Taming the Beast
 

My room is small. It's treated but because of layout constrictions (doors, windows, and equipment), the treatment isn't ideal. I can't get bass traps in all the places I really need them so I'm still dealing with some recording issues. I've been thinking that I should add some kind of gobo to the mix and found this on GIK Acoustic's site. Two is probably what I'll need but there's no savings in buying both at the same time, so I ordered one for now (bright red with white veneer).

http://www.gikacoustics.com/wp-conte...oth-square.jpg

Looks like a useful design.

I made my gobos in a somewhat similar manner. I used door hinges so I can connect them together or disconnect when I want to store them.

I'm not concerned about vocals, just playing guitar while seated. So I made mine 5' high and 2' wide (4" depth using semi-rigid rockwool) with open backs. I usually connect 4 gobos together which gives me 4' width with 2' sides. I often put another gobo over the top for reflections off the ceiling. Not like a good treated room, but it gives me a pretty dead space to work with.

These are 6'6" high which is nice since I like to stand when I lay down vocals. I've got 3 2'x4' panels on the ceiling over my recording area, so I'm good there.

My room is only 11'x9', and as I said earlier, the placement of the door and two windows makes putting the bass traps in the ideal locations impossible given where the gear is laid out (and I can't really work that out any better either). So maybe with this gobo, the three bass traps I have in place already, and the one bass trap that's moveable, I can eliminate some of the nastiness the room imparts. I may have to grab a second of these but I'll make that call after I see how things pan out with the one.

I have my bass traps (4" rockwool, 24"x48") hung on wall hooks, so can easily take two of the rear wall ones and set them up in a 'V' in front of me, or lean one against/in front of an amp as needed. I have front wall traps, and one on the side wall against the front corner making a nice trapped corner that I face when doing vocals (standing).

I use GIK absorption panels, great company, some photos when you get it set up would be cool

Part of the issue with these one-room situations is that it's so hard to tell what your treatment has accomplished because you're listening to the result in the same room. If you have, say, a buildup in the mid-bass, things get recorded that way and when you play them back you get another dose of it. A two-fer.

What exactly are these used for (as opposed to acoustic foam or bass traps)?

Will do. The shipping date is Nov. 10, so it should arrive the following week.

True, but my situation is what it is until I retire and move into a bigger house.

To cut down on reflections ...trying to create a good smaller space inside a problematic room.

These would be used as a portable iso booth... foam and bass traps are generally fixed position

Aloha Jim1960 & Friends - fr alohachris
 

Aloha Jim & Friends,

I really like the dimensions of those panels. Very Attractive looking. But to me, there are way too many reflective surfaces there: plywood faces & wooden frames are actually the antithesis of what we're trying to do with home & studio treatment, right? Despite all the pukas for foam.

I'd make your own DIY Owens-Corning OC 703 4"x2'x4' broadband absorbers a la Fran Guidry - without all the hard surfaces. You can make them in any dimension. They really work well for my purposes. No frames either. And mine are portable & free-standing so I can place them where needed.

http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2009/...-on-the-cheap/

My absorbers are also strategically placed around & above my mixing/mastering desk & also in the corners of the room as bass traps. All this for simple acoustic recordings - Ha! It's simple & relatively cheap compared to GIF or the panels in the picture.

Metering the room will tell you everything about where the trouble reflections are & where treatment should be placed.

Most home player/recordists freak out about how to make Room Treatment, where to place it, thinking it must be permanent or expensive, or worse, only think about it when they can't get consistency in their recordings. However, Room Treatment is absolutely necessary for just about all mic recording & is actually quite easy to do cheaply.

Of course, much depends on what you're trying to sonically achieve as well & what works in your space, budget & interest in DIY. I can get audible sonic differences in my recordings by varying the spacing of my free-standing absorbers to allow more or less room in my tracking area, depending on what I want to hear. I never achieved consistent recording results (after 35+ years of trying) until I made the full commitment to Room Treatment & learned how to use it about 15 years ago.

Just my opinions, Jim.

A Hui Hou & Good Luck, Jim!

alohachris

"antithesis" per se ? actually not necessarily, diffusion ( specifically off of wooden surfaces) as well as absorption, is often employed in live tracking rooms and according to GIK these panels include diffusion and absorption in the design. Now how well they accomplish that, is different question.

As KevWind has already pointed out, rooms are often treated with diffusion as well as absorption. And I should point out as well that I'm also trying to think ahead with this purchase. I'm retiring in 8 months and my plan is to relocate and buy a much larger home that will have a room much better suited to treatment and recording. For now, I have to deal with what I have. This panel may or may not work well for me in my current situation. I'll know that after I try it out. But I do think, given its versatility, it could be useful down the road, so I don't feel like I'm taking an all or nothing gamble with it.

I appreciate the suggestion but honestly, I have no interest in taking on a DIY project. My personal economics, thankfully, don't dictate a need to go in that direction, and from an aesthetic perspective, I prefer a more polished look then I'd likely be able to achieve doing it myself.

No need to sell me on the importance of room treatment. I have four 2'x'4'x4" bass traps in this room and a ceiling cloud made up of three 2'x'4'x3" absorbers. As I said earlier in this thread, however, the layout of the room prevents me from putting the bass traps in ideal locations so the room is still problematic. I'm hoping these panels will allow me to create a better space in one corner. We'll see what happens. Thanks for the input though.