How to: Acoustic panels

As there's some good DIY how-to-make absorbing panels I thought it would be a good idea to have a sticky made out of that. Here we go with some detailed constructions of acoustic absorbers: Soulfood's broadband wall panels studio_drums's broadband wall panels BradJacob's broadband wall panels decode his broadband wall panels and speaker stands dbyboth's broadband wall- and corner panels scottgirvan's broadband wall panels Jwl his gogo's design jbassino's broadband wall panels GuitarGodgt made these broadband wall and corner panels doublehelix his ceilingclouds MMS his cloud Luke's frameless broadband panels Jakeman's broadband panels Broadband panels and corner traps by Ro Panels by Phazinhead SimonOstheim his Broadband and corner panels More broadband panels bij sunspot *new* Shameless self promotion of low-end corner absorber build in action :) Here are some other finished product, less detailed: viewtopic.php?t=9310 viewtopic.php?t=8276 viewtopic.php?t=7627 viewtopic.php?t=6655 There's already this sticky, but it's locked for reply. Then there's this sticky. Maybe some MOD could take a look and decide if things could be merged. Right.

Nice collection, Ro!! some really good hunting on your part 8) Bring forth yer sticky fingers now, gents! HOOK

Agreed! Ro, thanks for this and the inclusion of my post as well. There should be MORE of these posts out there - for all the different tasks we often perform.

Yes, a "how to" series on different subjects would be handy... now stick it!

Great job Ro, but the 6th link no longer shows the pictures. It is this one: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7293

I just send Scott an e-mail asking if he would upload them pix to this forum instead of hosting them on his own site http://www.girvanmedia.com/ (where he apparently removed them from)

A sticky would be nice- especially considering the search function doesn't work(or at least didn't the last time I used it).

I think the moderators should create stickies that align with Rod's book. All the different phases should be included. Design, framing HVAC, sheetrocking, acoustics, electric, WHERE TO BUY MATERIALS, the BEST materials, etc, etc...

Although a variety of treatments are available for commercial use, they tend to be quite expensive. After some research both online and in print, we came across several sources for DIY acoustic treatments using rigid fiberglass panels and simple frames. These are often referred to as "bass traps," although the ones that we're focusing on have a fairly wide rage of absorption. ================== [SPAM SIGNATURE DELETED BY MODERATOR]

Idiot...

well said sir!!!

I have 4 sheets of foam insulation (4'x8'x1.5") Would this be any good for soundabsorbtion panels or sound deadening panels? I've read the DIY post on how to use 703 with a wood frame and fabric, but would the dense insulation be as useful? Thanks.

Hi all! I have a question about acoustic treatment inside the vocal/recording booth. If I put the acoustic panel (703 or 705) directly on the wall (drywall), with no space between them, and cover the panel with cloth, does that have any influance on acoustics (mid / high ?) or the panel MUST BE spaced awy from the wall at least an inch... Thanks!

The low end will benefit from the spacing. You don't have too, but if you have the space, you can.

So are there such things as DIY Bass traps, because every single one that starts off as a bass trap ends up being corrected as being a broadband absorber. Can any of these be put in the corner to properly be used as a bass trap?

Info on that is all over this forum; here's a recap: Basstraps need to be deep (more wool volume means lower absorption). A cornertrap (a superchunk for example) can be a broadband. It'll absorps the whole frq range (low, mid, high etc). By adding a pass-filter in front you can make it low-end absorption exclusively (a low-pass filter can be anything from a sheet of plastic to a wood front, slats or whatever) So yeah, a basstrap might as well be a broadband absorber but one with very low-end absorption :)

Oh, interesting. I've read over any over again on other forums "you need to treat your room with bass traps", but it seems like most of these are using broadband traps for all the applications I thought you used bass traps for. So when would you use a plain bass trap over a broadband trap?

