Room needs acoustic treatment/analysis

[johncclaybrook]

I have recently remodeled a house and have turned two rooms into one. in this room i am going to be tracking/mixing/rehearsing...it's a multi-purpose room.

I need to add some acoustic treatments to the room. Currently the room has laminate flooring. regular sheetrock walls and sheetrock ceiling. the ceiling is 8' tall. i am going to attach a SketchUp file for the dimensions of the room. I'd like to try and keep the spending under $500 if at all possible. I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys suggest. this is my first post on the forum and i'm looking forward to learning more about the studio/acoustic/tracking world.

let me know if more info is needed. i tried to provide all the necessary info

[johncclaybrook]

I have edited the sketch up file....this should help in wrapping your brains around the room

[johncclaybrook]

i'm guessing no one has any ideas? should i bass trap all of the corners in the room? diffusers on the parallel walls? hanging bass trap from the ceiling in the narrow most portion of the room?

[TheChemistTree]

Hi John,

I am also new to all of this so i know how you feel.

What might help you get an answer is to take some photo's of the room and make a jpeg out of your sketch ups to add them here so they are visible in your post.

Try to provide more info (proximity to neighbours etc) and as much as you can about the materials in your room.

One thing that i will suggest you to do first is to join the Home Theatre Shack forum and download their REW room analysis software (it's free), set up your equipment and take some readings from you room (and post results here as jpegs also). This will give the guys much more of an idea where your problem frequencies are and what you will need to build/buy to treat them.

Good Luck,

TCT

[johncclaybrook]

Thanks TCT!

I'll get over to the forum and check out the analysis software.

I'll work on getting some pictures made today as well.

thanks for the suggestions!

-john

[Soundman2020]

Hi John. Welcome!

Guess I must have missed your thread: glad that you bumped it:

I'd like to try and keep the spending under $500 if at all possible.

So you don't need ANY isolation at all? You are talking ONLY about acoustic treatment inside the room? For US$ 500, basic treatment is do-able, but not if you need isolation.

OK, so what I would do in that room is to use the rear (larger) portion of the room for rehearsing / tracking your instruments, and the front (narrower) portion for your control room. I'd center the desk on the short wall at the far end of the narrow section (the wall marked as 10'5 13/16"), with the speakers on massive stands behind the desk, spread apart about about 6 feet (3 feet on either side of the center line), angled 30° to face the listening position, which will also be about 6 feet from the front wall.

Then standard treatment: Make several panels of 4" 703 in wood frames, put two behind the speakers on the front wall, two diagonally across those front corners, one on each side wall at the first reflection points, hang two from the ceiling as clouds, also on the first reflection points, three across the rear wall, and one or two on the rear side walls.

I'd also build some gobos on wheels to be able to change the acoustics and maybe partially isolate things while recording, and use those as bass traps across the rear corners while mixing and doing critical listening.

diffusers on the parallel walls?

No. The room is way too small to be able to benefit from most types of diffuser.


That would be my approach!


- Stuart -

[johncclaybrook]

Thanks Stuart!

I'm thinking of maybe using the room next to it as well. i'll see if i can work up a sketch up file today.

$500 was my thinking for just treatment. I would love isolation. really I suppose I am going to think long-term here and really try to do it right the first time. having said that, here's a little info on my place. it's very isolated itself....meaning there aren't neighbors, the house is built on family property set back from the highway about a quarter of a mile. So the main purpose of isolating the rooms (building the "room inside a room") idea would be to use the two rooms (one room i have posted on the board and the room next to it) as a mini studio (tracking and recording rooms). I will work on a sketch up of the 2nd room and add some pictures as well so you all can see what i'm working with and we can find a way to make the best use of the space available.

thanks again for your input so far!

-john

[Soundman2020]

it's very isolated itself....meaning there aren't neighbors, the house is built on family property set back from the highway about a quarter of a mile.

Ahhh, but you are only thinking one way here! Isolation isn't just needed to stop sound getting out: you also need it to stop sound getting IN! For example: wind, rain, thunder, aircraft overhead, cars arriving/leaving, machinery nearby (lawnmower, for example), telephones ringing, radios, TV's, people talking, walking, water moving in pipes, toilets flushing, air moving in HVAC system, door bell, dogs, birds, other animals.... THe list carries on and on. You didn't say what you plan to record in there, but imagine what it would be like trying to record vocals with jet plane flying overhead, or record an acoustic guitar in a thunderstorm...

So you might want to re-consider your view on isolation...


Looking forward to seeing the updated SKP (and the updated budget!)


- Stuart -

[johncclaybrook]

very good points indeed!!

much to consider. i'll get to work!

-john

[gsbe]

Stuart- this sounds like good advice. I'm ready to do this and have a few questions:

1. Are there plans for building the panels of 4" 703 in wood frames? Most of the designs that I've seen are for 2" insulation and don't seem fit for commercial use.
2. How similar to using 4" insulation is using 2" insulation and hanging them off the wall so as to create an airspace between the insulation and the wall?
3. Do you make the panels that you hang as clouds differently than the ones that hang on the wall? Do you still need 4" insulation or would 2" work there?
4. Are there plans for gobos on wheels that can double as corner bass traps? I've looked at the Primacoustic GoTrap which seems the closest to what you're talking about.

Thanks for sharing your thorough knowledge with us.

Then standard treatment: Make several panels of 4" 703 in wood frames, put two behind the speakers on the front wall, two diagonally across those front corners, one on each side wall at the first reflection points, hang two from the ceiling as clouds, also on the first reflection points, three across the rear wall, and one or two on the rear side walls.

I'd also build some gobos on wheels to be able to change the acoustics and maybe partially isolate things while recording, and use those as bass traps across the rear corners while mixing and doing critical listening.

[Soundman2020]

Are there plans for building the panels of 4" 703 in wood frames? Most of the designs that I've seen are for 2" insulation and don't seem fit for commercial use.

Even better than plans! If you look around the forum (use the search feature) you'll find many examples of how people have built such traps, sometimes including step-by-step photos and instructions.

How similar to using 4" insulation is using 2" insulation and hanging them off the wall so as to create an airspace between the insulation and the wall?

It's the same basic idea: some type of frame to contain the insulation and attach the the fabric, and some method for hanging the unit. It doesn't have to be sophisticated. There was even a design here recently for one using PVC pipes for the frame, which actually turned out quite neat.

And yes, hanging away from the wall is a very good idea. The more gap you leave, the more effective the trap is at low frequencies.

Do you make the panels that you hang as clouds differently than the ones that hang on the wall? Do you still need 4" insulation or would 2" work there?

Once again, it's the same basic concept: Frame, wool, fabric cover, mounting. Deeper is always better. For first reflection points, 4" should be fine.

Are there plans for gobos on wheels that can double as corner bass traps? I've looked at the Primacoustic GoTrap which seems the closest to what you're talking about.

There are some designs for wheeled gobos on the forum, but not as many. That design you mentioned looks reasonable too, but it seems t be a tuned device, although not steeply tuned. It's actually a damped membrane trap, that will work better for a specific range of frequencies. You could do something similar, and tune it specifically for your room.

The forum is actually chock full of designs, plans an examples, more than you'll ever need. The problem is finding it! The search feature works, but isn't very powerful, so it takes a bit of time to wade through the results and find what you are looking. But it's all in here somewhere!


- Stuart -