John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi.

I'm currently trying to tame a small control room. It's dimensions are 3.4 by 3.5 metres (awful, I know) with a 2.7m ceiling. The walls are VJ timber (tongue and groove). It's actually a spare room in my house, so I'm restricted from doing any permanent construction, wall changes, slot resonators etc. I'm also on a real tight budget. I've built four panel absorbers (for the corners) based on Ethan's DIY designs but portable, and am considering hangers as well. I don't mind hanging them anywhere and don't care if they're visible.

So...would the hangers be excessive? Would I be fine with the panel absorbers in the corners and mid/high treatment on the walls?

The other thing that concerns me are the parallel surfaces as the room is a rectangular prism. Standing waves and flutter echoes will presumably present problems, so is mid/treatment on the walls sufficient to counter these? Or maybe angled hangers all over the place? As you can see I'm a novice at this stuff.

The other thing possibly worth mentioning is that I have access to loads of acoustic foam... enough to plaster the walls with it 4 or 6 inches deep if I needed to, but of course I'm wary of sucking all the highs and high mids out of the room.

Hope all this scattered info is intelligible, and any help someone could lend to this struggling bedroom enthusiast would be hugely appreciated.

Cheers.

Bill.

p.s. Found this stuff on the web, and comparing it's absorption co-efficients to the fibreglass panel figures at the SAE site it looks...well...comparable. Any thoughts?

Firstly you could create some ceiling clouds to break up the floor ceiling parallels. Maybe some book shelves, equipment racks or something to break up the wall reflections.

Have you checked out this page??
http://johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm

cheers
john

Thanks for the quick response John. And thanks for the site to. I just have a few more questions though.

Do I take that to mean you recommend against hangers John? I had looked at the page you recommended, but given the small amount of space to begin with, and the reasonably high ceilings (for a house at least) I thought about the hangers. Drops between 1 and 1.5 metres would still give me some room on the floor for gear/shelves/storage which I will need. Wouldn't hangers address (to some degree) the parallel surface between ceiling and floor as well?

And I'm curious to know from anyone who has had experience with the polyester blanket I mentioned in the link above. My wife gets asthma really bad and I'd prefer to avoid fibreglass if possible. I know it shouldn't be a problem if handled correctly but there wouldn't be any such issues at all with polyester.

Cheers.

Bill.

Yeah I look at the polyester Bill - It's similar to the stuff we used at Left Bank but it has the foil cover which as you can see reduces the High end absorption. May you can just turn it around, does it have foil on both sides.

Yes hangers in the ceiling are really effective and probably the way to go in such a small room.

cheers
john

Thanks John.

You mention fibreboard in the SAE reference on hangers. I'm not familiar with that term and noticed in another thread you said it wasn't masonite. What other name might it go by in Australia? I presume it's not MDF or chipboard or the like. And what thickness should I be aiming at.

Bill.

Bill wrote:Thanks John.
What other name might it go by in Australia?

Bill.

Canite.

(I think)

and thickness?

Yeah - what Michael said - Canite - it comes 12mm thick.

cheers
john

Like a pin board, yeah?

You've got it painted white on one side here in OZ for notice boards.

cheers
john

Great. Thanks for the assistance. I'll post the end results when I'm done.

Bill.

I have a quick follow up question.

Just wondering if canite is necessary for hangers because of its particular acoustic characteristics, or is it just used because it's light and easy to work with. The reason I ask is I already have a large amount of 3mm plywood lengths, between 300 and 500 mm wide, and 1200 to 2400 long. I'd barely have to cut them if they were a satisfactory substitute.

Any opinions?

TIA

Bill.

I have a quick follow up question.

Just wondering if canite is necessary for hangers because of its particular acoustic characteristics, or is it just used because it's light and easy to work with. The reason I ask is I already have a large amount of 3mm plywood lengths, between 300 and 500 mm wide, and 1200 to 2400 long. I'd barely have to cut them if they were a satisfactory substitute.

Any opinions?

TIA

Bill.

For me the canite is important. It's mass is about right for the job. Remember - they are the hangers - the insulation is only there to stop their resonance.

cheers
john

So....if a substitute material had similar mass and size it should be ok? What do you think?