I just spent $220 on f**king foam…

G

Gunther

New member
I just spent $220 on f**king foam…

Ok, I am nuts, right? Normal people just don’t do things like this, right? I mean I walked out the door of guitar center with a $220 box of Auralex foam, they are laughing as I walk out, right?

Anyway my room sounds dead as Kurt Cobain, its nuts. And my monitors sound like I just bought a pair worth $1000 more than they really are… but $220 for foam rubber? Is there a self-help group I can join for this sickness?

Gunther
 
I dont think its critical enough for me to spend that much for foam. But I have noticed that the stuff is expensive everywhere.
You probably could have got it cheaper on ebay;)
 
Gunther said:
Anyway my room sounds dead as Kurt Cobain, its nuts.
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That's NOT a good thing....

You have to be careful not to overdo the acoustic treatment -- no one listens to music in dead rooms, so it doesn't make sense to try to monitor in a completely dead room.

It is also very likely that your mixes will come out top-heavy now, if you've sucked all the high-end response out of your room....

As well, did you include any treatment for taming low-end?
 
I would rather err on the dead side, only because I record vocals in the room. It is a 10’ X 12’ basement room with 7’4” ceiling and used to possess some nasty and loud early reflections. I made a few recordings and I could easily hear the ugly ringing sound and the echo. I have a big classical voice, and I like to be 6 – 8 inches from my mic… so the small room did not flatter my recordings.

What I did was put four 2’ X 4’ Auralex panels on the back 10’ wall, which is directly behind me. The foam along with a couch that’s on the back wall covers about 85% of it.
The two 12 foot side walls have 3 sheets each, so they are about 50% covered on the upper 4 feet of the wall and not at all covered on the lower part (stuff takes up part of the lower 3 feet of the wall, like my keyboards and a table with junk on it…) The wall that my pc / monitors is on has no treatment. Does this sound like too much foam?


The walls of the room have been filled with r-13 on one of the long walls and r19 in the other 3 walls (the 2 short walls are 6” thick to hide a support column, so r19 fits.) One of the long walls was built next to the cement foundation; actually it leaves about 8’ to a foot of a gap, so there is a good bit of space behind the wall (for access). The ceiling is a suspended ceiling with 2X2 acoustic tiles, and r19 between the joists above. The floor is thick carpet over a thick layer of padding over bare cement.
So maybe you can tell me, is the room doing anything for bass? I didn’t specifically build it to, but I don’t know enough about these things to know.


Anyway, the monitors sound TIGHT and defined now. The stereo image is much more precise then before. I thought the speakers just sucked because you could not pick out where anything was on the soundstage, but now things seem to fit right where they belong. The midrange sounds much more clear than before. Voices and instruments sound natural and crisp, and I can hear the details of everything. Before if 2 sounds took up the same frequency space in the mix it would be hard to tell where one ended and the other began.

Anyway, I would be very interested in what you think Blue Bear.
 
Gunther said:
Anyway, I would be very interested in what you think Blue Bear.
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Sounds like you've thought about what you're doing... my concern was due to the fact that many are under the assumption that their control rooms should be dead, so I was pointing out the danger of just deadening the room out of hand....

But if you're hearing better results, you should be fine!
 
I spent ~$600 on Auralex for my basement. It sounds much better with the foam. We're moving into a house so I get a ~ 11 x 11 bedroom for all my stuff so most of the foam won't be used until I get a bigger room. My wife thinks I'm nuts, but for other reasons entirely!
 
Flick: I actually am not using monitors. I am using a good pair of audiophile bookshelf speakers (made by Klipsch) with an extremely nice home theater / audio integrated amp (made by Yamaha). Once I get a little money together I will buy a good set of powered monitors, but I want to get something really special, something that sounds clear and life like.

Foreverain: $2000!! I just had to see your studio, so I did a search on the Studio building forum… Nice man. Just like mine, only yours is bigger, better equipped and better laid out… ok, so its not at all like mine, I am jealous :) But hey, your probably making money with that thing, so I don’t feel bad for you spending 2 grand. Anyway, you have foam behind the monitors, does this help? I dont have foam there, should I?

Blue Bear: Yeah, the results are much better, but I do admit that the room is a little boomy. It’s not as if the highs are not there, but its as if there is a peak somewhere in the 100 – 200 hz range. I’m going to make a post in the studio building forum about my setup to see if I can get some opinions there (before I spend yet more money fixing the room.)
 
behind the monitors is a must in my opinion! especially since mine are only about 12 inches away. it cuts out the early reflections and makes what you are hearing more accurate. you hear what you monitors are sending you, and not the wall.





lynn
 
You guys should visit the Studio Building forum more often. Owens Corning 703 has the same or better absorption properties and is about $5 for a 2'x4' panel.
 
yeah, but what about being flame retardant? or, maintaining color? or, disintegration? these are the reasons i went with auralex. it may have the same absorption properties, but what about the practical things listed above?




lynn
 
Bruce is of course right about you not wanting to have the room you mix in being dead. But I agree that having the room you RECORD in being dead is much better than having it be too "live". Its easier to load on effects to liven something up than to deal with snap back echo on everything. Plus sound proofing helps keep your neighbors from killing you. :)

Of course the best solution is to do what professionsal do - have one great sounding room for recording, and another room set up for mixing / mastering. However a lot of amatuers, like myself, have to use the same room for both. So we make do the best we can.

Oh... and you probably don't want to hear this right now, but here is an idea for some VERY cheap (free) sound tiles. Hard drive maufacturers who ship OEM packages of hard drives to dealers often ship them surrounded by large form-fitted foam protectors, which look remarkably like what you just bought. I've accumulated quite a pile of these over the years working for a few different tech companies. If you can find a nearby store that sells OEM drives (those that come just in a anti-static bag with no box), they are probably throwing these pads in the trash. The only down side with them is I'm sure they are NOT fireproof - in fact they are probably little toxic firebombs. But hey, free is free....
 
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