Treating my home studi (1st time)

N

Ninjaza

New member
Hey guys. I'm honored to be a part of this awesome forum. Been following it for a while and now finally made the time to register! So thanks.

Im all self taught in production, music and mastering. I don't know much at all about acoustics. I would like to get some help from people who know their stuff on where to place panels/traps and which exactly I will need in order to treat my room for mastering and production. This is a very basic diagram (made on paint) of my room. studioplan1.png

And photos:
20150303_114512.jpg20150303_114539.jpg20150303_114558.jpg20150303_114549.jpgstudio panorama.jpg
 
For sure you will want to start with some bass traps - in every corner they will fit, and on 'back' wall. Your points of first reflection seem to be where the piano is on one side and the door on the other, and everything in your set up is very assymetric (not good for good stereo balancing). you'll want a ceiling cloud trap, too.
Guessing those monitors have rear-firing bass ports? In that case, bass traps on the walls/corners behind them is needed, too.
 
mjbphotos said:
For sure you will want to start with some bass traps - in every corner they will fit, and on 'back' wall. Your points of first reflection seem to be where the piano is on one side and the door on the other, and everything in your set up is very assymetric (not good for good stereo balancing). you'll want a ceiling cloud trap, too.
Guessing those monitors have rear-firing bass ports? In that case, bass traps on the walls/corners behind them is needed, too.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response. With Bass Traps, where exactly in terms of height and quantity will they be needed?

Are home made bass traps terrible?

Would the Piano need to be moved or could I install the panel above or behind it? And can I install the opposing panel on the glass door?
 
Floor to ceiling on the bass traps, the more the merrier. Superchunks are nice, especially in that kind of environment. Homemade are the balm! Just get you some OC703/705 or Rokwool and cut them diagonally so they form triangles. Stack them up and get some decently transparent cloth to put over the front. Makes wonderful bass trapping in your corners.
First reflections are a fun thing to deal with. Usually, you want to cover the wall wherever you will have ear height. IOW when you sit, you want to have trapping at ear height, and when you stand, you want to have trapping at ear height. So if the piano is in the way of that, you'll need to move it. Mounting to a glass door is sometimes tricky, but there are ways. Panels weigh next to nothing, so even suction cups will work as long as you don't mind re-sticking them on hot days...
 
And home-built bass traps are fine, search here and you will find all sorts of links to doing it yourself.
 
I would start by hiring a skip bin and throwing all the junk out, then give the place a good scrub. LOL.

Alan.
 
So would you guys all recommend rockwool homemade panels over something like this? Im part of a mastering forum and they all say rockwool is way better and foam is quite useless.

What are your thoughts??

4x AFBT200 Pro Acoustic Foam Bass Traps Studio Sound Treatment: Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments
Other Music Instruments - Pro Acoustic Foam Tiles AFW305 10 Tile Pack Studio Sound Treatment for sale in Johannesburg (ID:174953383)

---------- Update ----------

witzendoz said:
I would start by hiring a skip bin and throwing all the junk out, then give the place a good scrub. LOL.

Alan.
Click to expand...

I know mate hehehe, Producers room :P
 
Couldn't agree more with your other forum. I have some foam I'd send you for the shipping. After I bought mine, Jimmy69 made me the same offer for some stuff he's got. For a pro vocal booth or drum room, it might have some uses, but for a small home recording environment, you'll not get enough damping or ANY low end baffle from foam. It's just not the right stuff in our tight little spaces.
You can buy premade kits of Roxul or OC703 where they ship you the cloth and the pre-cut insulation and frame. All you need to do is get out your trusty staple gun or cloth glue dispenser and start putting them together, devise a hanging or gobo (moveable) system and make sure you place them correctly.
Some of the best corner traps you can build are called superchunk. Basically you take 2x2 squares of Roxul/703/705 and cut them diagonally like I said in my first post here. Stack them in the corner and hold them in place with burlap or whatever acoustically clear cloth you prefer to use stretched over a 3' frame (2x2s work) tacked to the wall..
 
