hey,
Attached here is the tentative plan for treating and semi-soundproofing my studio room. None of the accoustic/noise treatment has been done yet and will be ghetto when it is done (ie cheapies/freebies only). The hope here is that i'll be get some advice/constructive criticism before I do all this work.

-The place is 10'x16'x8' with 3 windows (two bigguns on side wall opposite door, one smaller on back wall).
-Floor is hardwood, ceiling is some kind of cheap ceiling tile (probably some kind of cardboard composite), walls are plaster
-This is a room in an apartment, therefore any major structural/insulation adjustments are out of the question.
-All the major furniture is included in the drawing, and all acoustic/noise treatment is in green.

-CORNERS - at this point the corner treatment will be made from a futon chopped into strips (about 1.5' wide) and bent/folded into sort of a wavy pattern in each corner. will this help with bass reflections at all? if this sounds like a horrible idea to you, another option is to spend $85 on four auralex bass traps for the front corners.
-ABSORPTION - all of the windows will have regular mattress foam cut to fit perfectly to hopefully reduce street noise, and provide absorption. the door will have a mattress for sound proofing. and the wall behind the monitors will have another foam mattress (I had originally planned on using the futon mattress for this purpose, but decided against it due to the huge effort needed to attach something that heavy to the wall). and then there's the couch which i hope will act as a bass trap in the centre of the back wall. is it a bad idea to use this much consumer (3-5") foam? if so are there other materials that you can recommend?
-DIFFUSION - for the one next to the door the idea i've had is to take a thick rug, and fold it over itself. i think it's a good idea, you? - the diffusor on the rear wall is so far the only thing that's in place already, it involves an array of form fitted cardboard packing material from stereos, printers, and the like. it's the same idea as egg cartons (which i know are useless) but thicker, more rigid and bigger.
-1 MORE RUG - I have one more thin rag rug, would it be more useful on the floor (there is a fair amount of occasional neighbor noise, but I think the rug is too thin to help much with that), or as a ceiling cloud. I currently have nothing to prevent vertical reflection buildup and like the bare wood floors if they won't cause major issues.

Thanks for checking out my digs, any acoustical advice you can offer is very much apreciated.

sorry, I don't seem to be able to post the pic and i can't find a help page that explains why. I'll try again soon.

What kind of budget are you looking at? I know you said cheapies, but is that $100 or what? Foam's not completely evil, but it won't do much for low mid and bass frequencies, which are going to be a major issue in a room that size.

What are you planning on using the room for? Will you be mixing there? Recording guitar, drums, vocals? If you're specializing in one area, you can maximize your resources to suit it.

Also, how DIY are you? Would you be willing to break out the tools to build some personalized traps?

I would highly recommend you look into getting some Owens Corning (or similar) 703 rigid fiberglass. Rockwool or mineral fiberboard will work also. Speciality Products and Insulation (SPI) sell 2' x 4' 2" thick OC 703 for about $60 a box, 6 pieces to a box. Much more effective than foam at taming low frequency buildup, just putting 2 pieces in each corner (floor to ceiling, 1 deep) will help with you bass issues, though the more tickness you can pack into the corners the better. Beware! you will need to cover the fiberglass with fabric. Burlap works very well and is cheap, check your local craft store. You might also want to look into building some slat resonators, tuned to your particular room; it's really not as hard as it sounds. It's slightly more expensive than just hanging up fiberglass, but it'll be much more effective in preserving the life in your room while taming the bottom end.

If you're interested in finding out more about fiberglass and DIY acoustics, do a search in this forum for shortyprs' post about his room. Also, check out John Sayers' site here, click on the link entitled "wall units" for plans. Ethan Winer's site has a ton of information on the subject as well, check here and here.

Hope that helps a bit.

here's the layout that i couldn't post yesterday.

Studio_Layout.JPG (34 Kb, 20 downloads)

This is the only room i've got. So one end is for mixing, the other for musicians. it'll be mainly and acoustic and vocals deal, there really isn't room for a drum kit or more than 3 musicians or so at a time.

