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Old 06-20-2011, 04:10 PM
7thbassbA 7thbassbA is offline
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Default Decisions about Room Treatment

I have an 11x13x10.5 room. Very rectangular. Carpeted floor. Drywall all around. Is soundproof (generally speaking) using resilient channel and insulation, along with two layers of thick drywall. Unless I am cranking the bass guitar amp, don't bother anyone in the house.

This is a little project, non-pro studio. I want to be able to record two acoustic guitars and vocals. No drums.

I have a Rode NT1A and Sure SM57, as well as a Blackbird Onyx Firewire interface and recent Mac running Logic Express. I use Eden Monitors and have beyerdynamic DT 889 or something headphones.

I usually plug electric guitar and bass into the Blackbird superchannels, but have been mic'ing my Fender Concert and kind of dig that sound.

I have recorded stuff, but the echo-yness of room kills the sound. I have gotten pretty good results close mic'ing my Santa Cruz acoustic and have tried to eq the boominess out (there is a filter in either Garageband or Logic Express for that, though not great solution)




I am looking at doing something like this:

http://flic.kr/p/9ViRuT

4" Red cloth covered fiberglass bass traps from Acoustimac or ATS Acoustics.
2" Red cloth covered fiberglass Mid/High panels from Acoustimac or ATS Acoustics.

I like the idea of cloth covered fiberglass art panels, so I am thinking four of them, shown as grey rectangles on the side walls. 2x4. One will have this pic:

http://flic.kr/p/9VmK4w

Another will have this one:

http://flic.kr/p/9VmJFm

I am doing this in phases. I am sure I will need bass traps and treatment on the back walls. But I am concerned if I cover all the walls with acoustic panels it will sound dead.

So, the question is will the above make a noticeable positive difference in my room?

Another option would be to get something like 3 of the Clearsonic 5' Sorba panels and arrange them around the playing area to cut down reflections. These are hinged 5x2 panels made of cloth covered 1.5" rigid fiberglass.

I have read bunches of stuff here and at John Sayers forum, Home Recording, etc. I just want to make sure that I am spending my money in a productive way.
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Old 06-20-2011, 07:31 PM
Fran Guidry Fran Guidry is offline
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Default

It's easy to knock down highs and mids, hard to get the lows. And the lows can be a real problem in a small room (you know all this, just warming up <grin>).

So go where the lows are - the corners. This means first treat all the vertical corners, because they're the easiest. Then get the wall-ceiling corners. Lean panels agains the walls instead of mounting them, this covers the wall-floor corner and kills both birds.

Here's a pic of my very oddly shaped space with 13 panels installed. The triangle is the mix position, showing the two monitors and my location:



This corner location strategy works because the air has its highest velocity in these corners, and the higher velocity causes the wave to dump more energy into the panel.

Finally, do the ceiling at the reflection point from your monitors, and maybe 50-60% of the rest. When mounting panels parallel to walls, leave an air gap about equal to the panel thickness.

My blog includes a video on making your own frameless panels. Cheap, dirty, and ugly, but I didn't find working with compressed fiberglass to be as horrible as I'd feared, and I've been happy with the results. By the way, these panels can also serve as gobos, and as localized reflection control, to give an effect similar to a Reflexion or similar baffle system.

Fran
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