rescuing a botched studio

Okay, so at another forum we were talking about my recordings and how they could improve, one of the identified problems was the room itself. Now, this isn't for the faint of heart, but this is how this room is setup/treated now: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2628/5763085012_14fe86dc32.jpg http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5228/5763085714_59010aef0e.jpg [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/36524125@N06/5762540503/] [/url] http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2694/5762540809_e3344b0b3a.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2609/5762541009_e77db4ff63.jpg http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5266/5762541241_1473620ed1.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2294/5763086886_53a356eb7f.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2612/5763087104_3c87d146a2.jpg ==================================== A sample wall from the front http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2149/5762541975_8ff05106ae.jpg Same wall, one side of the felt removed to expose cardboard http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5181/5763087598_191d78c8a0.jpg A look under the cardboard: fiberglass and a wood construction http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3474/5763094646_caeb7826be.jpg So, how does the room feel? It feels.. dry, but not studio-dry (been to a lot of studios and it's a diffrent feeling) it feels like all the 3k-10k hiend is sucked out of everything, but the rest is left free to roll about, especially something like 250Hz and probably something below 100Hz, but in the midst of mayhem it's hard to identify. I'll take a measuring mic there sometime in the future and get some feedback if what I hear is correct. Anyway.. The objective is to change the way it sounds. The way it's been done previously and how it is now: - wooden skeleton construction is put on the walls, mimicing the size of fiberglass rectangles - these rectangles are then leaned on the wood skeleton - cardboard is pressed against the fiberglass - some screws and nails are used to secure the fiberglass on the wooden construction going through the fiberglass part - everything is coated in "acoustic felt" (it's what the manufacturer labels it, not me) This results in a 5cm air gap, 10cm fiberglass over it, then on that comes cardboard and felt goes on after that. My current idea is: - get rid of the wall of speakers and the rest of crap that is lying around - get rid of the felt and cardboard - place acoustically transparent fabric over the fiberglass - put some QRD 2D diffusion on the wall with the door - get a proper acoustician do make me some plans for nice DIY gobo panels with a live and dead side, or make some from the plans on this site, mainly beacause I can take them with me when I move out from this So, any comments on these ideas / plan? Will I improve anything, can it improve without replacing fiberglass with rockwool? I'm not looking to transform this room into something great sounding, just an improvement of say 20% or more. Fabric is cheap and I have enough time on my hands to do it and the place won't look superdark anymore. I am loath to invest more into it because it's a shared space that I will be leaving soon-ish, but would very much like to improve my stay for the few months I'll be there.

please update your profile with your location information. thanks! on the room - what type of insulation is there? density. one option may be to use a bunch of polys placed around the room and across the corners to add some life and some LF absorption. also some broadband slats would be nice as well. basically moving from the mid-HF absorption into lower freq absorption and better mid and HF support to keep things alive.

I would remove everything that is there. But keep it all except the cardboard. The fibreglass is fine for bass absorbing. Wear full protective gear and mask. the felt can be used to built panels. Then start again. What is behind all that mess? Is it brick? Is it in a house? Lil

Thank you for your replies, I have updated my location information. The room is in a basement of a house that is a kind of a cultural centre, all of the basement rooms are rent to various bands. I happen to have a good enough relationship with one of the bands with the biggest room so that I can use this room to teach myself some recording techniques and hopefully get a good demo reel together before I head out into something more serious. The type of insulation is 10cm fiberglass of a local brand. The actual product has been discontinued so I can't look up what the density is, but I recall it was typical for medium density fiberglass. Underlying walls are brick and mortar, yes. So, I see there are some approaches... - With the strip it all down and create panels, the idea is to strip down the wood framing, fiberglass and felt and create standard acoustic panels that I've seen everywhere on this site from this material? Is that "acoustic felt" OK for covering panels or should I rather be looking at fabric? - With polys, something like this? This seems like something that could be done for cheap.. http://forum.studiotips.com/viewtopic.php?p=45486 - What's the cost of broadband slats, can they be done very cheaply? Any plans I can study? Cheers, B.

felt is OK. ensure fire retardant is used to ensure safety. yes, that's the idea- frames on the wall then bend the thin plywood into an arc. vary the sizing and positions to ensure good distribution. using a whole 1200mm x 2400mm x 3mm sheet on the corner will help with the LF absorption. the slats can be made from plywood by routing out the openings (slots). see the Rivernile thread for some excellent examples.

Thanks you for the advice. So, assuming I go with polys, I don't need to change anything on the wall itself, i.e. it can stay exactly as it is or is it still advisable to strip down carboard?

you could try the polys over what you have and see how it works. you're screwing in cleats and bending plywood, so removing the polys would be pretty easy and then you could strip things down. i would cover no more than 30% of the room with polys. this way you have some absorption in between the units to further diffuse things.