Treating My Room

[NickSpringfield]

I'm looking into buying some acoustic foam for my room, but I have one problem. It's an apartment so I can't start gluing things to the walls. I thought about haning up sheets on all of the walls and gluing the foam tiles onto that. Is that a practical solution?

I was also considering getting something like office dividers and setting them up around my recording area like a booth. I'd be able to put the foam right on those. What do you think?

My room is not a square. It's kind of shaped like this:

15 ft.
___________________________________
| |
| Console |
| |< -- Area where mic is.
| |
9 ft | | 6.5 ft
| __________|
| | 5.5 ft
|
Door closet |
\_____________________|
5 ft.


Hope the diagram transfers well. Anyway, I know it's not exact, but how many 1'x1' tiles do you think I would need to efficiently treat my room?

Any suggestions are helpful.

Thank you,

Springfield

 

[NickSpringfield]

Ok, that diagram did not work at all. I don't know why I thought it would. Anyway, the room is basically like 10'x15' but it is not a perfect rectangle.

 

[Autist]

You can get a MaxWall by Auralex and Lenrd bass traps, both are on stands. You can also simply use push pins to secure 1x1, or 2x4 foot acoustic foam to the wall if you don't want to glue it.

 

[Autist]

Ooops, I should have specified: the Lenrd bass traps do come in more than one variety. One version is on stands and you get a set of 4, each section of foam is 4 ft. tall and can be raised up to 8 ft. The Lenrds you would pin to your wall are 2 ft. tall and fit in the corners.

 

[NickSpringfield]

Thanks. Is there a website where I can check out what they have to offer. I only really would like to spend a few hundred on this, but it needs to be done.

Anyone else have any ideas?

-Springfield

 

[Autist]

Thanks. Is there a website where I can check out what they have to offer. I only really would like to spend a few hundred on this, but it needs to be done.

Anyone else have any ideas?

-Springfield

If all you can spend is a few hundred I would recommend starting with bass treatment and get some of the 2 ft. Lenrds and pin them to the wall (I use those little colored push pins). Then I would get some 2' x 4' panels (the thicker, the better) and pin them at the early reflection point. That would be the cheapest way to start.

You can get foam here. It isn't Auralex, but I have some and have had no problems with it.

Foambymail

You can also see prices for Auralex stuff here.

 

[Autist]

Foambymail has bass traps also, but I don't know how good they are as compared to the Auralex (never used them), but they are probably sufficient (at least as sufficient as foam corner bass traps can be).

 

[NickSpringfield]

Thanks for the links. I just love how they don't mention prices on the auralex site. I'll check it all out tonight when I get home from work.

 

[Autist]

Well, if you got a MaxWall and the stand mounted Lenrds (they don't seem to have them at Musicians Friend), just those 2 things alone would cost you around $600.00.

 

[HapiCmpur]

I'm looking into buying some acoustic foam for my room, but I have one problem. It's an apartment so I can't start gluing things to the walls. I thought about haning up sheets on all of the walls and gluing the foam tiles onto that. Is that a practical solution?

Just say "no" to foam, Nick. At most, use foam for spot treatments, but go with rigid fiberglass for the main room treatment. You'll get MUCH better results at MUCH less cost. Also, panels of rigid fiberglass can be hung on the wall like picture frames, so you can take them with you when you move.

If you don't know anything yet about rigid fiberglass, get yourself on over to the Studio Building and Display forum and run a search on "rigid fiberglass." Read, read, read. Then read this, too: http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

You can also check out how I treated my room with fiberglass here: http://www.hp-h.com/p/hapicmpur/homespunStudio.htm

 

[reshp1]

I agree, go with rigid fiberglass. If you must go with foam, stick to the Auralex stuff. Ethan Winer (acoustics guru here) had the foambymail stuff tested against the Auralex foam and his RealTraps and the foambymail stuff was subpar. I made the mistake of buying from foambymail before reading that thread....

 

[NickSpringfield]

Thanks all. You were an enormous help. I was just about to buy a bunch of foam panels and completely cover the room, but now I know I have to do some more research before I waste any more time and money. I appreciate it.

-Springfield

 

[richardsorr]

push pins work just fine with the auralex stuff. i have TONS of 2" 3" foam and Lenrds left over from when i did my studio if you'd be interested.

 

[Fishybob]

I never even thought of using pins to attach panels.... brilliant for us in rented accomodation!!!


