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  #1  
Old 06-22-2009, 07:50 PM
Danno Danno is offline
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Default Acoustic panels

We are getting rid of some free standing office dividers at work that measure approx. 4ft by 6ft. I thought about covering one side of the dividers with an acoustic friendly material and making somewhat of a recording cubicle in my recording area at home. Couple of questions for you guys. Is there an inexpensive and effective product that would work for what I'm wanting to do? Would or could it make a noticeable difference in the quality of my
recordings, or is it not worth the effort?

TIA for any feedback.

Danno
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Old 06-22-2009, 11:18 PM
rwrrwr rwrrwr is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Danno View Post
We are getting rid of some free standing office dividers at work that measure approx. 4ft by 6ft. I thought about covering one side of the dividers with an acoustic friendly material and making somewhat of a recording cubicle in my recording area at home. Couple of questions for you guys. Is there an inexpensive and effective product that would work for what I'm wanting to do? Would or could it make a noticeable difference in the quality of my
recordings, or is it not worth the effort?

TIA for any feedback.

Danno
Are you trying to create something absorptive or reflective?
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Old 06-22-2009, 11:34 PM
Bryan T Bryan T is offline
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Look into Owens-Corning 703. Great for taming a bad sounding room.
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Old 06-22-2009, 11:38 PM
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I got a number of panels from here (good prices):
http://www.atsacoustics.com/cat--ATS...nels--100.html
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Old 06-23-2009, 04:29 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Danno View Post
...Would or could it make a noticeable difference in the quality of my recordings, or is it not worth the effort?...
I'm assuming your room is too reverberant and you want to tame that down a bit by adding some sound absorption materials. Will it work? Yes, absolutely, but how big a difference it makes will depend on many things, such as the size and design of the room, it's combination of reflective/absorbative surfaces, etc.

Can you give us more information to go on? The room's dimensions, main surfaces now and how it sounds? I doubt that you'll be able to totally tame a very "wet" room with the size and type panels you're suggesting, but that they would help a room that is already pretty good for recording.

cotten
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Old 06-23-2009, 07:38 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Danno View Post
We are getting rid of some free standing office dividers at work that measure approx. 4ft by 6ft. I thought about covering one side of the dividers with an acoustic friendly material and making somewhat of a recording cubicle in my recording area at home. Couple of questions for you guys. Is there an inexpensive and effective product that would work for what I'm wanting to do? Would or could it make a noticeable difference in the quality of my
recordings, or is it not worth the effort?
Hi Danno...
Yes, they could be effectively used to surround one end of a player or create a small and quiet environment if covered with the Corning material and possibly burlapped if you need them to look nice.

If you are sitting the 4 foot direction if height would work fine, and if the 6 foot is up, then they would work well with musicians who stand.

The flexibility or 4-6 of them could be a good thing in about any room except for a walk-in closet. Using one or two to create a baffle between you and the computer (if you use a computer to record) would be a good thing in itself to control noise.

I've seen a lot of pics of studios over the years with panels about 4-5 feet high by 6 feet long that are used as dividers for recording the rhythm players simultaneously (bass, drums, guitars). They were keeping the amps low to the ground and the baffles kept the sound more isolated, and the musicians could make eye contact over the top of the dividers.
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Old 06-23-2009, 07:05 PM
Danno Danno is offline
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Thanks guys...appreciate the replies and links. I have a small downstairs drywalled office that is approx. 10' x 12'. I guess I was thinking that I could build a small cubicle with the dividers and cover the dividers with absorption panels to improve sound quality. I record with either my H4 & PC or my BR8 standalone recorder.....then transfer to my PC. I'll take a look at the Corning panels....looks interesting.
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Old 06-24-2009, 08:28 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Danno View Post
Thanks guys...appreciate the replies and links. I have a small downstairs drywalled office that is approx. 10' x 12'. I guess I was thinking that I could build a small cubicle with the dividers and cover the dividers with absorption panels to improve sound quality. I record with either my H4 & PC or my BR8 standalone recorder.....then transfer to my PC. I'll take a look at the Corning panels....looks interesting.
Hi Danno...
Operated a studio in a 10 X 12 area for about 8 years, and we had many sources of sound absorbtion which consisted of different burlap coffee bags (the kind that hold over 100 pounds of green coffee beans) filled with many different substances.

The biggest thing we did ''wrong'' was to carpet it, which merely accentuated the bass and cut the mids & highs...the fix was easy.

The hardest thing recording in space that small is keeping players away from the walls on all sides - which affects sound drastically. Not hard with solo players, tough with bluegrass groups. That is a pretty small area for 4 or 5 people.

After we removed the carpets and figured out how to center players, the sound was quite good. Never did put in corner bass traps, but might consider it if starting from scratch again. They just were not an issue at the time.

If I were to do it all again, I'd go for a 20' X 30' space with a higher ceiling.
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  #9  
Old 06-25-2009, 12:39 PM
Danno Danno is offline
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Great info. Larry.....thanks much.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ljguitar View Post
Hi Danno...
Operated a studio in a 10 X 12 area for about 8 years, and we had many sources of sound absorbtion which consisted of different burlap coffee bags (the kind that hold over 100 pounds of green coffee beans) filled with many different substances.

The biggest thing we did ''wrong'' was to carpet it, which merely accentuated the bass and cut the mids & highs...the fix was easy.

The hardest thing recording in space that small is keeping players away from the walls on all sides - which affects sound drastically. Not hard with solo players, tough with bluegrass groups. That is a pretty small area for 4 or 5 people.

After we removed the carpets and figured out how to center players, the sound was quite good. Never did put in corner bass traps, but might consider it if starting from scratch again. They just were not an issue at the time.

If I were to do it all again, I'd go for a 20' X 30' space with a higher ceiling.
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Old 07-04-2009, 08:55 AM
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Reminiscing - back in the old days radio stations would staple egg cartons to the walls.

Did not look that great, however, I assume it did help the audio.

Just reminiscing......
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  #11  
Old 07-07-2009, 12:37 PM
Sage97 Sage97 is offline
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Larry,

I have a 12 x 12 room and only record myself (no band recordings).

What do the burlap bags do? Absorb certain frequencies? Do you staple them on all four walls or strategically? With the burlap bags. would it still matter if you were positioned in the center of the room vs closer to one of the walls?

Thanks.
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