Room treatment

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tonester

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Hello All;

I may be in the wrong forum, becuse you folks seem to be talking more about real studios you have constructed, but perhaps I can get some advice about treating the walls and ceiling of my spare bedroom, which is used as my studio.
I am noticing some serious early reflection. The walls are untreated, save for some pictures,bookshelvs, and CD racks.
The dimensions of the room are, 14'L X 10'W X 8'
My Omnirax desk is diagonally across one of the corners. My nearfields are Tannoy 6.5's, non-powered, with a bass prot in the rear. the monitors are about 1 foot from the walls.
I'm not worried about keeping the noise in, because it is a corner apt., and also most of my neighbors are still at work when I do the bulk of my recording.,

Please keep in mind that since i rent the apartment, I can't really install anything permanent, like gluing foam panels. (unless there is a way to sefely remove them without destroying the walls) I can send a picture, if you need it.

Any tips?

Thanks in advance,

Tony
 
Easy Wall Treatments

Hello, The last place I lived had the same problems, and the SAME LxWxH ! Here is what I did...... I found some wall hangings that I liked, the heavy burlap type, and put them up on the walls. I found the stud points in the walls and placed some HEAVY duty curtain hangers on some 2x4's blocks that I put up. The air space in between the hangings and the wall also helped with sound proofing somewhat. Where I'm at now, 6th floor with people on both sides AND top and bottom, I use headphones and then go to a friends house for the week-end to really check everything.

I hope this helps, and curtains, the insulated kind, might work also.

Jim

PS- When I moved I just took some spakaling and filled in the 8 or so holes that removing the curtain rod left behind.
 
Thanks for your tips. I actually live in a garden apt. Only one side of the room faces other tenats, so in that respect I'm lucky. Like i said, i'm not really worried about keeping the sound in, it's more a question of standing waves and early reflection that may affect my mixes.

I like your idea about the wall hangings. Besides being more attractive than the acoustical foam, it's easier to remove than the advesives.

My previous apartment was very soundproofed. It was built in the 30's, and faced train tracks. I had neighbors on one side, but the walls were so thick that you couldn't hear them.

Thanks again,

tony
 
tonester - it appears that you need to construct (or get made) some wall units that will sit on the floor and can be taken with you when you move. For example if you made a 4"x 1" box frame, filled it with rigid fibreglass, covered it with cloth and then placed it against the wall you could treat the wall yet not attach to it or mark it in any way. Your local joinery company could make them for you.

If you want some drawings of how to make them let me know and I'll post it as you are probably not the only one that could use them. ;)

cheers
John
 
Those boxs you're on about John...

Hi John,

I'd be interested in the plans for those boxes :)

Thanks,
Rich.
 
What I did...

I have the same sorta setup, and I got a Auralex pack from Mars, it was $99 and it has about 24 1x1 triangle foam pads. I Just got regular, 2" nails and put them up, 2 nails each. When I bring it down, there will just be little holes that will be easy to paint over. I put them on the same wall as the speakers (i have the same tannoys) and on the side walls, and then there is a couch and some book shelves on the back wall.

That took care of the early reflections, when i do a hand clap, i get hardly any standing waves. The lower frequencies were still a problem, so i got the Behringer Ultra Curve, $400 and that has a four band parametric EQ for each channel, and i was able to smooth out the room VERY nicely for a total of $500.00. Not pro quality, but not a pro studio, either.

Dig it.

chris
 
P.S. yeah, John, i am interested in those boxes as well, i'm about to move to a larger room, those would look nicer and sound like they would work well....
 
Cool - I'll try and get them done today and post them for you. Well for me today is Sunday so I'm already ahead of you :):)

cheers
John
 
John,

John, did you post those drawings yet? If you were to mount these treatments, how would you do it? Would the airspace created by a "furring" strip be adequate? I am assuming I should leave some space...

Also, is the "rigid insulation" the kind that is almost like foam, about 1-1/2" thick with laminate (paper/foil)?

This sounds like a greate idea since I could use some creativity to make it look nicer than tiles.
 