Simple, your room needs to be balanced. Too much broadband absorption will kill mids and highs in your room. You see low-end is harder to trap. So broadband will absorb less low than high end frq. In that case your room is out of shape (acoustically). By adding a filter in front and make the trap work only on low-end, you'll keep the balance. Generally speaking, if you dress up your room with corner and wall absorbers, you should use the corner only for low-end trapping. If you only have corner devices you might wanna leave it broadband. So, it's just a matter on how much trapping devices you have in your room.. sort of. If you check out this recent build I did: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=12321, you'll see what I mean. The corner traps have a plastic sheet in front to filter high frq. The wall panels don't. You'll also see the difference in depth. The corner traps have deeper wool than the wall panels (which are mid/high broadband)

benirose wrote:

Oh, interesting. I've read over any over again on other forums "you need to treat your room with bass traps", but it seems like most of these are using broadband traps for all the applications I thought you used bass traps for. So when would you use a plain bass trap over a broadband trap?

I keep on saying that the term bass trap is incorrect. People wrap some insulation in a cloth bag and call it a bass trap It is not a bass trap - just an absorber. A bass trap is like the section under a soffit mount where the bass gets in via the port and is "trapped" in there and absorbed by the hangers. A bass trap is like the area above a timber ceiling where the bass frequencies are trapped and absorbed by the hangers. Like this picture that shows the hangers before the ceiling was added. Here's the ceiling added with the ports down the side to allow access to the ceiling trap I'm sorry - but I just can't accept a sheet of insulation wrapped in cloth being called a Bass Trap. It's an absorber.

Thanks John, I really appreciate you clearing that up for me!

A pair of questions I hope haven't been answered nigh to death. Feel free to answer with a link if that's faster. I'm building a number of broadband absorbers using both 4"(in corners) and 2" (other areas) Rockwool insulation. They are all built on a 1X4 frame, which seems to be a common theme here. Some people perforate the 1X4's to let the sound access the insulation through the sides, either cutting holes, like jbassino's design, or actually cutting out a portion of the frame with what appears to be a jigsaw like Jakeman. 1)How much difference does it make to do this? Is it worth the extra effort?(mine would be covered in fabric so the looks don't matter). And I'm reading that there is benefit to mounting the panels away from the wall, but I've yet to find information to determine how far. 2) Is there a reasonably simple way(read:able to be executed by newbies and other mortals) to estimate how far from a wall a panel should be? Thanks Keith

Here's my corner panels, i did them after reading the dairies on this thread, hope you like them. http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14696

Nice post. Well done Ro. Thanks for sharing it. It was good and helpful. [SPAM SIGNATURE DELETED BY MODERATOR]

Ro wrote:

As there's some good DIY how-to-make absorbing panels I thought it would be a good idea to have a sticky made out of that. Here we go with some detailed constructions of acoustic absorbers: Soulfood's broadband wall panels studio_drums's broadband wall panels BradJacob's broadband wall panels decode his broadband wall panels and speaker stands dbyboth's broadband wall- and corner panels scottgirvan's broadband wall panels Jwl his gogo's design jbassino's broadband wall panels GuitarGodgt made these broadband wall and corner panels doublehelix his ceilingclouds MMS his cloud Luke's frameless broadband panels Jakeman's broadband panels Broadband panels and corner traps by Ro Panels by Phazinhead SimonOstheim his Broadband and corner panels More broadband panels bij sunspot *new* Shameless self promotion of low-end corner absorber build in action :) Here are some other finished product, less detailed: viewtopic.php?t=9310 viewtopic.php?t=8276 viewtopic.php?t=7627 viewtopic.php?t=6655 There's already this sticky, but it's locked for reply. Then there's this sticky. Maybe some MOD could take a look and decide if things could be merged. Right.

Nice collection share by you within [STUPID SPAM LINK REMOVED BY MODERATOR: SPAMMER BANNED AND BLOCKED PERMANENTLY] I really was looking for such brief post from weeks. Thanks

This is very helpful! Appreciate you doing the research. Thanks for sharing!