Bare insulation as room treatment?

M

mcolling

New member
I am turning an old garage into a little studio space. The space is probably about 25 x 15 with a gable ceiling.

Right now the room is far too wet, so I am considering different options for broadband room treatment. I know, of course, of the use of rigid fiberglass insulation for this purpose. I have also heard of the use of regular "fluffy" insulation (in rolls, in the corner).

Since the garage is uninsulated right now, I thought that maybe I could: insulate the room like normal, but rather than covering the insulation with poly, cover it with a fire-retardant cloth. This way I will both insulate the room and (maybe) acoustically treat it.

Would this be comparable, in terms of broadband absorption, to the use of 703/705? I have been in rooms with bare insulation before, and they are very, very dead in the highs and mids, but would the lows be sufficiently absorbed? (I suppose, if not, they would more than likely just to escape the garage altogether).

Thoughts?

Regards,
Michael Collinge
 
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Would it be too dry, do you think? I've been thinking about this, and I thought that maybe I would need to put some spaced wood panels or something over the insulation in certain spots to liven up the sound. The gable ceiling wouldn't be insulated, either, so that would make the room a bit more reflective.

Does anyone have any practical advice for fire-proofing a cloth? What cloth would be suitable?
 
M,
What you are thinking of doing will work well for absorption.
It wont help with containig the sound from passing through the walls to the outside , nor from the outside in.
If that is not an issue and you only have to deal with the sound inside the room, it will work.
If the room has a hard floor such as concrete that will help the room from being too dead. If you want too you can sheetrock or panael areaeas on opposing walls as long as they are not directly opposite one another where you would have reflected sound.

There are sprays and liquids for fire treatments on fabrics such as burlap. It might be cheaper to find something like screen door material (or weed block) or something that may be non flammable. (if there IS such a thing).

I have a feeling that with that much insulation the bass frequencies would be covered, but afterwards if you find "Not so" you can build some corner traps to handle that.

I think If the floor is hard I would do some trapping on the ceiling, unless the ceiling angle is steep enough to adequately deflect the sound to the walls.

Since you have not said what kind of playing / recording you will be doing in there or how loud, it is hard to make too much more sugesstions.

Tom
 
Thank you kindly for your reply.

At this point I am not too concerned with isolation, because that is a pretty big boondoggle. The neighbours are always going to be able to hear the drums.... Likewise, it isn't too loud outside, so I am not overly worried about sound coming in.

I record "rock", whatever that means. There will be drums basically.

You may be right about trapping in the ceiling. The angle is fairly steep, though -- maybe 30-35 deg. from horizontal. It also has lots of rafters and stuff for diffusion (I'm excited to throw a mic right up in the top to see what it sounds like!).

That is an interesting thought re. screen as opposed to burlap. I would prefer that it be visibly opaque, however, if at all possible. I was maybe thinking of getting some old sheets with cool paisley patterns on them and what have you, if at all possible.

Regards,
Michael Collinge
 
Just a tip (since you are building and using insulation anyway)
My main tracking room is a similar size to yours (13X27) and I had a problem with the drums, particularly the cymbals. I built a "cloud" by making a frame of 1X2" slats 7X8', covered it with upholstry materal, layed 4" of pink stuff on top then hung this above the drums about 7' off the floor. This really helped absorb a lot of the harshness of the cymbals. I was amazed at the difference this made the first time I recorded after adding this to my room.
 
studiomaster said:
Will 3" or so of pink insulation work for bass trapping? (in the corners)
Click to expand...

It will work a little. Fluffy stuff isn't as dense as rigid fiberglass, so you don't get the same performance per inch.

Cram 12" in tight, now you're talkin' :cool:
 
The room will be way too dead. You should insulate the space for sure but drywall and use various broad band absorbers, bass traps, and bare wall combinations will work better.
 
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