Studio ideas....

A

Amateur Eric

New member
just finished painting the extra bedroom/studio space and putting up track lighting. The question I have pertains to the crude drawing I've attached (I hope). On the north and south walls next to the curtain, I plan on attaching auralex foam with bass traps horizontally above the curtain and a mirror image aray of the on the west wall. Four diffusor panels will go directly overhead of the mixing position and i'm thinking of making some moveable panels (gobo's?) for the west wall to attach more auralex foam and diffusors. the walls and ceiling are textured drywall and the floor will be engineered hardwood. I plan on using the area by the west wall for setting up drums or isolating a vocal are with gobo/foam. Any suggestions, hints, etc?

Thanks

Eric
 

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Eric,

In a room that small diffusion will just make things worse. The smaller the room, the more absorption you need. And the absorption should work down to the lowest frequencies. Curtains and foam will do very little for the severe low frequency problems present in all rooms that size.

If you've already bought the foam and diffusors, then it's too late. Otherwise, you'll do much better to buy rigid fiberglass and wrap it with fabric, or buy products based on rigid fiberglass.

--Ethan
 
Hello ethan, I have a question. I moved into a place that had 30 or so 2'x4' panels of 1"703 laying in a storage shed. If I were to use more than one layer in a absorber panel, should there be an airspace between layers. Or just use adhesive and glue them together to make a thicker panel?
fitZ
 
Re: Re: Studio ideas....

Ethan,
Just a question about the inability of the foam. You mentioned...
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Ethan Winer said:
Eric,

In a room that small diffusion will just make things worse. The smaller the room, the more absorption you need. And the absorption should work down to the lowest frequencies. Curtains and foam will do very little for the severe low frequency problems present in all rooms that size.

If you've already bought the foam and diffusors, then it's too late. Otherwise, you'll do much better to buy rigid fiberglass and wrap it with fabric, or buy products based on rigid fiberglass.

--Ethan
Click to expand...
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So you mean that the folks at Auralex are liars when they call those items "bass traps" and they won't really work? I have standard wedge foam for the walls and foam "LERND" bass traps for the upper corners of the room. They won't work, or are they just not the best?

Thanks
Eric
 
Hello Eric, I see your from Sacratomato:D Ha! I just moved from there. Where abouts in Sac. Just curious. Do you know Recording Engineer? He is the moderator in the Mic forum. He has a studio out in Orangevale. Weston Ray is his name and he is a very friendly person. Knows a hell of a lot about recording too. You might contact him on the forum.
fitZ
 
Eric,

The Auralex foam is OK, to a point. The basic foam does work for higher frequencies, but the bass traps are only marginally effective. As Ethan mentioned in his first post, if you haven't already spent your money, you will get more bang for the buck with a rigid fiberglass product (ie. Owens Corning 703 or equivalent). By using 703 you have a product that can be configured for whatever you need. For instance, a 2'x4'x1" piece wrapped in some fabric to hide the ugly fiberglass will give you better mid and high frequency absorption than the 2" Auralex (at a much lower cost per square foot, too). Take 2 pieces sandwiched together and put them diagonally across a corner, and you create a bass trap that is many times more effective than the LENRDs (especially if you construct a sealed unit; see www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html or visit the sae website linked from www.johnlsayers.com for more info).

I'm sure someone else will provide their input on this, but the whole idea of this forum is to help educate us all about studio design and acoustics. I hope you are learning something new just like we all are each time we visit.

Cheers,
Darryl.....

p.s. Fitz - Your question about gluing panels together - I think it is ok as long as you don't create a solid layer between the 2 sheets. If you are putting the pieces into something like fabric or even a frame I wouldn't even bother with the glue, just sandwich them together.
 
