ModTraps

[Jefff]

I want to know what we think of these:
http://www.modtrap.com/

They're little sound treatment panels that you position with mic stands.

With the purchase of a Rode NTK, I realized that I need to do some treatment on my room for recording. I would really like to find a solution that's modular and flexible. But I'm completely ignorant about this stuff, and these things seem too good to be true.

[Billy's Little Trip]

I think the mic box thing JB posted here about this thing here., looks pretty cool.
Those panels look good too, but I bet the mic box is much less expensive.

[Lunkhead]

Some similar items have been discussed in another thread about vocal booths.

$299 - sE Electronics SERF Reflexion Filter 3.5
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=270353

$249 - SMPro Audio Mic Thing Microphone Isolation Panel
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=421589

$299 - RealTraps - Portable Vocal Booth
http://www.realtraps.com/p_pvb.htm

They're not very cheap. I almost got the RealTraps one but chickened out because of the cost. I'm not really sure I'd use it enough or that it would make enough of a difference for it to be worth the cash.

EDIT: BLT found the thread I was thinking of but too lazy to search for myself.

[Jefff]

I saw that RealTraps PVB before, but you prompted me to take a closer look at it. I'm interested in something that would help with recording but could also be used to deaden the room a little while mixing. What do we think about sticking the PVB behind the mixing panel? Would that do any good at all?

I have read some of the threads on here as well as some articles about room treatment, but there's so much to learn and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot catering to home recorders.

[ken]

You would get a lot of mileage from a couple of GIK Acoustic Panels. Put one in each corner of your room for mixing and general tracking, stack them up in one corner to make a little vocal booth.

[Lunkhead]

Jeff, do you want to have your room treated all the time? Do you only use that room for recording/mixing? Or are you specifically looking for something that you can take out, set up, use, tear down, and put away? Or are you looking for something you might want to use in other places?

From what little I know, treating your room with panels like Ken suggested is probably the most effective way to go. The other products mentioned seem to sacrifice some efficacy for the sake of portability, I think, though I could be wrong.

[Billy's Little Trip]

I'm going to seriously have to start thinking of how to deal with these issues. Our house remodel is almost done and my music room/guest room/home office/mini fridge with cold beer room/place to close off the world/where my cat likes to chill/etc room is the last on the list because I don't want to change it. My wife decided that our house can have no carpet. So every room in our house is tiled, except the music/etc room. I have those old cottage cheese acoustic ceilings, carpet and it's only 168 sq ft. (12X14) gray walls, cool and dark. I love it. She wants the carpet gone! I understand her reasoning, but it's not practical for my needs. So she told me that if I get rid of the carpet, I can do what ever I need to do for acoustics. Pffft! as if I need her permission! But, I am a good hubby, and it means a lot to her to get rid of the carpet.
So, I will be using the threads about bass traps, mic boxes and panels, to the fullest.

[Adam!]

Man, I really should take some pictures of my homemade panels. The are the cheapest things ever, and really helped my room's bass response problems. Maybe after dinner.

[Adam!]

As promised, here's a picture that shows off my homemade bass traps. I can't get OC703 here, so I made them out of Roxul Safe'n'Sound on a wooden frame, wrapped up in the cheapest thin fabric I could find. Not a great colour, but you get what you pay for. They're not as fancy as those ModTraps, but they sure are cheaper: I made all four (there's another one behind the camera in this photo) for about 50 dollars total. Also, check out the egg-carton-foam ceiling diffuser.

[roymond]

So she told me that if I get rid of the carpet, I can do what ever I need to do for acoustics.

Sound like a nice 12 x 14 rug will do fine and you will have technically satisfied the "no carpet" rule

[ken]

But, I am a good hubby, and it means a lot to her to get rid of the carpet.

Dude, drums sound super huge when played over wood floors. Go that route and you will not be disappointed. Carpet actually sucks up some the of the low and mid range that give drums punch. Even painted concrete will sound better than carpet.

Ken

[Billy's Little Trip]

Roy and Ken. I am considering both of those options.
1. I bought a huge area rug from Home Depot about a month ago. I was looking at alternative flooring materials and the flooring guy told me that they are closing out a bunch of their rugs, so the samples are only 20 bux until they are gone. I bought this 8'X11' $679 rug with the word "sample" stamped in the corner, for $20. Score! I figured it can be a kit rug even if I don't use it in my room.

2. I have also considered Pergo wood laminate floors. I've been in studios with wood floors and it is surprisingly nice. If I remember right, they had some type of panels on a couple walls, but nothing to crazy.

3. Also, I thought about making the room a cave. I do artificial rock designs on my pools quite often and I can get my rock guys over to do my floors, then faux paint my wall, etc. I just think it will be way to much work to fix my acoustic issues if I do that.

[Jefff]

@Sam
I record in my bedroom. I won't need to tear down the treatment materials, and I won't need to take them to use other places. The reasons that I want flexibility are a) because I rent and want it to be easy to move out and use what I buy at my next place and b) because I don't really know what I'm doing so I want to be able to experiment a bit. That said, Ken's suggestion looks like what I want.

@Ken
What do you think about getting a 3-pack of the GIK 242 panels you linked to and a 2-pack of the GIK 244 bass trap panels? That would run me about $300 before shipping and give me 5 panels to work with.

http://www.gikacoustics.com/gik_242.html
http://www.gikacoustics.com/gik_244.html

[ken]

Yeah, that would be good. Call or email Glen at GIK before you buy and ask him what he thinks. He is a really super helpful and nice guy.

Maybe you could stack a 244 and 242 in the corners to the sides of your mix position and them put the 3rd 242 behind your monitors. Do you mix on speaker? That was essentially how I had my old room. I had a few more panels to work with, but the main absorption was in the corners on the wall with my desk.

Ken

[ken]

I'm not quite sure where to put this, but if you plan to build your own bass traps, you can buy the fabric here: http://naiant.com/studiostore/studiofabrics.html

Ken

[Billy's Little Trip]

I'm not quite sure where to put this, but if you plan to build your own bass traps, you can buy the fabric here: http://naiant.com/studiostore/studiofabrics.html

Ken

Heh! After all these years, they still haven't found a fabric that doesn't look like a burlap sack. I want padded leather so I can make my room look like a padded room. I might even hang a straight jacket on a hook on the back of the door.