Accoustically treating a Gym?

  • Thread starter Thread starter bassmonkey144
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bassmonkey144

bassmonkey144

poor college student
I recently started running sound and lights at my colleges student activities center, which is really an old smallish (one BBall court) gym that they built a stage in. It has a great house PA, but every time we bring in a band or have a dance with a DJ it sounds awful. It has a high cathedral ceiling, wood floors and uncovered concrete walls. There is a running track around the top as well, but it is carpeted. My question is: what can I do to reduce the reverb and improve the overall sound quality on a smaller budget? Do I put baffles all around the top walls? Could I put heavy theater style curtains on the bottom level? I'm kind of at a loss as to what I could do to make the place sound better. Any advice or help is very appreciated!
 
bassmonkey144 said:
what can I do to reduce the reverb and improve the overall sound quality on a smaller budget?
Click to expand...

What's your budget? Even if you DIY you're looking at $1,000 or more just in the cost of fiberglass. Likely much more than $1,000.

--Ethan
 
I'm not sure how much I can convince our manager to spend, probably $2000 to $2500 tops.
 
In a larger space like that, the design goals are very different. Baffles hanging vertically from the ceiling coupled with strategically placed panels on the walls can do quite a bit.

When you have bands, the large number of people covering some of the hard floor surface will do a lot. Mostly up high in those situations works best in a budget situation.

Bryan
 
Thanks a lot guys. I guess I'll start looking at if I will build the baffles myself or buy them from a company. I guess I'll also have to figure out placement. That certainly points me in the right direction!
 
Okay, that makes it a lot easier for me. This shouldn't be as hard as I thought. Thanks for the link!
 
What would be the best material to make these baffles from? Curious.
 
I would venture a guess and say 703 for DIY.
 
703 will work just fine. For a gym, you'll need to make sure that the fabric used is Class A fire and smoke rated or has been treated to be such.

Bryan
 
Why not get the bulk 3.5" acoustic cotton from Brian(bpape)? You can check it out here.
 
Chatahoochie Country Dancers, in Atlanta, has similar problems. The contra dances are held in a church gym, and reverb is ever-present. Those kind of baffles are already hanging from the ceiling; the next move will probably be a heavy curtain or several home-made quilts (in keeping with the country dance theme) hung on the wall opposite the band-stand area. We have had better results using more speakers at lower volumes, too.
 
thanks for the ideas! I'm having lunch with my boss tomorrow and I'm going to throw some of these ideas around with him. We just got a grant to tear up the floor and replace it, as well as move the stage over to the center. Maybe we can do the same for this stuff. Here's a picture of the place, in case anybody wondered what it looked like, from my window up in the control room. (this was from the halloween dance, taken before it started, so ignore the bad decorations and weird costumes. :p )

DSCF3575.jpg
 
Nice. Make sure you put in the lit disco floor when you're redoing it! ;)

Bryan
 
stevieb said:
That's a dance? So, why isn't anyone DANCING?
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If you read my post, I mentioned this was before the dance....I was too busy running lights and sound to take pictures during.

A light up disco floor would be a little much, but I did just order a new, bigger disco ball. :p
 
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