So I've decided that my bedroom sucks, acoustically, and I want to pretty much transform it into a legitimate A/V environment.

Is there any guide to acoustically setting up a room, or is it just seat-of-the-pants? And also, where should I go to buy panels, etc.?

___________________

One always has to remember these days where the garbage pail is, because it's so easy to make sounds, and to put sounds together into something that appears to be music, but it's just as hard as it always was to make good music.
- Robert Moog

http://www.tweakheadz.com/home_studio_construction.htm

___________________
My party schedule:
2009-02-21 - DJ Attention @ I'm So Popular
2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
2048-06-66 - Spastic & Whocares ¶ Although I'm Actually Flattered
9999-45-81 - Tweaker Gimp ☼ I Probably Won't Even Go To This But I Have To Make Sure I Fill Up All The Available Space Here

Huge thanks, bud. My room will be sweet now.

___________________

One always has to remember these days where the garbage pail is, because it's so easy to make sounds, and to put sounds together into something that appears to be music, but it's just as hard as it always was to make good music.
- Robert Moog

Actually after reading that I realize I'm still left curious about the physical placement of soundproofing panels in my room...

___________________

One always has to remember these days where the garbage pail is, because it's so easy to make sounds, and to put sounds together into something that appears to be music, but it's just as hard as it always was to make good music.
- Robert Moog

Hi. I recently finished setting up my studio, and had an acoustic problem. I've fixed that using some Bass traps, and foam pannels, plus I've build cuple more real traps look alikes... I had someone come over to measure the room's acoustics, so I could place the pannels in the correct place.. But the diefferance is huge. Now it sounds properly. I highly recommend doing something like that to your room , that's if you can.. or have space. The whole project cost me under $300.00 canadian dollars.. so that's not bad at all.. If you're interested here is what I wrote on another site, I've also included pictures there.. I'll try to paste some pictures here..

And this is how I've done all this..

Having some time on my hands and a spare room in the house, I decided (with the permission of my wife) to convert one of the rooms into my little studio.
Most of You know that having your private little space, without anyone bugging you is really important, especially for us musicians, producers...
Before I started this project, I had the equipment placed in my bedroom, along the other gaming computer I have. It was pain in the ass. One of
my monitors was close to the wall, and the other one wasn't. That alone created really unplesant mixing enviroment. The other problem was I was constantly distracted, with everyone in the house, and tempted to play some battlefield 2 and counterstrike source on the machine that was next to my audio computer..
So the three main reason I decided to create my private studio room were: distractions, bad acoustics, and finally get rid of the computers from my bedroom..
(The gaming (internet)machine ended up downstairs near the living room.. and I like it that way).

One of the biggest concerns with the new room, was the budget.. I didn't want to spend a lot of money. I wanted to create a relaxing, comfortable enviroment,
and most important it had to have improved acoustics. It's was just no point investing in quality monitors, cables and other gear, when I coudn't eaven hear my monitors playing correctly. I used headphones a lot before, but it's just not it. Some people mix on headphones, and I'm not one of them. I use headphones when it's late at night and I can't use my monitors, and when I wanna a/b a mix on diefferent sources.. But I don't mix on them...

I've set the budget at $300 , Canadian dollars. That's aproximeately $255.00 US with current currency exchange rates.
The room that I was using for the studio was in rough shape. It had old wallpaper (that had to come off) it needed all new power outlets, and it was missing a ceiling light box. The only things that were good, were the windows and floor. They were installed last year..
The other good thing was I had a desk, chair and a ceiling light... So I wasn't gonna have to buy any of that.
What I needed was to paint the room some nice plesant colour, put new baseboards in, install new ceiling box + light, change the light switch to a new one, install all new power outlets, get some acoustic foam, and build my own acoustic pannel, simmilar to real traps.

Building the Acoustic pannel was really easy. I got some speaker cloth from a local fabric store, some wood pannels ( to cut out the frames) and the most important part : Fiberglass.. Total cost for one pannel. $30.00 that's a fraction of the cost of a real trap, or any already made acoustic pannels. It took me under an hour to make one 2 x 4 feet pannels. For european friends, thats 60 x 122 cm. I nailed a frame together, and placed the sheet of fiberglass inside, I made sure it was tight, so there was no movement once the fiberglass was placed inside the frame. I wraped the sides and the front of the pannel with black speaker cloth. They have them in diefferent colours. I wanted black to match my acoustic foam. I used staples to hold the speaker cloth to the frame and some t pins, to keep the excessive cloth in place. I used 4 hooks that I screw into the frame, and run a wire thrue both pairs, The wire will be used to mount the pannel to the ceiling. I used 4 ceiling hooks and attached the pannel using the wire. I placed the pannel 3 inches from the ceiling to give it some nice space. The diefferance is noticable . The room started to sound better as soon as I mounted the pannel. Keep in mind that the room had nothing on the walls, and the sound was bouncing off like crazy. I still had acoustic foam to mount, But I wanted to make the pannel first to see if it makes any diefferance. I have another piece of fiberglass. that I've put against one of the walls, and you could hear the diefferance right avay. I am going to build two more pannels, but smaller, 1x4 feet and place them on the ceiling behind where I sit.

