Newbie building a studio = help please!

R

rnelson

New member
Hi everyone,

I'm getting started building a small studio and I need all the help I can get. A family member has given me an empty room in an apartment to make this happen. I am now in the process (havent actually begun) of treating it.

So here's the summary:

-Room is 18' by 15' with a 9' ceiling.
-It will be a one-room studio, with the one room serving as both the live recording space and the control room.

My main problem is that I can not make any permanent changes to the room such as putting up drywall as insulation or anything like that (landlady's orders).

Here are some pics of the room:

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The building is mostly offices so I will be playing and recording at night when everybody's gone, therefore soundproofing the entire room is not necessary. What I do need is to decently soundproof the 4'x13' window. I plan on doing this by stuffing it with 3" thick fiberglass insulation and then wedging panels of plywood within the frame (remember I cant install any drywall or any such permanent materials.). It doesnt have to be perfectly soundproof, just good enough to not be heard loudly out on the street. The rest of the apartment is empty so I dont have to worry about sound bleeding over to other rooms.

Next Im going to build anywhere between 4-6 bass traps to place in strategic locations around the room. I have carpets that cover up a good area of the floor so as not to have to many reflections off of the concrete. I will probably hang a couple of concave foam panels from the ceiling as well.

So here are my questions:

-How thick should my fiberglass bass traps be? I will probably buy 1.5" inch thickness and double it up to get 3" thickness on the panels. The bass traps will all be 4'x2' in dimension.

-What can I use to treat the high frequencies? I need something that's inexpensive and found at most hardware stores. I'm not in the U.S and there are no auralex or sound treatment companies over here, so Im looking for common materials that will serve this purpose. Again I'm a beginner so there's no need for perfection since my ears are not fine tuned enough to notice the small differences.

-How much wall area should I cover with bass traps and/or other types of insulation?

Thats it for now, but any suggestions are not only welcome but encouraged. Just remember that Im very broke and very noobish hah.

Thanks to all.
-rnelson
 
I'd get 2" rigid fiberglass and double up for 4" corner bass traps. The beauty of rigid fiberglass is that works great for higher frequencies too. I wouldn't bother at all with Auralex or any type of "foam". IN addition to the corners, you'll want to treat speaker first reflection points... Here's a link...
http://www.realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm
:)
 
3" is not enough...Jeff is right. At least 4" is required for bass trapping, and you'll need a lot more than six of them. Here are some set up tips to get you started:

• Make sure you setup so that you’re firing down the longest dimension of the room.
• Your head should be placed 38% of the way into the room, centered between the left and right walls
• Your head should also be located at the tip of an equilateral triangle with your speakers. Start at a 5’ width and go from there.
• Use at least 4” bass trapping in all the corners, floor to ceiling if possible.
• Use 4” or 6” bass traps on the back wall; the thicker the better basically.
• Use 4” panels behind the speakers on the front wall
• The reflection points to the right, left and above your head can be treated with either 2” or 4” panels. I prefer 4” panels personally; you can never really overdo bass trapping.
• In the case of larger rooms you can use diffusion on the right and left walls near the rear of the room, between your bass traps on the back wall or on the ceiling to the rear of your ceiling panels.


Frank
 
Thanks for the replies guys I really appreciate it. I read through the whole bass trapping link and found a lot of useful info.

I'll look into getting some 2" panels, but if not I can always build some 4.5" or 6" ones with the 1.5" insulation.

Also, what is the proper grade of insulation I should be looking into? I don't know too much about this, are the panels rated according to density? which ones will do a good job? Thanks!

If anybody has any other suggestions I would love to hear them, not just on bas trapping but any aspect of home studio construction.
 
Owens Corning 703 (700 series, 3 lbs/cubit ft.) is kind of the "standard". Knauff, John's Manville and other make similar products. Rockwool (Roxul is one brand) has a similar performing (and much cheaper) product, but you'll want the more dense 4.5 lb/cu.ft stuff for the same performance. Here is a thread that lists some equivalents and me talking to myself. :)
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=293254
 
Jeff_D said:
Owens Corning 703 (700 series, 3 lbs/cubit ft.) is kind of the "standard". Knauff, John's Manville and other make similar products. Rockwool (Roxul is one brand) has a similar performing (and much cheaper) product, but you'll want the more dense 4.5 lb/cu.ft stuff for the same performance. Here is a thread that lists some equivalents and me talking to myself. :)
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=293254
Click to expand...

Word. In terms of density you're looking for 48kg/m3-60kg/m3 ideally, though you can go a bit higher or a bit lower if that's what's available.

Frank
 
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