I would like to make an isolation booth that can quickly be assembled for recording vocals or mic'ing amps.
My idea is as follows:
10 x 2" Panels of Owens Corning 705.
These will be covered in fabric (affixed with hot glue).
On the back of these panels there will be velcro strips.
I will put velcro strips on the walls of the studio at the points where high frequency absorption would be beneficial like the first reflection points, and most of the time the 705 panels will live at those spots.
When I want to record vocals I will take the 705 panels off of the wall and velcro them to some bungee cords that I have attached to the ceiling.
They will form a pentagon shaped vocal booth measuring about 38" across and 8' tall.
Thanks for the reply, Glenn. I have gotten 5 2x4 panels of 705 and wrapped them with fabric. I'm going to try my luck with the industrial strength Velcro.
I've also got enough Roxul mineral wool for 8 more bass traps. Since my space is so small I am going to try to do the ceiling corners. I have begin building wooden frames for those.
I will definitely be using eyebolts and bungees to suspend them.
Thanks for that link, JWL. The stands for the minis are very nice and I wish I could lose some floorspace for something like that. Unfortunately I have no room at all.
Of course, Glen was right about the Velcro. It stayed up briefly, but that was obviously not the way to go.
Instead I threaded chicken wire through each side of the 705 and through the cloth and made a picture frame-esque hanger.
Seems to work pretty well, but I wouldn't try it with more than one panel. I currently have three of the 705 panels suspended above my listening position on two bungees run the width of the room(they bulge downward significantly directly over my head, is that a problem?)
My ceiling is metal and I keep waffling on whether it is ok to drill, but I'm thinking I would lose at least some of my deposit...
I may try using clamps on the girders holding the ceiling up and tie the panels to those. If I do that of course they will be more permanent and I will have to get some more panels for the booth.
I built 3 of 8 frames tonight. Would have done more but my screw gun was out of batteries and my drill is a bit messed up at the moment...
I hope to finish the bass traps tomorrow and then start thinking about how to hang them.
I got four traps done in rough shape. The room sounds so much better even without placing them.
I would like some suggestions for trap placement for a room that is ... Don't laugh...
8.75' w x 11.4166' long x12.25' high.
Should I drop the ceiling (8')?
If so, should I make the new ceiling plywood or 703 or some combination of the two?
Once I have a room that's 8.75x11.4166x8. Where should I place my 12 x 4" bass traps?
where should I place the 5 x 2" 705 panels?
Oddities of the room to consider are an air conditioner 47" off the ground in the rear left corner and a metal isolation door in the rear right corner.
The ceiling is 12.25' high but it has two rafters at 4' intervals. There are also a couple of pipes and the entire thing is covered with that industrial fire ******ant spray foam.
Wow, that is quite a measurement. Remind me to buy the same measuring tape you have!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grovestand
Should I drop the ceiling (8')?
If so, should I make the new ceiling plywood or 703 or some combination of the two?
If you have the option, you should look at doing some large clouds or hanging a good few of your panels from the ceiling. With a height that large, you can really get some good space behind the traps which will boost performance of the traps.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grovestand
Once I have a room that's 8.75x11.4166x8. Where should I place my 12 x 4" bass traps?
where should I place the 5 x 2" 705 panels?
First reflection points, corners (don't forget the ceiling corners!), front wall (or back wall, or both). It really depends on how 'live' you want the room to sound, but I would definitely suggest treating corners and your first reflection points.
Wow, that is quite a measurement. Remind me to buy the same measuring tape you have!
If you have the option, you should look at doing some large clouds or hanging a good few of your panels from the ceiling. With a height that large, you can really get some good space behind the traps which will boost performance of the traps.
First reflection points, corners (don't forget the ceiling corners!), front wall (or back wall, or both). It really depends on how 'live' you want the room to sound, but I would definitely suggest treating corners and your first reflection points.
Haha, well it's 137 inches. So I did a little division.
As for the clouds and ceiling panels, I have three panels of 705 hung above the listening position at the moment, should I try to get the 4" 3lb density bass traps up there?
Are the 2" panels of 705 or 4" 3 lb mineral wool better options for first reflection points?
I have a few shelves up in the room. If I have a series of shelves about 6.5' off the ground (MDF metal brackets with gear stored above them) should I trap the corners under them or the ceiling corners or both?
Also, if one does hang a cloud should they still treat the corners at the ceiling of the room or should they treat the ceiling corners at the level of the cloud?
