Only gypsum walls

PierCarl Venne

New member
So I rent an apartment and have this room reserved to be my home studio and I'm at the point of doing accoustic treatment, it's 134in X 134in, Height is 8ft.
There's a good amount of reverb when I clap my hands (about 3 seconds).
The walls and ceiling are all gypsum and the floor is fake wood vinyl. I have 2 doors and a window, one of the door is sticked in a corner, which may be a problem for the bass trap in this corner of the room.
I did the Auralex "free room analysis" but they didn't give any feedback in 3 months so I guess I can't count on them.
I have joined a few diagrams of my room, I would just like to know if there is a particular bundle, preferably not over 600$ that would work well in this type of room.
I wish to do this only once 'till I move out! :P

Thanks!
 

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Forget 'acoustic foam', you 'll need true bass traps made with rockwool, 4" thick for corners, 2" for side absorbers and ceiling cloud. Or superchunks of rockwool in the corners, but you've got one corner with no room due to the door. Search ehre or on youtube for 'how to build your own bass traps'.
It's a square room, that's not good, so you're going to need plenty of trapping. I'd set up the desk on the opposite wall than the one you have it, so that you could trap both back corners symmetrically.
Assume you are going to be tracking and mixing in this room.
 
Primacoustic London 12a Treatment kit <-- Would this be a good kit to start ? I don't have any tools to build them so I have to buy them

I did a lot of researches in square room and as you mentioned it above, it's really bad, some says that they're impossible to treat properly.

also I have to clarify that, The room in question is an empty room in my apartment but I have my bedroom that is 134in X 113in, 8ft of height. Maybe I could switch them and use my empty bedroom as a studio instead? Though I have the same door problem, I guess it would be better.

Otherwise I guess I'll just stick mixing with my Audiotechnica M-50 Headphones.

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All the panels listed in that kit are 1" or 2" thick. I doubt that's enough to stop any low end freqs. A room your size (and mine, btw) will need to tame from 500hz on down. The room will resonate at those freqs and you won't really be paying attention to it because you are accustomed to hearing reverb in higher freqs 1k -2.5k.

Do what MJB said and get rockwool or OC703. Minimum thickness is 2". Double them up in the corners or stuff the voids with compressed pink fluffy.
 
Thanks a lot! it looks pretty easy to build after all and it's way cheaper then the accoustic foam that aren't even as effective.
Do you have any sources on how much to build and how to place them? :)
 
Thanks a lot! it looks pretty easy to build after all and it's way cheaper then the accoustic foam that aren't even as effective.
Do you have any sources on how much to build and how to place them? :)

There is a sticky HERE that goes into things a bit deeper.

Basically you want to treat as many corners as you can with at minimum 4" of OC703/5 or Rockwool 80 or similar (cheaper for rockwool). 'Corners' includes wall to wall, wall to ceiling, and wall to floor. Obviously wall to floor never works out well in use for a small space (or any really) but just pointing that out so it is understood that all of these places will help with low end issues.

2' wide 4" depth panels at a 45 degree angle across them is what most consider minimal/adequate and achieve great results. Better would be to mount them in a way where you can stuff the regular 'pink' insulation (no paper backing) into the gap behind. I hear that is actually more effective than a 'superchunk' of dense Roxul or OC703 in the corners. But it has to be mounted to hold the pink stuff in place so that can be a challenge in a rented apartment.

Usually the vertical corners are the easiest to place and you can just lean them against the wall without mounting. The corner I see as your issue is the one with the door close to the corner. I have one as well in between my control room and behind the monitors in my control room. I just move it into place when I am mixing.

Then comes your mixing position. From there you should do the 'mirror' trick. From where you mix in the room, you have someone hold a mirror at the walls flat against them until you see your monitors. That is where you want to place some 2" or thicker acoustic panels to tame 'first reflections'. This does include the ceiling (clouds as they are called) and side walls. Not as necessary for these panels to be as thick here as this is more of a high end reflection thing that can cause issues with cancellation of the upper frequencies you think you are hearing from your monitors. A reflection will arrive at your ears later than from the monitors. Thus possible cancellation or reinforcement of frequencies that are not accurate. Much less of an issue than the low end, bit trust me.....you will hear the difference there really quick. Definition/accuracy will be much clearer from your monitors.

Now the rest of the room more involves flutter echo. The thing you hear when you clap your hands in an untreated room and hear that 'boing' kind of sound. I used 2' by 4' panels at 4" depth because I have the space. Placed them 18" apart along the length of my 35' control room. That worked perfectly for me. Not sure that would be ideal in your room but you will want to add panels to the walls till it sounds good to you.
 
I would go with the Safe N Sound, R60 or better. it is what I used. I used R80, and also on the "how to" link I posted, I used burlap which is thicker than fabric so I did not use the cardboard strips to hold it in. I just doubled it at the fold and stapled it. I also bought a set of electric scissors to cut the fabric. but I built a lot of them and it made it much easier. use gloves to handle the insulation. I have some pics posted if you want to take a look. :D

https://homerecording.com/bbs/gener...atment/my-studio-under-construction-368286/5/
 
Thanks a lot for this! these 2 rockwool are the only ones I can have in my region without shipping :

"Safe'n'Sound" Insulation | RONA

R8 "ComfortBoard IS" Insulation | RONA

which would be better ?

It might be a stretch, but maybe contact someone at SPI and maybe see if there is some way to share a truck going your way or something. Sometimes you can find someone willing to help a guy out by asking nice. SPI carries the right type of rockwool and has a location in Burlington ON.

Just a thought. I have many times been able to find shipping deals in US by asking the right person the right way.
 
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