DIY Acoustic treatment: Will this work?

[matt thomas]

It'll work

Just in case, its not normal batts that you use, it needs to be high density stuff, not like what you put in the walls of your house, a sheet of it should hold its shape when you pick it up.

the sides don't need to be exposed, but it helps, a very little bit

fabric you can breath through is a good rough, but not definite, guideline

do a search, there are millions of posts on this

narco

[dbluefield]

Short answer: It should work

Long answer: Check out John Sayers site. Ethan Winner. Malcolm Chisholm.

The main thing will be the Sabins of the material your using, RFZ, room size -- the list goes on..........

Something is probably definitely better than nothing as long as it absorbs pretty evenly from highs to lows (6' of OC 703 US brand here will absorb very well down to 60Hz or so).

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Good Luck!

Dave

[jwl]

Don't put a masonite backing on the panels. Just use the timber frame. If you have an appropriately sized holesaw, cut holes in the frame, as many as you can without making the wood too weak.

Without the backing on them, and with as much surface area as possible exposed, you will get the most absorption. Ideally, straddle some of them (most of them) across the corners of the room.

Also, I think Ethan's Acoustic Treatment and Design for Recording Studios and Listening Rooms is much more useful than his article about how to build that style of basstrap.

[Blister]

Originally Posted by narco

It'll work

Just in case, its not normal batts that you use, it needs to be high density stuff, not like what you put in the walls of your house, a sheet of it should hold its shape when you pick it up.

the sides don't need to be exposed, but it helps, a very little bit

fabric you can breath through is a good rough, but not definite, guideline

do a search, there are millions of posts on this

narco

Cheers narco. The batts are acoustic specific and are as dense as a really dense thing.

[Cojo]

Hi.

Don't cover the back with anything but fabric. When you put them on the wall they need to be spaced away from the wall.

The deeper you make them the greater advances there is to expose the sides of the insulation.

The timber for yor frame seems very thick, 35mm!? I would suggest no more then half of that, or even thinner. They are going to get quite heavy anyway! (I know from my own experience)

Good luck!

[matt thomas]

Originally Posted by Blister

Cheers narco. The batts are acoustic specific and are as dense as a really dense thing.

then my guess it they're not the right ones? Actually I'm serious, the stuff they market here in New Zealand as "acoustic" batts are only slightly more dense than normal thermal insulation. To get the real dense stuff I had to go insulation specialists and get stuff that is made for insulating furnaces. When I mentioned it was for acoustics they tried to sell me the "acoustic" stuff which wasn't suitable. So watch out for that.

narco

[ONE LUV]

i went to ikea and bought some wine red fabrics for putting them over couches. they got a very good size to pull them over the batts...it´s looks really nice. i think they cost 15 € per fabric.

any suggestions on using those heavy fabrics?

[riffster]

Believe JWL - he's built some nice free standing gobos.

I took some pointers from the John Sayers and built these 2x4 Panels that might give you some ideas. If you were to use OC 703 or equiv. then your fastening methods could change since its rigid & easier to handle. I used muslin fabric which alone in the end held my insulation in place.

[jwl]

nice panels, riffster!

Mine are functional, but not too attractive (unfinished still). Plus I still need to redo the legs, they suck.

But they work great....

[jwl]

Also, I think it is important to distinguish between acoustic panels, and gobos.

If you want gobos, you need something to stop the sound, ie, the masonite back you mentioned originally (though I'd use something thicker than masonite, ie, plywood, MDF, or even sheetrock). Put absorption around that, and it will do a good job of stopping sound down to a certain point in frequency.

Without the back (masonite or whatever), the sound will travel through the absorber some, but you will get more low end absorption. This is what you want to do with your corner panels, if you put a back on them they won't absorb nearly as much low end (since the low end will "go around" the gobos rather than "go through" the absorbers).

[abaga129]

Originally Posted by matt thomas

it needs to be high density stuff

Sooooooo would the best material be a black hole? I hear prices on them run pretty high