3D Wall Panels as Sound Diffusers?

[folkpile]

I'm converting a 15' x 20' room to a home studio on a budget. I've been reading the posts on this forum and have learned a lot about room treatment. Thanks for all the great info.

I stumbled across these wall panels while looking for some wallpaper at Home Depot. Would these act as sound diffusers on the long walls or would the material be too reflective and add harshness? To be clear, I would be using these in conjunction with more standard treatment like rockwall panels and bass traps in corners to help tame the sound.



Thanks!

 

[miroslav]

Probably better than flat drywall...but just how much is not clear, as they are intended to be decorative, so there is no data on their sound diffusion properties.

Keep in mind that sound diffusers are usually purpose-built using one of a few different math formulas to create one of a few diffuser types...and none even look like those panels you're thinking of.

I also think for a smaller room, absorption is more important than diffusion.

 

[mjbphotos]

I'm trying to remember where I read it - maybe one of Ethan Winer's posts or online things - that diffusors were pretty much useless in a room shorter than 30 feet (?). Like Miro says, for a small room absorption is the important thing.

 

[miroslav]

I don't know if it's just the length...but certainly the total volume of the room.
With a large volume space, the diffusion has something to work with, a place to diffuse the sound waves. With a small room, the have no place to go, which is why absorption will be more valuable.
In a large sized room, you can actually minimize the need for absorption, and control your acoustics more with diffusion.
There's a video clip somewhere of that huge, old studio complex that was part of eastern Germany, now called Funkhaus Studios...where they show the rooms, and one of the large rooms has mostly reflective surfaces...BUT, they are all designed to diffuse, so the sound in the space is fantastic...and NO absorption.

 

[sasquatch]

Those pyramids did remind me of the Funkhaus.Posted the video in your thread Miroslav.

G