Richard - I need some more panels, where are you in the world???

 

[HapiCmpur]

I never even thought of using pins to attach panels.... brilliant for us in rented accomodation!!!

If you're married to foam, another way of making it portable is to glue it pegboard or to strips of pegboard. Then you can hang it from wall hooks and take it with you when you go.

 

[Fishybob]

Nice idea. I made my main panels on freestanding legs so that I can move them from my control room and set them up as a vocal booth in the next room. A few extra panels here and there would be great - and I really can't be arsed with another trip to Homebase yet! Pins it is then!!!

 

[Autist]

Thanks all. You were an enormous help. I was just about to buy a bunch of foam panels and completely cover the room, but now I know I have to do some more research before I waste any more time and money. I appreciate it.

-Springfield

Don't completely cover the room, that will make it too dead. You need bass traps in the corners. You will want 4 2' tall ones, at the least, so that you have 48" of bass trap in 2 corners. Put them about halfway between floor and ceiling, or up against the ceiling. It is best to place them where all walls meet in front of you and behind you, but that requires 8 of them. Some people say it is best to have them in front of you in the corners, others behind you. Overall it depends on where you need them, but unless you are an acoustics expert than can be very hard to determine. I started with them in front, but now have them in all vertical corners. It would be best to have them in horizontalk corners as well (wehere wall meets ceiling), but that would be out of your budget, as it was mine.

I prefer 2'x4' panels for the flat surfaces. At the very least you will need 4 of them. If you have carpeting then you may not need one above the mixing position. You was these in the early reflection points. You can easily determine this by having someone move a mirror against the walls between the mixing position and the monitors. Wherever you can see a monitor face in the mirror from the mixing position, you need a panel. Do this on the walls to the left and right as well as in front of you (behind the console). As I said, this is the very least you should do. If you have a large long room you may want a diffuser on the wall behind you, or you can use a bookshelf, or something with an irregular surface.

In general, if the room is neatly cluttered (no better way to put it), there will be lots of surfaces to diffuse and absord sound reflections. A heavy high mass object like a couch can help absorb bass frequencies. Also make sure you don't have anything with smooth surfaces in the early reflection points between the foam and the mixing position, as this will defeat the purpose of the foam.

I have done the rigid fiberglass panels as well as foam and prefer foam over homemade fiberglass panels, which is just to much to deal with in a small house, or apt. Foam works fine, in fact the foam I am using has proven to work better for me than the fiberglass panels and bass traps I have. I still use 3 very small fiberglass bass traps which are simply no more than loads of fiberglass stuffed in cardboard boxes and covered with the open end of the box facing away from the walls. I keep these on the floor in corners.

There are lots of good magazine articles and places online to find out more if you need visual references on how to do any of this.

 

[Autist]

I never even thought of using pins to attach panels.... brilliant for us in rented accomodation!!!


Richard - I need some more panels, where are you in the world???

The Auralex site recommends T-pins, which I tried. What a waste of time and perfectly good skin that was. All they managed to do was bend and cause blisters. Those push pins were an effort conceived in frustration and I didn't want to use regular thumb tacks because I thought they would be a pain to get out later.

 

[Fishybob]

Thanks for that. I now have the mirror points to eiher side covered but want a little more foam to go behind the computer monitor.

My room is tiny so I'm trying to get hold of some bass absorbers as it is.

One bonus of my room which I did not realise is that I have a hollow wall behind my seating position which actually is pretty good at absorbing low end frequencies. Still need more but it's a nice start!

Anyone around Nottingham got any spare foam???

 

[Autist]

More foam between your desk/monitors and the wall won't hurt. I use 8ft. (width) of MaxWall panels behind my desk and monitors. Some people say you can, or should cover the entire wall in front of you, but most indicate that's not necessary.

Tiny rooms can be difficult, mine is small as well (10x12) but I have seen some commercial control rooms that were smaller than mine.

Another thing you may want to consider is how you have things setup. I could not tell from your diagram, but your monitors should be centered in the room with an equal distance between the side walls and monitors. The monitors should be closest to the wall behind the console (distance depends on the monitors and the room and you may need to move them around to find the best spot) and facing lengthwise. So if your room is 15' in length, the greatest distance of the room should be behind you. Also keep monitors out of corners and try to avoid setting everything up so that it is diagonal.

I attached a VERY rough diagram I did for you.