When setting up my apartment after moving in about a year ago, I took into consideration that I was basically going to be running an electronic-based music studio. I realized that I was going to have to take precautions to keep sound under control when I was producing or jamming.
Sound Volume
Most of the sound control, in my situation, can be controlled via volume on a mixer or since I have everything basically running electronically. I don’t have any live amps or drums. I have an electronic drum kit and amp simulators, for example. This alone can help greatly since I can simply adjust the volume as needed to keep neighbors happy. I also have the option of running everything in my studio over headphones for anybody that is jamming or recording, without outputting any sound whatsoever over the speakers, which is great.
Acoustics
There are also some acoustic issues that I considered. I have a lot of flat, hard wood surfaces in my current apartment, and it sounded like an echo-chamber (not that bad, really, but close) at first. I put up several sound panels to help control echo and acoustics in the room. With a little experimentation I was able to get it sound more natural pretty easily.
Positioning of Speakers and Sound Output
I also considered the positioning of the studio equipment, mainly the desk with the monitor speakers. I put them in my living room, against a wall that is shared with a hallway. This way, when I am using the speakers, the sound isn’t coming from a part of the apartment that shares any walls with my neighbors or is above or below any of their bedrooms. When they are sleeping at night, I can be using my speakers and it won’t bother them, at least at reasonable levels. This is great.
Electronic Drum Kit Noise
On top of all that, I also made sure to clean up the sound issues with my electronic drum kit, such as fixing kick pedal noise by using drum pedal isolation pads and kick pedal triggers.
