General Music Chat

Or to be more accurate, 'broadband absorbent panels'.

Don't think I shared my home-built project added to my studio before Christmas. Lot of people think they can put up that 'egg crate' type acoustic foam and that's all they need. While the good foam (from Auralex) will absorb high frequencies (taming the 'flutter echo' of hard-surface walls), bass reflections can really muddy up your sound, the smaller the room, the more bass trapping is needed - primarily in the corners.
It's actually easy to build your own at less than half the cost of buying them premade - all you need is a saw, a screw gun and a staple gun.

First build frames, use 1x4 or 1x3 pine, the cheap stuff, just screw them together, no brackets needed as the the whole frame will be covered when you are done, hiding any bad cuts, holes, etc.


Use rockwool or compressed fiberglass (not the fluffy pink stuff). I got mine in 2'x4' panels from atsacoustics.com - they have Roxul, and OC703 & OC705.


Stretch material over the whole thing and staple in the back (like you were reupholstering a sofa) - you want a material that is 'transparent' to air, letting the sound waves through without reflecting any, burlap is a good choice.


When done, I had 6 traps for less than $250 (you can save a bit if you can find the insulation locally and not have to pay for shipping), and you might find a better deal on the cloth than I did at Walmart, too.
3 of the traps are mounted on the 'front' wall in my music room, 2 as a 'ceiling cloud' and 1 behind my sitting position (can't see it in the photo) to the right. All are on eye hooks, so can easily be moved, stacked to make isolation gobo walls, etc.

I don't see any room left for the bass! Do they really work?

I used this design in my studio ..

But I don't think they are catching much bass. I mostly only ever find craw-fish in them.

looks pretty sweet Vinny. I have done the 18"x18" egg carton home studio. Have to say it worked wonderfully and cost me 5 cents apiece. May be double that now, but it does work well. This takes it a level above what i was doing though.
Nice job.

Salute!

Unless you stuff the 'egg cartons' with packing material (insulation, torn up packng blankets), they don't do crap. Maybe absorb a little high frequency, but that's all. You'd have to use a pro microphone, frequency generator and analyzer to see what they do/don't do.
Peoplke also hang heavy drapes or packing blankets up for sound absorbtion, but again, only the high frequencies get absorbed. This may be fine for practice/rehearsal, but for recording and mixing it is not effective.

I covered both sides of 4'x8'x5/8" sheets of sound reduction board ($8 per sheet at that time) with the egg cartons. Worked amazingly well.

I don't see any room left for the bass! Do they really work?

I used this design in my studio ..

But I don't think they are catching much bass. I mostly only ever find craw-fish in them.

perhaps one of these?????

I covered both sides of 4'x8'x5/8" sheets of sound reduction board ($8 per sheet at that time) with the egg cartons. Worked amazingly well.

Sound reduction board is to cut transmission of sound - through the wall. You no doubt heard a reduction in the 'flutter echo' (high frequency relections), and that is good, but not all that is needed. For a practice-rehearsal place, or even a performing room, that can be good enough, but recording and/or mixing will suffer in the same room without broadband absorbers. The larger the room, the less this is a problem. Bass frequencies will build up in corners, from any hard surfaces. I used to have my computer desk set in a corner, up against one wall which had bookshelves on it down to ear-level. Certain bass frequencies would build up in the 'corner' of wall-to-shelf, in my right ear and vibrate like one of those ricer cars with a subwoofer in the trunk! All from a 3" speaker!

What's 'flutter echo'? Go into an emmpty room with sheetrock walls and ceiling and clap your hands once, loudly. Hear the reverb - that's flutter echo.

I don't see any room left for the bass! Do they really work?

I used this design in my studio ..

But I don't think they are catching much bass. I mostly only ever find craw-fish in them.

perhaps one of these?????

