Looking for Thoughts on my DIY Reflection Killer panels?

ShanPeyton

Member
Hello HR.commers.

What with the downturn in the economy in my neck of the woods and the ripple effects it has had with my schedule and wages and stuff, I have some free time on my hands to finally spend some time doing cool things in my new house. First project is making some much needed room treatments.

I had some stuff laying around the house like old bits of wood and old ceiling tiles that i am using for materials becasue they were free...ish. But i thought i would pick your brains on what i have in mind before i start gluing it all together.

If you look at the picture .....here..... It should be a good visual to see where my head is at.

It is an old piece of fibreglass ceiling tile as a backing piece (i may wrap that in burlap before affixing the wood) with some wood triangle shapes sort of running from corner to corner. (I also have some nice maple square pieces about 1/2" by 1/2") The frame is cedar and that will also have a burlap mesh over the front of it to hide some of the ugly yellow 'guts'

Obviously it looks a little uglier then the finished product as i am just mid cuts of all those little pieces, i just really wanted to get some opinions from you all before i started gluing.

It is my intent to have two of these things on the walls at the point of the first reflection from my monitors. I have also been tossing the idea around to maybe angle them when mounted just so, so that they reflect those early reflections towards the wall behind me, where my next project, a nice wooden diffuser will be waiting for some more sound waves and split them up a little more ?

This has got to be better than bare walls right?
 
Hello HR.commers.

What with the downturn in the economy in my neck of the woods and the ripple effects it has had with my schedule and wages and stuff, I have some free time on my hands to finally spend some time doing cool things in my new house. First project is making some much needed room treatments.

I had some stuff laying around the house like old bits of wood and old ceiling tiles that i am using for materials becasue they were free...ish. But i thought i would pick your brains on what i have in mind before i start gluing it all together.

If you look at the picture .....here..... It should be a good visual to see where my head is at.

It is an old piece of fibreglass ceiling tile as a backing piece (i may wrap that in burlap before affixing the wood) with some wood triangle shapes sort of running from corner to corner. (I also have some nice maple square pieces about 1/2" by 1/2") The frame is cedar and that will also have a burlap mesh over the front of it to hide some of the ugly yellow 'guts'

Obviously it looks a little uglier then the finished product as i am just mid cuts of all those little pieces, i just really wanted to get some opinions from you all before i started gluing.

It is my intent to have two of these things on the walls at the point of the first reflection from my monitors. I have also been tossing the idea around to maybe angle them when mounted just so, so that they reflect those early reflections towards the wall behind me, where my next project, a nice wooden diffuser will be waiting for some more sound waves and split them up a little more ?

This has got to be better than bare walls right?

If you are going to use them for the first reflection points why go for the random scattering across the front and not just use them as acoustic panels?
Diffusion is normally a pre calculated mathematical sequence which then gives you an even scatter. Don't know about your room but more often than not we would not recommend diffusors in panels in the first reflection points
 
There you've got it from one of the experts! :) You want to absorb, not reflect. Not sure how thick those ceiling tiles are, but would think you need at least 2" thickness at those first reflection points. On your back wall, you want to trap the corners, diffusor will work ON the back wall, assuming the room is large enough - there has been some discussion here before about the need (or not) for diffusion in smaller rooms, with the general concensus that most home studios will benefit from more trapping.
 
Cool. Ok well i am glad i asked before i started glueing stuff. I was a little unsure if it would be of any benefit?

Uh, the panels aren't that thick? Originally i was going to pile them together inside the burlap for only absorption panels. I actually have enough of the panels to sandwhich them together to be the same thickness as that frame which is about 1 1/2"

The room itself is about 10'7" x 14' 8.5" Drop Ceiling gives me a headroom of about 7' 3". There is also an an odd closet thingy in the very back corner i will likely turn into a vocal booth or something that is about 3' x 3'6"

I will throw up a sketch shortly as soon as i get this job off my desk.
 
1.5" is beter than nothing, but consider trippling those panels, if possible. That's an average size room, I'd be working on traps for all corners and the back wall too before thinking of diffusion.
 
Cool. Ok well i am glad i asked before i started glueing stuff. I was a little unsure if it would be of any benefit?

Uh, the panels aren't that thick? Originally i was going to pile them together inside the burlap for only absorption panels. I actually have enough of the panels to sandwhich them together to be the same thickness as that frame which is about 1 1/2"

The room itself is about 10'7" x 14' 8.5" Drop Ceiling gives me a headroom of about 7' 3". There is also an an odd closet thingy in the very back corner i will likely turn into a vocal booth or something that is about 3' x 3'6"

I will throw up a sketch shortly as soon as i get this job off my desk.

Those panels will work for your first reflection points (unless it is a really small room with width or height modal issues that need extra low end absorption). For bass trapping you need to be looking for something much thicker. At least 6 inches plus on the back wall for example
 
This is the room as it sits now

I haven't really put much time into organizing it. The walls are currently bare, the ceiling is a slightly low drop ceiling with cheap ceiling tiles. The fibreglass kind with a plastic sheet on it pretty reflective, i listed the height in a previous comment.

It will also be used for most if not all my tracking and recording which is why i thought maybe some diffusers might have been good? But i am likely wrong.

