Ok, I'm going to spout a load of theory at you and them make a couple of practical suggestions - feel free to skip to the end but I wanted to try to qualify how sound 'proofing' (studio designers hate the term by the way - it's generally called isolation) works in a recording studio. As a background I've designed and built a studio from the ground up before as well as tutoring recording techniques in studio environments.
When soundwaves hit the wall of a room, they both go through the wall and they reflect off it. Soundwaves lose energy as they pass from one material to another, and high frequency soundwaves lose energy far quicker than low frequency. Once sound enters an element it travels along it. Sound, like water, leaks through any gaps it can find so you won't be able to stop sound getting through unless all weak spots are treated.
If you want to prevent sound passing through a wall, you need to add mass to reduce the energy of the sound as it hits the wall, and you can also reduce it by passing it through multiple different elements. A typical recording studio wall starts by coating the wall in thick, acoustically rated fibreglass insulation, then there's an air gap, then more insulation and finally a plasterboard inner face. This air gap typically goes through all walls and connects to an air gap in the ceiling, creating a room inside the original room where there little to no contact between the two structures - this is referred to as decoupling. The floor is usually also decoupled via rubber or neoprene sheeting.
However, when you see foam on the walls of a studio (or more commonly in professional studios fabric covered boxes containing fibreglass referred to as bass traps), what they are doing is a little different. These types of treatment are designed not to to reduce volume (although they do to an extent) but to control the sound as it reflects around the room. The problem with a room that echos is twofold: that it that the room colours the sound so it's hard to judge how the music being worked on will sound in other environments, and that the perceived sound will be different even at different points in the room due to the way echos disperse in the room and due to standing waves. The type of material is very important in controlling reflections, as it takes a lot more to stop a low frequency soundwave than it does a high frequency one:. Foam and egg cartons are generally good for high frequencies down to about the frequency range of the human voice and professional bass traps go a lot lower. Obviously in reducing reflections in a room the overall volume coming out of that room drops a bit too so they do contribute a bit to reducing the sound leaking elsewhere.
Ok, so a couple of things you can try.
Firstly, anything you can do to tackle the problem at source is a great starting point, so I would take on board people's comments about covering the cage! Moving the cage to the opposite side of the wall will make a small difference as well.
Secondly, look for weak spots: is the thin wall definitely the problem? Are there any air vents on either wall? What about the door: any gap underneath? Remember if you can hear your bird clearly in the hallway then sound could be getting in to his room that way as well, and gaps under doors are a common problem.
Thirdly, an alternative to foam or egg cartons is to buy a large heavy rug and hang it in front of the joining wall so there is an air gap of a couple of inches behind it. The rug will dampen high frequencies but also because any soundwaves are passing through rug to air to wall, you have an extra element to attack those reflections. Sound will still get round the sides of the rug but you'll take out a lot of reflections within the room and hey, it looks a lot nicer than a bunch of egg cartons too. You could potentially hang something above the cage as well. In general, have a think about how reflective the room is: is it carpeted? Lots of wood surfaces?
None of this stuff is going to sound proof your room - trust me, it takes an eye watering amount of money to do that! But it's all incremental: moving the cage, plugging any spots that sound could be leaking through, and tackling the way sounds reverberate in the room are cheap things you can try and the sum of them might make enough of a difference to make life easier for your housemate and calm relations a bit.
Hope that helps a bit and I haven't rambled too much...
When soundwaves hit the wall of a room, they both go through the wall and they reflect off it. Soundwaves lose energy as they pass from one material to another, and high frequency soundwaves lose energy far quicker than low frequency. Once sound enters an element it travels along it. Sound, like water, leaks through any gaps it can find so you won't be able to stop sound getting through unless all weak spots are treated.
If you want to prevent sound passing through a wall, you need to add mass to reduce the energy of the sound as it hits the wall, and you can also reduce it by passing it through multiple different elements. A typical recording studio wall starts by coating the wall in thick, acoustically rated fibreglass insulation, then there's an air gap, then more insulation and finally a plasterboard inner face. This air gap typically goes through all walls and connects to an air gap in the ceiling, creating a room inside the original room where there little to no contact between the two structures - this is referred to as decoupling. The floor is usually also decoupled via rubber or neoprene sheeting.
However, when you see foam on the walls of a studio (or more commonly in professional studios fabric covered boxes containing fibreglass referred to as bass traps), what they are doing is a little different. These types of treatment are designed not to to reduce volume (although they do to an extent) but to control the sound as it reflects around the room. The problem with a room that echos is twofold: that it that the room colours the sound so it's hard to judge how the music being worked on will sound in other environments, and that the perceived sound will be different even at different points in the room due to the way echos disperse in the room and due to standing waves. The type of material is very important in controlling reflections, as it takes a lot more to stop a low frequency soundwave than it does a high frequency one:. Foam and egg cartons are generally good for high frequencies down to about the frequency range of the human voice and professional bass traps go a lot lower. Obviously in reducing reflections in a room the overall volume coming out of that room drops a bit too so they do contribute a bit to reducing the sound leaking elsewhere.
Ok, so a couple of things you can try.
Firstly, anything you can do to tackle the problem at source is a great starting point, so I would take on board people's comments about covering the cage! Moving the cage to the opposite side of the wall will make a small difference as well.
Secondly, look for weak spots: is the thin wall definitely the problem? Are there any air vents on either wall? What about the door: any gap underneath? Remember if you can hear your bird clearly in the hallway then sound could be getting in to his room that way as well, and gaps under doors are a common problem.
Thirdly, an alternative to foam or egg cartons is to buy a large heavy rug and hang it in front of the joining wall so there is an air gap of a couple of inches behind it. The rug will dampen high frequencies but also because any soundwaves are passing through rug to air to wall, you have an extra element to attack those reflections. Sound will still get round the sides of the rug but you'll take out a lot of reflections within the room and hey, it looks a lot nicer than a bunch of egg cartons too. You could potentially hang something above the cage as well. In general, have a think about how reflective the room is: is it carpeted? Lots of wood surfaces?
None of this stuff is going to sound proof your room - trust me, it takes an eye watering amount of money to do that! But it's all incremental: moving the cage, plugging any spots that sound could be leaking through, and tackling the way sounds reverberate in the room are cheap things you can try and the sum of them might make enough of a difference to make life easier for your housemate and calm relations a bit.
Hope that helps a bit and I haven't rambled too much...
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