Help for a complete beginner

[into the white]

I decided it is finally time to take the advice of this entire board and treat my room before upgrading any of my other recording chain. I've been skimming this forum for advice, but most of the info goes way over my head. If possible, I'm interested in the basic idea of what I need in my room to treat it: how many bass traps and where, etc. The room is very small with a plywood floor. These are the dimensions:

8'5" x 9' 2", 7' 2" high.

I am likely going to end up doing this extremely budget (i.e. homemade stuff with Owens Corning rather than professionally made bass traps, etc). I assume there is more to it than just covering all the walls in fiberglass, however, so anyone who can steer me in the right direction would be helping me a ton. Thanks!

[Weasel9992]

You're right, that's really small, but you can work with it. Trap all four corners floor to ceiling, at least two more on the back wall...2" panels at the first reflection points, above your head and behind the monitors.

Try this link: http://www.gikacoustics.com/room_setup.php

That should give you a pretty good explanation of what should go where.

Good Luck,
Frank

[into the white]

For the corners, how wide do I want the traps to be? Would I be able to have 1 ft wide, 4 inches thick, and then span from floor to ceiling? I'm willing to cut the panels up and frankenstein them together.

[Weasel9992]

Generally they're 2'x4'...they don't have to be, but it's an easy size. I guess you'll have to prefab them a bit shorter than that to go floor to ceiling.

Frank

[into the white]

Okay so here is my intitial idea:

1) Each of the four corners with 4" thick panels (math tells me that each corner will require 4 48x24x2 panels, cutting the top ones all by about 10 inches)

2) A panel, 2 inches thick, at each reflection point on the back wall

3) A panel behind the monitors

4) A couple 2" panels suspended 2" below the ceiling.

Which leaves me with a few questions:

-This calls for 21 of the 2 inch thick panels. Does that sound adequate for the four steps above? Are the four steps above enough to make a noticable difference? The room is going to be mostly for tracking.

-Do I need to get Owens Corning 703 or can I settle for some sort of rockwool product? I am aiming to not build frames, so whatever I use needs to be rigid enough. I'm getting the picture that I can go much cheaper than oc703 but not face a big drop in absorption quality at all. Please let me know if this is true, and what some cheaper alternatives are.

-What should I do with the side walls?

Thanks a lot. I know I am asking a lot but I feel like I've come to the right place.

[Weasel9992]

You'll need more like 25.

- I'd do 4" panels on the back wall (add 2 panels)
- Add one 2" panel at the first reflection points to your left and right. Use a helper with a mirror to help you calculate this.

This is enough to make a big impact on the acoustic soundness of the room. You'll notice an immediate difference after you're done.

OC703 is great. Rockwool is absolutely fine too. 703 is a little easier to work with because it's more rigid than rockwool, but that's about it. If you've got a line on a good rockwool source, go for it...you won't suffer in the bargain.

Make sure you get an acoustically transparent fabric. The test is to hold it up in front of you and blow through it...if some of your breath gets through it, it'll work.

You're off to a good start. Good Luck!

Frank

[into the white]

Alright so I did a bit of research. I'm in Massachusetts, so if anyone has any suggestions on where to find either Owens Corning or Roxul, please let me know. In the meantime I already did find two places within 75 minutes of me, where I found these options:

1) OC703 w/FSK: $1.58 a sq/ ft., so total of about $305 for 24 2" panels

2) Roxul RHT 80: $0.74 a sq/ft, so total of about $150 for 24 2" panels.

Now my questions here are do I call the place with the Owens back and ask if they have unfaced? I am not focusing on any specific frequency of absorption, so FSK is probably going to hurt me more than help me, right? If they don't have unfaced, can I just peel the FSK off?

Secondly, is the RHT 80 too dense? They didn't carry the 60, so unless anyone knows where to get that around here, I pretty much would have no option outside the 80. Also, I know this material is less rigid than OC, but would I be able to get away with it holding its shape in a fabric wrapping? Owens might be worth the extra money if it is going to sound significantly better and require less work to set up, but if the RHT 80 is fine I'd love to know.

[jwl]

Try SPI, they have a location in Auburn, MA:

Boston, MA (Insulation)
14 Sword Street
Auburn, Massachusetts 01501
508-792-1133
508-753-7145 FAX
auburn@spi-co.com

[into the white]

SPI is the location with the OC703 but I believe they only had FSK and ASJ. I'm curious to know about the Roxul 80 just because it's so much cheaper.

[avare]

There is nothing unique to Owens Corning 703. It is 3lb/ft^3 fiberglass. Roxul 80 is an 8lb/ft^3 mineral wool product. The important thing acoustically is the absorption of the material. As absorbers (specifically in this case bass traps) are made thicker to absorb lower frequencies, lighter (less dense and possibly cheaper) material can be used. For a bit more on what material to use read this thread.

Andre

[nickolo]

Check out an article in Sound on Sound [uk recording mag] published last year,i think.They helped build diy panels and traps for Midge ure 's home studio in a show you how article.Look on the sound on sound website for reference etc...