DIY ceiling cloud

[rxfit06]

I have a few pieces of duct board(compressed fiberglass with foil backing) and am thinking of building a panel to hang over the drum kit. A couple of questions:

I read on here that 2" thick is usually a minimum thickness to consider. Since my pieces are 1", I will be stacking 2 of them. Should the foil backing on the 2nd piece(the one added for thickness) be facing towards the mics/floor, or should I have the foil backing facing the ceiling? To that end, would a 1" panel be just as effective if this is only used for taming comb filtering?

Any specific recommendations for the physical mounting of this on the ceiling?

Do I need to put a wooden back on the panel, or just leave it as is?

Thanks

[RedWallStudio]

1) I would not have the foil facing the drums
2) If I could peel the foil off the board all together, without destroying the board, I would
3) I would go with 4 inches and not 2... 2 inches is a bare minimum
4) I would not attach it to plywood backing, I would either build a lightweight wood frame around the panels and suspend them a few inches from the ceiling (better solution) or attach the panels right to the ceiling.

[Weasel9992]

If it's just FRK it's fine. No biggie. 2" will be fine, but 4" is okay too...not really necessary though.

I do agree with the "no backing" idea though...an open back is ideal. If you make them fairly light weight you can hang them from the ceiling using wire and plant-hanging hooks (the heavy duty sort). That's kind of another argument against making them 4"...they tend to get too heavy that way.

Frank

[SRS]

This was my latest incarnation. I made the frame of 1x6 pine, cut at 45 degree angles and put together like a big picture frame. Used course thread drywall screws and my bitchen Dewalt nailer for the smaller trim pieces. I stained it with a medium/dark wood stain and it looks like oak now. It is 4 feet by 6 feet. I put OC 703 - 4 inches thick inside it, wrapped in loose woven burlap, used 6 - 2x4 2 inch thick panels (all three doubled up). The 2 strips in the middle of it are where the seams are for the OC 703 panels, and serve two purposes, to hold the panels up and hide the seams. I suspended it with 4 course thread eyebolts into ceiling joists and then used turnbuckles to connect it to the cloud. It really works well, and looks nice as well.

Let me know if you need any more info, I can tell you everything I did to put it together and mount it. This thing was the easy build. The skyline diffusers on the back wall were another story!

[vespiz]

Originally Posted by SRS

Let me know if you need any more info, I can tell you everything I did to put it together and mount it. This thing was the easy build. The skyline diffusers on the back wall were another story!

Yes, please!

[SRS]

What would you like to know, other than what I described thus far?

[Ryuben]

Originally Posted by SRS

What would you like to know, other than what I described thus far?

That's a great looking cloud. I've been thinking about doing something like this.
Thanks for posting these pictures and information.


I sure am interested on that skyline too...
That was DIY as well?

[vespiz]

I'd like to know how you built and hung that cloud, please

I'm about to build some myself at some point, so I'd just like to have some more ideas.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by SRS

What would you like to know, other than what I described thus far?

wow those clouds look great!!

Glenn

[SRS]

Thanks Glenn, and everyone! That means a lot!

Here are a few pictures of my diffusers. I used this design on the following website to build them.

HiFi Speaker Design © mhSoft <%=year(now())%>

They are 18 inches by 18 inches. Used 3/8 inch plywood for the backing and 2x2 pine for the pieces. I used wood glue to glue each piece in the backboard by hand. On my back wall, there are 8 of these 18"x18" panels, all next to one another.

As far as the cloud design above my drum kit, I just winged it on my own. Like I said in the previous post, I used pine for the wood, 1"x6" for the frame. I already had OC 703 2 foot by 4 foot 2 inch thick panels wrapped in burlap. I placed three of these 2 foot by 4 foot panels side by side and measured the outside dimension and built the frame to that size. Once the frame was built, I stained it, then marked where the seems of the OC 703 fell and smaller pieces of pine strips across the frame for support. I then corner cut at a 45 degree angle 4 pieces for each corner. Then to help support the panels on both sides, I cut out 2 small block shaped pieces. The strips, corner pieces and block ends were nailed into place with my brad nailer. Then I determined where I wanted the cloud (above my drum platform) and found the ceiling joists with a stud finder. Making sure that the located joists would match up with the frame, I screwed in 4 course thread heavy duty hooks. Then on the frame itself, I screwed in 4 heavy duty hooks to perfectly match up with the ones I put into the ceiling. Then I took 4 heavy duty turnbuckles and hung them by the hooks in the ceiling. I then picked up the frame and hung it from one end, then the other. Done with mounting. Then finally, I took my 3 2 foot by 4 foot pieces of OC 703 and placed them into the frame from the top. Then doubled up on the 703 panels to make the entire cloud 4 inches thick. All said and done, the absorption surface area is 4 feet by 6 feet. That makes the frame slightly larger than that size to accommodate the panels on the inside portion of the frame. It stands about 10 inches down below the surface of the ceiling and works fantastic for a drum cloud above the kit.

[Ryuben]

Originally Posted by SRS

They are 18 inches by 18 inches. Used 3/8 inch plywood for the backing and 2x2 pine for the pieces. I used wood glue to glue each piece in the backboard by hand. On my back wall, there are 8 of these 18"x18" panels, all next to one another.

Thanks for posting this information.
You're diffusers must have taken a lot of work - and they look great!

