DAW Acoustic Isolation...

S

Synkrotron

New member
Hi

I'm nearly finished isolating my DAW (PC) and I'm really pleased with the results so far. I couldn't really put the PC into another room and I sometimes want to record on my own which means being in the same room as my DAW so that I can start/stop my recording software.

Once I'm done I'll post some pics (look quite funny) and some comparative before and after sound clips.


andy
 
OK... here's some pics... try not to laugh too hard when you see what I've done ;)

Here's my existing space with my PC removed and cables all over the place.

I then cut some vent holes through to the other room. I need these to vent all the hot air produced by the PC and help keep everything nice and cool.

The same vent holes in the adjacent room, which is our utility room.

I've put some grilles over the holes to try to make it look nice (I don't think my missus was impressed).

I've filled in all the gaps around my existing space with synthetic foam (not sure of the spec but it's too late now cos it's in). You can see the 12cm case fans that I've stuffed in the vent holes. One blows and the other sucks (rude comments expected at this point).

Here's my PC in position. I've taken the front facia off the PC because I found that I got another couple of deg c cooling by doing so.

I then cover the front of all this with large foam panel cut to fit snuggly around my PC.

And finally a nice big piece of 3/4" MDF to finish it all off.


Looks gruesome I know but it appears to work quite well. What I had already done was purchased and fitted a new quieter PSU plus a new CPU heat sink and fan with variable speed (work OK on slowest and therefore quietest speed) and a new quiet 12cm case fan and that did help.

It's great to sit in my room now without all that noise (which I had gotten used to over the years) in the background.

Having said all that... I've always wondered whether I did the right thing opting for an AMD PC rather than a Pentium. Seems to me that AMD's have always made a racket.


What I'm going to do next, cos I can tell that you are all riveted with excitement and interest, is produce a couple of sound files so you can hear the difference between before and after my project.



cheers

andy
 
Funny you posted today as I'm working on PC isolation today as well.

How do you access the PC when you need to
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nice job man. I assume the front mdf/foam panel is removable?
Click to expand...


Oh yeah... forgot to mention that. Yes, the front foam and MDF panels are removable. Might sound a pain but it's not too bad. I have to do it each time I need to use the PC because a) I still need to access the switch and b) my drives are in removable bays and I put them into a fire safe each night.

And thanks for the complements... I'm sure there's a few around here that must think I'm stark raving bonkers for doing this :eek:
 
I'd say they're more apt to thinking you are a stark raving lunatic for putting your drives in a fire safe each night. :D

Overall, looks great, how does it sound?

I still need to post pics of my case project, though I didn't do much for the surrounding area.
 
You got lucky having that utility room next to you like that. I'd have no easy way to do this. But what I'm thinking about doing is using a KVM extender and putting my computer in the air lock room between the control and live rooms. the only thing that I can't figure out yet is how to connect my layla, which is a long parallel cable, to the computer if the Layla is in the CR. Oh well, I don't really have any problems with my computer being loud so I won't worry about it for now.

Nice job though, it looks good.

I need to ask, what's the fire rating on that foam? Kind of ironic that you're taking your drives out at night and putting them into a fire safe box, yet you keep your computer in a little box with flamable foam. :D
 
Creamyapples1 said:
I'd say they're more apt to thinking you are a stark raving lunatic for putting your drives in a fire safe each night. :D

Overall, looks great, how does it sound?

I still need to post pics of my case project, though I didn't do much for the surrounding area.
Click to expand...

Haha... yeah... the fire safe is a recent purchase ;)

It's not sounding too bad... in fact it's quieter now than my bloody DDX3216 mixer which has a little fan inside it. I'm finding that each time you fix a problem another one becomes apparent :rolleyes:

And I know what you mean by not doing much for the surrounding area... My room isn't exactly sound proof so I'm going to have to do any acoustic recording with my new condenser mic at night when most of the tweetie pies have tucked em selves in bed and the jet planes have stopped flying over my house :rolleyes:

I'm already recorded how noisey my previous setup was so all I need to do now (when the house is a bit quieter) is record my current setup and I'll upload them to the net.


