Heavy Curtains

E

EVT

New member
Hi all,
I was wondering if you can tell me where you all get the heavy curtains??
I want to try to keep out some outside traffic noise. I know it won't eliminate, but i'm sure it will help. Do you make your own? I saw some from some home movie theaters.... man some people have some insane movie theaters in their homes. But, REALLY expensive, even the curtains.
thanks,
evt
 
EVT,

> heavy curtains ... I want to try to keep out some outside traffic noise. <

Curtains will not help at all. Not even a little.

--Ethan
 
thanks for the reply...
so, they are used just for reshaping the sound when mic'ng?
How are they beneficial in a home studio?
evt
 
I was pondering on the idea of heavy curtains, but then i realised that it probley wouldnt make a difference, so im in the process of building a partition out of plywood, about 6 or so inches thick.


- Idgeit
 
E,

> How are they beneficial in a home studio? <

Curtains can be used to tame ambience and reverb, but only if they're really thick and heavy like stage curtains. There are better materials for absorption, such as rigid fiberglass, and thick curtains are also very expensive. But you asked about using curtains to improve sound isolation, and they won't help that at all. For isolation you need mass, and a sheet rock wall is the cheapest mass you can buy.

--Ethan
 
thanks for the reply Ethan,
I've seen some home studio photos and saw the curtains. I was wondering how they helped, and where people were getting them from because where I saw them in my searches online, they were really expensive (like you said)... I guess they are just expensive? Sometimes I discover that people on this forum find ways to do things in a more cost effective way... like finding some obscure, or smaller company that has quality, but cheaper things, but I guess these curtains are really heavy and heavy priced.
thanks again ethan, I looked at realtraps, and if I was in a house I would definitely be into hooking things up...but I'm in a co-op apartment building, so don't want to get so into it. When I move to a house I would really like to set things up nicely.... the realtraps appear to be EXCELLENT!
evt
 
Like Ethan (and others) have stated curtains aren't very useful acoustically other than cutting a little bit of the reverb down, however in a large live room they can add a lot of ambience. In my third (I think, maybe the second) studio the live room was 35'x25', quite big, and was saturated in hardwoods and really felt "warm" and "live". On the walls we had the normal acoustical treatments (absorption panels, foam, reflectors and such) and on longer back wall we had floor to ceiling "curtains" more for asthetic reasons than anything else - the acoustical treatments were behind the curtains.

The curtains were custom made, because 16' tall curtains are just not something K-Mart is going to stock :)

What we did was buy the fabric from Jo-Ann Fabrics, a national craft/fabric store, and the wife of a friend of a friend of a friend brought in her sewing machine and sewed seams around the edges (folding them over) to prevent fraying, as well as sewed on 4" wide loops every foot or so... the curtains were a heavy cotton/poly and extremely heavy to say the least...16' tall by 2 yards wide... for curtain rods we used 1" diameter electrical conduit that we painted to match the moulding which was a dark red or a burgandy, and used huge plant hangers to support the rod, which we also painted to match the "curtain rods".

Anyway, hope that answers your question as how to make curtains, even though you seem to realize they won't be the acoustical answer you're looking for. But in certain rooms curtains add to the ambience and can help a little bit with reverb and such.
 
Thanks Frederic,
I took home and career in high school and couldn't figure out the sewing machines... a friend in the class whose grandmother taught her how to sew would do her sewing project, then mine! I just walked around the class looking at what everyone else was doing until she finished hers... the teacher was pretty clueless. Who knows where this girl is now.

Seems the sewing traditions are definitely fading out as sadly the grandmas are passing away and the current passtimes don't include sewing.
I knew there would be someone who got around paying the extreme amount they cost.

k-mart...lol I looked, all I remember they had was curtains with palm trees or something...and I think I need to plant palm trees all around the perimeter of this little room!! Does anybody know where I can buy some palm trees?? :p
evt
 
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EVT said:
I took home and career in high school and couldn't figure out the sewing machines... a friend in the class whose grandmother taught her how to sew would do her sewing project, then mine! I just walked around
Click to expand...

