Sound Treatment

[ResonantTone]

I’ll respectfully disagree with ya there, at least in my context. I knew there were issues, and took a broad swipe at em without getting into the analytical side. I’m pretty happy with the result as well. (For now, lol)

I’ll definitely check out room eq wizard for future reference though. I have to tune rooms for live gigs all the time using a Behringer X32 and a little ecm8000 rta mic, so the process of getting into that side of things doesn’t sound too terrible. (Obviously how the issues are addressed is a little different)

Andrew

[waveheavy]

This is one of the main issues that causes me to not trust my monitor mixes at present.

I'm in a small rectangular room in my basement. My desk is situated on the long wall, which it should instead be on one of the short walls. I don't have bass traps, no absorbers for first order reflections, but I did install Roxul Safe'n'Sound in my ceiling. I have more Roxul for building absorbers and bass traps, just haven't done it yet.

My plan is for bass traps from floor to ceiling in the four corners. Desk on the short wall. A large area bass trap on the rear wall. One absorber each on the front wall behind the monitors, and one absorber each on the sides for first order reflections. Then check the room frequencies and correct from there. I don't have to do a ceiling absorber cloud above the mix position because of the Roxul in the ceiling that I will cover with fabric. I'll probably have to get a couple of diffusers to add some life back into the room because of it being small.

The trick to finding first order reflections is to sit in your mix position while someone holds up a mirror on the side walls. When you can see your monitors in the mirror, that's a first order reflection point and needs an absorber.

[MBantle]

Hey all!

Figured I share a little about my recent experience with sound treatment. It's been something I've been contemplating working on for a couple years, but only since joining taxi have I really been motivated to really get on the ball a bit.

My room is a fairly small office area in my basement, and it's a bit weird shaped, but mostly rectangular. I kinda figured it had a few issues, but I didn't really know to what extent. I decided to drop a little cash into some auralex bass traps and sound absorption panels. Getting them mounted was a pain at first, but once I figured out a decent, non-permanent solution that worked, it wasn't too bad.

During the process, I also uncoupled (not sure if this is the right term) my Yamaha HS6's from my desk by putting some sound panels underneath them. Apart from creating a barrier for more accurate bottom end, it also helped raise the level of my monitors up about 3 inches which ended up being a lot better for overall placement.

After it was all said and done, I'm a little blown away by what I'm hearing. Some of it could be placebo I suppose, but I'm able to hear stuff I was not able to hear before. Everything actually seems louder. The bottom end definitely has appeared out of nowhere it seems, and there is a clarity that I didn't have before.

Suffice it to say, I'm really happy I spent the money to help get the room a little bit less troublesome. I'm sure it probably has a few issues, but it feels lightyears ahead of where it was before. If you're debating between dropping a few hundred bucks on a new set of plugins or some sound treatment, my vote is the soundtreatment by a longshot.

Andrew

I feel you Andrew... I eventually gave up so kudos to you! These days I have the monitors in my man cave up just for simple composing stuff and casual listening...Everything else I do with Analysers (e.g. HOFA), References (e.g. via Ozone) using the SPL Cross Feed Headphone Amp and Sennheisers HD 650... Really feeling the bass is something I cannot accurately simulate with my setup but for most of the stuff I do I am doing fine... We are getting older eventually so Analysers will become sort of inevitable anyway unless you are one of a kind and still able to hear +16k in your carefully treated room at the age of 85 Please keep us in the loop! Cheers, Matt

[ochaim]

Is the Roxul in your ceiling behind the drywall? or is the Roxul exposed?

This is one of the main issues that causes me to not trust my monitor mixes at present.

I'm in a small rectangular room in my basement. My desk is situated on the long wall, which it should instead be on one of the short walls. I don't have bass traps, no absorbers for first order reflections, but I did install Roxul Safe'n'Sound in my ceiling. I have more Roxul for building absorbers and bass traps, just haven't done it yet.

