Have recently finished with my panels. Rooms sound pretty damn good. Feels good to get something done a lot earlier than was planned. The only thing left is the door for the open part leading to the hallway. Will take care of it in a couple months. I wanted to thank Nick Fornier, Tonio & Wireline for the help.
Here are a few pics:

Control Room:


Recording room:




Still in the process of making some adjustments, experimenting with panels in control room, trying to get rid of 107hz bump that is still noticeable.
Going to put some lights up soon, still can't find a good resource about lighting. Unfortunately looks like my favorite fluorescent lights are not an option in the studio, o well... got to find something else to please me.
In process of moving equipment in, so I apologize for messy staff here & there.

Anyway, now that I'm finished with absorption I'm thinking about improving the quality of the sound. So I was kind of thinking about making some diffusers. I know about policilindicals, but seems like I have no room for them. I have an idea of something that I'm not sure will work:

Dims: 2x4x4"



Do you think it would work if I had like 4 of these in each room?

Where can I find some good read about diffusers anyway? Seems like there is a lot about absorbers, but not too much about diffusers.

Studio looks great, congrats!!

that kind of diffusor will only work in a more narrow frequency range, but would do something. It's hard to know what except for measuring the lengthe of slats and making an approximation. Typically there is a bit more randomness to the size of the various reflective surfaces.
How long a round trip from your head(or sound source) to proposed diffusion?
While I've got some RPG Skylines in my studio(too pricey though and you have to paint them with latex) a friend has just built a cool diffusor out of different sized PVC pipes cut in half and mounted to a board..mini Polys if you will. It looks really cool and encroaches out only about 4"

Often you can find other things that might make cool diffusors. I never finished my idea: It was those mini paint trays from Home Depot(for the mini rollers) mounted upside downm. They have all kinds of curves and angles much like the minifusors from Auralex. Be sure to fill any resonant cavities on a homemade deal..
Ikea had some interesting things that I thought night be cool diffusors..
hope this helps..

Thanks Kel,

The distance is in most of cases around 8', so 16' round trip.

I like that pipe idea. What would be the reasonable diameter range necessary to cover wide range of frequencies? I believe I can paint the pipes right? What paint should I use & does the color change anything?

the ones I saw were like 3 to about 6" pipes painted with that new kind of paint that adheres to plastics. Stuff the pipes with foam. The color does nothing to the performance. you simply want the sound to bounce off in many different directions.
thats a short round trip. some feel that it should be around 20' round trip for diffusion to work properly. I think RPG might argue that. Their stuff is really nice(the Skyline) but expensive.

Ok so that's a fantastic illustration of an idea I been throwing around my head lately. What my question is, is if you mounted something like that on a wall, would help to break up the parallel surfaces? I was thinking of a 2'x4' design in combination with some 2'x4' absorbers on the ceiling and back wall.
Would this have any benefit at all?

Lance

quote:

Would this have any benefit at all?

May be, may be not. Like Kel said it "will only work in a more narrow frequency range, but would do something."
Now that something may be exactly the thing you want or the opposite of what you want.

If you have time & tools on your hand to build real & very good diffusers, I had a link to pdf somewhere how to build skyline, it ain't difficult, but will take time. Let me know I'll find the link.

Thanks BTW!

No, thank you I've been trying to figure out how to illustrate my idea so I could ask this question. Anyway, I'm not familiar with skyline but yeah I do have tools and time. Question though, is it portable? i'm hoping to move back to Austin and Iwould like to take my treatment with me. Thanks

Lance

Portable? Damn it, I don't know. I'd say yes & no, it will be pretty heavy.

Do you think one in illustration is portable?

From the article:

quote:

your finished product will weigh 23 pounds and will be 18 inches square.

Here is the link
http://www.pmerecords.com/Diffusor.cfm
That's a great article with every detail explained.

If you are looking for a great diffuser, skyline is the one. You will need to build a lot of those, the more the better.

There are other widely used diffusers
Polycylindrical - very easy to build

Hope it helps

Well, I'm not going to hike it to Texas. I guess what I mean is removable. If treat my current room, can it travel to my next room?

Lance

Damn, I've seen that one and was hoping to get out of it. Of course after looking at the instructions it looks alot easier than I first thought. Now the question is, how many do I need? I mean can I checker them and get good results or would I need full coverage? Hey thanks by the way. What else do you have in your room?

lance

What are the dims of your room(s)? Do you currently have any acoustic treatment installed? What are you going to use the room for?

SMALL, it's 9 1/2x13x8 with harwood floors and I use it for everything. Right now I just have a few fabric wrapped rockwool panels. They're waiting for the rest of the materials for slot resonators and frames so can space them. So right now I just have them straddling the corners and on the side walls opposite the mix position. I've been researching/ on a treatment plan for a year or so but I'm going back and forth on the ceiling/ back wall. Again thanks

quote:

SMALL, it's 9 1/2x13x8

For a room of that size, knowing that it's not even permanent, I'd say forget about diffusers.

A great option is to do something like I did in my control room, check my studio journal for a better picture, basically it goes the same way around the room. Most of those absorbers have dims 2'x 6' x 4", standing on the floor, space 3-4" from the wall, no hanging, completely portable. The higher, the better. You are going to have a lot of "crap" in that room & not a lot of space to move, if any. Desks, equipment, instruments, amps, etc.. the room will be full & all of that will act as diffuser. I'd expect you having only one wall sort of free, just put a bookshelf full of books(a great diffuser BTW) or something like that.

One thing you should really consider is having a cloud(absorber) above the position you are mostly going to use for recording. If you could find a way to treat the whole ceiling, or at least have something like a blanket hanging a few inches below & leave your floor untreated, that would be the perfect solution. You can always drag a little rug if you need it to be more dead, most likely you won't need one.

Also check this topic for some good info
http://studioforums.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3756015614/m/2751019312

Hey thanks, I have thought of a 6'x4' absorber on the ceiling but I was unsure about the paralell reflections.

Lance

This is interesting
http://www.gikacoustics.com/diffuser_products.html

That kind of seems like an illustration of what Kel mentioned with varying diameter pvc halves. Not exactly but close. I'm seriously thinking of the skylines on the back wall in a chacker pattern with 2'x2' spaced rockwool panels in between. My room, oddly enough is fairly open and for serious tracking, drums and guitars get relocated to the hall. I just want as little boxiness as possible. for the ceiling I'm thinking 6'x4' absorbers staring at the back wall a foot or so down and angling up to the ceiling and same with the front wall. If someone wants to explain how I'l post a pic or two. But I'm pretty much computer stupid. Thanks

Lance