Since you are using cm for measurement, I must ask, where are you?
Names to search for in the EU would be Owens Corning, Knauf, and Isover Saint Gobain. You're looking for density of <36g/m cubed (can't find the ascii for the superscript 3...should be 178 or 179, but not working, sorry). Remember bass collects in every corner, so if you can't go floor to ceiling on the back wall, go left to right at the top :)
There's also GFR (gas flow resistivity) but that number seems to be a questionable source of help as pink fluffy has a better rating than OC70x and obviously in real world tests does not do better (at least if you're not making a 3' thick trap.)
THIS is a pretty decent article on the subject. They do say that you can use acoustic foam, but they don't deviate on the mass, and foam at that mass is much more expensive than other forms...
 
Ninjaza said:
So would you guys all recommend rockwool homemade panels over something like this? Im part of a mastering forum and they all say rockwool is way better and foam is quite useless.

What are your thoughts??

4x AFBT200 Pro Acoustic Foam Bass Traps Studio Sound Treatment: Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments
Other Music Instruments - Pro Acoustic Foam Tiles AFW305 10 Tile Pack Studio Sound Treatment for sale in Johannesburg (ID:174953383)

---------- Update ----------



I know mate hehehe, Producers room :P
Click to expand...

Yeah, foam can make pretty designs on your walls but is pretty much useless. Mind sharing the details on this 'mastering forum'?
 
If you're handy, make them yourself--it's cheaper, and you can make different size traps to fit your needs.
 
BroKen_H said:
Couldn't agree more with your other forum. I have some foam I'd send you for the shipping. After I bought mine, Jimmy69 made me the same offer for some stuff he's got. For a pro vocal booth or drum room, it might have some uses, but for a small home recording environment, you'll not get enough damping or ANY low end baffle from foam. It's just not the right stuff in our tight little spaces.
You can buy premade kits of Roxul or OC703 where they ship you the cloth and the pre-cut insulation and frame. All you need to do is get out your trusty staple gun or cloth glue dispenser and start putting them together, devise a hanging or gobo (moveable) system and make sure you place them correctly.
Some of the best corner traps you can build are called superchunk. Basically you take 2x2 squares of Roxul/703/705 and cut them diagonally like I said in my first post here. Stack them in the corner and hold them in place with burlap or whatever acoustically clear cloth you prefer to use stretched over a 3' frame (2x2s work) tacked to the wall..
Click to expand...

Thats great to know! I'm from South Africa. Where could I get these premade kits? They sound amazing! Im also going to have to ninja the corner as my right hand corner behind my pc is a built in floor to ceiling cupboard. Any tips on making something that can fit in there? Im thinking something on rollers or just having to move the foam each time I need to get dressed hehehe

---------- Update ----------

its a closed group forum as part of a mastering course I did.
 
Rockwool is excellent.

12mmx75mm on the wood (what we yanks call 1x6s) to build the frames. Light weight woods work well as you really don't want them to weigh much. Bevel the outside front of the 12mm width when you build the frames so you don't get snags in the material. Of course, if space does not allow, you can use 50mm or 25mm. Bear in mind, the thicker the rockwool, the less you need to cover. If you use 75mm, you will just need to do primary reflections (2 spots on each side wall, 2 on the back, 2 on the ceiling). If you use 25mm (like I did to avoid infringing on your space, make a pattern that covers most of the walls.

If you buy bulk 25mm, you might save a bit of cash and you can triple them up in the 75mm frames or double them up in 50mm frames. Might be a better option. Build superchunks for floor to ceiling, and 75mm corners for wall/ceiling intersections. Go in steps. Do the corners first and see how it sounds. Add ceiling clouds and see how it sounds. Do the front wall (where you face) in the wall/ceiling juncture, see how it sounds. Do the back wall and see how it sounds. When you've got the room tamed, stop. Enough is enough.

