The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Anyone ever done any room treatment?

I just moved my studio into a new, smaller room, and the dimensions are doing really silly things to my monitors' bass response (for example, there's now an 18db boost at 140hz. Thanks room). Last night I finally got fed up with it, grabbed my SPL meter, and spent about 3 hours sweeping a sine wave up and down between 60 and 200hz, and notching down all the really nasty peaks with a very tight eq. The result is a vast improvement, but now I have this really complex eq as the last stage on my 2-buss, and I feel a little apprehensive about mixing through it. The folks on gearslutz recommend all manner of expensive solutions, but I was wondering if anyone here has had success with a more wallet-friendly solution?

Holes in the walls, my friend. Don't get no cheaper. Sell the excess drywall and profit!

We added a passthrough in our living room (aka the studio) to the kitchen (aka the kitchen) and I think it made things sound better. Although I, myself, did not spend 3 hours listening to sine waves of various frequencies. Holy mother of cows, Puce, is that the level of attention to detail (aka insanity) needed to achieve the vaunted "Puce magic sound?" Because nothing will make me give up faster than re-reading your post.

We also added a skylight, but I haven't even tried recording since. I'm just that dedicated.

I have no idea what you are talking about Puce.

But I am about to do major renovations to an old house which will include my own studio (a.k.a spare bedroom). I have specified sound proof gyprock and a double glazed window for that room. Any other ideas?

Hi Puce,

This is something I know a little bit about. I have a bunch of bass traps in my room. I have both handmade 703 panels and a pair of GIK panels. I recommend them over Real Traps though you get a good product either way. Bass trapping is the best thing you can do to your room and I think it is very reasonable to buy 4 panels from GIK. I also picked up a bunch of Auralex LENRD traps that I haven't used yet and found a pretty cool diffuser panel too. Let me know if you have any specific questions. Most of the bass trap companies will be very helpful to you if call them. Ethan Winer (Real Traps) will first direct you to all the info on his website (and it is a good read), but Glenn at GIK will talk your ear off if you call or email him. He's a really nice guy. Let me know if you have any questions or need suggestions.

Be well,
Ken

Great info, Ken. I'm probably most interested in going the Owens Corning 703 route. I don't know anything about insulation, but a couple weeks ago I dropped by the local home depot and asked the insulation guy if they had any, including the footnote that I don't really know what it is. His response was "durrrrr.... INSULATION!", so I can only assume that he also doesn't know what it is.

Any details on how you built those panels will be lapped up greedily.

Well, Corning 703 is mineral wool. Crazy stuff. We bought a pallet of the stuff, 2in deep, glued it to some pegboard and then doubled it up so there was 4 inches of 703 on a piece of pegboard. Then we stapled some burlap type fabric which has transparent acoustic properties over the 703 to the pegboard. Pretty easy if you don't include the amount of crazy toxins we inhaled. We did use masks and gloves. We made a bunch in one day so we got it down to a system and we able to make both 2x2 and 2x4 panels. After all that work, I'll tell you, it is soooo much easier to buy them from Glenn at GIK. Also, and I'll have to look this up, but there is a company that makes some bags for this purpose, you just put the 703 in them and they are attractive and easy. The problem with the pegboard design is that you have a reflective surface, so you don't get absorption on the back. Whew.

Also, lots of people have put their designs up on the web. I'm sure if you search gearslutz you see the tutorials.

Ah, here you go: http://www.readyacoustics.com

Ken

My studio, (aka, guest bedroom) has a couch with a pull out bed. When you start to pull out the bed, it stands up vertical about half the length of the bed before it unfolds out all the way. One day as I was doing this and I had music playing in the back ground, I noticed the whole room went dead, as in no echo at all. I thought I was just hearing things, so I closed the couch, and it was back to normal. so I opened it slowly and bam, as soon as it went almost vertical, the room went dead again. So I walked around the room and it was dead in every spot. Personally I don't like doing my vox in a totally dead room, but I do like it for recording electric guitars via mic and cab.

ken wrote:Well, Corning 703 is mineral wool. Crazy stuff. We bought a pallet of the stuff, 2in deep, glued it to some pegboard and then doubled it up so there was 4 inches of 703 on a piece of pegboard. Then we stapled some burlap type fabric which has transparent acoustic properties over the 703 to the pegboard. Pretty easy if you don't include the amount of crazy toxins we inhaled. We did use masks and gloves. We made a bunch in one day so we got it down to a system and we able to make both 2x2 and 2x4 panels. After all that work, I'll tell you, it is soooo much easier to buy them from Glenn at GIK. Also, and I'll have to look this up, but there is a company that makes some bags for this purpose, you just put the 703 in them and they are attractive and easy. The problem with the pegboard design is that you have a reflective surface, so you don't get absorption on the back. Whew.

Also, lots of people have put their designs up on the web. I'm sure if you search gearslutz you see the tutorials.

Ah, here you go: http://www.readyacoustics.com

Ken

Hey Ken,

Thanks for the plug.

You guys can make your own bass traps without any fear of future cancer or crabs or dropsie (maybe the crabs, but who knows)....seriously though....

Check out this tutorial I created that shows you how to build your own with basic supplies, and without buying anything from us or any other acoustics company

Bass Traps Tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyYUpkpL0gw


It's easy and you'll love the results.

Good luck all!

Awesome Joel, thank you.

Billy's Little Trip wrote:Awesome Joel, thank you.

No sweat. Glad to help.


Great quote by Dr Emerson by the way. Cheers.

Arr! I best be thankin' you kindly for all the advice, me harties. I reckon' I'll be settin' sail to plunder me some Owens Corning 703/705, even if I have to keel haul the scurvy dogs over at the hardware store for it.

switch to smaller woofers.

Hey Puce,

I was recently doing the same thing to my little studio...here's a great reference chart to give you a heads-up on a variety of materials you might consider:

http://www.bobgolds.com/AbsorptionCoefficients.htm (Thanks Des!)

I've just picked up a bunch of OFI-48, rigid stuff. It seems to have pretty comparable qualities to OC703, but I couldn't seem to find that easily around here. The OFI stuff was at least available locally. I lucked out and got mine for free, but iirc, it was around $60 a bag (which is 6 or 8 2x4x2 slabs).

Hope it all works out.

thehipcola wrote:Helpful stuff

Awesome! I got dissuaded by the whole not-being-able-to-find 703 thing, but I can definitely find some of the brands on this list.

Your general building store (home depot, menards, etc.) may not have this stuff. If you call around to different types of businesses you may have better luck. For instance, building contractors sometimes will have good acces to this stuff and may be willing to sell directly. I found an insulation company here that sells rigid rockwool for a good price.

Hmmm. I think room treatment may be my next step. Wait ... first I need a bass and keyboard ... then room treatment! Okay. At least this thread has got me thinking about it.

Dude, get a bass. Your music will thank you.

Also, I used Safe'n'Sound Rockwool to make 4 bass traps, and they have been a big improvement. I still have a pretty nasty peak at 140 hz so I might need to make some more (my room could fit 4 more quite nicely), but at least I'm aware of it. For a while there I was producing mixes with that one particular C# notched out.