In general, I'm all for DIY, but in this case the key is low impact. This is an apartment so i can't really do much more to it than nail a few things to the walls. There's also a possibility that we'll be moving as early as july so anything that was built especially for the acoustics of this particular room - although ideal - would likely be a waste of time. so stuff like slat resonators - although i would love to go all out - just aren't gonna happen. this is also the reason for the low to no budget recycling attitude that i have to the project. I suppose if i took some cash from the budget i've got for monitors (the last purchase for now), then I could buy some fiberglass and just take it with me when i go.

any comments on the use of futons??? they're thick and dense so my thought was that they might be able to do something for bass buildup, but i've found no info on their use for acoustic purposes. and what about my diffuser rug?

Gotcha. Well, as far as the futons go, I really have no idea. My thought is that they might work, since a couch in the back of the room can help with bass issues. If you have the futon already, try it.

My suggestion on the fiberglass still stands, as it's easy to make up some simple frames to hang it on the wall/corners that would be temporary as well as effective. You may want to build a couple gobos instead, as you could use them both for recording and mixing, and change your room around to suit. I mentioned the fiberglass because for very close to if not $85 ($60 for the fiberglass, enough for two corners and two 2' x 4' panels, around $12 for the fabric, leaving you over $10 for a few 1 x 2's to make the frames), you could cover the same amount of ground as 4 Auralex bass traps, and it would likely be more effective.

I'm confused on what you intend to do with your diffuser rug. How would you fold it to make it diffusive? I don't know what you mean.

i whipped up a quick diffuser rug on the floor. having actually done it, it may turn out that it's not rigid enough. i don't really know what the requirements are for effective diffusion. also at the top of the shot is an example of the packing material i'm currently using for my rear wall diffuser

how exactly would you place the fiberglass in my room? for the corners, do you mean that i would have to cover both walls of the corner - ie the front wall and the side wall butted into the corner - or just one of the two walls? 'cause if i need to cover both sides floor to ceiling, then i would need four pieces for each corner, no?...or are you suggesting that i cut them into 1'x4' (which doesn't sound like much coverage to me).

Here's the diffuser rug:

diffuser_rug.JPG (28 Kb, 11 downloads) Diffuser Rug

The rug will actually absorb more than it will diffuse but the accordian fold is the right idea. I would also invest in some fiberglass or rockwool. The futon thing will work fairly well but it seams like might be getting yourself into a lot of work when you start cutting up mattresses. There are probably insulation distributers in your city that will sell boxes of 703 for around $40 and you won't need to pay for shipping.

If you do feel the need to cut up your futon I'd say start with the corners of the room.

Nick Fournier

Place the fiberglass across the corner, floor to ceiling, which would take two pieces, and would result in a triangle with the two walls, with a substantial air gap behind the fiberglass. It's good because most of your bass buildup will be in the corners, and most of your useless space is as well. You can do that with any of the wall edges, including wall/ceiling joints.

thanks guys,

so to cover the insulation, are there particular fabrics that are better or worse than others? assuming i do buy some fiberglass, the fabric would come from a thrift store or something so i'm just wondering if there're any guidelines or things to avoid.

and what about the extra rug, it's fairly thin but i was thinking that if i hung it on the ceiling with it billowing out it would help a bit better than just being on the floor (which i like bare anyway). any tips on ceiling clouds? ...or better ideas?

i may start a new discussion for the futon thing. it seems like used and abused futon mattresses are fairly readily available, and i know i'm not the only one that likes to do things on the cheap, but i've not found any useful information regarding their acoustic uses. tho i have found reference to their successful/semi-successful use by reputable posters on this site.

One thing to try is to absorb the initial reflections from the monitors off the SIDE walls.

I would try & place the record cabinet on one side, & bookshelf on the other so that they will absorb the reflections from the monitors from the side wall.

They should be placed midway between the mix position & the monitors against the side walls. Make sure they are full of books & rekkerds..

Peter

I just called home depot to ask about sound proofing insulation, they didn't have any 703 or fiberglass, but instead recommended these three products:

Roxul Safe n' Sound is a rock wool insulation costs 30$CDN for 3" thick 60' square coverage. brochure:
http://www1.roxul.com/graphics/RX-NA/Canada/products/sa...English-12-21-05.pdf

Sonopan is some kind of 3/4" thick green coloured wood pressboard thing
21$CDN for 4x8 panel.

Enermax which seems to be similar to the sonopan in that it's a woodfibre insulation material, except that it's got an aluminum vapor barrier... i don't think i want this. 1/2" thick, 4'x8', 13$CDN

Anybody have opinions on these products? the Roxul seems the best bet to me, tho it's the most expensive and thickest, it's looks to be the most useful too.