AFA material, you're looking for a breathable fabric...go to the local sewing place and look for colored burlaps (not like burlap bags, but the cloth) or cloth recommended for speaker grills. You might be able to find these with pictures, but if you get white fabric you can take it to any silk-screening shop...don't use iron-ons (obviously).

Figure out how you're going to mount before you start. If you are using Z-Clips (you can google that), make sure you get them all on in straight lines both on the wall and on the frames (you might have to put 5mm plywood across the backs to mount the Z-clips). I used picture mounting wire and fed the wire into the Z-clips to avoid putting backs on mine.

Did I cover all the bases?
 
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Perhaps a link to an image or build tutorial for the design you describe would be pretty helpful. Even I, who have a pretty good idea of the design, am having a hard time visualizing it from your description. Mostly considering how to make the 'frame' you mention.

Jacob
 
Yeah, Broken's comments are a little hard to understand!
First: 4" thick (100mm) shoudl be minimum thickness for primary traps (as in corners), assuming you aren't making triangle-type superchunks. Side traps an dclouds can be 2" or 3" (but 4" is always better) is space is a consideration.
How to build them - just do a search on youtube. This thread has a good link.

I used burlap for my first batch, then cotton sheets for the next batch - the cloth should be transparent to sound - If you can breath through it, it'll work.
 
BroKen_H said:
Rockwool is excellent.

125mmx75mm on the wood (what we yanks call 1x6s) to build the frames. Light weight woods work well as you really don't want them to weigh much. Bevel the outside front of the 12mm width when you build the frames so you don't get snags in the material. Of course, if space does not allow, you can use 50mm or 25mm. Bear in mind, the thicker the rockwool, the less you need to cover. If you use 75mm, you will just need to do primary reflections (2 spots on each side wall, 2 on the back, 2 on the ceiling). If you use 25mm (like I did to avoid infringing on your space, make a pattern that covers most of the walls.

If you buy bulk 25mm, you might save a bit of cash and you can triple them up in the 75mm frames or double them up in 50mm frames. Might be a better option. Build superchunks for floor to ceiling, and 75mm corners for wall/ceiling intersections. Go in steps. Do the corners first and see how it sounds. Add ceiling clouds and see how it sounds. Do the front wall (where you face) in the wall/ceiling juncture, see how it sounds. Do the back wall and see how it sounds. When you've got the room tamed, stop. Enough is enough.

AFA material, you're looking for a breathable fabric...go to the local sewing place and look for colored burlaps (not like burlap bags, but the cloth) or cloth recommended for speaker grills. You might be able to find these with pictures, but if you get white fabric you can take it to any silk-screening shop...don't use iron-ons (obviously).

Be sure to spray the front of the insulation with a coating to keep the strands from fraying through the fabric and getting into your room...They're not fun to breathe.

Figure out how you're going to mount before you start. If you are using Z-Clips (you can google that), make sure you get them all on in straight lines both on the wall and on the frames (you might have to put 5mm plywood across the backs to mount the Z-clips). I used picture mounting wire and fed the wire into the Z-clips to avoid putting backs on mine.

Did I cover all the bases?
Click to expand...

Mate you are really helpful and I really appreciate all your advice!! Could you perhaps split them into steps? EG

Basstraps (Superchunks) - Items needed
1. wood (length x width x thickness)
2. glue gun
3. rockwool
4. cover afa material

Process:
1. Make frames (size)
2. Cut (size + thickness) of rockwool
3. insert into frame
4. Cover with fabric

What is AFA material? Googled it and Ray Ban sunglasses came up lol.

It would be a great help as I am planning to have DIY day with the girlfriend on Sunday and pimp my room! Thanks :thumbs up:
 
What will help in addition to verbal advice on the board, is to watch some youtube vids on the subject. There are quite a few that take you step by step through the whole acoustic treatment process and construction. Once you get started watching you will fall down the rabbit hole as there are so many.,
 
hahah yea the vid linked above looks perfect. Not gonna go down that info overload rabbit hole. Do you know if rockwool is the same as mineral wool? Many people I've phone dont seem to know.. lol
 
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