Acoustics: 2 rooms, no door

[Mo-Kay]

Hey all

As you might have seen in my "my own place" topic, I have 2 rooms.

1 bedroom, 1 studio room.

Between these 2 rooms is a door... well... there should be one, but there isn't.

Given the fact I want to acoustically treat my room properly, my guess is I'm left with an acoustic "hole"... so to speak.

My question: how do make this hole as "good", regarding acoustics, as possible?

Heavy drapes maybe?
Just shoot some ideas at me!

And NO...blocking my doorway with bricks is not an option

 

[chris-from-ky]

Put up two solid wood doors and use weather stripping around the jam to seal them when they are shut. Then you can access the space and keep some sound out if necessary.

As for the rest of your room, you should consider bass traps in the corners. and some acoustic panels on the walls and ceiling over the mix position.

It's a start.

 

[Mo-Kay]

I'm afraid putting in a door (let alone 2) really isn't an option (I'm a poor student, plus it's not my building so I can't go messing around too much)... so would you have any suggestions for alternatives?

Oh and I AM going to do some basstrapping, absorbing, scattering, etc...but WHERE should I place them?

Thanks for being helpful!

 

[pandamonk]

just a thought, but why not make a sort of plug, like for windows etc, but for the door. Then you can take out when not needed. Use MDF(dunno how good it'll be, but should be quite solid). Make a door just don't have hinges, with rubber seals all round which fits comfortably in the space. (Not tried this, just an idea, don't know how effective it'll be)

 

[Innovations]

Well, you aren't going to get isolation between these two spaces without mass and seals. Thinking that a curtain or blanket is going to accomplish much is a false hope.

 

[pandamonk]

This is what I meant by a "plug". 2 boards of MDF, 1 the exact(or slightly smaller)size of the door, and one and inch or 2 bigger. Stick them together. Fit rubber seals all round the inner 1 put a couple of handels on, and there you have it, a door, with no hinges, you can put it in and take it out as you please without affecting the house/flat(whereever you live). I suggest painting it to suit the colour scheme of the room, or adding acoustic treatment. You could/should actually build 2, which would/should increase the insulation quite a bit(mass-air-mass). This will proabably cost a lot less than buying 1 shitty, new, door. For a better seal and less chance of it falling in on you, you could use a magnet seal instead of a rubber seal.

 

[Mo-Kay]

thank you for the idea pandamonk.

ISOLATION, though, is not what I'm talking about. I don't give a rats ass about what happens acoustically in the bedroom, it's about my studio room's acoustics, making sure the room sounds "good".

 

[pandamonk]

What is it you are asking? What are you doing to the rest of the room? why not make the "plug" into an absorber or deffuser? Wait just had a thought, Couldn't you make the hole into a mega bass trap? Say you had a 2" material covered, rockwool(703, owens, whatever)bass trap in the space. Wouldn't that give you a space from the wall, the size of the bedroom, giving amazing bass absorbtion?

 

[chris-from-ky]

Mo-Kay,
The idea is to put bass traps where those low frquencies hang out. That would be corners. So where walls meet other walls and where walls meet floors or ceilngs is where you want to put the traps. Also you can get unwanted flutter echo from parallel walls. How to help this is to place absorbers along the wall but out away from the wall like 3". AND DON'T put the absorbers directly across from each other (except at the mix position). You want to "stagger" them along the parallel walls. The back wall can be one big absorber so the reflections won't head back up to you once they hit the back wall. A "cloud" as it's called is a good idea to have above you at the mix position. Look at this picture. Sorry about the size. Basically the pink things are rigid fiberglass absorbers. They can be DIY for about $30 each. the superchunk corner traps could be done for like $100 each. You've mentioned you're poor. While I don't hold that against you, I know (from experience) that you may just be stuck with the sound your room gives because no inexpensive blankets will effectively treat a room. I've made decent tracks and mixes in a completely untreated room but they were just that - decent. Not superior by any means.

 

[Mo-Kay]

thanks for the basstrap info


and pandamonks...what I am doing to the rest of the room...is making music in 1, and recording in the other.

I also came up with an idea... how about I put up a piece of MDF, make it stand up and put it in the doorway (kinda like you said but not sealing), leave it untreated on one side, put it in the doorway when I'm mixing... and turn it around to use the other side as an acoustic screen when I'm recording vocals (put the mic close to it to absorb)...

 

[pandamonk]

sounds like a good idea