Thanks Guys

Hey Rick,
Actually i'm in Woodland (or Woodpit, Woodpile as the case may be). Thanks for the names. I see if I can look them up if I get stuck at any point. By the way Rick, you had me in laughin' my butt off with your descriptions of your new neighborhood noises. I'm actually leaving tomorrow to help my sis 'n her husband move to Idaho and gonna have a look see myself whilst i'm there. I too, am getting tired of the political crap o' california.
Ethan 'n DDev, i've just about had it with the hoops i've had to jump through to find someone that is remotely interested in selling me Owens Corning 703. O.C. says they will only sell it to professionals and the professional contractors i've talked to aren't even remotely interested in selling it to me unless they get contracted to do the install which then makes my auralex a whole bunch cheaper. Think i'll stick with the auralex for now. It'll be a big improvement from the carpeted condition the room used to be, so i'll live with it.

THanks
Eric
 
Yeah, Fitz, Darryl's right - if you need to glue them at all, just a stripe around the perimeter and a 3-4" square patch in the middle should do. More and you screw up the gas flow characteristics and that ain't cool.

Speaking of not cool, I hope you had your bud's permission to "blow his cover", so to speak - If not, I'm glad I didn't give you any more info on myself (can't be too careful these days, what with these slimy identity theft things happenin)...

And no, I'm not mad atcha, but mighta been if it were ME you did it to - I hate the thought of having to try to find some scum that took advantage of ME that way, just so I could feed him his own, lightly sauteed testicles... Steve
 
Rick,

> If I were to use more than one layer in a absorber panel, should there be an airspace between layers. <

No. Just stack them adjacent and then leave a single air gap between the group of panels and whatever you mount them to. For wall and ceiling mounting make the air gap equal to the total thickness of the group of panels.

--Ethan
 
Re: Re: Re: Studio ideas....

Eric,

Understand I may be biased because I sell acoustic treatment.

> So you mean that the folks at Auralex are liars <

No, not at all. It's a matter of effectiveness. All materials absorb some amount at all frequencies. So even thin foam absorbs to some degree, and thicker foam like a LENRD does absorb at bass frequencies. The real issue is how much they absorb. For a given thickess, foam is less effective than rigid fiberglass. My company's products use rigid fiberglass - which is also fireproof - and we add other materials to further improve low frequency performance. If you visit my site (below) you can see a performance comparison of what we sell versus other popular products.

Again, if you already have LENRDs and flat foam, then just make the most of it.

--Ethan

---------------------
www.realtraps.com
The acoustic treatment experts
 
Speaking of not cool, I hope you had your bud's permission to "blow his cover", so to speak - If not, I'm glad I didn't give you anymore info on myself (can't be too careful these days, what with these slimy identity theft things happe
Click to expand...

:eek: :eek: :o :o :o

HOLY MOLY, it didn't even occur to me. I'm so naive sometimes. I'm terribly embarrassed and will tell him what has happened. Ok, I'm ready for my lashing. 60 whacks with a 703 stick. Listen guys, that will NEVER happen again. I was just trying to be friendly and helpful. Instead I might have caused him some real trouble. I forget what a fucked up world it is out there and the consequences of my stupidity.

So Steve, please forgive me. I won't live this down for a while.

And gentleman, thank you for the info.

Ditto to you too Eric. I didn't mean to use your thread to hurt anyone. I am so EMBARRASED!!! Ain't no fool like an old fool. And I'm certainly one of those.

What can I do to rectify this besides contact him and inform him of my actions?

Hey, I'll delete that reply for starters. Ok? Right now.

I'm TOTALLY RED!

fitZ :o :o Oh the humilty of it. What a moron. Jerk. Idiot....ah, add to it at your discresion, I deserve it.......
 
Why don't you go edit your post and erase his name? Or email the moderator, and he can remove it.
If it's a big deal, at least get it out of sight before anybody else sees it.:)
 
Ethan, is a 14x16 room too small for diffusion? I was thinking about putting some good diffusion on the 16 foot length side and keeping the sides dead. The problem, is it good to put the source directly to the diffusion?

I was going to build the 16 foot way with slat resonators. But im not really sure if it would be worth it.

Danny
 
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