Basement problems

[cstockdale]

I am renting a house, so I cannot do serious modifications for soundproofing. Sadly this is something I must live with. I have my setup in the basement. I am looking for some inexpensive, yet somewhat effective treatment to amend the following problems

The room is roughly 15 ft wide by 20ft long.

The walls are stuffed with pink fibreglass insulation, but aren't drywalled in, rather they just have heavy plastic covering them. Same goes for the ceiling. It seems as though this plastic must be giving some reflection, but I don't know how to figure out what frequencies it is reflecting to know how to compensate for it.

I have thought that hanging heavy fabric curtains along the walls should help this problem.

Second: along the ceiling along one side of the room are the furnace ducts (the big metal ones, 15 inches * 8 inches), uncovered, exposed. Those ones I can hear an echo in very clearly if I sing, so I know I am recording that sound too, and I don't like it. It is like a really cheap reverb. What can i cover /wrap those ducts with to try and kill some of that sound?

I have thought that I could create a dead space for recording by putting hooks into the ceiling beams and hanging packing blankets from them, essentially creating a 5*5 room inside the main room. Is this a good or bad idea?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[BlindCowboy]

Man,

It would be nice to remove that plastic and hang Burlap instead. Then you have the benefit of the insulation dampening without the insulation pulling out. Really, any cheap fabric that breaths. You could pull that off rather cheaply, and it'll look a hell of alot better than that plastic.

As for the furnace, Couldn't you get a 4x8 sheet of that 1/2 in. foam board and box around it? That stuff's light and can be practically taped in place. Easy to cut and only costs like 7 bucks a sheet. And you can tack the leftover material from the walls to it so that it matches.

And the booth....

I'd fix your room first, then worry about the booth. You may end up having a better recording space that doesn't require the booth.

Blind Cowboy...

 

[knightfly]

Good advice except the part about removing the plastic - reason #1, you might like the sound - sometimes too much high freq is absorbed. I would try it that way first, or maybe just with some burlap stapled over the plastic.

Reason #2 for knowing what you're up against before taking the plastic down -

http://www.buildingscience.com/resources/foundations/basement_insulation_systems.pdf

I'm STILL digesting all the implications of that one... Steve