"soundproof" = $$$
so i'm pricing out some OSI SC175 acoustic caulk for sealing the wall perimeters. OSI caulks are sold at places like home depot, although it's not as common to carry the SC175 since its use is a bit more specific.
anyway, i found a bunch of online sources for this stuff, both regular contractor supply places and places that specialize in soundproofing. to the supply houses, SC175 is just another type of caulk. to the soundproofing places, SC175 is another product that you can beat the word "soundproof" into repeatedly with a baseball bat. and the prices reflect this.
my favorite example:
1 29 oz tube of SC175 from toolup: $3.59
1 29 oz tube of SC175 from soundprooffoam.com: $14.50
i love how the first bullet point for the description on the $14.50 page is "cost effective". yes, paying 4 times as much because your domain name includes "soundproof" is cost effective.
time and time again i talk with people about the studio construction process and invariably they ask, "are you using such-and-such soundproofing material on your walls?" a few very specific items aside, my answer to that is always "no". soundproofing is one of those areas that is very involved and understood by only a small portion of the population, much smaller than the portion of the population which is interested in having some kind of soundproofing done. companies that specialize in soundproofing take advantage of this to the extreme every chance they can get. nearly every single item i'm using that will help with soundproofing is stuff i can either drive down to home depot and buy, or have home depot order for me. the only item i couldn't order through home depot thus far was the resilient channel, and even that i could have obtained at one of the more hard-core building supply houses if i had had the time and desire to track them down. and i would've payed much less for it, too.
soundproofing is, by and large, less about the material and more about the application. all the foam, mass loaded vinyl, and special rubber doohickeys in the world don't do crap compared to what you can do with just 2x4s, drywall, insulation, and caulk. it's amazing how junk gets hyped by these companies under the guise of "it's expensive, so it must be really good."
anyway, time for me to quit bitchin and go get me some caulk.