Safe and Sound Roxul for corner traps

[girlthatdrums]

Due to cost, I'm thinking about getting some Roxul Safe and Sound to make corner traps.

This is a control room so I want the best listening experience. I've got 703 but only 10 sheets left (a friend purchased some from me before I realized how much I needed and now won't sell it back ) so I'm just across the border from Home Depot Canada which carries the Roxul Safe and Sound.

The room is 20' long x 11' wide, with 8' ceilings. The plan is to put traps in all 4 corners, floor to ceiling, with 6" - 9" of Roxul.

1) Is 6" thickness ok, or should I go with 9" Or should I just pack it full as much as I can fit into the frame I built in the corner? (more than 9")

2) Should I abandon this plan and just get more 703 or 705?

The plan is to then take the 703 and make panels out of it to cover my first reflection points, and build a diy diffusor for the back wall.

[PlugHead]

Originally Posted by girlthatdrums

Due to cost, I'm thinking about getting some Roxul Safe and Sound to make corner traps.

This is a control room so I want the best listening experience. I've got 703 but only 10 sheets left (a friend purchased some from me before I realized how much I needed and now won't sell it back ) so I'm just across the border from Home Depot Canada which carries the Roxul Safe and Sound.

The room is 20' long x 11' wide, with 8' ceilings. The plan is to put traps in all 4 corners, floor to ceiling, with 6" - 9" of Roxul.

1) Is 6" thickness ok, or should I go with 9" Or should I just pack it full as much as I can fit into the frame I built in the corner? (more than 9")

2) Should I abandon this plan and just get more 703 or 705?

The plan is to then take the 703 and make panels out of it to cover my first reflection points, and build a diy diffusor for the back wall.

WRT corner traps, the thickness of the bats won't matter (most likely) if you stack them one on top of another. That is, unless you're building frames to house them, then disregard my advice.

IME, I took the 4 ft. Roxul bats and cut the length in 1/2, then triangulated cuts diagonally to make 4 triangular pieces/bat and stacked them with the 90 deg. end into the wall corner (stacked floor to ceiling) and covered them with black fabric. Simply, easy, effective.

I hope this helps,

[PaulP]

Filling the entire corner is common practice but seeing as you are fairly far
north (ie you get winter) I'd be a bit concerned about condensation occuring
within the insulation of your trap during the cold season.

Normally there's a plastic vapour barrier towards the inside of the house that
prevents moisture getting to where it's cold in the insulation and condensing
there. By putting a lot of insulation in front of the vapour barrier the warm
humid air will meet the cold inside your corner trap. For this reason I plan on
making my corner traps 8" thick and have holes at the top and bottom for air
to circulate a bit (or you could just not extend your traps all the way to floor
and ceiling).

Paul P

[girlthatdrums]

Ah yes, duh, I will just stack them in triangular layers. And good tip about the ventilation, I will do this as well. I am running a dehumidifier in here also, but can't hurt to let them vent a little too.

Thanks!

[DanDan]

Roxul make very fine products, both acoustically and health wise.
What are you trying to achieve. Is this a mix/listening room, or a recording room?
Drums don't like a lot of absorption. A cloud is generally welcome. Sheets of ply laid against the walls at an angle kill flutter but keep a woody liveness. (Ahem!)
If it's a mix room, SuperChunks using low density 2-3pcf fibre will work just great. Safe and Sound is 2.5 pcf and cheap I believe.
You could do the same with 703. Note Corner Straddling traps, particularly with FRK perform really well for much less money. Plus, no condensation issue. Great DIY info at studiotips - tips on studio design, acoustics, and wiring
DD

[girlthatdrums]

This is for the control room in my studio. I want this room as controlled as I can make it for a project studio.

My live room will come in another thread next week I'm sure. lol I've got cathedral 12' tall ceilings in that room where I primarily will be recording drums. It's got a great sound now totally untreated, but it does need to be tamed.

I'm saving much of my 703 for that room, so that's why I'm using the roxul for the corner traps in this room.

[DanDan]

OK. There is a wealth of great DIY detail at the home of the SuperChunk,
studiotips - tips on studio design, acoustics, and wiring
Here's a very clever SSC construction. Those corner braces hold the triangles in place ( they can topple out during construction!) Plus it provides six places to screw on the front fabric frame. Genius.
Corner Traps finally finished! - Home Theater Forum and Systems - HomeTheaterShack.com
DD

[girlthatdrums]

Hey, thanks a bunch for that link, I already had a topple out and put a music stand in front of it for now until I finished cutting all the triangles. I think I will use this method instead! I had planned on just placing a piece of wood diagonally across on top and bottom to attach to, but this certainly solves the topple problem!

[DanDan]

Yes it does prevent toppling. When you get to attaching a front frame/fabric you will be even more delighted with that little cross brace.

Best, DD

[girlthatdrums]

So I went ahead and built the first one using the post from home theater shack as a guide. I want to also put a little trim on either side just to make it that much "cleaner" but not so bad for my first try. I ended up using black burlap.


Braces. I ended up making three of these per corner. Floor, ceiling, middle.


Test fit of the frame for the canvas.


Filled with Roxul safe and sound triangles.


Screen installed.

Now I've got three more to go, and 4 in the live room!

[DanDan]

Well done, that looks excellent.
It's a little late but not too late but....
You mix room could probably use the wider SSC's 34 inch. They take twice the amount of fibre, but they rock, particularly if the walls are concrete.
DD

[PlugHead]

perfect!

Better job than mine...

Tho at the end of the day - so long as it works! thumbsup

[girlthatdrums]

Yeah, I had wanted to go wider, but what you can't see on the floor is baseboard heat that I can't get too close to... I am still going to be putting more traps on the walls, so I should be able to get something fairly respectable in here...

Only thing I don't like about these is the frame shows through the black canvas a bit, this is why I'm going to put a little trim on it, it will also clean up the edges. I would just leave it, but I just spent a lot on this room getting the drywall perfected by a professional because I was tired of working on it.

[DanDan]

Heat wouldn't bother these. Perhaps you could paint the frame black or use add another layer of fabric. The do look great as is IMHO.
If you are up for a bit of experimentation here's a thing.
You could include a layer of plastic or paper under the fabric. You would probably have to do this to all four to get a clear result but why not try one to begin with?
Use FuzzMeasure or REW to take before and after shots of the room.
I am hoping that the paper would significantly increase the LF absorption, shortening the modal ringing. It should also return a little HF brightness to the room.
DD

[Trulsux]

Hello everyone,
I´m in the process of making some superchunks ( great thread here) and I´m wondering if there are some rules to what fabric to use for the front of them. Does it matter what thickness etc or is that just beeing to anal......

Cheers/
Truls

[DanDan]

Fabric that you can blow through. Hessian is good but kinda see through. Guilford of Maine and Camira are Pro. I have used painters spill sheets.
DD

[girlthatdrums]

My heaters are electric baseboard with large warnings about keeping all drapery and cords away from them so I played it conservative. I'll experiment with the paper idea though, that might work...
I just want to get some basics up first, then run some calculations and see where I'm at.