buying materials

[garth04]

I'm ready to start treating my recording room.

Anyone have recommendations on where/who to buy from?

I've looked at the following:

http://www.auralex.com/

http://www.realtraps.com/

http://www.silentsource.com/afoams-sonex.html

http://www.echobusters.com/page1.html

http://ic.net/~jtgale/diy2.htm

This is what I'm working with:

Room: 12'x10'x8'
Floor: carpet
Walls: Drywall, 1 layer
Door: hollow wood

I don't need complete soundproofing but could use a few sheets of vinyl.

My main priorities are corner traps and bass traps and diffusion for the ceiling and parts of the wall. Is there really much difference between these different places and their products?

Will their bass traps be any better than a diy bass trap? I don't know since I've never tried either. Any of you been down this way and can lend some experience? I don't want to get ripped off, thanks.

I'm going to try and make the bass traps and see how they sound.

[c7sus]

DIY. You'll be glad you did.

http://www.johnlsayers.com/

Ethan's site also has a node calculator that is pretty cool.

Check out the overlapping frequencies. 282.5Hz is ringing in all three dimensions.

[Ethan Winer]

Garth,

> I don't need complete soundproofing but could use a few sheets of vinyl. <

Skip the vinyl and just use a few pieces of sheetrock. Cheaper, better, easier to find.

I own RealTraps so I won't comment on much else, except:

> Is there really much difference between these different places and their products? <

Yes!

--Ethan

[garth04]

Thanks for the advice. I play acoustic guitar. I want it to sound lively but with a flat freq. response, or as flat as I can get.

I was thinking of installing wood floors, 4 ceiling corner traps, 4 bass traps(floor corners), wood slats on walls, absorption on most of ceiling.

What's your recommendation for walls? I don't want to kill too much of the sound so I thought to put diffusion materials on most of them, leave them bare, or install wood panels.

How much diffusion is good, how much is too much? Where is a prime area to diffuse? For example, if I'm playing guitar by one of the short lengths or in a corner say? How will wood paneling/slats for the walls sound? How about regular diffusion material on drywall? What do you recommend?

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[Ethan Winer]

Garth,

> What's your recommendation for walls? I don't want to kill too much of the sound <

In a room that size and shape you'll do well with a hard floor and a fair amount of absorption everywhere else. I'm afraid that room is simply too small to get much of a desirable "room sound." You need absorption - and especially bass traps - far more than you need diffusion.

Also see the Acoustics FAQ, second in the list on my Articles page:

www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html

--Ethan

[garth04]

I think I know enough now to start treatment. Thanks for the help.