Is 3" thick enough?

[Jens Eklund]

Originally Posted by TheGhanMan

Just special ordered 3 bags of safe n sound for $38 a bag at home depot! I also got some pieces of furring strip cut to make the frames(1x3x8 only $1.19 a peice). I am curious to know if 3" of insulation is going to be sufficient for my acoustic panels. Can someone please tell if this will the get the job done? Thanks!

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[TheGhanMan]

Forgive me for my lack of understanding, but I am lost lol. Does 3" of rock wool make a good bass trap?

[Jens Eklund]

Originally Posted by TheGhanMan

Forgive me for my lack of understanding, but I am lost lol. Does 3" of rock wool make a good bass trap?

No.

Bass Trap wool

[TheGhanMan]

So what would be the thickness? I was goona start making frames for 18 panels and hang them up, some straddled. Would this serve no purpose at all at 3"? If so, this is disappointing. The room is just being used to record pop/rock vocals, no mixing.

[avare]

Originally Posted by TheGhanMan

So what would be the thickness? I was goona start making frames for 18 panels and hang them up, some straddled. Would this serve no purpose at all at 3"? If so, this is disappointing. The room is just being used to record pop/rock vocals, no mixing.

For a good match make the panels 7" deep.

Andre

[TheGhanMan]

K I will try it out and see how it goes. Thanks for the replies guys!

[Glenn Kuras]

For panels straddling the corner you can use 4". I do recommend thicker or filling the corner - if you have the budget though.

[TheGhanMan]

Originally Posted by Glenn Kuras

For panels straddling the corner you can use 4". I do recommend thicker or filling the corner is you have the budget though.

I definitly have enough insultion because each bag comes with 12-3" batts and home depot said the minimum order was 3 bags so right now I am up to my ears in I calculated I could build 18 1.4'x4' panels that are 6" thick. Because the batts come 16" wide I was gonna settle with that width, but do you think I should make cuts and make them wider? Thanks Glenn

-Ghandi

[kasmira]

What are the dimensions of your room? 18 panels is a little overkill on the mids and highs unless its a huge room. There are many options of sizes to build with that much safe n sound.

You could build 16" soffit traps for the corners. The Safe n Sound is 16" x 48" - you would cut each batt into three 16" x 16" pieces. Since they are three inches thick, if you stack up the three 16" x 16" pieces, you will have 9" of a soffit trap. If you do this with 11 batts, you will have a full eight foot tall 16" x 16" trap you can use in any corner of your room.

You could use 4 batts per panel, making them 32" wide and 48" tall (or the other way around..) and 6" deep.

You could also use some remaining ones to make a few 3" panels. With a significant air gap, they will perform decent enough to remove some flutter echo and comb filtering.

Since you are ordering three packs, you could make the two 8' tall square soffit traps, and still have 14 batts left. I would probably make three 32" x 48" x 6" deep traps - two for first reflection points, and one on the back wall or a possible cloud. This would use up 12 of the 14 batts. With the last 2 you could make two 3" traps to control flutter echo, or you could use these two for a cloud instead of one of the larger ones.

[nms]

Take that Roxul and make yourself big 16x16" 8' high square soffit style bass traps if you want to tackle the low end. 2 of those in the front corners work wonders and better than superchunks. The front wall to ceiling corner is another hotspot. 3" thick slabs are fine for side wall use but you have to go THICK if you want to go low. The result should improve some of your worst low end holes and resonant peaks.

In terms of coverage it's better to have a room 50% covered with twice as thick panels than the opposite.

[TheGhanMan]

Thanks kasmira and nms for the great ideas!!! kfnkh How would I construct the frame for the soffit trap? And when u say front wall your speaking of the direction I will be singing right?

BTW my room is 10x9 with an angled ceiling that goeas from 10' to 9'.

-Ghandi

[nms]

lol! Sorry, I misread. If this is only for recording vox you don't need heavy bass traps at all.

[kasmira]

Originally Posted by nms

lol! Sorry, I misread. If this is only for recording vox you don't need heavy bass traps at all.

Oh man, you need to let us know stuff like this in the first post!

Haha!

Now, are you going to be strictly recording vocals in this place? Or do you use a DAW and have some monitoring in there as well?

If it is just for recording vocals, think about the polar patterns of your mic. The reflections going into the front face of the mic (where you sing into) will only come from the back wall or side walls. Wall in front of you could be treated as well, but it doesn't necessarily need to be first priority as no sound comes from the back of the mic. I would focus on treating the wall behind you a good amount and half of the side walls (that is, on your side of the mic) to keep from reflections going straight into the mic. Ceiling treatment is also just as important as side walls, for the same reasons.

Since your ceiling does have a tilt to it, I wonder if its better to face towards the high end, standing at the low end - or vice versa. Common sense would say its better to stand at the lower part of the ceiling and face the higher end, that way any reflections from your voice hit the ceiling and bounce forward in position, towards the front wall. But maybe this is not correct? Perhaps a 1' incline over 10ft isnt enough of a slope to really matter. Again, not sure on the direction.