I got one of those! Haven't found a "G" string for it that will last more than a few days without snapping in two, though. So I have it set up like a Gnawa hajhuj with 3 strings, the center string is "capoed" half way up the neck as a drone. (sort of like a bass banjo). I also got tired of running down batteries so I bypassed the active electronics, wired the pickup straight to the jack and run it through a nice preamp & EQ.

now, why doesn't it surprise me you'd have one of those, vinny?
...or that you'd set it up like that!

i've never given you any grief about posting music and have always respected your choice not to do so...but i'd LOVE to hear what you do w that thing!!!

if you don't want to put up anything here...how about emailing me something or perhaps via a Band Mix I.M. you can let me know on the Q.T. where you have some stuff up i can check out. oh please. oh please.

bass 1 (bs)
n. pl.bass or bass·es
1. Any of several North American freshwater fishes of the family Centrarchidae, related to but larger than the sunfishes.

2. Any of various marine fishes of the family Serranidae, such as the sea bass and the striped bass.

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[Middle English *bars, perch, from Old English bærs.]

bass 2 (bs)
n.
1. A low-pitched sound or tone.

2. The tones in the lowest register of an instrument.

3.
a. A male singing voice of the lowest range.

b. A singer who has such a voice.

c. An instrument that sounds within this range.

d. Abbr. B A vocal or instrumental part written within this range.

4. An instrument, especially a double bass, that produces tones in a low register.

adj.
1. Having a deep tone.

2. Low in pitch.

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[Middle English bas, lowest musical part, from bas, low; see base2.]

Of course, I meant #2, not the fish which is why I also said 'broadband absorbent panels'. You may return to your frivolity. Planetguy - I suspect 'Vinny' is also someone else here, so can't share music because then someone could put 2 and 2 together and figure out who he is.

now, why doesn't it surprise me you'd have one of those, vinny?
...or that you'd set it up like that!

i've never given you any grief about posting music and have always respected your choice not to do so...but i'd LOVE to hear what you do w that thing!!!

if you don't want to put up anything here...how about emailing me something or perhaps via a Band Mix I.M. you can let me know on the Q.T. where you have some stuff up i can check out. oh please. oh please.

Well, I think my wobbly intonation without frets inspired some self censoring until I can get a better grip on that Ashbory whatever the setup!

Back to sound absorbing panels ....
Despite the people on homerecording.com who said DO IT, I resisted, thinking what real difference will it make in my small recording set up? I can certainly see it when you've got a bigger room, are amping your guitars in it, playing drums, etc.
But it DOES make a difference. Listen to my latest tune on my BM player - 50 Years Ago. Vocals recorded in the room that gave me so much problem (even with a dynamic mic) before due to all the reflections from the oak paneling.
Total cost for 6 was under $250. Best investment in my 'studio' yet.

Planetguy - I suspect 'Vinny' is also someone else here, so can't share music because then someone could put 2 and 2 together and figure out who he is.

well, i've heard Vinny's stuff and it IS the real deal. at least as good or better than anything else i've heard from the other talented people on BM.

unlike someone else who goes on endlessly about music theory....Vinny really does know his $hit AND can back it up w his writing...and his playing on a boatload of different instruments.

'sides....are you really sure upon hearing someone's music you could easily make connections and recognize similarities between their music/playing and someone else's?

Oops!! I must have sent the wrong links and you heard someone else's stuff!!

Back to sound absorbing panels ....
Despite the people on homerecording.com who said DO IT, I resisted, thinking what real difference will it make in my small recording set up? I can certainly see it when you've got a bigger room, are amping your guitars in it, playing drums, etc.
But it DOES make a difference. Listen to my latest tune on my BM player - 50 Years Ago. Vocals recorded in the room that gave me so much problem (even with a dynamic mic) before due to all the reflections from the oak paneling.
Total cost for 6 was under $250. Best investment in my 'studio' yet.

Just joking around and did not mean to belittle your effort GuitarMikeB.

That sounds like a good project. Getting rid of fluttering echos and standing waves make it much easier to mix things later.

For those who are sensitive to fiberglass .. there is also a compressed cotton available that works very well as a substitute for fiberglass.