Instead of auralex....

B

BookSix

New member
I was thinking of using eggcrate mattress deals in stead of expensive auralex for my home studio. Will this work at least ok? What else would you all recomend? I wonder if I could dye/color it black or gray?
 
---Eggcrates won't really absorb much sound because they're not really that thick. Also you'd need a whole bunch to make it work..... -There's 1-inch thick styrofoam sheets (4 ft x 8 ft) sold at home supply stores for only a couple bucks each; I'd guess they'd absorb sound better, you can cut them to size to fit around doors and windows (and in windows) and they'd still not be outrageously expensive. ~ Expense aside, the other common problem I have seen with "improvised" sound insulators is that they were all fire hazards.... -often toxic fire hazards.
---I knew a guy who used a [concrete] basement room to record in. He had two mattresses hung standing in each corner, and carpet that hung over the rest of the (concrete) walls. There were a couple other mattresses lying around also, convenient for sitting on or laying equipment on and eliminating sound too. It was pretty well dead. He got the mattresses for free from a place that sells new beds, and gets rid of customers' old ones.
---Once a friend's attached garage was getting the interior re-done and the interior walls were all pulled off, showing the pink fiberglass insulation. It wasn't sound dead, it was a sound vacuum. At night, you could stand in there and the only noise you heard was your heart beating. I dunno that having that stuff hanging out where you will be breathing it for long periods of time is a very good idea though -- maybe if you stapled a couple layers of fabric over it, it would be okay...?
 
The mattress foam is a poor diffuser. It's a different consistancy as the stuff made for diffusing.
 
AMFoam.com sells real studio foam thats fire retardent, for 80.00 for 2 100"x80" sheets. go to the site and email the sales guy ask for studio foam.

Its the same as auralux. but you can do all of you walls for around 1/4 the price.
 
foreverain4, I was at uor site and it says you purchase most of your stuff from sweetwater. Why would you do that? Way overpriced.
 
well, #1, support. #2, it is only about 15 minutes from my house and studio and they always have stuff in stock. (none of this backorder crap) #3, i have shown them other (lower) prices on the gear that i have purchased and they have done their best to match it. i really like the way that they assign sales engineers to people, makes it really personal. for example, i have had the same engineer from my first purchase there. he knows my settup so when i call asking advice, he knows exactly what i mean. they dont just hire punk rockers off the street, these guys really know recording and the industry, and they comunicate on an inteligent level. i guess service is more important to me than price, and relationships more important that saving a buck or two. as with auralex and other foam, you get what you pay for. (had to tie it in somehow :) ) as with the link on my site. the put one of mine on their site too. ;)
 
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Still I much rather get avice from engineer friends and save my money. Support is ok if you really need it. I hate Sweetwater Engineers, that guy called my house multiple times after one purchase there. It's just another way for them to reel you in. But I guess if you like it, it is your money. I just like to save for other things. 8thstreet music has been much better to me. Randi hooks me up with good prices. Can't complain.
 
i dont disagree that sweetwater is overpriced. but i hardly ever pay the price that they have listed for an item. this is a trick i learned while living in china. ;) sounds like we are both getting "hooked up".
 
The local studios use the AMFoam product, the auralux is charging too much and they dont do it differently, same density rating. same fire code rating.

You would have to be insane to pay the $180.00 difference to have the auralux product.
 
regarding acoustic foam:

I'm using Primacoustic.

regarding purchase locations:

i've done the same thing at sweetwater. i've shown Niko an internet price and he's matched it.

between my local shop: Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center

kraftmusic.com, 8thstreet.com, and macmidimusic.com

i get everything i need. if for some un-godly reason they don't have it, then i go to sweetwater.
 
I've used the egg-crate foam in a pinch and it has done the trick, albeit obviously not as good as the Auralex foam. Any foam has sound absorbing qualities, it's just a physical property of foam. Some types just work better than others.

I wouldn't put egg-crate in a studio on purpose just to save a little money, though. Then you're just cheating yourself out of quality, and the results will might not be to your liking.

I am yet to find a piece of foam that has reverberative properties....

Rick
 
whatever you decide, consider that there's a lot more involved than just putting up some absorption material. you need to address room modes, diffusion and absorption. you don't have to spend a lot to get a lot of results nor do you have to put up a lot of treatments to solve the problems.

done incorrectly, you end up with a very uneven room decay (lows don't decay and highs do). the room sounds dead but it's far from it. if you only use 1" or 2" absorbing material, then you're not touching anything below 500Hz which is (20,40,80,160,320, 640Hz) almost 6 octaves. that's a lot.

i'd recommend you stay away from quick solutions like matresses, egg crates and thin absorbers. read some first like the Auralex Acoustics 101 or look at Ethan Winers stuff or check out books by F. Alton Everest. one book that's pretty good is Sound Studio Construction on a Budget.... not just theory stuff.

one more thing, not all foams handle acoustics properly. you want Open Cell foam not Closed Cell foam. If you can blow through it, it's probably Open Cell foam.
 
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