Cieling Treatment questions

Hello everyone, A couple years ago I had a thread in the studio design forum about building a control room in a pole barn. I came to the conclusion that it was going to be too expensive to "do it right" so I gave up. Now I've been "bitten by the bug" again and have decided to focus on the rehearsal / live room since I really just record my own band and the one room system will work fine for now. I've set up my recording rig in the bathroom just for "roughing in" drum sounds and I think that will be OK for now. I'm not too concerned with isolation as I am in the middle of nowhere and aside from the occasional airplane flying overhead, I really haven’t had any problems with outside noise. Years ago we insulated the walls with R-19 6" “fluffy stuff” and covered them with 1/2" OSB. The room doesn't sound that bad surprisingly but I'm sure if measurements were taken it would reveal allot of problems. The 2-D layout shows the dimensions except the ceiling which it 11'-3" high. Also, the restroom walls are only 8' tall leaving a 3' area above for storage ect. I am in the process of treating my walls and corners with 703 panels and traps. Just having the stuff in the room is an improvement! :D The room used to have some rather disgusting carpet on the floor which I just removed. Everything I've read so far seems to suggest live floor and dead ceiling so I've decided to treat the ceiling. BTW the ceiling is 1 ½” foam insulation board between the rafters with 6” fluffy stuff on top. What I’m planning to do is build more 2’ x 8’ panels with 2” 703 in them and hang them from the exposed firing strips you see in the pictures. I’m thinking maybe 10 or 12 of them spaced out evenly and maybe 6” down from the blue foam. Is this the best way for my situation, or does someone have a better idea? Thanks in advance, Tim

i would start with half of the overhead absorbers - a checkerboard with space between them, and see it it meets your needs. a rehearsal room will generally sound good it you have some reverberation (or whatever its called in a small room ;-)) and good bass trapping. maybe take that extra absorption material and add more trapping across the lower part of the vertical corners.

Thanks for your reply Gullfo, Yeah, I was thinking I should finish the corners to the floor. I’ll do that…but first. Is it worth the bother to stuff the corners with fluffy stuff? I have been reading that there is some benefit to it so I was considering taking my corners apart and filling them up. I'm also considering doing the geometry and cutting some 703 to make the tri corners meet. I've been experimenting with different ways to install the 703. At first I was going to build frames for everything, but then I thought it would be easier for the corner traps to just screw doubled up pieces of 2" 703 to the wall/ceiling corners. I guess it's just as much work either way, but I suppose it does leave some of the edges of the 703 un-obstructed by wood. My method I decided on for covering the corner traps is: 1.Staple each side of the 3’ wide strip of fabric to a 3” wide firing strip 2.Turn the firing strip under to hide the staples 3.screw the covered firing strip to the wall 4.Stretch the fabric over the 703 that is already screwed to the wall/corner with 6” screws and fender washers 5.wrap around other firing strip and screw to the wall 6.fold the ends under the bottom and hold with spray adhesive I realize this wouldn’t work if the walls were drywall but if someone else has a similar situation as mine, they might find this meathod useful. OK, I’ve gotta go make some more ceiling panels (just not as many!) :D

OK, I have more questions. :idea: 1. Would it be a wasted effort to trap the entire perimeter of the wall/ceiling corners? Or should there be space in between traps. 2. I guess in my original post I didn't ask the question that was in my head. :? :lol: I wonder if the frames with 703 spaced away from the ceiling is a waste of time since the blue foam probably isn't reflecting any bass frequencies. I could be wrong, but I imagine bass waves would pass through that blue foam like a hot knife thru butter. :wink: Should I just attach a few pieces of 703 wrapped in fabric directly to the ceiling just to tame down floor / ceiling flutter echos? I am planning to record (particularly live drums and guitar amps) in this room. It will not be just for rehearsal space. So I suppose getting a grip on low frequencies and flutter echo without making the room too dead is my goal. Thanks again, Tim