Photo journal of remodel: polys, clouds, & traps (was: a work in progress)

[betserd]

Looks good! I like the polys, these things are great!

[johndykstra]

Thanks alot.

Hoping to actually finish building those polys some day, still only have the one. I'll probably get to it before we start tracking the next record, but we've been busy playing shows and writing, so I guess that's a good thing.

[johndykstra]

Did some drastic work in the control room yesterday.

We built a false wall 4" thick rockwool floor to ceiling covering the front wall. Installed a 2" cloud over the mix position, and two 2' sq. skylines on the ceiling at the back of the room. Filled the closet around the tape machine with the old 18" foam bass traps, and put up 5 2" thick wall panels. The only back corner is covered with a 4" thick (3" air gap) 8' tall bass trap. Closet is covered with a thick curtain.

In the sketch, the ceiling treatments mentioned above are translucent.

As you can see, there aren't any bass traps in the front corners yet. Mulling over some possibilities. The bass response in the room seems very good already, so my main concern is to cover the gaps at the edge of the false wall. Particularly because there's a window behind there, and the light spill will look corny.

Considering that the response is already decent, I think I may put in some 1' corner chunks. Don't know that I would have the real estate for much larger.

I'll post some pictures next week some time.

[johndykstra]

here's a sketch of my chunk idea.

obvioulsy just the frame. it'd be filled with rockwool, and wrapped in fabric. I'd allow clearence to the floor for the base molding, and the corner that hangs out into the room I'd put a brace to support the load. Solid panel along the one edge will allow the panel to be screwed to the wall, and the skeleton edge will allow air flow to the false wall and corner.

Opinions?

[Weasel9992]

Originally Posted by dykstraster@gmai

here's a sketch of my chunk idea.

obvioulsy just the frame. it'd be filled with rockwool, and wrapped in fabric. I'd allow clearence to the floor for the base molding, and the corner that hangs out into the room I'd put a brace to support the load. Solid panel along the one edge will allow the panel to be screwed to the wall, and the skeleton edge will allow air flow to the false wall and corner.

Opinions?

1' on the angled sides won't be enough. Ours are 17" per angled side if that helps you at all. That gives them a 24" face and a 12" depth.

Frank

[johndykstra]

Originally Posted by Weasel9992

1' on the angled sides won't be enough. Ours are 17" per angled side if that helps you at all. That gives them a 24" face and a 12" depth.

Frank

thanks for the reply Frank, take a look at this detail.

Between the wall panel and the false wall, I'm left with just over a foot of wall space. If I were to build my 1' chunks, they would take advantage of the area behind them occupied by the false wall. I could fairly easily also stuff the remaining corner next to the false wall with material, extensibly making the trap just over a 1' and a half thick.

Again though, although I haven't measured, I'm very happy with the response of the room so far. But I wouldn't turn down an improvement either. I simply don't have the realestate to build chucks that large, and a panel trap wouldn't look as finished angled there.

[Weasel9992]

I see. If it's not too much work for you, then go for it...probably won't be a HUGE improvement, but any improvement is good improvement, right?

Frank

[johndykstra]

Word. We shoulda just built the false wall to the edges, but I didn't want to cut insulation. Funny... now on the corners I will be cutting quite a bit. Ah well.

Thanks Frank

[johndykstra]

Here's some photos of the control room so far (MAN I didn't realize how dusty everything is still!

1. - I have the tape machine covered with a garbage bag and towels through out the process, just took it off at the end for the photo.)

2. - Guitar player works at a music store, and the only decent cables they sell are Monster. Not my first choice, but when you're getting a discount, it's hard to say no. Under the desk, you can see how we constructed the false front wall. I measured how much height differential there was between the room and my 8' tall panels. Much easier to have a moving fulcrum to work with when trying to wedge the wall in there level.

3. - Skyline diffusors came from the same music store, these are old samples from a company that has since gone out of business...(free) They are stuffed with cotton remnents from all the different traps, and stapled using 2" air staples to the plaster lat ceiling.

4. - Shot of the mix position. The four panels for the front wall were brought from the basement individually, then the two on the left were fastened together...then the two on the right. Simply wasn't enough room to make them one solid wall, so it's in two chunks. Before we wrapped the finish fabric around the wood frames, We wrapped the traps with cotton batting, so there'd be a little forgiveness on crap edges.

I'll post some more later

[Weasel9992]

Looks great John.

Frank

[johndykstra]

Originally Posted by Weasel9992

Looks great John.

