Acoustics help! Draping heavy curtain material from my ceiling? no no?

[SUGARCULT666]

I have fitted my control room out with auralex panels and bass traps just wondering what to do to the ceiling to decrease the reflection... I was thinking about hanging heavy material on the ceiling but have no idea of what it will do? I'm not too experienced with acoustics but I wan't a relatively cheap slution. Can anyone help?

[thenewyear]

dare I say it? -- try the search function. LOADS on this type of thing here and over at John Sayers' forum.

FWIW your Auralex panels are pretty much the right thing for cutting relflections so you could put some more up there but be careful because as well cutting reflections they will absorb HF so put too many up & you could end up with a bassy sounding room. And despite what the marketing literature says you Auralex bass traps can be thought of at best as 'Lo Mid Traps'.

The best approach is to tackle reflections and tonal balance simultaneously by using proper bass traps from the likes of RPG, Real Traps etc. These things are expensive but can be DIYed for far cheaper.

[SUGARCULT666]

I did a search and there is nothing with my question. I'm not that much of a handy man, I don't know how I'd go building an acoustic cloud but I just wan't to know wheather I should hang some fabric on the ceiling of leave it or put up more auralex panels?

[JuelzB]

Nobody can really answear your question over internet. Room Acoustics are way too complicated and depend on soooo many factors. Hanging more auralex in your room, may alter your reflections or damp your high frequencys but who knows how your room sounds !!???
It´s also very important to get the bass under control. Wanna know what I mean? Ok try this: Get a tone generator and play a (for example)50HZ Sine wave. Listen to it on your sweet spot, now walk around in your room. You´ll notice that at some places you won´t hear a damn thing and with just a step in another direction it might blast your brains out. Now imagine that this is happening with EVERY Frequency in your room! (Try 40, 60 or 1000 Hz) How can you be confident that something like that isn´t happening in your favourite listening position?
So if you want to achieve a good room treatment you have basically two options: find some literature on the subject and educate yourself or get a specialist because randomly adding so called "bass traps" and auralex etc... is like painting with your eyes shut (or even worse )!

Sorry for the long post, but i had to say something against these misconceptions about proper room treatment.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by SUGARCULT666

I have fitted my control room out with auralex panels and bass traps just wondering what to do to the ceiling to decrease the reflection... I was thinking about hanging heavy material on the ceiling but have no idea of what it will do? I'm not too experienced with acoustics but I wan't a relatively cheap slution. Can anyone help?

For the ceiling you want to look into 2 to 4" OC 703 or mineral wool panels. You would want to space them off the ceiling by 2".

Glenn

[TEMAS]

The drapes are not going to absorb a very wide range of frequencies. If you're looking for a material that will cover a wider frequency range, look for a panels made of rockwool or fiberglass.