Acoustical treatment for home studio

[mosk]

Hi, I have a 20' long, by 13' wide, by 9' high home studio. WIl primarily use this for recording a show (with a Panasonic GH4) against a greenscreen at the far end, with 1 or 2 people sitting at a desk roughly at the halfway / 10 foot mark. Have four 5600K lights on stands (2 for the green screen and two for the talent) - and I'm intending to get a couple of wireless lavalier mics.

The studio should have good sound isolation (with 2 x 5/8" sheetrock for the walls, decoupled by Green Glue, and same on the ceiling which was hung on resilient channels).

I'm trying to figure out what to do for acoustical treatment (and would rather keep the budget in the couple hundred dollar range through do-it-yourself options.

For the 4 corners (or 8) I was planning to cut Roxul into triangles and stack it from floor to ceiling, then build a fabric covered frame to rest in front of each. The tutorial I was watching (on Lynda.com) assumes 24" x 48" dimensions so you could cut into 24" x 24" squares, and then cut those into right angle triangles to be stacked. Do those dimensions matter? Because what they had available at my local Lowes were 16" x 48" not 24 - can I just cut those into right angle triangles with one side being 16" and the other 24" - or do I need those to be equal so my corner stack deflects at 45 degrees?

For the acoustic panels to hang on the ceiling and some of the walls, I want to avoid risks of fiberflass / Owen's Corning - so was planning to go with ROck wool. Have seen both Roxul Rockboard 60 (which is abut 6 pounds per square foot) and Roxul Safe and Sound - which is roughly 2.5 lbs/square foot (not sure if that was for 2" thickness for each?)

There is one distributor for Roxul in my city (Richmond), but it oculd take anywhere from 4-8 weeks till my order would come in - which isn't ideal. On Amazon or elsewhere online, the packs of e 2 x 4 boards of these charge as much for shipping as the product, so I'm trying o find out
1) if there are any cheaper ways to get a hold of 2' x 4' x 2" sheets of Roxu Rockboard 60 or Roxul Safe and Sound
2) Is there a strong preference for the Rockboard over the Roxul safe?
3) Considered making acoustic panels out of the 16" x 48" Roxul available at Lowes / Home Depot- by running a divider down the middle and a 16" sheet of Roxul on each side (so 33" + 2" thick wood for 35") - this roxul is 3" thick so woud have to use 4" (or 3") boards as opposed to the 1" x 2" x 8' ones I was initially planning to use with 2" thick Rockboard.
4) Any other materials to consider that I could probably get locally so as to avoid $100 of shipping if I order online?

5) Should i plan to treat the ceiling to wall junction or should all of the corners be sufficient?

6) Any suggestions on affordable lavalier mics that are good quality? Suggestions about wired vs wireless?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Tadpui]

Have your local Lowe's or Home Depot order and ship it to their store. It won't cost you anything above the cost of the materials themselves.

Rigid fiberglass is pretty much the standard when it comes to wall and ceiling panels. But mineral wool works as well. Roxul is still some pretty nasty stuff because it gives off dust and is just as irritating to the skin and eyes as fiberglass. When it's wrapped in fabric, it's not as much of a concern. So if you're OK with using Roxul, rigid fiberglass (which doesn't give off much, if any, dust) should be fine as well.

What all sound sources are you going to be using in this room? Just human voices, or will you be doing mixing/monitoring in the room as well? Any musical instruments? I only ask because if it's just a talk show type of recording, then you may not need to worry too much about bass traps and you can focus on absorption in mid and hi frequency ranges, which is much easier (and much cheaper) to account for. But below about 500-600Hz, bass traps are definitely key. So if you're monitoring/mixing music or doing any musical instrument performance involving drums, bass, even amplified guitar, bass traps will be crucial.

 

[mosk]

I'm primarily going to be recording an interview show with one or two people talking at a desk, and there will frequently be someone participating through skype as well. I play the keyboard as well and want to use the room for making some music videos. The keyboard (which is decent quality, a Roland with full size weighted keys) has midi output which I take into my computer via a midi to USB cable. I do want to be able to record vocals to go with the music, and I'd like the ability to record other instruments (such as guitar and bass, possibly a range of others) from time to time.

(In terms of Roxul over Owen's Corning 703 - the tutorials I've seen suggested that Roxul was safer and cheaper which was why I was leaning toward it - have never worked with either myself)

Ideally, I would get 2" thick, 48" x 24" 703 or roxul and not have to do any cutting (except for into triangles for corners)

My Lowes didn't have those, but I guess I can see if either they or Home Depot can ship them - or I can consider that distributor but hate to wait for 1-2 months on delivery.

Also, I'm planning to have the guests for the show sit right in the middle of the room.
If they're using lavalier mics, will that be a problem from an acoustical point of view with wave reflections or would that mostly be an issue with a regular, table-top condenser mic? (or is that more about where you're listening an mixing from than speaking from?)

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[mjbphotos]

For the talk show, with lavalier mics, as Tadpui says, you don't have to worry about the sound. For vocal recording, some gobos (movable traps) would be enough. If you want to use the room for mixing or mic recording of drums or instruments then corner bass traps and wall traps and ceiling clouds become important.

 

[JimmyS1969]

See if there is one of these near you. Looks like 3 in your state.

SPI

That is where I get my insulation.

 

[mosk]

Thanks - but no SPI near me. They break Virginia into three parts and suggest an SPI in the nearest state based on those regions.

I'll check with Home Depot and Lowes and see if they can get what I'm looking for. If not, may order from the distributor and simply get other aspects of my studio ready while I'm waiting.