Frank

Thanks buddy

[johndykstra]

1. - Right of mix postion, with mixer and rack

2. - Left of mix, tape remote

3. - Machine room/closet. An attempt to disperse the power cable for the Ghost, without coiling.

4. - I'm using the 18" traps to prevent dust bunnies from collecting in the closet. Funny, but even after spending a few hundred dollars on foam traps, when you compare them to actual bass traps, they're just useless. Better than nothing in the closet though. In the other two photos, you can see I'm also temporarily using the 8" foam traps wedged in the corners along the edges of the false wall. These will be replaced at some point.

[johndykstra]

fourth one didn't upload before..

And one more of the ceiling. I love how these skylines look. As far as performance goes, before they were up, there was some wicked flutter going on in the back half of the room. Now it's all but gone. Keep in mind, this is with no rug on the floor.

Still going to get some bass traps for the front wall corners, and possibly the wall ceiling corners on the side walls.

[opdev]

We have a similar project and this thread feels like I have received the keys to the kingdom to get started.....

[avare]

Originally Posted by opdev

We have a similar project and this thread feels like I have received the keys to the kingdom to get started.....

Welcome and good luck! Please note in the first post the last paragraph regarding knowledge and it giving you the potential to achieve teh best possible at possibly lower cost than without it (the knowledge). Take your time on the design phase and enjot the great results.

BTW my tag line refers to time involved.


Andre

[johndykstra]

Here are a few more threads dedicated to details:

Control Room:

Very small control room remodel... less absorption ETC

Poly Diffuser build:

D. I. Y. Polys

[thecount_x]

I just noticed this thread and I wanted to offer a big Thank-you to all who have contributed. I found the discussion about the cloud particularly enlightening.

Many thanks

Clifton

[johndykstra]

Thanks Clifton,

glad it helped!

[hereticskeptic]

Excellent thread! Props to Andre for making me aware of it. Now I'm more excited than I was a few hours ago about treating my room.

I think I'm going to take a break from researching design, construction and asking questions and just relax. I've been going at this acquiring knowledge thing for about 10 days in a row, at a rate of maybe 10+ hours per day. Before that, it was still several hours per day, researching gear and such. Besides, I haven't gotten full permission by my lady to turn our bedroom into a recording/mixing palace anyway.

I absolutely cannot wait to get a new place, with a separate room reserved solely for music. Should be this summer, but I have an album to record now, that can no longer wait. Ah....the joys of independent music.

Congrats on your room John! I haven't even gotten into diffusion yet. My brain needs a breather, and the room needs absorption before I can even think about delving into that realm of things, haha!

[johndykstra]

Props to Andre for all the help with it.

10 days huh?

I've been reading almost strictly acoustics about 4-5 hours a day since my "birth" here. Lots still to learn.

I'm glad you're finding some useful info here.

Sketchup is crucial.

[hereticskeptic]

Yeah, not very long, I know haha.

It's been about 3-4 months researching something every day though, so it feels like an eternity, especially when I don't even have all the gear to record in an untreated room. Waiting for some gear to arrive tomorrow, so I'm getting closer, but now I just wish I had my own room to turn into a studio, so that I'd be confident I'm getting the best possible recordings.

We'll see how things go with the dynamic mic set up though. Could be okay for now. I can tell that treatment in itself is something that may never stop being researched and adjusted. Kinda cool!

10 days ain't long at all. This is my first time looking into treatment though, so every single thing I'm learning is completely brand new. My mind is exhausted, excited and amazed all at the same time. I just hope I'm not making a mistake with my cloud revision (switching plans from 2" panels spaced 2" from ceiling, to 4" spaced 4" from ceiling). It's like, you get told one thing by guys who know their stuff, and then you get told something different by guys who also now their stuff.

I figure it's time to just get started though. You can debate and puzzle over which way to approach things, what gear to get and never get a recoding done. I'm juuuust about ready to get a start, test out the product and go from there.

These forums are so dope man! I feel fortunate to have stumbled upon this one and a few others while researching gear, as I may have started building my studio without once considering the importance of good treatment (emphasis on good). It's always proper to do things right the first time, you know? In my case, that'll be more like "as right as you can for the time being." Haaaa!

[johndykstra]

right on skeptic,

welcome to the club. the helpful and friendliness of this place is why I've been coming back for so long.

good luck on your journey, and keep on asking questions!

john

[hereticskeptic]

Thanks John! I appreciate the welcoming and kind words of encouragement. Studying up on monitors and trying to make a decision now...