Concrete Walls & Acoustics

[Phlaw]

I have a small radio production studio I am building in my basement. 2 of the walls are concrete & I am getting echoes. WHat is a good & cheap way to improve this.

 

[John Sayers]

Well firstly get hold of something like this:

http://www.owenscorning.com/around/sound/commercial_acoustics/white-acoucore.asp#

and build some wall frames to mount it in. It would be a good idea tobuild a frame that leans forward, i.e. 4" at the bottom leaning forward to 1' at the top. Put the insulation in the frame and cover with cloth to taste.

Or if you want to go organic check out the Aussie straw panelling that sjoko has used in his studio:


http://www.angelfire.com/al3/studio/Pages/Sjoko_2.htm

You could also consider putting some slots on some of the area to absorb the low-mids which is where the absorption of the fibreglass starts to taper off.

cheers
john

 

[OldGrover]

Now, just wanna say "John is God. Listen to John"

but if you are lazy and/or have limited space/ability to change (ie, rented space, whatever) you can consider picking up something like an Auralex roominator kit (www.auralex.com) - fairly pricy, but it made a huge difference to the sound in my bedroom studio (which has two brick walls and a half concrete wall)

It was a very, very echoing live space before and it is now quite dead - you can hear the difference when you talk in the room in a big way. If you are curious, check out the photos/discussion of my studio on John's studio site.

It worked for me - I'm very happy. I've heard of people hanging the foam on boards as well, then hanging the boards on the wall like a picture. That way, you can take 'em with you if you change rooms and also change the sound of the room to match what you want (from live to dead in quick easy steps)

Hope this helps....

 

[sjoko2]

Just in case anyone is interested, my friend has just imported a container with straw panels, as well as a container with the machinery to make them here in the US.