Placement for Acoustic Panels

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Milkman

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Hey Everyone,

I'm about to start making some acoustic panels for my basement.

I'm planning on making a 2' by 4' frame, stick some Roxul Safe n Sound (3" thick) in it and covering it with burlap.

First question...does this Roxul product make a decent substitute for OC 703?

My next question is where to place it in my room to obtain the best treatment. The problem is that I don't have tons of available wall space (only along two walls). Here are some pics of the room:

http://will.wackyville.tv/studio/

I was thinking of lining the wall behind the drums and behind the computer with panels and creating a treated area in the centre of the room with 2 x 4 gobos (2 of these panels hinged together).

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks.

Milkman
 
First places for absorbers are across all possible corners, behind the speakers as close to the speakers (away from wall) as possible, hung a couple inches off the ceiling over the mix position, and stood off the wall directly behind the mix desk (behind you as you face the speakers) - after that, use a sweep tone, turn it up a bit louder than you mix, and slowly change frequency from 20-20kHz - every time something rattles, tape it down and keep going.

Season to taste - if still too bright, add a few more panels randomly along walls - if the ceiling is a suspended tile one, throw some insulation batts up there to damp the panels, etc... Steve

A MARIMBA??!? don't think I've seen one of THOSE here prior to this (too cool...)
 
knightfly said:
behind the speakers as close to the speakers (away from wall) as possible
Click to expand...

this is something ive been wondering about. ive read about positioning the monitors different distances from the wall, and how there will be cancellation at certain low frequencies because of reflections off of the wall right behind the monitors, so the "best thing to do" if you cant mount the monitors in the wall is to place them as close to the wall as possible, but then you will have a resulting low frequency boost. i have genelec 1030As, and they have bass and treble tilt and cut to compensate for poor room acoustics, and they recommended a certain bass cut when you position the monitors up against the wall, which i did. so thats all well and good, but i would also like to absorb behind them, like you were talking about. considering that right now my monitors are barely an inch away from the wall, obviously i would have to move them out more to make room for 2 inch 703. wouldnt that then start defeating the purpose of having them right up against the walls to begin with?
 
Unfortunately, TANSTAAFL - (There Aint NO Such Thing As A Free Lunch) - so yes, this can affect things (either for better or worse) and you don't know which til you try - here's an interesting spreadsheet our speaker guru Thomas Barefoot came up with a while back, try playing with different absorption characteristics/placements etc to see the likely result in response -

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=630

Also, I do kind of a general "mapping" if a room is rectangular, just to "ballpark" things as a place to start - explained here

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=18059

HTH... Steve
 
Hey knightfly,

Thanks for the response.

I think I'm going to throw some fiberglass batts in the ceiling as the HVAC pipes that run through the room up there rattle quite a lot.

I will follow the placement you've outlined around the mix position. Since the walls behind this mix position (behind me when i'm facing the computer) are covered with stuff would it be beneficial to throw some gobos up behind the mix position?

Is this Roxul Safe n Sound stuff a good substitute for OC 703/rigid fiberglass?

Thanks a lot for the help.
 
Gobo's, if they aren't solid wood on one side, will act as a bass trap of sorts - the further from the wall, the lower freq they work to. Up to 3-4 feet away from the back wall isn't excessive if you have the room.

There are so many products out there, some with the almost identical name - if these are the 2.5 PCF batts I'm thinking of, should be a nearly identical replacement... Steve
 
knightfly said:
First places for absorbers are across all possible corners, behind the speakers as close to the speakers (away from wall) as possible, hung a couple inches off the ceiling over the mix position, and stood off the wall directly behind the mix desk
Click to expand...
Steve, when you say "over the mix position" do you mean that literally, or do you mean over the point of first reflections between the monitors and the mix position? I'm not trying to split hairs here; it's just that I'm about to try to hang a panel from my ceiling and I'd like to put in the right place the first time.
 
Milkman said:
My next question is where to place it in my room to obtain the best treatment. The problem is that I don't have tons of available wall space (only along two walls). Here are some pics of the room:

http://will.wackyville.tv/studio/
Click to expand...
Does anybody else here think that Milkman would benefit from moving his mixing position from the "west" wall to the "north" wall? Seems like he'd get much better symmetry behind his monitors that way.
 
knightfly said:
Gobo's, if they aren't solid wood on one side, will act as a bass trap of sorts - the further from the wall, the lower freq they work to. Up to 3-4 feet away from the back wall isn't excessive if you have the room.

There are so many products out there, some with the almost identical name - if these are the 2.5 PCF batts I'm thinking of, should be a nearly identical replacement... Steve
Click to expand...

Hey Steve,

Thanks for the reply. I was just going to construct some gobos the same way as the panels - but they will be hinged together and free standing.

Yes, this Roxul Safe n Sound stuff is 2.5 PCF...just checked the acoustic coefficients at Bob Golds site, and it looks quite similar to the 703 stuff.

Thanks for the help

Milkman
 
HapiCmpur, your description is more accurate, sorry - I was trying to get more done when I wrote that. Maybe a better description would be, "centered halfway between the speaker plane and your head, spaced off the ceiling by a few inches if possible... Steve
 
knightfly said:
HapiCmpur, your description is more accurate, sorry - I was trying to get more done when I wrote that. Maybe a better description would be, "centered halfway between the speaker plane and your head, spaced off the ceiling by a few inches if possible... Steve
Click to expand...
No need to apologize. I just wanted to make sure I understood the principle correctly before I started punching holes in my ceiling. Thanks for the clarification and for all the other advice you've been offering in the forum.
 
Thanks for the help everyone.

Well, construction has started. So far, I have several panels made that will be hinged and used to isolate instruments as seen in this picture from modular acoustics:

http://www.modularacoustics.com/Copy of Property Pictures 020.jpg

I also plan on making some wall hung panels but need some help with this.

My plan was to take a 2x4 piece of insulation (Roxul Safe n Sound), cover it with fabric and hang it. This way less wood is involved and that saves me time. But I need advice on how to hang this if there is nothing to screw into (no wooden frame)

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.
 
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