But this is the space i have available to me to use. Any pointers or advice would be greatly appreciated. :thumbs up:
 
I'd forget the 3x3ft vocal booth idea. Use that area for storage and record your vocals in the room.

I'll leave the rest to those that know what they're talking about. :thumbs up:
 
Yeah. forget the vocal booth idea. Put that corner trap on wheels or hinges so you can get into the storage area.
Never heard of ceiling tiles with a plastic sheet surface (?), but you need a ceiling cloud (trap) anyways over your mixing area. SO start with bass traps or superchunks for all 4 corners, cloud and the first reflection point traps you're making with ceiling tiles. Next would be more traps on the back wall and possibly the side walls.
 
Yeah. forget the vocal booth idea. Put that corner trap on wheels or hinges so you can get into the storage area.
Never heard of ceiling tiles with a plastic sheet surface (?), but you need a ceiling cloud (trap) anyways over your mixing area. SO start with bass traps or superchunks for all 4 corners, cloud and the first reflection point traps you're making with ceiling tiles. Next would be more traps on the back wall and possibly the side walls.

Awesome o.k. Bass traps seems to be the word of the day in terms of my room. I'll start having a poke around at ideas for nice plans for those i guess.

I had another buddy look at my set up and suggested moving my desk to the wall that has the storage hole on it and throwing the sound to the big square north wall? Anyone concur with that sentiment?

Also thanks for all the suggestions everyone greatly appreciated.
 
Your room is pretty much symmetrical north to south walls, except that if you set up on the south wall your point of first reflection on one side might be where that door is - you could put the trap on it, or leave the door open instead (no reflections of an opening).
 
Your room is pretty much symmetrical north to south walls, except that if you set up on the south wall your point of first reflection on one side might be where that door is - you could put the trap on it, or leave the door open instead (no reflections of an opening).

Thats what i said. The door could be a bit of anomaly. I am going to just leave it as is for now and focus on the acoustics.
 
If you are going to use them for the first reflection points why go for the random scattering across the front and not just use them as acoustic panels?
Diffusion is normally a pre calculated mathematical sequence which then gives you an even scatter. Don't know about your room but more often than not we would not recommend diffusors in panels in the first reflection points

David, what are your thoughs on Rockwool for panels? Using them for my superchunk floor to ceiling bass traps (already done) and bout to treat my reflection points and ceiling cloud with them too.
Aerolite/Rockwool with frames, covered in cotton.

Would love to hear an expert opinion as the internet has millions of people saying different things. Thanks!

To be precise this is what I used:

Isover Glasswool Aerolite
 
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Hey guys, if it is o.k. with you all i might keep all my questions pertaining to my room to this thread only. It's easier for me to track and stuff.

If i could get some thoughts about my monitor placement that might be cool now? My monitors are 5" KRK, I usually mix in a near field set up. They are free standing on some yorkville monitor stands. I am wondering how far off the wall i should have these? And if i were to make some bass traps for right behind them or something of that nature, would that distance off the wall change? Or would it matter at that point?

Also i decided against the wood diffusers built in to the panels and beefed them up to just shy of two inches. Didn't turn out too bad for a first attempt and recycled stuff laying around?

Also MJBphotos, you said you had never seen drop ceiling panels with plastic coating on them before. Here they are here.

I may have actually found a solution for these plastic eyesores!!! I think i am going to just flip every other one around and cover the fiberglass side with the left over burlap from the Wall panels. But i think i need to read up on the contents of the fiberglass. Where they are cheap crappy tiles that plastic coating may actually be there to prevent small pieces of the stuff from becoming airborne and falling into my breathing air. i guess we'll see.
 
Another thought. How effective would corner book shelves be for corner bass trapping? Would the mass from the books in the corner account for any of the low freq business end?

I realized i have boxes of books to unpack but no book shelves. Should i consider building corner book shevles? Just Planning and gathering thoughts.
 
If i could get some thoughts about my monitor placement that might be cool now? My monitors are 5" KRK, I usually mix in a near field set up. They are free standing on some yorkville monitor stands. I am wondering how far off the wall i should have these? And if i were to make some bass traps for right behind them or something of that nature, would that distance off the wall change? Or would it matter at that point?
The KRKs have front-facing bass ports, so I don't think you need specific traps behind them, but trapping of the front and rear corners and rear wall should come first, regardless, then some traps on the front wall won't hurt.
There are formulas for optimal positioning in a room, but generally home studios are too small to take real advantage of this. Read this thread about small room acoustics.

Also MJBphotos, you said you had never seen drop ceiling panels with plastic coating on them before. Here they are here.
Oh, that looks like the standard ceiling tile facing, don't think it's plastic. May be plasticized paper or something. I wouldn't try to peel it off, that's what holds everything together!

Another thought. How effective would corner book shelves be for corner bass trapping? Would the mass from the books in the corner account for any of the low freq business end?

I realized i have boxes of books to unpack but no book shelves. Should i consider building corner book shevles? Just Planning and gathering thoughts.

The extra 3-way corners where the actual shelf-wall-wall will create more problems. Believe me, I had just such a set up (with lots of books). I could move my head around and hear the bass tones build up in various places.
 
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