John,

What can you say about the fabric covering of the boxes in terms of how it will affect the absorbtion of the fiberglass?

I'm just about to build some panels ( found a close out on some 1 +1/2" thick, 4'x8' fiberglass boards for .36/sq ft - wahoo!) I've seen the specs on what they absorb, but want to make sure I don't reduce their effectiveness by covering them with the wrong type of fabric.

Do I need to use some sort of open weave like the colored burlap I've seen used? Any other good choices worth mentioning, or ones to avoid for that matter?

DAN

PS- I love seeing your designs and construction photos, thanks for putting them up on your site.
 
Dan,

Dan, the only "board" I can find is what home depot carries. One is a yellowish board with the foil paper laminated (the paper comes off easily...don't ask how I know). The other is an OWENS Pink styrene (this may be the flammable type). Actually, both say they will burn if subject to intense flame.

Where did you find your fiberglass? What do you think about the above materials...something tells me that this is not what I should be looking for.....

Thanks for the help.

Yadi
 
Yadi,

The brands I've run into locally are Knauf, and Micro-lok. The type you refer to at home depot is NOT the right stuff. You've gotta get this fiberglass board at a some sort of a commercial insulation dealer. ( BTW, Neither of the places I've been to have been unwilling to sell them to me as an end user) Here are some links to bring you up to speed on the stuff your looking for.

http://www.knauffiberglass.com/products/prod_splash.cfm?Cat_ID=3

http://www.owenscorning.com/around/sound/commercial_acoustics/index.asp

http://www.jm.com

Most common are the 2'x4' panels in various thicknesses, but some also carry 2'x8' and 2'x10'.

They also make the circular pipe insulation that can be used for making bass traps.

Good Luck!
 
Dan that Knauf Black Acoustical Board
is the stuff I use here - we call it insulco.

At last I've found the US equivalent.!!

I used the black coated product for Left Bank but the figures on the 4" Knauf Insulation Board
are fantastic. It's still doing .95 absorption at 125hz!!!! :):)

BTW - the cloth doesn't really matter, image it as speaker cloth maybe?? I've used burlap, felt, cotton, hemp.

thanks for the link

cheers
John
 
Were can I get some Knauf Black Acoustical Board in the Los Angeles, CA area? How much does this stuff cost?
 
Hey Jawney,

You can also use rockwool for this purpose.

Check out this link.

http://www.fibrex.on.ca/products/safb.html

This stuff will do the same job as the fiberglass.

check out the absorption figures down the page a little.

With 4" you get almost total absorption down to 125hz.

The manufacturer is in Sarnia, Ontario.

Eric
 
Cool thanks eric, I'll have to see if they have that stuff in my city. Just curious, which type of these various rigid insulation boards would be cheapest, but just as effective ??
This stuff is made from basalt, which is a rock formed after earth's tectonic plates shift and expelled magma hardens. Sorry for sounding like a textbook, but I just had to flex my newly learned knowledge..hah Do yall think it's cheaper than the fiberglass stuff ? It's probably safer in terms of breathing anything in that happened to come off these boards, wouldn't it be ?
 
It's really not that much different than fiberglass is it. If fiberglass is fiber glass, it is made out of silicon oxide (quartz I believe), so the same principles should hold through.

The thing to look for is the "sound absorption coeficcient" at different frequencies. This will tell you how much absoption different materials will have at different frequencies. They will usually have a chart with the frequencies 125hz 250hz 500hz 1000hz 2000hz and 4000hz accross the top. Underneath each of these will have a decimal underneath that tells you how much absorption it will have. 1.00 is "total absorption" even though you will find numbers that are higher.

If the sound absorption coeficcient isn't listed you probably don't want to use it (not that some of those things won't work, you just wont know what you have).

Depending on the application you might be able to get away with the semi-rigid instead of the rigid, it might be easier to get and cheaper.

I found it available at a drywall supplier.

Good luck

Eric
 
Also I don't know if it is cheaper, I just couldn't find the rigid fiberglass.

Eric
 
What type of design did you build eric ? and what applications are they used in ?
 
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