Topic: building room treatments?

[Tim]

Anyone built their own? In my basement the couch is against the back wall and it's a concrete wall with nothing more than a coat of paint over it - ouch! Luckily I have a big fluffy couch with high cushions but I still need something there.

I'd like to build two treatments to hang side by side on that wall. I'm thinking 24"h x 48"L and use the Owens Corning acoustic insulation.

It seems like a fairly simple project. My questions though are
1. How thick to make the treatment? That wall is about 10' from the speaker drivers. Is 2" sufficient?
2. What to fabric type should I use to cover the treatments? I'm guessing something like a low thread count cotton would work to let the sound waves penetrate the fabric and be absorbed by insulation but I really have no idea.

[mfrench]

pm sent.

[Tim]

Thanks Mike

[StuStu]

I use both 2 and 4" for the panels I've made. 4" behind my mains, 2" on the walls. I made simple wooden frames covered in muslin fabric. I'll be happy to e-mail pics if you'd like.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

Yes.   Room lens clones and panels.

The panels are 2'x4'x2" pressed fiberglass in a pine frame with burlap stretched over them.   I mounted them temporarily on a plank so I can move them around the room but if I didn't have WAF issues they would be hanging on the wall.  The whole job took about 45 min not counting the time to shop for fiber glass and fabric.

The room lens clones are from the jon risch recipe.  I made a temporary base using plank and right angle pipe ends.

[nickgregory]

The room lens clones are from the jon risch recipe.  I made a temporary base using plank and right angle pipe ends.

and these would never pass the WAF

[Tim]

Thanks Mike, that's exactly what I'm looking at building. Going to get them as much GAF as possible by breaking it up into 3 pieces with a color "theme" so they look a little more decorative than standard wall treatments.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

The room lens clones are from the jon risch recipe.  I made a temporary base using plank and right angle pipe ends.

and these would never pass the WAF

No way.  They look like something that fell out of the back of xavier rudd's car as he was leaving a show.

[Gutbucket]

Here's yet another site I was wandering about on last week with extensive room acoustics info including calculators for building your own bass traps & diffusers of all types.  I downloaded a little app that calculates the effective frequencies and lumber cuts required for building QRD and skyline type diffusers.

[Tim]

that's handy, thanks for sharing the link

[live2496]

Here are some links I had saved when researching this a while back:

Some of them sell the insulation and provide kits for DIY.

http://www.readyacoustics.com/
http://www.realtraps.com/
http://www.atsacoustics.com/
http://www.gikacoustics.com/

If using the passive panels it is best if you leave an air gap between the panel and the wall. The more panels the better. And it is better to use the denser OC 705 vs the OC 703, and thicker is better.
Keep the back open and let the waves pass through. Most people I think make a smaller frame at the back and then attach the fabric to that frame with staples or upholstery tacks.

Ethan Winer is associated with Realtraps, but he published this article in 1995 in Electronic Musician.
http://www.ethanwiner.com/basstrap.html

These panels are sealed and work using a vibrating front panel concept. Inside is a fiberglass panel that dampens the vibration. You might think about this design as it might be more effective with your cement wall. He uses alternating different wood panels for differing lower frequency ranges.

Here is another room mode calculator. This one is more visual.
http://www.hunecke.de/en/calculators/room-eigenmodes.html

[macdaddy]

great thread (checking in)...

[mblindsey]

Here are pics of the ones I made:

http://www.recordingproject.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=31061

--Michael

[Jimna]

28 more days and i will emulate this room!   

tim if you do this please take pics and share.

[Gutbucket]

Found this DIY Aeropanel Absorber page today.  Simple. Looks good.