Help! My neighbors hate DDR.

[TwistedCrossover]

I have been playing ddr for about 3 months. I am a college student and I was playing at home over the summer up until a couple weeks ago when I came back to school and moved into a 2nd floor apartment. I immediately thought the stomping might annoy my neighbors below me. I was using a soft pad which wouldn't absorb any of the impact, but I still felt that the floor was pretty solid. For the first week I played for about 1-2 hours a day and there were no complaints. Then my CF finally arrived. I was playing on it for the 3rd day when I get a knock on my door. She asked what all the noise was and said it was a little bothersome. So now I haven't played since. Now the CF is really solid and dense and seems to absorb a lot of the impact as opposed to the floor abosrbing it, but the sound of your shoes against the hard plastic arrows creates quite a loud noise, which I think is the problem. I play mostly 7 and 8 footers so so I can only imagine how loud it's gonna be when I learn LOM. Anyone else have a similar problem or have any tips to help make things quieter? Is there anyway to mod the CF like put some sorf of foam underneath or over the arrows? I don't want this to be the end of my DDR career and I love the CF.

[Graviteh]

[TwistedCrossover]

That does help soften the impact, but I don't think that's the main issue. The CF is already dense enough to abosrb a lot of the impact. The probem is with the arrows themselves. They make a loud clacking sound when you hit them, especially when you're wearing shoes which is how I like to play on a metal pad. So I guess I would need to insert something soft underneath each arrow to reduce the noise. I'm just not exactly sure what i should put there or if that would interfere with the reponsiveness.

[Joel Stud?!]

Try different shoes. If you wear something with softer soles, it might not make such a loud noise. What type of shoes do you usually wear when you play?

[Wakka Lakka]

There is nothing you can do to dampen it. I can feel it when my girl is playing on my metal pads during the wee hours and I'm on the second floor and the pads are on concrete in the basement the percussive effect of the pads carries quite well. You have three options:

1. Get the neighbors addicted to DDR

2. Move into a really low-rent place where your neighbors will be too drunk, high, on crack to be perceptive of the world around them or care.

3. Rent/Buy a house.

Seriously if I can hear the pads which are set on concrete in a basement, there is no way to dampen them. The house might be the best option, especially if you have a younger sibling that will be going to school later - get the padres to buy you one instead of throwing the money down the rent tubes - it can easily be sold/rented out later in a college town. Just don't do something stupid like a condo - get a money pit. You can have wild parties to boot

[uouuɐ]

Either get an Ignition or play it the arcade. There is nothing you can do to prevent the noise on a CF.

Also, I would find it annoying if I was one of your neighbors.
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[TwistedCrossover]

I was gonna ask about the ignition. I've heard those are very quiet and much better than flimsy soft pads. Unfortuantely, from the reviews I've read, something seems to always go wrong with them eventually. As far as noise factor goes, would this be a good option?

[dj_sammylvr03]

Yes. The Ignition dance pad absorbs pretty mush all of the impact. Leave your metal pad for home use.
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DD:Recall
You want soundtracks? You got soundtracks!

[Baby Lemonade]

Haha, oh man. Honestly... You're screwed.

A. My bro lived in room 421 in his dorm. The girls from 321 would always come up, but they were huge bee-otches, so we'd always just be jerks and ignore their complaints until the RA (or Public Safety) showed up to stop us. My favorite, though, is on one occasion, the girls from 221 coming up saying they could hear the pounding.

B. My buddy lived in a pretty crappy apartment. Once, the people below came up and said that pictures were falling off the wall and off their shelves.

I have more, but i guess this is going away from the original purpose of the thread. Basically... Imagine that the people in the room above you are bouncing two basketballs, one then the other, over and over. That's what DDR sounds like. So I say you have 2 choices:

1. If your first interaction was nice, and they were friendly, you might just want to play until they come to complain again, then ask them if there is a time when they would prefer to hear you breaking the floor.

2. If they were complete jerks and weren't even interested in how you could possibly be making that much noise, just play and have them yell. That will be your relationship with them and they'll just have to deal with it for having poor people skills.

[TwistedCrossover]

Well she was pretty nice to me. She just asked what the noise was. I didn't really know what to say. It's kinda awkward when you open the door to a stranger with sweat dripping down your face who's wondering what all the "commotion" is. I simply said I was doing some exercises and that I would keep it down. She didn't want to feel intrusive but did admit it was a little bothersome. Since she was nice, I don't want to annoy her again. I thought about nailing my soft pad to a dense piece of wood. On the soft pad, the arrows won't make all the noise that the CF makes, and the wood will help absorb the impact. I could put some velcro underneath the wood to help make it stick to the carpet and not slide around so much. This won't be nearly as good as a CF, but at least I may be able to play. I wont get an ignition pad cause I guess they always break. My soft flimsy pad still works great. Anyway, if this doesn't work then my DDR days are over. There aren't any nearby arcades.

[rampage]

If you're on a non-ground floor apartment, you're probably screwed. There's little you can do.

[TwistedCrossover]

[VWarrior]

I have an ignition pad and it works great with absorbtion. I'm a college student myself, sophomore now, but last year I stayed on the bottom floor of my dorm so I had no trouble. I have a room on the same floor this year as well.

[TwistedCrossover]

Yeah I am curious about getting a RO ignition pad for my problem, but like I said before don't they always malfunction? It seems that way from what I've read, along with all the other ignition pads. It seems that although the soft flimsy pads are the worst kinds of platforms to dance on, they still last longer than the ignitions.

[gasm]

I have the same problem and I am on the bottom floor. I am in a low rental so its not the actual other residents, they probably are too drunk/high to notice, but it is the basement downstairs where the owners fix stuff. One time my 250 lbs. friend and I (about 240) where playing and the people from downstairs came up and TOLD us to stop, since they own the place we couldnt do much. The worst part is that he told us to DO IT OUTSIDE . So what I do is wait until they are not downstairs working before I play. So my advice is to wait for their car to leave or if they dont have a car spy on them and record their schedule. The risk of being reported as a stalker is so worth playing DDR.
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[penguin1232323]

Im not sure if you can do anything but i mean i dont think you want to move to a house just for ddr but if you want you can.

[Zanshin]

[Baby Lemonade]

[Synaesthesia]

[Anguirel]

I live in the upper floor of a dormitory...luckily for me though the floors here are crazy solid. I was playing Max300 heavy earlier and they didn't shake at all. Good luck with that...but I think you should just get your neighbor hooked.
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