Okay, so I know we've gone over this time and again, but I'd just like some final suggestions/clarifications.

I rearranged the studio as suggested in a previous thread, so it now looks like this:

Northwest Corner:


Southwest Corner:


Southeast Corner:


Northeast Corner:


I'm going to place sections of 703 in the corners neighboring the computer desk. The rack will be wheeled against the other wall so that it'll be perpendicular to the computer desk. A couple things:

1) As you can see, guitars are now hung on BOTH of the longer walls. Am I commiting sonic suicide by having so many resonating boxes mounted to my studio walls?

2) Do I need to mount 703 panels behind the guitars, or would eggcrate/Sonex do the job (especially considering I have a garage full of it, and it's thinner/easier to mount).


3) Are there any other obvious places I should mount the eggcrate? (remember, there's an abundance of it)

4) Would the sonic advantages of the eggcrate be compromised by spray painting it? It's gray, and obviously black would look a bit classier.

Any comments, concerns or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Take that you stupid horse and that, and that...

Seriously, though, for that guitars I just move mine when I want to do serious recording and I'm worried about them resonating. How much 703 do you have?

Lance

I think it is a nice looking room. Black walls create a certain ambiance.
I recently did a acoustical room makover.
I contacted Real Traps with my information, pictures and a drawing of how I would layout the room.
http://www.realtraps.com/contact.htm
They sent back the drawing with specific acoustic treament needs drawn and explained.
Then I built my own Traps, (as I had access to 2" 703 at 10% over cost) with help from Ethans DIY page and installed them.
They where very helpful.
Ethan is very pro DYI guy, he maintains a very good DIY page also.
He is a great resource


You sure do have a bunch of eggcrate. From what I was told the eggcgate only tames the high frequency's where the 703 2" panels are more broadband and 4" or thicker panels are better for the lower bandwidths.
I made my corner absorbers 6' tall by 2' wide by 4" thick.
They really made a major difference.

The difference was worth every penny.

As far as the egg crate goes, with the carpet and drapes I would be worried about sucking out all the high. I guess if it were me, I wouldn't want to use anything that didn't give me broad band benefits. I'd say start with the plan Nbarts posted and see how it sounds.

Why isn't this horse moving?

Lance

quote:

Originally posted by LanceP:
Why isn't this horse moving?

No kidding man, I need a swift kick in the ass. It's just so much easier to keep recording, keep writing songs, and most importantly keep BUYING GEAR. I'm not much of a manual labor type, so I suppose that could be part of the problem.

As soon as I get my computer system back up and running, the panels are my next project. <--- look, another stall!

I'm coming back with my hammer.

quote:

1) As you can see, guitars are now hung on BOTH of the longer walls. Am I commiting sonic suicide by having so many resonating boxes mounted to my studio walls?

As long as they are not in the early reflection points of the room you should be fine.

quote:

2) Do I need to mount 703 panels behind the guitars, or would eggcrate/Sonex do the job (especially considering I have a garage full of it, and it's thinner/easier to mount).

I would not worry about that. The key is to straddle corner with 4" or more and cover the reflection points on side walls and ceiling.

quote:

3) Are there any other obvious places I should mount the eggcrate? (remember, there's an abundance of it)

I am not a big fan of foam and if that is not foam that has lab numbers to it then I am REALLY not for it. But you can us it in the early reflection points. Not as good as rigid fiberglass or mineral wool, but will work.

quote:

4) Would the sonic advantages of the eggcrate be compromised by spray painting it? It's gray, and obviously black would look a bit classier.

Yes it will reflect high end and seeing as that is about all foam is good for then it will be useless after spaying it. Or should I say almost useless.

One other thing I do see with your room is you are very close to the front wall. It is best to be sitting 38% of the room length. Attached is a layout you can go by to help you out.


Hope this helps.

Glenn

Thanks for the tips, Glenn. It's not practical for me to sit that far into the room. Whatever sonic advantages I'd gain would be overshadowed by losing all that physical space.

It sounds like I'm good to go. I'm going to get the 4" bass traps going, and mount some 703 behind those guitars at the early reflection points. Then, when I'm mixing something important, I'll just pull those guitars down.

Thanks guys.

I have instruments hanging ALL OVER my walls.
You can cut down most or all of the problems by tying something around the neck or a small strip of Gaffer tape across the strings (I have TWO Dobros...makes a nice reverb!)

jmp

Walker,

Should add a couple of things.
Those guitars ARE diffusers.
Not scientifically tuned, but they serve that purpose.

Also...703 comes in 4x8 sheets. Mounted on the wall with a 2" spacer board behind them, you could hang your velvet in front of them.
Quick and painless. Just screw them into the Wood using long screws and Fender washers to keep the screws heads from going into the 703.

Also...
If you didn't mind losing some of your window you can use that depth to your advantage and build traps in the window frame. One behind each of your speakers leaving the center open for light.

The Egggcrate: Mount that into the back of a Garbage truck
It would make a small room sound TERRIBLE.

jmp

Instruments and all other objects that have strange form are actually good for your room acoustics.

Get 703 & trap as many corners as you can (by corners I mean wall to wall, wall to ceiling, wall to floor junctions).

Eggcrate -> I like John's idea

You have a small room, it shouldn't cost you much to treat it right.

you can get 2x4 703 from sensiblesoundsolutions.com I bought 3 boxes of the 2" stuff and I made 9, 4" bass traps with it. Well, 5 so far but whatever.

quote:

Those guitars ARE diffusers.
Not scientifically tuned, but they serve that purpose.

Boy I wish, but a guitar hanging on the wall may reflect a little sound but no better (maybe worse) then a flat wall. This is a portion off our education page:

" A good diffuser not only changes the reflections to propagate in different directions, but does so EVENLY in all directions. Just splitting a wave to go into 2 directions doesn’t do enough. We’ve effectively changed the concentration of the waves in a certain portion of the room. We’ve also effectively taken the intensity of the initial wavefront and split it among the various reflections so that each one is not only coming from a different direction, but each is also weaker and harder to distinguish but we’ve lost no energy in the process."

You can read the whole thing here http://www.gikacoustics.com/education_diffusion.html to get a better understanding of diffusion and how it works.

Needless to say though, in a room that small diffusion on the early reflections (if that is where you are talking about) will not work all that well. You really would want to absorb that area of the room.

Hope that helps,

Glenn