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After reading "The Complete Guide to Finishing Walls & Ceilings,
I decided to caulk under the bottom plate of all my walls. According
to the book, it improves the STC (Sound Transmission Class) rating
by 5 points. This equates to a 12% improvement when using a single
layer of ½ drywall over insulated (R13) walls.
This should help keep the sound from traveling under the walls,
and also reduce the vibration of the walls when sound hits them.
I spoke with a couple of DIYers who thought it was probably a
waste of time, and that it wouldn't do any good. Nonetheless,
I decided to give it a shot.
Acoustic caulk
 I
was looking for Owens Corning Quiet Zone acoustic caulk, but none
of the stores I checked carry it. I ended up going with a silicon
caulk from Lowe's.
Some parts of the bottom plate needed quite a bit of caulk to seal
the gap in places where the board was bowed a bit. Other spots
were tight and required very little caulk to seal. It took about
4 tubes of caulk and about an hour of my time to seal all the
walls in the basement.
Not sure if I'd have noticed the difference, but I'm glad I went
ahead and did it!
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