[TheGhanMan]

Sorry guys about not posting that first lol So now that you know the rooms purpose, im gonna try out some of your revised ideas. Thanks again!

p.s.
When doing the breathe test for fabric, do i put my mouth against the fabric and blow or blow from a distance?

[kasmira]

Originally Posted by TheGhanMan

Sorry guys about not posting that first lol So now that you know the rooms purpose, im gonna try out some of your revised ideas. Thanks again!

p.s.
When doing the breathe test for fabric, do i put my mouth against the fabric and blow or blow from a distance?

I've always done it from a short distance, like 2" or so. The idea is, if it were wrapped around your head, would you be able to breathe fine?

Most fabrics work really. I recommend getting fire treated fabric or getting some fire re-tardant spray to help make sure if a fire were to happen, the panels wouldn't make it happen even faster.

[TheGhanMan]

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/attac...ans-ghandi.pdf

This link goes to a self drawn schametic of my vocal room alon with some pictures. Which direction do you think would be best for me to sing kasmira? Thanks again bro

[TheGhanMan]

Btw i moved the desk into my closet which will
be closed during recordings.

[Prime Mover]

The only problem with the breathing test is that there's a very big difference between wind and air vibration. Just think about your standard, studio-quality pop screen. Even at 2" away, you're not going to feel much wind through that thing, in fact, that's the point. Yet it doesn't color the sound at all. Same issue with absorption fabric.

Basically, any standard single-weave cotton or polyester should do fine. Muslin, Burlap, standard cotton, you name it. All you want to avoid is canvas, plastic, or high-thread-count fabrics that actually color the sound.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by TheGhanMan

I definitly have enough insultion because each bag comes with 12-3" batts and home depot said the minimum order was 3 bags so right now I am up to my ears in I calculated I could build 18 1.4'x4' panels that are 6" thick. Because the batts come 16" wide I was gonna settle with that width, but do you think I should make cuts and make them wider? Thanks Glenn

-Ghandi

If you are going to keep them 16" wide then I would make them around 16" thick. Pretty much end up with a soffit design. Width and depth do matter.
The following has a soffit design so you can understand what I am talking about.
GIK Acoustics: Room Setup

[nms]

He's just doing a vocal booth though Glenn so wouldn't need soffits right? He has way too much Roxul for a vocal booth lol. Surely the OP must have a room where music is actually being listened to for using up the rest?

Btw, about 16x16 Soffits.. My low end is now +/- 2db in the peaks & nulls due to them. Love them!

[ttown23]

Originally Posted by nms

lol! Sorry, I misread. If this is only for recording vox you don't need heavy bass traps at all.

Hahaha LOL that makes two of us that mis-read this post - I was thinking about 3 inches thick of something else!!!

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by nms

He's just doing a vocal booth though Glenn so wouldn't need soffits right? He has way too much Roxul for a vocal booth lol. Surely the OP must have a room where music is actually being listened to for using up the rest?

Btw, about 16x16 Soffits.. My low end is now +/- 2db in the peaks & nulls due to them. Love them!

sorry if he is doing only a vocal booth then no..

Glad to hear you had success with the design!!

[TheGhanMan]

I was thinking of putting a 4'x4'x3" Panel on the back wall. Will that provide good results or should I go thicker?

And for all those wondering, this room is mainly used for recording vocals and guitar. I will be doing the mixes through my headphones.

[TheGhanMan]

??

[HermanV]

If you treat the room right for mixing. You will most likely get good results for tracking vocals and guitars. you have 36 sheets total. I would make 12 panels that are 32 inches wide by 48 inches tall. Maybe make less panels and make some that are 6 inches thick (double) if you want to get serious about the low end. Do you have any pictures of the room or a drawing?

[TheGhanMan]

Thanks for replying with great advice too. Heres the link to my drawing and pics:http://www.gearslutz.com/board/attac...ans-ghandi.pdf

[avare]

This thread is cosiderably confused!

If you are making a vocal booth, 4" thick will provide significant absorption down to ~250 Hz for initial reflections.

Andre

[kasmira]

Originally Posted by TheGhanMan

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/attac...ans-ghandi.pdf

This link goes to a self drawn schametic of my vocal room alon with some pictures. Which direction do you think would be best for me to sing kasmira? Thanks again bro

I'm not one to answer this. Not too sure really. I'd say sing facing whichever direction allows you to put more trapping behind you. It looks like that would be singing towards the wall with the closet and the desk. I would probably put a 4x4 6" trap with an air gap directly behind you, and some traps to the side and above you. You can hang a trap on your door if need be. Otherwise I'd face the corner near the couch with your back to the empty corner as you have a lot of space to get trapping behind and in front of you. The corner is probably a bit easier as you won't have mic cables flowing through the room as much.

Acoustically speaking though I don't know much about mic placement, my comments are strictly based around treatment options. Please take my suggestions with a grain of salt, I am not nearly a professional at this.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Gearslutz App

[TheGhanMan]

Thanks bro!