| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| mattkickkick |
Posted - 19/04/2012 : 20:51:53
hi there I'm in the process of finishing my sound proofed drum room . so far so good !
i had a friend over at the weekend and we got talking about getting better acoustics from the room. At the moment the walls are painted plasterboard as is the ceiling . i was thinking about spending a few hundred quid to buy some sheets of this foam egg box type material to help deaden the sound in there . At the moment when you clap your hands there is a echo .
i believe if I'm not mistaken that by having standard plasterboard walls when you play the drums the sound bounces of the walls making the room loud and harsh sounding ??
can anyone offer me any tips on achieving better sound out of the room and any companies which offer good value for money foam ??? thanks in advance mat x |
| 14 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| TrevCircleStudios |
Posted - 24/04/2012 : 21:47:12
quote:
Originally posted by Bewdy
@TrevCircleStudios: you seem to have a major chip on your shoulder about the use of foam!!
I've made perfectly acceptable dead sounding vocal booths using nothing but egg shell foam lining.
I take your point that egg shall foam will only target certain higher frequencies, but it's important to understand what your issues are before treating room. Rooms sounding bright can be as much about lack of diffusion as it is about being deadened, and it is important to understand what the problem frequencies are.
Best to do some form of room analysis before spending money on treating.
I think youve missed my point(s)
While you *might* just about get away with foam in a big enough vocal booth (personally, I'm not a fan of 'dead' booths and to be frank, most of the ones you'll find foam in sound boxy to my ears), more importantly for this discussion, the big problem frequencies for drums in any room of less than 350-400 square feet and with ceilings of lower than 11feet are not in the frequency range that foam deals with. Yes you might get a 2k flutter echo that its perfect for, but if you've go problems below 500hz, no amount of foam is going to help that.
And for what it's worth, I don't think I have any chip on my shoulder about foam. Hell I'd have put stacks it in my studio if it sounded good. It just doesn't and is damn expensive to boot. You can do a lot better job for much less money using rockwool or homotherm. If that's a chip on my shoulder, fair enough. Where I come from its called common sense. I hope this helps to clarify my position. |
| Captain Bubble |
Posted - 24/04/2012 : 14:09:47
For drum kits I just use my room as is, but I made this vocal/instrument booth. One layer of carpet hangs across a U shaped frame made of plastic electrical conduit which plugs into 2 brackets on the ceiling beam, with a gap of about 10" between it and the ceiling. Another piece of carpet hangs across the front of the frame, and two more hang from ceiling hooks so there are 3 carpets all 6" apart facing towards where the worst noise comes from. Behing this, a slab of thick foam rubber with a spiky side hangs from hooks on the beam.
The materials and gaps clean up the sound noticeably and even cut down aircraft noise to below half their normal level. When not being used it all takes VERY little storage space: the foam goes behind my sofa and frame and carpets (about 2" / 5 cm thick) go behind storage units.
Layers with air gaps can be amazingly affective for modest amounts of material.
http://s581.photobucket.com/albums/ss260/Captain_Bubble/Recording%20Studio%20set%20up/ |
| Bewdy |
Posted - 24/04/2012 : 13:23:13
@TrevCircleStudios: you seem to have a major chip on your shoulder about the use of foam!!
I've made perfectly acceptable dead sounding vocal booths using nothing but egg shell foam lining.
I take your point that egg shall foam will only target certain higher frequencies, but it's important to understand what your issues are before treating room. Rooms sounding bright can be as much about lack of diffusion as it is about being deadened, and it is important to understand what the problem frequencies are.
Best to do some form of room analysis before spending money on treating. |
| TrevCircleStudios |
Posted - 22/04/2012 : 11:06:25
quote:
Originally posted by mattkickkick
exellent you all have just saved me a great deal of money !!! do i fix these tiles in material to the ceiling too ??? what about fixing duvets to the walls or the insulation wool and then mount curtain poles on the top of all four walls then hang thick curtains ??? cheers again !!! x
All of this just kills the highs while doing nothing for the lows: just like foam. What you need is just a few strategically placed broadband traps like I've described above. If you put them ina wooden frame you can hang them just like a picture frame. |
| moosetication |
Posted - 22/04/2012 : 11:03:33
Don't take all the life out of the room. |
| mattkickkick |
Posted - 22/04/2012 : 10:40:24
exellent you all have just saved me a great deal of money !!! do i fix these tiles in material to the ceiling too ??? what about fixing duvets to the walls or the insulation wool and then mount curtain poles on the top of all four walls then hang thick curtains ??? cheers again !!! x |
| TrevCircleStudios |
Posted - 21/04/2012 : 18:55:36
quote:
Originally posted by dogface
I know exactly what you are saying about room modes. I was messing about with a pair of speakers I was making once and was sweeping a sinewave through them. At certain low frequencies I could stand on one side of the room and hear absolutely nothing, but if I took a few steps towards the other side of the room the sound was deafening!
