From sponsored links and as an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more
So you may have noticed a break in our release schedule, that was due to our move to our new office, which is larger than our last place. After getting longer wiring and connecting all the gear and lights, we had a new challenge: The noise. For everyday life it wasn’t too bad except if you wanted to take a nap, but then it came to recording, there’s were tons of unusable takes.
So after recording the first video, I really knew we needed a soundproofed studio otherwise making videos was gonna be hell. Our new office is close to a big intersection, a very noisy one. Similar to earthquake magnitudes, decibels are logarithmic. If the sound meter shows 60db, it’s twice as twice as loud as 50db. Sound meters measure a similar huge range that our ears can observe, from a pin drop all to way up to a noisy restaurant.
Techspin’s new soundproofed studio is amazing: Xiaopang soundproof windows!
Now with the original single pane balcony doors closed there was a drop in noise, but every green light you could hear cars and especially motorcycles accelerating. When we first rented the place we knew it was going to be a little noisy due to the proximity to a large intersection, though being on the 14th floor we figured it wouldn’t be bad.
Oh my god we were so wrong. Yonghe is one of the most heavily populated districts in Taiwan, with lots of tightly built tall buildings and very little greenery to absorb sound. We were actually really fortunate with our old place, at the end of an apartment cul-de-sac, across from a large park with one-lane traffic. Not so with this location.
The tall buildings around here bounce the sound up, and there’s a lot. Due to the cement-walled balcony, we got the maximum sound reflection, and rush hour is super noisy, averaging about 60db, spiking to around 70db sometimes. Keep in mind that this measurement was taken during Coronavirus, so rush hour’s not as noisy as usual. Life in Taiwan isn’t business as normal, but maybe about 60% of traffic is still on the roads.
We also learned that ambulances take this road to the hospital, and police love to hit their siren a moment to get stopped cars moving, to improve traffic flow. We shopped around for soundproof windows, and luckily we found Xiao-pang house repair, and the boss was easy to talk with and had different solutions for our problem.
Soundproofed Studio: Who you gonna call? Xiao-pang!
Xiao-pang does shower door installation, waterproof construction, aluminum windows and doors, screens for windows and doors, custom made aluminum windows, large view and soundproof windows, automatic doors, 3 in 1 vent doors, mirror and tinted glass, general housing repair, and dry construction.
After negotiating a very reasonable quote, it took about two weeks for manufacturing. They gave us a call to arrange the time to do the install. It went quickly, just one morning, and it was done. And wow, what a difference.
Even the traffic whistle is only hitting about 48dB. With the original inside balcony windows closed, we’re hitting 36dB which is incredible for Taipei, even quieter than our previous studio. I honestly didn’t know how much background noise we could cut, but this is a really terrific result.
Now there are some piercing noises that do make it through both window sets, like ambulance sirens, bus and truck turn beeping signals, and super loud motorcycles, the recording situation has gone from near impossible during rush hour to a very good audio situation for recording, with barely any retakes.
Living in Taipei is always noisy with so much going on. But choosing to install soundproof windows has really improved not only our work experience but also just inhabiting this new office space. It’s really dramatic the noise decrease can make on your everyday quality of life.
Soundproofed studio: The Added Benefit
Another added benefit is definitely the reduction in mosquitoes getting inside the office. Asia has a lot, and we have racquets to deal with the blood-suckers, but we still had 3 or 4 a day pre-window-install. Now we get 2 to 3 a week, and we’re duct-taping floor drains to eliminate remaining entry points, but the new windows definitely eliminated a large entry point due to the poor sealing and durability the original interior windows had. All the more important now with viruses causing people to stay home.
So yeah, here is our new office space, and we have a lot of new products and videos coming soon. To keep up with our releases you can follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook all at techspinreview.
We’re interested to hear what new hardware you want to see reviewed, let us know and we’ll try and get to it. Please take a second to hit Like, subscribe, the bell, and we often reply to your feedback so if you have a question, fire away. We really appreciate you watching this far, thanks for your time, and we’ll see you on the next. Bye for now.
