On a tight budget... What do you think of this foam?

  • Thread starter Thread starter triple cubic
  • Start date Start date
T

triple cubic

New member
I am on a tight budget, but I still want to get my closet/mic booth padded up... So it's either this: http://www.foambymail.com/Eggcrate.html or fiberglass sheets wrapped up in something...

Anybody know any other types of cheap foam that work relatively well?

Here are some pics of my "mic booth." I am just trying to deaden reflection for vocals...

booth_01.jpg

booth_02.jpg

booth_03.jpg


Thanks in advance to anyone who replies! :)

- Eufonik
 
Last edited:
I have heard many people here proclaim that egg-crate is simply ineffective at sound absorption.
I have an extensive application of auralex foam in my studio, and while not ideal, it provides a great deal of absorption.
SF_2.jpg

PY_4.jpg

I suppose you could use the egg-crate, but if it's ineffective, then you're really just wasting your money.
Here's a pic of my installation:

sm-89718.jpg

The foam was set into 2'x4' pannels and hung on the wall so that I wouldn't have to mess up the walls with adhesive.

A closet full of clothes has pretty good absorptive properties too.;)
 
Thanks for the advice, Michael...

Yeah, I've heard about Auralex foam, but I am really looking for something a little bit cheaper. If I really have to, I'll spring for some Auralex, but I'm trying to avoid that.

Anybody else? Someone here must have used something from FoamByMail.com...
 
I am currently using a product from MSC, they are a manufacturing supplier online.

The product I'm using is furniture moving pads (blankets) I use the 38 oz. deluxe model and I am getting great results.

I paid $19.50 each for them and they are big....80" x 72". Compared to Auralex Foam this may be a more effficient way to go.

I put a 1"x 4" frame on the wall first and hung the blankets to that.....that also gives me an air gap behind it.

If not also check at www.foamorder.com under there acoustic foam.

Anyways, just my $.02 worth.
 
Michael Jones said:
I have heard many people here proclaim that egg-crate is simply ineffective at sound absorption.
Click to expand...

Hey Mikey! I think you better click the link and look if you didn't. Heh heh, I saw eggcrate and thought styrofoam or cardboard like in the grocery store but I was wrong to assume that. The Eggcrate foam in the link is more alomng the lines of Sonex brand foam, a little less peak, a little less bucks. Should work fine for ambience reduction and depending on the density it should work for triple cubits application. There are lots of places where inductrial foam is just as good if not better. When I worked at Momentum Recording in Seattle the owner found an industrial supplier of packing and deadening foam. The price was right. When it arrived, this stuff looked like Auralex, but it was loaded and weighed a ton. We had to go back and check to whether or not the walls were strong enough to support it in the shear direction. I wish I still had those guy's number. Cheap foam is better than no foam. Not everyone can start out at the top of the equipment chain ;)
Man I love Purple Foam! Green is nice.

SoMm
 
I like the blanket idea, stu.
SoMm - I did look at the link. Maybe thats a different product than I have heard of, but it seems like our resident acousticians have posted about its ineffectiveness. Purple foam does look good! I have black and purple in my "studio"; it looks good.

With the auralex, you could buy a few sheets at a time if your strapped for cash, and in 6 months or so, you've got a great looking ISO booth! (Think long term! Buy cheap, Buy twice.)
Hang some heavy comforters on the wall untill you have enough Auralex to do it all at once.
 
I was on one of the mastering forums at prosoundweb.com and one of the engineers recommended BUBBLEWRAP,the big kind with 1" bubbles.He said it gave about 30dB of sound absorbtion.Of course,dealing with the low freqs would require a bass trap or slot resonator wall etc.But the price was right,about $50 for a huge roll of the stuff.He further said covering it with double-knit cloth would aid the look cosmetically.
 
Michael Jones said:
.
SoMm - I did look at the link. Maybe thats a different product than I have heard of, but it seems like our resident acousticians have posted about its ineffectiveness.
Click to expand...
The stuff everyone usually talks about is actual egg crates, from the dairy section of your local grocery store. Typically its a recycled cardboard or a styrene type of material. Highly flammable and usually contaminated with bacteria besides being somewhat ineffective. Nothing is totally ineffective.
Sayers was over in Blackwoods forum I think and 2 litre platic bottle resonators also popped into the thread.
Blankets...Maybe I can get some budget satin sheets to dress them up...
SoMm
 
Michael, I'm with SoMM on this one - the main diff in foams is the lbs/sq foot density. Real, actual egg crates aren't actually completely worthless, just close. Here's a link to a pdf of the actual lab tests of genuine, egg-protecting, honest-to-God egg cartons for anyone interested. Note the peak absorptions at about 700 hZ and around 6kHz.

From what I've learned so far, the main reason for the ineffectiveness of those egg-carton shaped FOAM mattress protectors is that they are really LIGHT, therefore their absorption would probably be limited to really high frequencies. You get plenty of that with whatever carpet and drapes you have in the room.

I still have one 8 x 12 wall section of my old studio covered with 1 foot square cardboard egg separators stapled over 1/2" foam carpet pad, from when I used to rehearse live bands and didn't know shit about acoustics. I just got lucky, looking at the absorption of egg cartons - before I did that wall, I had to keep notching out 6.3 kHz to eliminate feedback from the drummer's vocal mic. Kinda interesting that that's one of the areas the egg cartons actually WORK... Steve

Shit, forgot the link...

http:www.acousticsfirst.com/docs/egg.PDF
 
Tom Hicks said:
I was on one of the mastering forums at prosoundweb.com and one of the engineers recommended BUBBLEWRAP,the big kind with 1" bubbles.He said it gave about 30dB of sound absorbtion.Of course,dealing with the low freqs would require a bass trap or slot resonator wall etc.But the price was right,about $50 for a huge roll of the stuff.He further said covering it with double-knit cloth would aid the look cosmetically.
Click to expand...


Have you got a link for this? Sounds interesting
 
The significance of the eggcrate styrofoam is that behind heavy curtains it is effective at breaking up the echo and weakening it on the way back to the curtains. this is the only way this is effective.
 
my recording partner (and drummer) works in the produce department at walmart and he can get 100's of those cardboard "separaters" that come in cases of apples. they are kind of a flexable cardboad with round indentions for each apple to set in. are these any good for an application in a studio? i was thinking that maybe if you mounted them to a wall with the round part out it would turn a a flat wall into a wall covered withapple sized round bumps...wouldn't this difuse sound?

i can get them free ...so i was just wondering if i could use them for something
 
jimistone said:
my recording partner (and drummer) works in the produce department at walmart and he can get 100's of those cardboard "separaters" that come in cases of apples. they are kind of a flexable cardboad with round indentions for each apple to set in. are these any good for an application in a studio? i was thinking that maybe if you mounted them to a wall with the round part out it would turn a a flat wall into a wall covered withapple sized round bumps...wouldn't this difuse sound?

i can get them free ...so i was just wondering if i could use them for something
Click to expand...


My guess is that they would be too thin to do any good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top