Got a bunch of materials... need some guidance

[Dropped Z]

I found a company here in Tallahassee, FL that had a lot of leftover (rigid fiberglass, I think it's very close to OC 703) acoustic paneling from previous jobs. The biggest part of what I got is a bunch of panels that are 1" thick. Some are 2 x 1 and some are only 1 x 1. My question is, for the purpose of tracking in this room (I plan on doing a lot of mixing in about 4-6 weeks), should I:

1) Stack the 1" boards on top of each other to make pieces that are 2" thick? Obviously if I DON'T do this I can cover more wall space, however I realize that thicker pieces would absorb lower frequencies. I'm mainly recording vocals and acoustic guitar in this room so tracking bass isn't a concern.

2) Space the boards a couple of inches away from the wall? What's the best way to go about creating a gap between the panels and the wall? My idea is to hang them up using a strip of wire attached to the panels and then find a cardboard tube sliced into sections and attaching this to the panel to create a 1-2 inch gap. Maybe there is a better way.

I'm going to add my own fabric to these boards, but otherwise they are already cut and have some framing added to them. Any advice would be appreciated! Sorry for the long post.

 

[Dogbreath]

If you're wanting to use this as bass trapping...
What I'd do is stack em to where ya got 4 to 6 inch thick panels to work with AND space em an inch or two from the wall.
True, you won't cover as much area but the area you do cover will actually work as bass traps.
So are you wanting to use em as bass traps or diffusors? Do they spec out like traps?

 

[Dropped Z]

If you're wanting to use this as bass trapping...
What I'd do is stack em to where ya got 4 to 6 inch thick panels to work with AND space em an inch or two from the wall.
True, you won't cover as much area but the area you do cover will actually work as bass traps.
So are you wanting to use em as bass traps or diffusors? Do they spec out like traps?

I also have some thicker material that I'm planning to build around four 4" bass traps with at a later date. Since I'm just doing guitar and vox in this room I'm wondering if the 1" pieces are enough to absorb those freqs or if I would get better recording results by combining them to create thicker panels.

So no, they are not intended to be bass traps at this time. At a later date, if needed I may combine them to create bass traps. As far as the specs go, I don't know that much about them yet, but the guy there said the noise coefficient of these things are 90. I know very little about that though (yet).

 

[audio_leak]

you didnt give any info on the room youll be tracking in...

double them up, build as many as you can and keep building more panels when you have the money.
its not worth wasting your time if you build all the panels and it doesnt really make a noticible difference because you have gone cheap on the materials.
theres not that expensive to make, so you should do it properly.

pics of the room and the panels your making would help too.

 

[Dropped Z]

I was looking through the NRC numbers here:

http://www.bobgolds.com/AbsorptionCoefficients.htm

and it looks like removing a panel away from the wall helps pretty significantly even if it is only 1" thick. I think that answers my question about spacing. I'm going to use a piece of cheap foam to space them a few inches from the wall. The absorption coefficients for on the wall vs 16" away from the wall are drastically different. In fact, according to the above link, just moving the things away from the walls is (in most cases) more effective than leaving them on the walls and making them 2-3 times as thick. Weird.

I'm leaning toward just using the traps as-is rather than stacking them. When I move into the mixing phase I will probably need to look deeper into reducing bass freqs.

 

[Dropped Z]

you didnt give any info on the room youll be tracking in...

double them up, build as many as you can and keep building more panels when you have the money.
its not worth wasting your time if you build all the panels and it doesnt really make a noticible difference because you have gone cheap on the materials.
theres not that expensive to make, so you should do it properly.

pics of the room and the panels your making would help too.

Thanks - I meant to mention that the room is about 9 x 12. I haven't officially measured yet. I will be taking lots of pics to show this stuff off.

 

[Dogbreath]

I'm leaning toward just using the traps as-is rather than stacking them. When I move into the mixing phase I will probably need to look deeper into reducing bass freqs.

um....ok then....



whudda ya mean...when you move into the mixing phase? I don't get it
My mixing usually comes right after my tracking.

 

[Dropped Z]

um....ok then....



whudda ya mean...when you move into the mixing phase? I don't get it
My mixing usually comes right after my tracking.

What I mean is that over the next six weeks or so I'm only going to be recording. When everything is recorded I will move on to mixing it as a final album.

 

[Dropped Z]

Not sure how much it helps but here is a very quick sketch of the room. The floor is carpeted. My eventual plan is to move the PC and monitors to the far end of the room in front of the window. Just for info's sake, here are all the panels I have. My camera is busted at the moment so sorry for the lack of photos.

1" Thick:
(7) 1' x 2'
(4) 1' x 1'
(2) 2' x 2'
(2) 3' x 5'


2" Thick:
(2) 4' x 4'

 

[audio_leak]

I was looking through the NRC numbers here:

http://www.bobgolds.com/AbsorptionCoefficients.htm

and it looks like removing a panel away from the wall helps pretty significantly even if it is only 1" thick. I think that answers my question about spacing. I'm going to use a piece of cheap foam to space them a few inches from the wall. The absorption coefficients for on the wall vs 16" away from the wall are drastically different. In fact, according to the above link, just moving the things away from the walls is (in most cases) more effective than leaving them on the walls and making them 2-3 times as thick. Weird.

