foam vs. rigid fiber glass

  • Thread starter Thread starter guitarboi222
  • Start date Start date
G

guitarboi222

New member
i've read many contrasting views about the pro's and con's of both rigid fiber glass and studio foam. i've read that rigid fiber glass (at different thicknesses) is more absorbant than foam. does this make fiber glass better? i've also read that it is important that the control room walls absorb and diffuse sound. is exposed wood a good material for defusing? basically, i have a 11'x9' room that needs to function as a control room. any help with sound treating this room would be much appriciated! thanks! also, if i was to use rigid fiber glass, what is the best way to instal it on the walls and ceiling? thanks agian!
 
GB,

> does this make fiber glass better? <

Absolutely - for a given thickness fiberglass absorbs to a lower frequency than foam, and it usually costs less. The only downside is you'll want to cover it with fabric for appearance.

> is exposed wood a good material for defusing? basically, i have a 11'x9' room <

Yes, wood reflects well. But your room is a little too small to benefit from diffusion in the usual sense.

> if i was to use rigid fiber glass, what is the best way to instal it on the walls and ceiling? <

Space it away from the walls and ceiling, rather than mounting it directly. See my FAQ for more info:

www.recording.org/users/acoustics

--Ethan
 
a few more questions

hey ethan, thanks for all your suggestions. do you think my control room would benefit from any diffusion? if not, should i cover all the parallel walls with fiber glass? or leave some of them bare? if i where to only use fiber glass, is it important to hang it on the walls at angles? how important is it to apply fiber glass to a slanted ceiling if the floor is covered with vinyl tile? how do you hang fiber glass on the ceiling? thanks so much for all your help. take care. marc
 
Re: a few more questions

GB,

> do you think my control room would benefit from any diffusion? <

I'm not an expert about diffusion, but it seems to me your room is too small for that.

> should i cover all the parallel walls with fiber glass? <

No, don't cover all of the walls. Cover maybe 50 percent with rigid fiberglass using a checkerboard pattern of either 2x2 or 2x4 foot panels. Where one wall has a panel, leave the opposite blank, and vice versa.

> if i where to only use fiber glass, is it important to hang it on the walls at angles? <

No, angling doesn't help there. But you do want to space the panels away from the wall a few inches to extend their absorption to lower frequencies.

> how important is it to apply fiber glass to a slanted ceiling if the floor is covered with vinyl tile? <

It depends on how live the room is now and how live you want it to be. It also depends on which way the ceiling angles (side to side or front to back). The goal is to have your ears hear direct sound from the loudspeakers, and little or no "first" reflections off the walls or ceilings. If sound from the speakers can reach your ears in a direct reflection path off an angled ceiling, you should treat that part of the ceiling.

> how do you hang fiber glass on the ceiling? <

Nails, screws, wires - whatever works.

--Ethan
 
Re: Re: a few more questions

Ethan Winer said:


Cover maybe 50 percent with rigid fiberglass using a checkerboard pattern of either 2x2 or 2x4 foot panels. Where one wall has a panel, leave the opposite blank, and vice versa.
Click to expand...


Ethan,

Do you mean only do 2 wall like that and leave the other two blank? What type of stuff would you reccomend rapping fiberglass in?


Zeke
 
LEDE = Live End & Dead End

"The theory is that early acoustic reflections change the frequency response of the sound from the speakers, which is why we want to avoid reflections from anything in the front end of the room. Late acoustic reflections add to the character of the sound, much as reflections add to the sound of the Studio space. When performing a mixdown, or critical listening of a recording, we might start using relatively small monitors very close to the listener (i.e. mounted almost right on top of the mixing console). For final evaluation, we would listen through larger monitors from a greater distance (similar to how most people would listen at home).

This LEDE concept has been revised over the past 15 years. Today we use a version called, for our purposes, the Five Rule (FR). The Five Rule states that a room should be divided five ways, then alternating layers of the five divisions should be covered in absorption.

LEDED rooms are ideal for critically listening to recordings, which is the intended purpose for the Control Room space."


I hope this helps.
 
Re: Re: Re: a few more questions

ZEKE SAYER said:
Ethan,

Do you mean only do 2 wall like that and leave the other two blank? What type of stuff would you reccomend rapping fiberglass in?


Zeke
Click to expand...

I believe he means that if you have a panel on one wall then the surface directly parallel to that wall should NOT have a panel. That way by covering 50% of the walls you still will have no directly parallel hard surfaces.

The panels on the opposite walls should line up like this:

I
.....I
I
.....I
 
Re: a few more questions

Zeke,

> Do you mean only do 2 wall like that <

No, you want to treat all the walls but cover them in an alternating pattern so no large area is all reflective or all dead.

--Ethan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top