Hello All,
Last summer I converted my 70 year old garage into a studio space. I have managed to get some good sounds out of the space, but I am now looking for ideas to "treat" the room a bit in order to control the room's natural boxy acoustics.
The room from front to back measures 16 feet, left wall to right wall is 11 feet, and the ceiling is vaulted /''''''\ measuring up to 10 feet. The ceiling and all the walls are drywall while the floor is the garage's original cement slab.
What are some budget-minded treatments I can do to this space? I record acoustic drums, guitars (electric & acoustic), vocals, strings, Rhodes, spinet piano, et cetera.
Thanks,
Caz
What would you do with this?
Originally posted at johnlsayers.com, topic 2900.
It is hard to recommend a solution when you aren't really sure what the problem is. Boxy Acoustics could mean several things.
Your first, and for many people the hardest step, is going to be to find a commercial insulation supply firm. That is where you can pick up some 3 or 4 pound per cubic foot semi-rigid fiberglass or mineral wool. Typical brands are Owens-Corning 703, Johns-Manville Spinglass, Roxul, and so forth. You will have to buy a bale: a 2 foor high stack of 2 by 4 foot sheets. I would recommend either getting one or two inch thickness since you can just stack them up if you want thicker. One bale should be all you need for a typical room.
Now, what to do with it? That depends on what the real accoustic problem is. If your problem is bass build-up then you want to hang a 4 inch or greater thickness panels in the corners. If the problem is slap echo you may want to place one or two inch panels on the walls. if the problem is slap echo between the concrete floor and the ceiling then you might want to hang a cloud panel or two in the vaulted cieling space.
When you have fugured out the number and thickness of panels you are going to use go to the fabric store and get enough fabric to enclose the panels (burlap and felt are popular choices). Also get some spray on flameproofing because even though the panels are not flamable the fabric may be.