My Mom was great with sewing; growing up she made clothes for my sister and I, drapes, sofa covers, everything. She showed me how to load the bobbin (the hardest part of sewing actually), and you let the machine do the work just feeding it the fabric. While *I* wouldn't attempt to make clothing or anything terribly complicated, knowing how to sew is useful. Hem your pants, stitch a ripped canvas bag, repair a tent, make studio curtain's :)

The K-Mart near me had plain, solid color cotton curtains as well, though nothing in green that even remotely matches my color theme in the studio. So, for privacy reasons, I bought red curtains and hung them anyway. I'll get around to making curtains eventually.

And I did see all the gawdy palm tree (and similar theme) curtains - ugly!
 
I'm going to pick the coolest looking fabric I can find (preferably non-flammable), then sew it to the front and back of heavy moving blankets. That's my heavy curtain solution and a whole lot cheaper than finding heavy fabric.

-Todzilla
 
I meant to menton earlier. Spray the curtains liberally with scotchguard, which you can get at the fabric store or K-mart etc.

Why?

Try getting coffee and beer out of your curtains :)

Smaller curtains aren't a problem, but our 16' tall curtains didn't fit in the biggest of laundromat washers. We hung them outside off the gutters of the facility and hosed them once a year.
 
Definitely non-flamable... we don't want any disasters like the Great White concert!! NO PYROTECHNICS allowed in the studio!!!!
evt
 
EVT said:
Definitely non-flamable... we don't want any disasters like the Great White concert!! NO PYROTECHNICS allowed in the studio!!!!
evt
Click to expand...

Don't allow smoking of any kind either. And make sure none of your customers have a cold either. We had one "garage band" come in, and the drummer in the corner of the live room had a runny nose. He was very close to the curtains. Guess what happened.

We actually put "curtain cleaning $90" on their bill, too.
 
Yuckie!!
some people.. people... people,
What do you think I see every day with the little kids in the school?
NY winters as a teacher in an elementary school, you are exposed to soooo many germs that it's a miracle for you to avoid getting sick. At least I have off this week... time to work in the studio!
evt
 
THIS place sells used acoustical draperies in a number of colors and sizes for pretty reasonable prices. I've been considering getting some for my recording space in my new house, but I haven't made my mind up yet.

I've never bought from them so I don't know anything about how reliable they are.

Ted
 
I was wodering about the moving blankets? Damn, garbage truck rollin through after the perfect track!!! Could you just tack some foam on to them (also live in an apartment) or just build some kind of wood barrier that would block the window opening? Is that what you meant by partition? :confused:
 
I second that!

Building a partition would help greatly, get some wood, build the outer frame, and pad it out with some rockwool, Then close it up with some MDF or Plywood. Worked fine for my studio :).


- Idgeit
 
livilaNic said:
I was wodering about the moving blankets? Damn, garbage truck rollin through after the perfect track!!! Could you just tack some foam on to them (also live in an apartment) or just build some kind of wood barrier that would block the window opening? Is that what you meant by partition? :confused:
Click to expand...


I get airplanes flying over now and then. I am building a wall to divide my garage in half which should cut down on some of the noise I'm getting through the garage door. The only time it really matters is when I'm doing vocal tracks. I live on a pretty quiet street so I don't have big trucks or heavy traffic to contend with. Just the dang airplanes.
 
On my street, I don't get much traffic at all (dead end), and even though Newark Airport is only a 20 minute ride, I've never heard commercial planes overhead.

On rare occasions, sometime small (like a piper or cessna) will zip overhead because they fly below traffic for Newark, from Linden Airport which is a tiny hobbyiest type airport.

For the six months following 9-11, Linden Airport was "borrowed" by the military, using it as a refueling/docking area for Apaches and Harriers. Very noisy of course as they were flying fairly low also to avoid air traffic to and from Newark Airport, but it was noise that actually made me feel more comfortable at the time.

Apache choppers 200' up are darn loud... I can't imagine being in one for any length of time and still retaining my hearing. Kudos to the pilots.
 
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