I'm leaning toward just using the traps as-is rather than stacking them. When I move into the mixing phase I will probably need to look deeper into reducing bass freqs.

using the traps as is? doesnt make any sense

in a room that size you will need ALOT of absorbtion, in small rooms it helps to pretty much cover the entire walls in absorbtion.
small rooms also almost always have alot of troublesome bass frequencys.
and making a few panels that tackle the highs isnt going to help your room out much i wouldnt think.

you have your prioritys kinda mixed up in my opinion.
i know it seems like you can get the most panels done if you only use 1" sheets for any panel, but i doubt thats going to make to much of a difference to be honest.

hopefully one of the acoustic guys will come in here and shed some light on the subject cause this just sounds like a bad idea to me.

ive honestly got no idea what your talking about, your going to build more panels in 6 weeks when your mixing?

 

[audio_leak]

oh yeah and whats the point in saying your going to take lots of pics if your camera is broken?? sounds a bit suss to me.

you didnt even include where the treatment is going to be on your sketch, or what your planning on doing with the panels.

post some actual pics of the room, and maybe i can help you out with what kind of treatment you will need.

 

[Dropped Z]

using the traps as is? doesnt make any sense

in a room that size you will need ALOT of absorbtion, in small rooms it helps to pretty much cover the entire walls in absorbtion.
small rooms also almost always have alot of troublesome bass frequencys.
and making a few panels that tackle the highs isnt going to help your room out much i wouldnt think.

you have your prioritys kinda mixed up in my opinion.
i know it seems like you can get the most panels done if you only use 1" sheets for any panel, but i doubt thats going to make to much of a difference to be honest.

hopefully one of the acoustic guys will come in here and shed some light on the subject cause this just sounds like a bad idea to me.

ive honestly got no idea what your talking about, your going to build more panels in 6 weeks when your mixing?

I think you gave me your input on stacking them in the middle of your post. You think the 1" panels are not going to do enough absorption in any case. Fair enough - I think you might be right.

I'm not sure what all the confusion and "suss" is about. I explained my two basic questions in the first post and you answered one of them. I came to a conclusion about my second question on my own.

Yes, I have the option of building more panels/traps (which I think I will need when it comes time to mix) at a later date. If you read my first post again I think my purposes are pretty well explained. I'm not looking for special instruction here.

oh yeah and whats the point in saying your going to take lots of pics if your camera is broken??

I just wanted to get your hopes up so that I could pull the old bait and switch on you later. You've been sussed! ;-)

 

[audio_leak]

I think you gave me your input on stacking them in the middle of your post. You think the 1" panels are not going to do enough absorption in any case. Fair enough - I think you might be right.

I'm not sure what all the confusion and "suss" is about. I explained my two basic questions in the first post and you answered one of them. I came to a conclusion about my second question on my own.

Yes, I have the option of building more panels/traps (which I think I will need when it comes time to mix) at a later date. If you read my first post again I think my purposes are pretty well explained. I'm not looking for special instruction here.



I just wanted to get your hopes up so that I could pull the old bait and switch on you later. You've been sussed! ;-)

its suss because..

Thanks - I meant to mention that the room is about 9 x 12. I haven't officially measured yet. I will be taking lots of pics to show this stuff off.

then.. (posted 4 hours later)

My camera is busted at the moment so sorry for the lack of photos

we get alot of noobs doing the same thing as soon as there asked for pictures.
strangely all their cameras seem to broken too.

i dont need to re-read your post, i wouldnt have posted here if i hadnt read it already, i think you need to re-read a couple of mine.

enjoy your treatment, im sure its going to work wonders for your room.

your EXACTLY right, now go on & git to building those magical panels of yours.

 

[audio_leak]

and just because im a nice guy...

the 1st panels are the ones that i would think to be most important.

the 2nd are the ones that really you should do, but they can come later.
i did all of mine (about 10 and 4 corner bass traps) and 4 for a friend over a week or so, so i did the most important ones first and you can kind of hear how your room dulls as you add them in

the windows you can either cover with heavy curtain, fill in completly and try to sound proof it as much as possible, i have a fairly small window so im building a panel at the moment thats going to hang in front of it (since i cant fill it in, cause i rent)

keep in mind this is very rough without seeing an ACTUAL picture of your room

i did one of these for my room while i was sitting in it and still made a bunch of changes along the way.

 

[Dropped Z]

and just because im a nice guy...

Awww man, and I thought we were having an internet fight. Thanks for the recs on the panels to start with. Just to kick the dead horse, my camera's photos are coming out super-dark. But for all intents and purposes I AM a noob. Nonetheless, I'm going to take a pic of what I currently have going just for entertainment's sake. It's a total makeshift jungle in this room but it's helping to some degree.