[Razor7Music]

Love hearing good news about home studios! Thanks for sharing.

I did the whole sheet block, mineral fiber inside the walls, and treatments with bass traps on the walls. I too have a very small space, and it took a while to dial in the right amount of noise reduction going in and out of the studio, and removing wall reflection and standing bass waves, but I'm happy with it now.

I'm curious why you had issues affixing the treatments? Auralex makes an adhesive caulk that is not permanent and I found it very easy to use.

Anyway, expensive--oh yes they are! I've seen a lot of competitors out there making pretty alternatives to Auralex (wood grain, rainbow assortments of colors, etc). but I've not priced them to see how they compare to Auralex. I will say this, I sent my room dimensions to Auralex on their approved graph form and they definitely oversold me on material. After the wife had had it with the leftovers in the garage, I ended up selling them to a guy that lived out of his van and had a studio in there--at a huge loss to me. Anyway, that's this reporter's opinion.

I hope you enjoy your new studio treatments and it makes you want to create more "placeable" tracks. (It's a word now!)

[cosmicdolphin]

I’ll respectfully disagree with ya there, at least in my context.

Well feel free to do so but it won't change the laws of physics

[waveheavy]

The Roxul is exposed, but right now I have it covered with thin plastic (recommended by one of the sound guys from one of the acoustic treatment manufacturers). I'll either keep the plastic on it and cover it with fabric, or take the plastic off and cover it with breathable fabric. Roxul mineral wool isn't like fiberglass insulation, so it's not supposed to leech out like fiberglass does. But if you still want to be safe, cover it with thin plastic. A completely dead sounding room is not a good thing.

Is the Roxul in your ceiling behind the drywall? or is the Roxul exposed?

[waveheavy]

For anyone that doubts the good effects of doing room treatment, they should listen to this demo...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp56A6TcL1E

[ResonantTone]

I’ll respectfully disagree with ya there, at least in my context.

Well feel free to do so but it won't change the laws of physics

No disagreement with the laws of physics.. just the statement that it was necessary to get into the analytical measurement side in order to get a better sounding room. Sorry if there was confusion or if I misunderstood! (and like I mentioned, I will get there eventually.. just haven’t had the time to delve into it yet)

I'm curious why you had issues affixing the treatments? Auralex makes an adhesive caulk that is not permanent and I found it very easy to use.

I didn’t really want anything glued on my walls whatsoever, and I wasn’t convinced the Auralex stuff was going to leave no residue when I removed them. I also wanted the option to remove and readjust any/all of the different pieces at a moments notice, and reapply just as quickly.

I started out using just wall adhesive strips to attach to the foam, but that failed pretty quickly.

I ended up gluing black poster board to the backs of the 12x12 pieces with some gorilla glue (amazon sold perfectly sized pieces for it), and then used the little wall adhesive strips to secure them to the walls. So far, it’s worked great and didn’t take much extra time to do. I’ve got plenty of extra adhesive strips, so I have the option to find a more optimal setup if I want as I continue to learn and invest more time into it.

Andrew

[Razor7Music]

I'm curious why you had issues affixing the treatments? Auralex makes an adhesive caulk that is not permanent and I found it very easy to use.

I didn’t really want anything glued on my walls whatsoever, and I wasn’t convinced the Auralex stuff was going to leave no residue when I removed them. I also wanted the option to remove and readjust any/all of the different pieces at a moments notice, and reapply just as quickly.

I started out using just wall adhesive strips to attach to the foam, but that failed pretty quickly.

I ended up gluing black poster board to the backs of the 12x12 pieces with some gorilla glue (amazon sold perfectly sized pieces for it), and then used the little wall adhesive strips to secure them to the walls. So far, it’s worked great and didn’t take much extra time to do. I’ve got plenty of extra adhesive strips, so I have the option to find a more optimal setup if I want as I continue to learn and invest more time into it.

Andrew

OK, I see. I just want to be able to take my treatments with me if I ever move. I don't need to move them around in the studio.