help with ceiling!

[cassiopamusic]

my room is a tracking/mixing room. right now there is a drop ceiling that i am getting rid of. my question is, what is good for the ceiling, should i try to achieve a "dead" sound. i was thinking of running sheets across the top. would heavy blankets be better? iv heard some people talking about eggcrate foam or maybe iv got the totally wrong idea. im not sure how to go about this, any advice would be wonderful. thanks in advance.

[avare]

What are the dimensions of the room?
How high is the ceiling without the dropped layer?

Curiously,
Andre

[jayfrigo]

Tracking and mixing usually have somewhat different needs. How is the room specifically being utilised, and how is it oriented? Also, room dimensions, and especially ceiling height would be helpful. Are there beams above, or just sheetrock, or something else? Frame construction, or metal etc? What is above (2nd floor, outdoors...)? Is isolation (in to out, or out to in) an important part of the goal, or just interior acoustics?

[cassiopamusic]

thanks for the replies.

Originally Posted by avare

What are the dimensions of the room?
How high is the ceiling without the dropped layer?

Curiously,
Andre

the room is roughly 21 feet long by 16 feet wide by 82 inches high. taking out the droped ceiling is only giving me a couple more inches, im removing it more for the sound, because it rattles alot and isn't too great for acoustics.

Originally Posted by jayfrigo

Tracking and mixing usually have somewhat different needs. How is the room specifically being utilised, and how is it oriented? Also, room dimensions, and especially ceiling height would be helpful. Are there beams above, or just sheetrock, or something else? Frame construction, or metal etc? What is above (2nd floor, outdoors...)? Is isolation (in to out, or out to in) an important part of the goal, or just interior acoustics?

the room is above an office building. once the drop ceiling and tracks are removed there is just wood framing with a thin layer of some sort of cardboard prolly less then 1/4 inch thick. isolation is not an issue, just getting the interior acoustics is my main objective right now.

[avare]

I would suggest 4" of 703 type insulation.

Andre

[jwl]

The others are right, it really depends on what your goals are.

In general, I recommend the following:

Cover the ceiling with some sort of insulation. You don't have a lot of height, so stuffing thick fluffy fiberglass up there isn't really an option. 4" of 703 will work great, though once you get away from corners you can "cheat" a bit to save money: put 2" of 703 spaced 2" down from the wall to get very similar performance. I'd go with the 4" in the corners, preferably spaced down 4" if you can manage it, to increase bass trapping. Alternatively you can use rockwool or Ultratouch cotton. I actually like the cotton for this application because it is easy to remove if you ever move your recording space, it's not harsh to work with like fiberglass or rockwool.

Cover the insulation with cloth, or some soft permeable material to let sound breathe through and be absorbed.

If the room is too dead at this point, you can restore some liveness by adding a thin layer of reflective material, something like posterboard or very thin plastic, around the corner edges of the ceiling. Adding this membrane will restore some high-frequency liveness to the room, as well as possibly increasing your bass trapping a bit. If you do this, I recommend leaving plain absorption above the mix position and prime recording areas (ie, above where the drum kit sits when you record).

Note that there are also acoustic treatment ceiling tiles available; if you can tighten down the drop ceiling so it doesn't rattle so much, and stuff them with acoustic ceiling tiles, that will work too. You could use, for instance, standard Realtraps ceiling tiles around the edges of the room as I describe above, and then the HF versions above the mix position and recording spots.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by cassiopamusic

thanks for the replies.

the room is roughly 21 feet long by 16 feet wide by 82 inches high. taking out the droped ceiling is only giving me a couple more inches, im removing it more for the sound, because it rattles alot and isn't too great for acoustics.

.

Just had a customer that had the same problem. He replaced them with our 242 panels which stopped the rattle. Is the rattle coming from the panel you have in now and the frame?

Glenn

[cassiopamusic]

Originally Posted by Glenn Kuras

Just had a customer that had the same problem. He replaced them with our 242 panels which stopped the rattle. Is the rattle coming from the panel you have in now and the frame?

Glenn

yes.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by cassiopamusic

yes.

Yes it is the kind of panel. If go with something like our GIK 242 it has enough weight to not raddle. You could build something like this also.

Glenn

[cassiopamusic]

Originally Posted by jwl

Cover the ceiling with some sort of insulation. You don't have a lot of height, so stuffing thick fluffy fiberglass up there isn't really an option. 4" of 703 will work great, though once you get away from corners you can "cheat" a bit to save money: put 2" of 703 spaced 2" down from the wall to get very similar performance. I'd go with the 4" in the corners, preferably spaced down 4" if you can manage it, to increase bass trapping.

the problem with my ceiling treating is that i don't have alot of height to use thick insulation. i can probaly get away with 1-1.5 inches of 703 in certain places like the mix area and drums, but cannot leave a gap between the ceiling and 703. is this better then nothing or should i not waste my time? i do have some monster bass traps though

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by cassiopamusic

the problem with my ceiling treating is that i don't have alot of height to use thick insulation. i can probaly get away with 1-1.5 inches of 703 in certain places like the mix area and drums, but cannot leave a gap between the ceiling and 703. is this better then nothing or should i not waste my time? i do have some monster bass traps though

Well a 1.5" of 703 is better then the hard ceiling, so yes I cover it.

Glenn