I just built 8 Broadband Absorber

O

Olijanovi

New member
Thanks to everyone's advice out here, I just built 8 broadband absorber panels. I was able to make 8 panels in an afternoon with my friend. Now here is the thing:

1- They really do work, it's incredible.

2- Where do I position them? I have a rectangular room.

3- Is there a certain height?

4- Should I put them all between wall and ceiling?

5- Should I build another set of panels in order to create kind of a closed enclosure? Or simply having them on the walls will do the job.

I am mostly wanting to record music (at the moment) less to mix. When I record guitar, I can hear the reflection from the walls. I guess we go project by project. And this one is a recording one, the mixing will be done elsewhere.
 
It's still pretty much the same principle as a mixing position. Treat first reflection points, bass traps, clouds. Ear level/speaker height is where you want the center of the panel to line up with.

You can use a free room measurement tool like REW REW - Room EQ Wizard Home Page, to see if there are any major problem areas in your room.

What you can do, and what a lot of people do, is build what are called Gobos. Which are basically movable panels that you stand up around and set up around your what your recording to get a dryer recording.

BarryVocalsgobos.jpg

As you can see, they just have little "feet" on them to make them more sturdy, and you easily move them around. You really only need 2-3 if you are recording everything separately. And they work wonders so you can record multiple instruments in the same room at once, you would need more for that of course, but it helps isolate things.
 
Great thing those Gobos. I feel that I will make most of my useage from them like that. Nothing is needed above from it?
 
Olijanovi said:
Great thing those Gobos. I feel that I will make most of my useage from them like that. Nothing is needed above from it?
Click to expand...

Generally not for recording things like guitars, vocals, bass, and instruments like that, not to say you can't. If your recording drums you generally want to have a designated drum recording area, where you would have a cloud absorber placed on the ceiling above them to help control the sound you'd be getting in your over head mics, and then you can place the gobos around the drums as needed.
 
Well you are generally close micing vocals and guitars (within a 6 inches or so), it's not bad thing if you do have something above them, it's just not completely necessary to place treatment above them to get a dryer sound if you're close micing something. Close micing in itself, is taking a lot of the room out of the equation in the first place.

Also mic positioning cuts out a lot of the sound that would be reflected off the ceiling. Can't say in my experience, I've ever recorded guitar or vocal and had a microphone positioned, even slightly, angled up; always flat or angled down, but that's just me.

You're just using gobos to further isolate the speaker cabinet or vocalist from the room if you want to get a dryer sound and remove more of the room from the recordings.

You still want to have bass traps and broadbands absorbers on your walls. Gobos, as I said, just help further isolate what your recording.
 
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I am sorry... I thought you meant around it. You mean above it. Of course... So I would use those Gobos around it to prevent the reflection on walls and to prevent some other sound in the room to get in the mic.
 
Hehehe. Would it help too if I put my broadband absorbers around the room on walls and corner? Or can I simply use them as gobos?
 
If I use GOBOS, do I need treatment in the rest of my room? I am solely looking to record and get a decent recorded sound.
 
Yes you still need to treat your room. You're still going to want bass traps around your room and if your recording drums your going to want a cloud absorber.

If your standards aren't that high, by all means, try out recording with just some gobos and see what you think. If it's good enough for you, it's good enough.
 
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