What should I do with this Roxul??

kidkage

kidkage

Bored of Canada
About two years ago I bought some Roxul to build bass traps in my corners. And a gobo or two. But life got I'm the way and I never had time to build the frames and all that. So now two years later, the Roxul is still in my attic and I have a gigantic roll if burlap in my closet. I'm ready to start recording again and was wondering what some quick projects with the Roxul would be the most useful for me.

I don't have any treatment up btw
 
I was thinking about another use since I've got so much Roxul - absorption panels at the "mirror points" to the left and right of my monitors...
Is that something that I could make with the Roxul, or is it "too much" (or not enough) for that?
 
kidkage said:
I was thinking about another use since I've got so much Roxul - absorption panels at the "mirror points" to the left and right of my monitors...
Is that something that I could make with the Roxul, or is it "too much" (or not enough) for that?
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Definitely do it! Make 4" thick 2'x4' panels that you can move as needed - in the corners for standard bass traps, at the reflection points, and take 'em down and arrange as gobos when tracking multiple instruments/mics.
Because my room is so full/cluttered, I hung two as clouds above my mixing position. 2" will work fine for clouds, but this way I can take them down and use them elsewhere easily, then put them back up - all have eyehooks on the back which also gives some spacing off the wall instead of flush-fit.
 
Hey. Newb here, but my input...yeah make your traps. I built similar and find them indespensible in my room.

I built 4 in total. each uses 2 slabs of roxul for a thickness of 6". The boxes are built to the exact size of the roxul slabs.
I used 1x8 pine boards. Corners are mitred, glued, brad nailed, and braced on the inside with right angle metal brackets.

Here's one stuck up in a corner. Does a great job removing the bass flutters when we jam.
bass trap 1.jpeg

I built 2 with hardware for hanging in the corners. The other 2 have feet and are used on the floor. Mainly, they serve well for blocking guitar cabinets. I found that the guitarists needed their cabs too loud to get the right sounds for playing, so I use the traps in front of the cabs to block the noise. Then I place a SM57 between the trap and the cab, and route sound thru the mixer and into floor wedges. This way each band member can have the volumes controlled to a level they like, while the whole room doesn't suffer from competing guitar cabs. The 6" of roxul really blocks sound nicely.
bass trap 2.jpeg

Here's on under construction. The 1/4 round serves 2 purposes. The first, is to give the trap a nice finished look. The second, is something to staple to fabric to on the inside. Then fill with 6" of roxul and staple another piece of fabric over the back and done.
bass trap build 1.jpeg

Super easy to build if you have any carpentry skills. The level of finish on them is up to you.
 
Very nice looking! Keep in mind that by enclosing the sides you are reducing the area that can absorb low frequencies, thus reducing it's ability to control these. Often those who perform a build like this will also bore large holes in the sides of the panels. :)
 
Yeah, I thought about the side panel cut outs when building them. However as I mentioned, I have 4 of them in my room. 2 in corners to trap the lows, and two on the floor right at source...and they are 6" thick. I find that I get very good effects this way. I guess I'll never know if cutting holes on the side will help unless I tear them apart and do it, and frankly that's not about to happen any time soon! But purely by the numbers...sure I could gain about 20% more absorption area by cutting holes. The OP should keep that in mind for sure.
 
I don't have any pics but I had a bundle of rigid fiberglass and needed quick gobos to tame a room down I mean quick. The boys are on their way over. I used 2x2's framed around the 2" 2'x4' fiberglass, wrapped them with landscaping fabric and got 8 panels done in less than a hour. Worked really well, I didn't do any crazy math just knew I could tame down the reflections of my untreated recroom and it did.
 
bileshake said:
I think I will be looking closer at the 4" thick design with the holes. I'm stoked.
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Keep in mind the Roxul product (if that's what you choose to use) comes in 2 thicknesses. 3" and 5-1/2" These are intended for standard wood dimensions too.
Making a 4" trap is going to be a royal pain in the arse to try and shave 1" off a second batt. Then you also have to spend time making more cuts to your wood as well.
Maybe consider working around the manufactured thicknesses of the product you choose.
 
Actually it depends on the Roxul product. The stuff I used comes in 2" and 4" thickness. Roxul 80 if I remember correctly. Not available from HD or Lowes. SPI.
 
pegger said:
Keep in mind the Roxul product (if that's what you choose to use) comes in 2 thicknesses. 3" and 5-1/2" These are intended for standard wood dimensions too.
Making a 4" trap is going to be a royal pain in the arse to try and shave 1" off a second batt. Then you also have to spend time making more cuts to your wood as well.
Maybe consider working around the manufactured thicknesses of the product you choose.
Click to expand...

Yep, Roxul I got was 2" thick. I doubled it up to 4", used 1x4's as frames. The insulation protrudes out the front about 3/8" - all wrapped in burlap. So the traps don't have that tight professional look I've seen in some other designs, but you know what? I don't care! They work, and maybe that little 'edge' of exposed insulation does a litle more absorbing, too.
 
You can use a bread knife to shave it off and it works well. I saw a demo on some contractor site how this was done and it works. Not that difficult if required. It is really easy to work with in that regards.
 
DM60 said:
You can use a bread knife to shave it off and it works well. I saw a demo on some contractor site how this was done and it works. Not that difficult if required. It is really easy to work with in that regards.
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That is the reason why I like the roxul product myself. My wife on the other hand would have preferred if they didn't tell us in demos that the bread knife works well. She is now missing the 10" bread knife from the kitchen...:laughings:
 
The big deciding factor for me between fiberglass and roxul is the rigid fiberglass is not rated flame retardant so I feel better using roxul when I'm hanging treatments up for good.
 
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