Wall Absorbing Panels

Jam10

I'm thinking of making my own acoustic wall absorbing panels for my jam room. I looked into buying some from either Auralex or Prim Acoustic and they are very, very pricy. Does anyone know how to make wall panels to eliminate excessive echo and flutter in the room? I'm just afraid that if I go through all the time of making the panels and they don't work like I expected them to. Has anyone made their own and how did they turn out? Are their any really good websites on making absorbing panels?

ianvomsaal

try hanging some old fluffy carpet - you can get that cheap.

Jam10

ianvomsaal wrote:

try hanging some old fluffy carpet - you can get that cheap.

Yeh I thought about that but I want my jam room to look like a studio as well. I want it to look as best as possible. Hanging some carpet probably wouldn't look the best.

ianvomsaal

Noise panels are expensive, but you need to think about Cost vs Functionality.
I've seen people use cut up plastic milk-bottles and foam egg-cartons, but they
don't work very well, and you said you want to look professional. You might just
need to spend the $$$ to get some panels that are designed for sound damping.

Remember, Sound Diffusor's are actually different (in terms of functionality) from
Acoustic Absorption Treatments - they don't really do the same things. All those
little wall treatments and fiberglass panels are more diffusers, not sound damping.
They typically deflect echo and bass, they don't really dampen/absorb sound.

Rug's & drapes can look decent, all depends on the material. I've seen patterned
& oriental throws that look really great in studio rooms - You actually hang them
all from the ceiling (just like they do displays). By hanging them next to the wall
they're free floating (this gives you a pocket of air between the fabric and wall).

Other than that, real sound damping treatments are expensive.

kitfoo

You can't go wrong with Auralex. I wouldn't advise egg cartons or milk cartons. They don't work. They're not designed to block/refract sound. I have heard that U-haul mats work pretty well, because they're thicker than average rugs. However, they look like crap.

moho

There are better forums on the web with lots of info about this sort of stuff check out homerecording.com/bbs and go to the studio building and display section, there are a ton of threads with great advice on building good sound absorption panels.

My advice is to spend a few bucks and make your own from rigid fibreglass or rigid rock wool. Make frames with 2 x 4 wood planks and then place the fibreglass inside and cover on all sides with fabric to hold it in place, then hang on the wall.

The placement of where these go is the most important. It all depends on room shape etc. Also lots of rigid fibreglass cut into triangles and stacked about 5 feet tall in each corner will kill unwanted nasty booming bass resonances.

But check out that site and google for homemade bass traps and absorption panels.

Jam10

moho wrote:

There are better forums on the web with lots of info about this sort of stuff check out homerecording.com/bbs and go to the studio building and display section, there are a ton of threads with great advice on building good sound absorption panels.

My advice is to spend a few bucks and make your own from rigid fibreglass or rigid rock wool. Make frames with 2 x 4 wood planks and then place the fibreglass inside and cover on all sides with fabric to hold it in place, then hang on the wall.

The placement of where these go is the most important. It all depends on room shape etc. Also lots of rigid fibreglass cut into triangles and stacked about 5 feet tall in each corner will kill unwanted nasty booming bass resonances.

But check out that site and google for homemade bass traps and absorption panels.

Great advice. Thank you!

Kevin Wilson

Get yourself some 2X4s some fabric and some mineral wool insulation. You can buld a frame out of the 2x4s and get some chicken wire or something to stretch across the back and staple it down. lay the mineral wool insulation in the 2x4 frame then cover it with your choice of fabric. Make sure that the fabric can be easily blown through by holding it to your mouth and breathing through it. Then you have a nice absorber that is very efficient and cost effective. you can also build bass traps by cutting 90 degree triangular pieces of the mineral wool and stacking them in the corners of your room to the cieling then trimming them out in wood and covering them with fabric also. This makes the best bass absorber hands down.

ianvomsaal

Look at studio-11 (Tree Sound Studios), I've worked/recorded there.
Both of the photo's rotate - left click and drag to rotate left or right.
http://www.treesoundstudios.com/studio11/studio11.htm
See what I'm talking about with rugs and drapes . . .

Anon

A lot of good advice already. That web link looks interesting if you are keen to go it alone. The only thing i'd probably add is that personally, i think, if you want to to it properly and you have already spent a good amount trying to make it as close to a studio feel as possible, i'd spend the money and get really good bass traps for your corners. There just isn't a home made acoustic treatment that will be able to effectively do the same job that a professionally produced bass trap will do.

Good luck with it. Pictures when finished would be cool!

Jam10

Pj_Gurl wrote:

A lot of good advice already. That web link looks interesting if you are keen to go it alone. The only thing i'd probably add is that personally, i think, if you want to to it properly and you have already spent a good amount trying to make it as close to a studio feel as possible, i'd spend the money and get really good bass traps for your corners. There just isn't a home made acoustic treatment that will be able to effectively do the same job that a professionally produced bass trap will do.

Good luck with it. Pictures when finished would be cool!

Thanks Pj Gurl. I'll try to get some pictures when it's all done. It will be a working progress for a while. I got it soundproofed now I have to make it sound right!