How To Determine Which Acoustic Materials To Use and Where?

[Gatsby]

So I'm sure this question gets posted every week, it's a newbie question for sure, but here goes.

First off, I'm using a bedroom as a recording space. Thankfully (I think), it's much more than a square or rectangular room, there's a whole lot going on. For one, the walls don't meet the ceiling at a 90 degree angle, the side walls become angled walls that eventually become the ceiling. Right now though, I've almost made it into a rectangular room. My recording space consists of the three walls of a rectangular room and then I have a very long desk with things behind it like tall matresses acting as the fourth wall although it's only chest high. But anyways, the point is that the room is a very complex room.

So my question is how do I figure out what acoustic treatment the room needs? I've looked into foam panel absorbers, diffusers, and bass traps. But I don't know what the next step is. Even if I bought bass traps, diffusers, and foam panel absorbers from say Auralex, how the hell do I know where to then put those things in the room? And how do I figure out how many bass traps, diffuser panels, etc, that I need in the first place? Should I be playing electric guitar in different parts of the room, as well as acoustic guitar, as well as recording those two things and vocals to try and detect what problems exist? And again I am new to this, but I've heard about standing waves, flutter echo, an over buildup of bass frequencies, excessive high frequency reflections, etc. But yeah, those are my questions... And also, I have three windows that let in the noise of some modest traffic on a residential road 40 meters in front of the room and house, and I want to know, without replacing the windows with some that are more sound resistant, what can I do to reduce that outside noise? (And I don't mind covering up the three windows).

Thanks

[PaulP]

Originally Posted by Gatsby

So I'm sure this question gets posted every week, it's a newbie question for sure, but here goes.

Several times a day, actually .

A good place to start would be to read the documentation at these two
companies RealTraps and GIK Acoustics. If you read a few days worth,
better yet a few weeks worth, of posts here and in the other forum
Studio Building / Acoustics you'll acquire a very good idea of what to do.

Treating a room is not a simple task. I strongly suggest you put off doing
anything specific for a bit while you study up on the matter. At first it may
look very complicated, then things will start to make sense, then you'll
realize that you really don't understand much at all. After a few cycles like
this you'll hopefully reach a point where you have a good plan.

Paul P

[SAC]

Might I suggest that it helps to know what is happening acoustically in the room*, and from this perspective in combination with a coherent (and appropriate) acoustical room model/profile goal you can then begin to ascertain what treatment options will modify the reality of 'what is' into the desired response that corresponds to the desired profile..

There are plenty of ways to get from where you are to where you want to go, but you need a defined goal as well as an understanding of what is actually happening.

Without this, as they say, any route will get you there - and there are plenty of folks only too glad to tell you exactly how to get there.

You might want to begin by exploring a free tool such as REW (RoomEQWizard) and become familiar with making both frequency/waterfall plots as well as time domain measurements (impulse, ETC) responses....which can form a basis for understanding the actual room's response.


(*...what is actually happening, as opposed to napkin analysis or simply assumptions...)

[Gatsby]

Thanks for the responses Paul and SAC.

I'll be sure to check out those links Paul and read up on some past threads here. I was actually looking at the Real Traps website a bit already looking at the minigobos for guitar amps and the vocal booth thing as well. I'll have to revisit the site and read the documentation.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by SAC

You might want to begin by exploring a free tool such as REW (RoomEQWizard) and become familiar with making both frequency/waterfall plots as well as time domain measurements (impulse, ETC) responses....which can form a basis for understanding the actual room's response.

Room EQ Wizard Home Page