[onewhippedpuppy]

John, I'm finishing my basement right now, and have looked into soundproofing a lot. Nothing is more annoying than hearing every footstep on the floor above, and if you have wood floors it's especially bad. There's a number of different ways you can soundproof a ceiling. There's sound insulation, which is similar to fiberglass insulation, that you place above the sheetrock. There's various forms of foam insulation. Some people double the sheetrock, which of course further reduces your ceiling height. There's also a product called Quiet Rock (http://www.quietsolution.com/html/quietrock.html), which makes a form of pre-insulated sheetrock. It doesn't appear to be cheap, I'm yet to compare it to regular sheetrock + sound insulation. If price isn't too high, it's probably the approach I'll take, as it's quick and easy.