Next project... quieter mixer
 
SonicClang said:
You got lucky having that utility room next to you like that. I'd have no easy way to do this. But what I'm thinking about doing is using a KVM extender and putting my computer in the air lock room between the control and live rooms. the only thing that I can't figure out yet is how to connect my layla, which is a long parallel cable, to the computer if the Layla is in the CR. Oh well, I don't really have any problems with my computer being loud so I won't worry about it for now.

Nice job though, it looks good.

I need to ask, what's the fire rating on that foam? Kind of ironic that you're taking your drives out at night and putting them into a fire safe box, yet you keep your computer in a little box with flamable foam. :D
Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess I was a bit lucky there. I converted my (small) garage about four years ago and split it into two rooms, my studio and the utility. It's a terribly small studio though and only really good for recording demos (mainly because I have to use an electronic drum kit).

Having bought this condense mic though is making me think I could push the boundaries a little and try to record some semi decent acoustic stuff. This is turning out to be a bit of a challenge simply because I haven't got the space for a separate tracking room and control room. So I'm monitoring on headphones with the "artists" in the same room as me (and sometimes I'm the "artist").

Sounds like you have a really good place though and as you say, you don't really have the same problem with a noisy PC. Mine was so noisy though that I began reallise that it was affecting my listening experience.

Fire rating... I think I'm OK there because in the UK, we're not supposed to be able to sell foam that doesn't match the latest fire standards and I've double checked with my source who assures me that all the foam he sells falls within those standards. Let's hope I don't have to put that to the test ;)


andy
 
There's always the 'ole lighter test. Take a scrap piece and set it a blaze.

I did this recently with some soundproof matting I put inside my PC case. The stuff I used is pretty retardant.
 
Creamyapples1 said:
There's always the 'ole lighter test. Take a scrap piece and set it a blaze.

I did this recently with some soundproof matting I put inside my PC case. The stuff I used is pretty retardant.
Click to expand...

good idea... I'll try that tonight ;)
 
Now you've got me thinking again...

Always a dangerous thing.

I'm in the process of moving my studio (yet again) to an upstairs bedroom that has, among other things, kneewalls. Those vents would work in a kneewall... nothing close to the DAW though. I was trying to set things up in the center of the room, more or less; slanted ceilings and all that. Maybe I should cosy it up to one side and use a kneewall instead...


















... and headphones.... :o
 
Treeline said:
Always a dangerous thing.

I'm in the process of moving my studio (yet again) to an upstairs bedroom that has, among other things, kneewalls. Those vents would work in a kneewall... nothing close to the DAW though. I was trying to set things up in the center of the room, more or less; slanted ceilings and all that. Maybe I should cosy it up to one side and use a kneewall instead...
Click to expand...

Would it not be possible to just run a couple of floor level ducts from your central DAW to one of your walls? You'd just need to put a very low, prolly 6" max, raised floor around your ducts...
 
I'm surprised that nobody has designed an "airtight" case especially for connecting ductwork....
 
aaroncomp said:
Looks awesome. As far as the whole, record-in-another-room-by-myself thing... check out this thing if you haven't already:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/TranzPort/
Click to expand...

wow... I think I'd use one of those even if I'm six feet away from my DAW... Once you're nice and comfortable on your guitar stool it's still a pain in the arse to get up and down to control your DAW (as well as tripping over cables in the process).

I think I'll be putting one of those on my shopping list, thanks;)
 
Synkrotron said:
wow... I think I'd use one of those even if I'm six feet away from my DAW... Once you're nice and comfortable on your guitar stool it's still a pain in the arse to get up and down to control your DAW (as well as tripping over cables in the process).

I think I'll be putting one of those on my shopping list, thanks;)
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If you have a wi-fi palm... You can do the same thing... Can't think of the program's name..But it has on screen buttons that send assignable keyboard commands to whatever program is running on the host computer

Edit: bluetooth palms would be perfect for this!!!

Edit: There's also the whole idea of VNC with palm... Aka remote display and control... Of course there would be a speed difficiency..
 
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