Sound deadening

[magoo]

The studio is being built in the third of a three car garage. I have finished the out side to the drywall stage and have finished all the wiring for the 26 lighting variations, power for the three workstations (keyboard,Mixing & Soundbooth)and have halfway insulated all walls except the ones in the sound booth.

I have built two other studios in other homes but this one seems a lot more challaging to me. my plan was to finiah the insulation of the inside walls and put up drywall. After that, I wanted to put up black foam. The problem is that all the foam I've seen yet, comes in 2 1/2" to
3 1/2" in depth. The rooms too small for the thick of deadner.

My question is this:
Does anyone know where I can find very dense, very low profile foam in black? Approximately 1/2" or 1" max. It would solve alot of problems I'm facing with size of the room.

Now, when I get into the soundbooth, I'd like come back and ask for futher help in "soundproofing" that room

Thanks for your help in advance.

Magoo

[Brad]

I think Auralex makes something called Sonomat - it sounds like what you might be looking for. I don't think it "soundproofs" really well, but will deaden live surfaces about as well as shag carpet (what I use).

[Dragon]

Well, if you have to shag carpet, perhaps you should stop trying to deaden things

[Brad]

Dragon, as my fiancee would say, that was baaaaaaaaaaaad!

And just to be sick:
When you haven't been allowed to shag anything in quite a while, a roll of carpet doesn't really look that bad!

[This message has been edited by Brad (edited 10-25-1999).]

[Dragon]

Just watch out for rug burn, my frustrated friend...

[Slackmaster2K]

Hmmm...life's a bitch when you're using "fiancee" and "not getting any" in the same breath. Don't worry, things pick up after you're married

Dragon is right, but you have to be especially careful with industrial grade carpet. Sure it's sleek and smooth and oh so sexy....but ouch! I guess that's pretty typical though.

And whatever you do man, use protection. Dust mites are no fun, trust me.

Slackmaster 2000

[jp]

wow, what an amazing example of getting off... uh... no, getting off topic... actually, maybe you'd want to deaden the sound of you shagging your carpet? obviously you can't use shag carpet... ermm.. or can you?

seriously, how many people deaden their home recording rooms? it was something i'd need to consider if i ever build a home studio (i'd like to eventually)

jp

[Brad]

Very Funny guys! Keep up the anso-nylon humor! it gets better when the vacuum is involved...
sorry.

Anyway, I don't know if every room needs it, jp, I just know that mine did. The best thing would be to not have any parallel walls. Since that is not avoidable in most home studios, I chose to deaden and also tried to misdirect the sound waves because my monitors point straight into a wall. If that wall is a live or reflective surface and is perpendicular (sp?) to the sound source, some freq's are gonna cancel out. So, in my case, I have carpeted the walls, and in the area of the wall where the speaker is pointed, I also have some egg crate stuf to bounce the waves around a little better.

Anybody know of a good dermatologist that specializes in rug burns?

[drstawl]

I bring up as a reference tome, Günter Grass's "The Tin Drum" wherein he delves deeply into the sexuality of coconut fibers in a rug being used by a determined shagger of rugs.

As to those funhouse walls for the purposes of reducing coincident reflections. My take is that deadening all the surfaces somewhat will work better than bouncing those reflections willy-nilly all over the place.
A natural mic'ed sound depends on some reflection in the room at hand; it's just important to not let the reflections get out of hand. And to deaden those problem areas at the intersections of wall planes a bit more than the rest of the surfaces.

[magoo]

OK!! I GUESS I GOT SOME OF THE ANSWERS I WANTED AND SOME I'M NOT SO SURE ABOUT.

HOWEVER! WHEN IT COMES TO THE SOUND BOOTH, WHAT CAN I USE TO COMPLETELY KILL THE SOUND.
I THINK THE ONLY THING I'M GOING TO HAVE TROUBLE WITH IS THE DOUBLE PAIN GLASS FROM THE SOUND BOOTH TO THE MIXING STATION.

I THOUGHT OF ANGLING THE GLASS SLIGHTLY IN DIFFERANT DIRECTIONS.

WHAT DO YOU THINK???

THANKS,

MAGOO

[S8-N]

Damn...Too late to get in on the carpet jokes...

Anyway... lets talk reflections inside the MONITORING room... I have a corner desk (I am facing into a corner) with my monitors forming a triangle with each at 45 degrees (almost) to the opposite corners' 90 degree angle... Is this a bad setup??? I am getting poor low end from my 20/20P's... could the positionong be the culprit?

S8-N

P.S. If you get bored with the carpet, try the Asstroturf...

[Brad]

Never too late for carpet jokes, however I do not have any.
S8-N, what do your speakers face? a wall? how far away? If they are facing a flat surface at a 90 degree angle, and that surface is reflective, that could be the problem. I
think it especially affects the low end (correct me if I am wrong guys) and is worse if you are in a tight closed in space.

[S8-N]

My monitor speakers are facing into a corner about ten feet away in a 10X10 room. There's really no other way to arrange things in this room.

[bpmufx]

Hey Magoo,
check this out on line: www.mcmaster.com
its a huge supplier of industrial everything.
look up neoprene (wetsuit material) you can purchase by the foot or yard I think.
They'll have other sheet foams too.
Also, I created 4x8 modular pannels for my garrage studio using from Home depot, 2" urethane foam pannels sandwiched in aluminum foil(they can be had in 1" also) then covered each with Grey berber carpet. Each pannel is then framed and wedged from floor to ceiling with door hanging wedges. This way, as things change, (or I move) I can just rearange them to suit. They're very light, and it makes for a huge bulleten board too!
Q: for those of you who would know, based on the above discription: would the aluminum sheet under carpet pose a sonic problem. I haven't noticed any yet but I'm just wondering now if this was a fundamental error.

[GraphicDav]

I have recently heard that using carpet to deaden your room is bad since the carpet absorbs mostly the mids. In a practice studio this tends to cause everyone to slowly turn up because they can't hear the details.

A buddy of mine created a studio for voice overs where he used a technique he found in some accoustic book. Its not low profile though. Anyway here it is.

These are panels that absorb sound evenly throughout the spectrum. The frame of the panel is made from pegboard that you cut in 2 to 3 inch wide strips at lengths to create a rectangular box at whatever size you want your panel. Fill the inside of the box with fibreglass insulation that has no face. Secure it to the frame so it stays in the box when you mount the panel on the wall. Then cover the whole thing with burlap.

If anyone is interested in this design I can probably get the reference to the book it came from.

Dave

[This message has been edited by GraphicDav (edited 10-27-1999).]