with some materials you can readily find at Home Depot that will help considerably. if it's easy to do, putting some regular home insulation in the walls will also help. sure, every layer of sheetrock will help, but how much do you want to spend? maybe you should try it first and see whether you need more. but don't do that without the absorption in the room, that alone will help at least as much as anything else you do.

visit the Auralex site -- they have a lot of info on what is (a) scientifically correct, and (b) what is practical and works.
 
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Might be cheaper to build the wife a spare bedroom on the other side of the house! Or get her a new I-pod ,,ear muffs or ear plugs.

Seriously though,,, I have a large side room with a cathedral ceiling,,which I think helps. But I insulated the interior wall between my living room and side room,,,,,1/2 inch drywall on each side. OH!!,,, And also installed a solid interior entry door between them.(not a cheap door)
It did the job well. Can hardly hear a break with just a wall between rooms.
 
Owens Corning 703 is the stuff you want to look for to make absorbtion panels, couldn't remember the number before...

you can get 12 2x4' sheets of it for $100, and it will do more for this problem than most anything else you can do. you can even make it all purty by covering it with fabric...

if you can't find it locally, google it and you can order it online.
 
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