I have a couple of more questions if you don't mind:
Once you installed them, could you really hear a difference in the room?
What was your method of mounting each 18"x18" panel to the wall?

[SRS]

Originally Posted by Ryuben

Thanks for posting this information.

Once you installed them, could you really hear a difference in the room?
What was your method of mounting each 18"x18" panel to the wall?

They were a lot of work, but worth it. This is a secondary room that I track drums in, and yes, I could tell the difference, both in tracking and primarily when doing mixes. The diffusers are on the back wall, behind the mix position. This particular room is used to both track and do quick mixes. The mounting was pretty easy. Each of the 18" x 18" panels weighs about 23 lbs complete, so I drilled three holes in the "zero" spots, where there are no pieces of wood, and screwed them right in to the wall. This wall is a shear wall and has plywood behind the pine plank that you see. Used course thread drywall screws, 2 inches long.

[Ryuben]

Originally Posted by SRS

They were a lot of work, but worth it. This is a secondary room that I track drums in, and yes, I could tell the difference, both in tracking and primarily when doing mixes. The diffusers are on the back wall, behind the mix position. This particular room is used to both track and do quick mixes. The mounting was pretty easy. Each of the 18" x 18" panels weighs about 23 lbs complete, so I drilled three holes in the "zero" spots, where there are no pieces of wood, and screwed them right in to the wall. This wall is a shear wall and has plywood behind the pine plank that you see. Used course thread drywall screws, 2 inches long.

Thanks!

[Listenact]

Originally Posted by SRS

I could tell the difference, both in tracking and primarily when doing mixes.

Thanks for this! I've been considering building skylines for my room but a quick pass at the math made me realize how expensive it was to build them. I came up with $10-15 per sq ft. Ideally I'd like to diffuse three 4'x8' sections and they would cost +/-$500 each to build, not including the considerable time and labor.

Did you find your diffusers to be similarly costly, and do you think the difference you heard was worth it, (as opposed to just using absorption)?

Are there any other ideas for diffusion that I should consider? I'd like to keep my room as live as possible but I've got some flutter echo and combing issues.

Thanks!!

[TimeBandit]

Originally Posted by Ryuben

Thanks!

Im interested in the difussors you have hanging in the closet.Those are sweet looking!Did you build them?If so,can you elaborate?Materials,building plan?

Thanks

[Lonely Raven]

Originally Posted by Listenact

Thanks for this! I've been considering building skylines for my room but a quick pass at the math made me realize how expensive it was to build them. I came up with $10-15 per sq ft. Ideally I'd like to diffuse three 4'x8' sections and they would cost +/-$500 each to build, not including the considerable time and labor.

Did you find your diffusers to be similarly costly, and do you think the difference you heard was worth it, (as opposed to just using absorption)?

Are there any other ideas for diffusion that I should consider? I'd like to keep my room as live as possible but I've got some flutter echo and combing issues.

Thanks!!

It sure beats buying them by about 10X the cost! Good wood is expensive, and the weight needs to be considered as well.

Originally Posted by TimeBandit

Im interested in the difussors you have hanging in the closet.Those are sweet looking!Did you build them?If so,can you elaborate?Materials,building plan?

Thanks

Yeah, I've noticed those as well. There seems to be a specific spacing to those slats that cover the absorber portion. I've seen these, but never seen measurements nor plans for them.

[biggator6]

Sorry for the crappy cellphone pic.. but here's one of the ones I built (this one is in the drum room.. there's 2 more for the control room - one each over the listening position and the back of the room).

My friend does metal roofing/underdeck - and made me the frames out of lightweight aluminum gutter material.. the whole thing weighs about 12lbs. I had him add the 8" wide strip to mount the light fixture on it (with LED bulbs) - and I ran LED rope light along the inside edge of the cloud.. mounted it rigid about 3" off the ceiling. The cloud itself is 2" rockwool.
"-)

[Jeff19]

Originally Posted by SRS

Let me know if you need any more info, I can tell you everything I did to put it together and mount it. This thing was the easy build. The skyline diffusers on the back wall were another story!

Great work! I have a few questions. How did you get the burlap to "stick" to the 703 without sagging down? Did you spray glue it? Iron it? The edges look pretty clean from the pictures. I am looking to build some traps and I'm looking at my options.

I wonder if spray glue will add reflection to high frequencies before sound can hit the fiberglass???

BTW I am in the process of making the same exact diffusors. Wow, they are time intensive. I cut painted and glued over 600 blocks (well my girlfriend help ALOT). So that means you did about 1,300! It was fun and looks awesome, but wish is was easier. I'm glad to hear the traps were easier!!!

Jeff

[localhost127]

Originally Posted by Jeff19

Great work! I have a few questions. How did you get the burlap to "stick" to the 703 without sagging down? Did you spray glue it? Iron it? The edges look pretty clean from the pictures. I am looking to build some traps and I'm looking at my options.

I wonder if spray glue will add reflection to high frequencies before sound can hit the fiberglass???

Jeff

it is recommended against using any type of spray as that can clog the porous holes of the insulation and yield unexpected results of the absorber. although, you can always use the ETC response to verify this (along with the overall effectiveness of your absorber attenuating the ceiling reflection to your design requirements).

...although im sure a few small dabs of 3M spray in the corners of the panel would not be too detrimental; just refrain from coating the entire face of the panel.