Acoustic sound treatment question!?!?

[playagibson]

I used a combination of Auralex bass traps and diffusers that Long & Mcquade sells.
I saved some money that way.
I also added the diffusers Auralex recommend for the ceiling and what a difference it has made,
Acoustic insulation ( Rockwool ) works well and I'm going to buy some for two corners in my room where the
door and window is since I can't run bass traps up the wall.
With the insulation you have to build frames and cover the insulation with burlap.
You should also hang it two inches away from the wall or ceiling to allow more bass absorption.

[andygabrys]

Acoustic insulation ( Rockwool ) works well and I'm going to buy some for two corners in my room where the
door and window is since I can't run bass traps up the wall.

actually the room has 4 vertical 90 degree corners, and 8 horizontal 90 degree corners - 4 on the roof and 4 on the floor.

if you can't treat the vertical corners, putting panels spanning the corners between the walls and ceilings can help with bass trapping. putting panels across the floor / wall corners is likely not practical cause there is where all your stuff is.

You should also hang it two inches away from the wall or ceiling to allow more bass absorption.

this is actually easy to do. cut spacers from 2"x2" and hang them on the backs of the panels against the wall, or (no joke here) cut 2" rings off some 750ml yogurt containers (or 2 L pop bottles and use them as spacers on the backside.

[playagibson]

Those are great ideas Andy.
I've seen photo's of mastering studios
Where they hung Rockwool panels from the ceiling
near the walls and they angle the panels
at the wall to absorb the bass that collects at the corners.
I'm going to try that .
I also have Arc 2 and running that after installing
the panels has made a world of a difference .
I also find mixing at a lower volume is essential.
Especially for getting the bass right. Once you
get a feel of how the bass should sound at a low
volume, mixing starts to get easier.

[brentmagstadt]

We're finally at a point of getting our room tuned. I haven't yet made the bass traps, though I'll probably use a combo of Ultratouch (which also lines all the walls), Knauf Insulation (similar to 703), and 1/4" plywood, designed to fit our corners (vaulted). Yet to be determined.

For reflections I used the 2"x2'x4' Knauf. I built 2" deep frames (ripped from 1"x3" pine) that fit the insulation exactly. We then hand dyed a bucketload (no joke) of muslin into cool colors, and, after fitting the insulation inside the frames, stapled the muslin on the frames, covering both the front and back. They work amazing and look pretty cool too.

Not yet sure about diffusion, and will reserve judgement until the above is complete. It's a 24' long room, so we'll see.

[BruceBrown]

I treated my room with 9 2'x4' panels I made myself. Saved a bunch of money by doing it myself. Used Corning 703 panels, 2" pine frames, burlap and staple gun. Google making your own sound treatment panels and you'll find plenty of info.
I have bass traps in all 4 corners, 2 panels behind my mix area, panels to left and right of mix area for early reflections and one sound cloud above my head.
Made a huge difference.
If your handy and wanna take a few days to make them you'll be happy with them.
good luck
Bruce

[jonathansorensen]

I went completely DIY and bought owens corning 703 and 705 for bass traps. Built the frames, covered them with fabric. Works great but to be honest, with the volume these companies put out, I barely saved a cent and had to do a lot of work. I would say, save yourself the time and buy from them.

What was really cool though, when West LA music went out of business, I walked in after all their big sales and said, if I pull the aurelex off the walls for you, can I have it for 30 bucks? Got a s**t load for nothing. Sweeeet!

Jon

[andygabrys]

It's a 24' long room, so we'll see.

a 24' long room is great!

I have heard of people making a "dead end" and a "live end".

they started by putting bass traps in the vertical corners, panels on wall behind the workstation and the side walls at first reflection points and a cloud. So the end of the room where the workstation and monitors are is the "dead end".

Then except for the bass trapping on the back of the room (the other end from the workstation), they put up diffusers to keep things lively but in control. I am guessing this would lead to a much more gratifying acoustic guitar sound than recording it in a really dead room.

It will be interesting to see how yours shakes out.

[TomS]

I made 12 4x2 rockwool traps over a couple of days. I think it worked out at about 30 euro a trap. The cheapest I've seen a guy selling similar for here is 90 euro each. There are a load of tutorials on youtube for making them.

I totally killed my room though. Square room, 2 traps in each corner, 2 each side of me, 2 behind, a mattress in front and a large square of acoustic foam on the ceiling. If you talked in the room you could hear your voice die just after it left your mouth
Right where I sat in front of my monitors was a 'null spot'??, I had to move back a few feet to the wall to hear any bass.
The last month I have moved my studio into the room next door, which is bigger and rectangle, and spread the traps between the two rooms and now I'm using the old square room with less traps as my live amp and mic room.

[NathanNasby]

Thanks for all the thoughts everyone. I've gotten several quotes from the companies suggested. I know I could make the traps and diffusers. Actually in the first studio me and my brothers had we did build a lot of the sound treatment products. For me I've never had the opportunity before to work in a studio that was more professionally treated so I'm finally going to bypass the DIY and go with a professionally designed system and really compare the sound and how it affects my mixing ears ! Then I can look back and either say, yes it's worth the dollars, or That was an expensive experiment ! Either way I'll have saved a lot of time which I don't really have right now to be building stuff.

All that said I am leaning more towards Auralex for the simple reason of the quality of blueprints and accessibility. A lot of these companies either don't ship to Canada, or charge upwards of 400.00 to ship everything. A full room treatment with a isolation booth and some of the smaller goodies (monitor isolation pads, mic isolator, etc.) Came in at around 2200.00. Compared to the cost of most of my other equipment this is a reasonable investment. Especially considering I can take all these products with me if I move my studio or change rooms. etc.

Just getting a few more quotes and doing some final thinking, and then I'll make my final decision. I'll be sure to post pics when I get it figured out and done !

Thanks again everyone!

[andygabrys]

good point on shipping to Canada.

try this one: http://www.primacoustic.com/ if you haven't already sourced out their stuff.

good luck.