To be fair, I think acoustic tiles are really only intended to deal with high frequency nasties, though I've just looked at Studiospares' website and they are suspiciously vague about what frequencies their tiles are effective over. Maybe they're hoping to take advantage of people's lack of understanding.
That's exactly what foam manufacturers do IMO. And compared to stuff which actually works such as rockwool and homotherm, it is ridiculously expensive. |
| dogface |
Posted - 21/04/2012 : 18:42:19
I know exactly what you are saying about room modes. I was messing about with a pair of speakers I was making once and was sweeping a sinewave through them. At certain low frequencies I could stand on one side of the room and hear absolutely nothing, but if I took a few steps towards the other side of the room the sound was deafening!
To be fair, I think acoustic tiles are really only intended to deal with high frequency nasties, though I've just looked at Studiospares' website and they are suspiciously vague about what frequencies their tiles are effective over. Maybe they're hoping to take advantage of people's lack of understanding. |
| TrevCircleStudios |
Posted - 21/04/2012 : 14:53:06
acoustic foam panels and tiles of 4 inches thick or less deal with high frequency information. So if you have a small flutter echo, they may help. The acoustic foam 'basstraps' do not trap bass. At best they work down to 4-500hz (so lower -mids rather than bass). The problem in most domestic sized rooms is bass buildup and room modes. Acoustic foam really wont help much with either (unless maybe you just filled the room with the stuff but as you wouldn't actually be able to get in the room if it was full of foam, it probably wouldn't help). 
Let's put this in some context. You will rarely see acoustic foam in a pro recording studio (and if it isnt suitable there why would it be suitable ina home studio?). If a studio has been booked for me to work in and I walk in and see foam, I usually walk right back out. Simple as. |
| dogface |
Posted - 21/04/2012 : 11:51:05
quote:
Originally posted by TrevCircleStudios
Google will also tell you foam is terrible for acoustics. Got to travis perkins on wickes and get some rocksil/rockwool. A bag will cost you about £30-40 quid. Wrap the slabs in cheap material (old bed sheets will do (if you want fancier take a look at camira fabrics) and hang them on the walls. You could even put a light wooden frame around them if you fancied a bit of DIY. Move them around to see where they sound best. Your room will sound a million times better than if you bought the foam and you'll have saved a fortune.
That's interesting. Are you saying that general purpose cushion foam is terrible, or that acoustic tiles are terrible? |
| gid |
Posted - 21/04/2012 : 10:44:16
quote:
Originally posted by TrevCircleStudios
Google will also tell you foam is terrible for acoustics. Got to travis perkins on wickes and get some rocksil/rockwool. A bag will cost you about £30-40 quid. Wrap the slabs in cheap material (old bed sheets will do (if you want fancier take a look at camira fabrics) and hang them on the walls. You could even put a light wooden frame around them if you fancied a bit of DIY. Move them around to see where they sound best. Your room will sound a million times better than if you bought the foam and you'll have saved a fortune.
This is exact what i did, it was easy and if you use the proper fabric, you can get some great colour choices...and they work a treat |
| TrevCircleStudios |
Posted - 20/04/2012 : 21:57:53
Google will also tell you foam is terrible for acoustics. Got to travis perkins on wickes and get some rocksil/rockwool. A bag will cost you about £30-40 quid. Wrap the slabs in cheap material (old bed sheets will do (if you want fancier take a look at camira fabrics) and hang them on the walls. You could even put a light wooden frame around them if you fancied a bit of DIY. Move them around to see where they sound best. Your room will sound a million times better than if you bought the foam and you'll have saved a fortune. |
| Bewdy |
Posted - 20/04/2012 : 15:07:14
here http://www.efoam.co.uk/acoustic.html?cp_n=adwords&cp_a=Acoustic&cp_k=Acoustic%20foam&gclid=CNWI-dTMw68CFe8htAod2HppZg
google is your friend!  |
| dogface |
Posted - 20/04/2012 : 10:18:25
Studiospares sell all that stuff. However, a cheaper option which could well be almost as effective is to just get a lot of soft/fluffy stuff in there - cushions, drapes, carpets, curtains etc. That kind of stuff tends to be effective at high frequencies whereas the proper acoustic tiles work over a wider frequency spectrum, but it's the high frequencies that make the sound appear loud and harsh.
Acoustic tiles are damned expensive btw. |
All Forums
egg box style foam sheeting ???
