absorbent behind monitors

Okay, the room's not bad for tracking now - carpets, bookshelves and rigid fibreglass in all the corners. But it's a kind of crappy room for mixing: lino on concrete floors, plaster over brick walls, and some sort of rigid ceiling tiles on the...uh...ceiling. If I clap my hands, I still get an echo, but it isn't as ugly and intrusive as it was before. Now I want to improve it for mixing. I've still got 6 pieces of 2'X4'X2" rigid fibreglass, which I plan to suspend from the ceiling between me and the monitors. But my main question right now's about the wall behind the monitors. It's got a lot of carpet hanging 6" off the wall and all that fibreglass up the corners, but I want to add absorbent to the wall as well. My question is: how much to use and where to put it? Treat the whole wall? With what? More fibreglass? How far off the wall? I want to know this now, because it'll affect the position of my monitors, which will affect the position of the overhead fibreglass cloud. The room's about 14'X10' and 11' high.

Hm... 24 views and no replies. So - is it a stupid question? It didn't seem like a stupid question when I asked it. :?

Nope. It just means that the people who have read your post don't have an answer they're certain of. We're waiting for a post that steers you in the right direction, instead of just guessing and possibly giving bad advice. Don't worry, it'll come to us. Kase www.minemusic.net

Grin. It can't be *that* tough. It's a crummy room and I have limited resources. Should be a snap, right? :lol: How about a wall of stiff 2" fibreglass 6" out from the wall? My budget can extend to that. And a few egg cartons. With or without the eggs.

Dobro, been busy with "gators", the nice weather brings 'em out... Your idea of the 2" fiberglass 6" off the wall is probably the best you'll do - just forget the egg cartons :wink: - your "cloud" shouldn't need to be larger than 8' side to side, and 4' front to back - that leaves a couple pieces, which would do ONE front absorber behind one speaker - if you can get a couple more pieces, you're set. If you still have ringing, just standing a couple of pieces of plywood up beside the mix desk will take care of most of that - closer together at the front of the room (toward the speaker end) and further apart at the rear. 6" to a foot of splay per side will do... Steve

Dobro - hi mate - I'd put all the insulation you have on the rear wall behind you and see what happens then. ;) Putting the isulation of the front wall will only affect the low end because your speakers are directional (except the low end) and the high end is directed to your rear wall. It's the high end giving the ringing. cheers John

Hey Steve, John - thanks very much for your ideas. Uh, just to clarify - the 'front' wall is the one I face when I mix, right? The one *behind* the monitors? Yeah, that's gotta be it. Steve - 'gators'? What kind gators these be? Gators are panned right, right? You're panned left, correct? Gators on the west coast? Nah...

Hi again. Okay, here's an update and another question. (Yeah, I know - I move slow. Tell me about it lol...) Here's what I did in the end. I got better, heavier fibreglass and put a whole wall of it up behind the monitors 6" out from the wall. The result is wonderful - well, from my point of view anyway - I could hear the difference it was making to the room as I was putting it up. After it was up, I was able to listen at higher-than-before levels comfortably, and nobody's complaining about the EQ in my mixes. Nice. Okay, I've got more fibreglass and more plans. One thing I'm considering is putting some of it up along where the ceiling and walls meet. The fibreglass I've got is 24" wide. So, how useful would it be to angle sheets of 24" X 48" fibreglass over the ceiling/wall join? Or would 12" do just as well?

Dobro - the wall I meant was the wall behind you when you are facing the monitors. Adding the wall in front of you you have deadened the room which is why it sounds better - so do the same thing to the other wall - the wall behind you when you are facing the monitors. ;) cheers john

Yeah, I'm going to do that - it'll be easy. But how important are the ceiling/wall joins?

But how important are the ceiling/wall joins?

not as important as tha wall behind you :) cheers john

"not as important as tha wall behind you" - whereas, when trying to land an airplane, the runway behind you is pretty much irrelevant :cry: Hey Dob.. 'gators is just a metaphor, as in "When yer up to yer ass in alligators, it's sometimes difficult to remember that the initial objective was to drain the swamp..." :wink: Steve

Hi dobro, Try downloading my Wall Bounce Calculator and plugging the dimensions of your setup. This will give you a feel for the magnitude of the issue. Then you can add some absorption to the model to see how it might help. Let me know if you need and guidance with the spreadsheet. Thomas