The price of the pannel came to $30 dollars. Tat included everything needed to make it. I think it was well worth it. After installing the acoustic foam, the room sounds better than I expected. It's something that i was missing all this time. I am looking forward in creating two more smaller pannels sometimes this week..

As for the budget.... I made it under $300 CDN..
The most expensive thing was acoustic foam, that I ordered from US.. It came in about 2 weeks, and was $220 dollars with taxes and delivery, duty fee included.. The other $30 went into creating the accoustic pannel, and the rest about $50, was paint and the other stuff needed for the room.
The diefferance is huge, Everyting sounds so much better now. It's the best $300 bucks i've spent to improve my music creating experiance. The benefits are just priceless.

I think what Tweak is really getting at (and I'd tend to agree) is that the problem with most home studios is inside noise, not outside noise. You can put up all the panels you want but it won't help you if your computer fans are generating white noise at 20 dBA.

I think that if you work on eliminating that noise, you'll find that panels and other fancy acoustic treatment isn't really necessary.

___________________
My party schedule:
2009-02-21 - DJ Attention @ I'm So Popular
2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
2048-06-66 - Spastic & Whocares ¶ Although I'm Actually Flattered
9999-45-81 - Tweaker Gimp ☼ I Probably Won't Even Go To This But I Have To Make Sure I Fill Up All The Available Space Here

Provided I have acoustic foam on the walls and panels etc., am I going to want a hardwood floor or carpet? Hardwood would theoretically create echoes, wouldn't it?

Also, do you recommend putting studio monitors on a desk and then putting foam on their underside, or getting a mount specifically for them?

___________________

One always has to remember these days where the garbage pail is, because it's so easy to make sounds, and to put sounds together into something that appears to be music, but it's just as hard as it always was to make good music.
- Robert Moog

quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut I think what Tweak is really getting at (and I'd tend to agree) is that the problem with most home studios is inside noise, not outside noise. You can put up all the panels you want but it won't help you if your computer fans are generating white noise at 20 dBA. I think that if you work on eliminating that noise, you'll find that panels and other fancy acoustic treatment isn't really necessary.

if you put your computer out the way, mine is underneath my desk which i have a keyboard tray protruding so i don't hear it at all as my monitors on ear level. easy solution but it does work a lot.

and from personal experience, i like to produce music at a reasonably loud level, i don't mean rediculously loud, just a bit above normal so you can feel how it's going to work in a club before you test it in one. after all, that is the place most of the music on here is created for!

+ djdirty, that setup looks sweet as man

edit: just stuck some new pics of my studio online, no sound proofing but i have carpet flooring + a bed in the room to dampen sound, pics here:

http://luketerry.com/studio

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w: www.luketerry.com

Last edited by Luke Terry on Dec-05-2005 at 23:16

quote:

Originally posted by armanivespucci Provided I have acoustic foam on the walls and panels etc., am I going to want a hardwood floor or carpet? Hardwood would theoretically create echoes, wouldn't it? Also, do you recommend putting studio monitors on a desk and then putting foam on their underside, or getting a mount specifically for them?

Foam on the bottom of studio monitors is good enough - just make sure it's proper foam, not styrofoam.

Hardwood floors are not really creating an "echo" any more so than the walls or the ceiling create echo. Carpet absorbs sound, which means that the sound waves which hit it will probably never reach you, creating a more acoustically "dull" environment. Furthermore, carpet swallows up some frequencies more than others, so you're creating a frequency response in the area that's less flat. I think the carpet vs. hardwood debate is kind of pointless, it's really up to personal preference, but given the choice I'd go with hardwood.

Luke Terry: My equipment is underneath my desk but it doesn't *quite* do the trick, since there are two computers there with two fans and 3 hard drives each. I produce with noise and I pay the price for it - in sound quality. For a lot of people what you're saying probably works just fine, but as soon as I move and set up a real "studio" I definitely intend to have a "quiet room"...

___________________
My party schedule:
2009-02-21 - DJ Attention @ I'm So Popular
2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
2048-06-66 - Spastic & Whocares ¶ Although I'm Actually Flattered
9999-45-81 - Tweaker Gimp ☼ I Probably Won't Even Go To This But I Have To Make Sure I Fill Up All The Available Space Here