I don't want the room to sound live at all . I will be doing vocals and micing amps as well as mixing in here, because it is what I have, but the room doesn't sound great on its own so I will have to add ambience after the fact.
Also I have occasional drummers from the room next door, so the more mineral wool I can put on the Right wall the better.
Other thoughts include: covering the carpet floor with plywood (at least in part). Building a storage loft (but that would kill the advantage of the high ceilings I guess). Since a bass trap won't fit under the air conditioner, I could buy enough 703 (4 panels) to make a mini super chunk trap 36" high. I was also thinking about covering the walls with moving blankets or something to help with isolation, but perhaps I should just keep filling the room with fiberglass and eventually I won't hear as much low frequency bleed from the next room.
I suppose the answer to all of these questions is to try it and find out, but I appreciate the help and any more answers you can throw my way!
Thanks.
Last edited by Grovestand; 8th September 2012 at 12:20 PM..
Reason: A couple of mockups
Due to some issues (solid steel ceilings and walls that don't go all the way up, I had to make the following modifications:
Rear Ceiling Corners - 4" roxul hung parallel to the ceiling and a 2" 705 panel at a diagonal to the ceiling.
Middle ceiling corners- 4" Roxul hung parallel to the ceiling flush with the wall.
Front ceiling corners - 4" Roxul bridging the corners.
Front Center - 3 panels 705 in a cloud over the listening position staggered towards the center of the room.
Front floor corners - 8" Roxul (2x4" traps stacked) bridging the corners.
Please see the attached photos and offer any suggestions you might have.
Can you tell me what roxul product that is and if it is a sub for 705?
It's Roxul SAFE and it's not rigid. It's 3lb/cubic foot like 703.
See my first post for a picture of it in the packaging.
I bought it In NYC at Metro Building Supply in Long Island City.
Edit: I uploaded a sketchup file of the studio with the current treatment. I plan on moving the two shelves that are at 48" up to be at the same height as the other shelf (84").
Do I need to trap the corners under these shelves?
I could buy a couple sheets of 703 and make some miniature super chunks
(Each sheet could make 1 - H12"xL12"xW32" Right Triangle)
If I bought 6 more panels of 703 I could do mini chunks in the rear left corner and under the three shelves then build a 2 inch trap 2 inches off the wall behind the door (see second sketch up).
Great! Thanks it sounds MUCH better. I hope to do measurements soon.
I didn't really solve my modular vocal booth issue yet but I have a design in the works.
I realized that by leaving the bass traps in the front floor corners unattached, I can move them to the rear floor corners when mixing and move them back for everyday room use to keep them out of the way.
Still cleaning up from all the construction and putting gear back where it goes. I will measure once everything is set up.
My original thought was to do 5 panels of 703 cut longways and converted into 8'x1' panels stabilized by a wooden frame attached to the ground.
When not in use, the panels can be put near the walls to function as additional traps.
Then I thought that a lot of material would be wasted at the floor, so maybe I should make 10 4'x1' traps and build brackets for them to keep them 2.5' off the ground.
Do I run the risk of removing all the highs and mids from my room with so much area covered by 2" 703?
If I made 10 panels that would mean 20 furring strips throughout the room, could that cause unwanted reflections? Would the amount of wood make the improvised vocal booth too reflective?
I would just make 5 traps 2x4, but they would be a bit hard to move. I suppose I could just build the frames and hang the panels from them by wire.
Edit, added some mockups of the vocal panels. the yellow stuff is 703. the feet would be 2" on one side and 4 on the other.
I have found that building stands out of Furring strips that are capable of holding up 2'x4'x2" panels that swing out on hinges to make a booth is very difficult. I have revised my design a bit and I will post it once my prototype is complete. Suffice it to say that it will have a 4" bass trap as the back wall 5 walls of 703 (from 2.5'-6.5') and a roof made of 703 at about 7' slanting down to 6.5'.
We will see.
In the meantime, I finally got REW to work on my mac (I routed the input of my RME UCX into ableton then the output of ableton into sound flower, then I used the sound flower input for the Default audio input for the system and the UCX as the default output. After getting rid of the feedback loop that I accidentally created it worked well (I think).
I really don't know what I'm looking at with these results. Perhaps you can take a look at my results and let me know what you think?
I will read the sticky on interpreting REW measurements.
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. I will be doing vocals and micing amps as well as mixing in here, because it is what I have, but the room doesn't sound great on its own so I will have to add ambience after the fact.
