Insulating ceiling - improving acoustics?

[foggie]

Have a general question about possibly removing the sheet rock from my ceiling and putting insulation in the cavities, then covering with a fabric etc..Awhile back I read Ethan's site on a room he did this on but had a few questions none the less.

1. Currently the room sounds really good but could be tightened up a bit > improving on what's already there, that's the goal. This space is for playing/recording and I'm not looking for a "pro mixing" formula. The floor is concrete but has a really thin piece of carpet. Thought of removing that and just having a remnant under the drums (if I do insulate the ceiling). I also thought about a riser as well but the ceiling is low as it is - undecided. Obviously the overheads don't have any room as they are right up against the ceiling (reflective, which isn't good). Building a cloud right over the kit is an option, but again ceiling height comes into the equation again.

2. My room is small (13x12), but as you can see I have (at least I think) the right amount of traps (4" corners, 2" everywhere else). The room and layout is exactly as the rendering. Ceilings are 7'.5"

Questions:
- It would appear a relatively inexpensive process to do this assuming I would be using standard pink insulation? Although the fabric could be $$, but was thinking Muslin.

- If the above is true are there any specifics for this (faced/un-faced, a certain kind) or is it just a matter of getting your garden variety insulation and stuffing it into the cavities and covering with fabric etc..

- By doing this would it possibly make the room worse or too dead? Or generally speaking are there and disadvantages to doing this. Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Chili]

I've got my thoughts on this but maybe they are not aligned with the mainstream school of thought.

I say don't rip out your drywall as I doubt you would gain anything significant enough to make it worth yor while. The pink fluffy stuff is not dense enough to act as a great low freq absorber. You've got one small cloud, I'd say put up a couple more. You can mount them directly to the ceiling. Maybe they won't work quite as well as a hanging cloud, but they will still work.

Is this in a basement?? Are you concerned about transmission loss?

If you do decide to do this, you can get cheap cheap fabric that is perfect for acoustics at Walmart. The real thin polyester stuff goes for about $1 a linear yard. If you can blow through it, it will work for your purposes.

 

[foggie]

I've got my thoughts on this but maybe they are not aligned with the mainstream school of thought.

Is this in a basement?? Are you concerned about transmission loss?

If you do decide to do this, you can get cheap cheap fabric that is perfect for acoustics at Walmart. The real thin polyester stuff goes for about $1 a linear yard. If you can blow through it, it will work for your purposes.

Thanks. Yeah this is a basement space and transmission loss is not the concern, just wondering if by doing this what the end result would be. I know "better/best or improvement as it relates to sound" is relative, but am curious if there have been people who have done this and what, if any pros/cons may have come about.

It would seem though that by doing this, it would be one "big" cloud, no? I suppose that the material would have to be dense enough (703/705) for this to happen or at least to perform at its optimum. However, wouldn't the pink stuff (an entire ceiling) be better than the reflective ceiling (for smaller rooms). I dunno, just a thought.

 

[Weasel9992]

You'd get a lot of high frequency control that way, but nothing down low. That might be fine for eliminating comb filtering from drum OH's. I'm kinda with Chili on this one though...why not just build a few more absorbers and put 'em up in a cloud? 4" panels would be perfect for that job.

Frank

 

[foggie]

You'd get a lot of high frequency control that way, but nothing down low. That might be fine for eliminating comb filtering from drum OH's. I'm kinda with Chili on this one though...why not just build a few more absorbers and put 'em up in a cloud? 4" panels would be perfect for that job.

Frank

OK, makes sense.

Again my concern is height. If I put a cloud(s) directly over the kit, the OH are pretty close to "everything". Even if I mount it directly to the ceiling its 4" taken away etc..

I guess an option would be to remove the sheet rock above the kit and put 703 just in that area only.

I thought on Ethan's site, they used just standard pink stuff. I'll have to track that link down and see.