If you are not thinking about treating your room ...

[smy1]

... think again!

I have treated my new home studio with 10 cheap, selfmade broadband absorbers. Each one was 25 Euros (total cost of everything was 250 Euros) and the difference in sound quality is just immense.

At home I am monitoring through Firepod > Alesis poweramp > Tannoy Reveal Passive, which is probably the lowest end monitoring you can go thru, but the room treatment makes everything sound so much clearer and more distinct, it is unreal.

Before anyone thinks of buying anything else, a mic, speakers, cables, whatever ... do yourself the favor and invest some time and money into broadband absorbers / basstraps.

I guess I never noticed how much of a difference these make because I always thought "oh, it must be the room layout and my shitty speakers" compared to the pro studios I worked in. Nope. It is mostly the room treatment.

I will step off my soapbox now, but trust me, this will be the best money you will ever spend on any audio gear. I just wish someone had forced me to do that in 1996 ...

[LSD-Studio]

Originally Posted by smy1

... think again!

I have treated my new home studio with 10 cheap, selfmade broadband absorbers. Each one was 25 Euros (total cost of everything was 250 Euros) and the difference in sound quality is just immense.

At home I am monitoring through Firepod > Alesis poweramp > Tannoy Reveal Passive, which is probably the lowest end monitoring you can go thru, but the room treatment makes everything sounding so much clearer and more distinct, it is unreal.

Before anyone thinks of buying anything else, a mic, speakers, cables, whatever ... do yourself the favor and invest some time and money into broadband absorbers / basstraps.

I guess I never noticed how much of a difference these make because I always thought "oh, it must be the room layout and my shitty speakers" compared to the pro studios I worked in. Nope. It is mostly the room treatment.

I will step off my soapbox now, but trust me, this will be the best money you will ever spend on any audio gear. I just wish someone had forced me to do that in 1996 ...

well said!

[tgs]

Spot on! Btw, could you describe how you made the absorbers? Do you have some pictures as well?

[fatalforce]

Got any pictures? I was gonna go the real cheap way and use egg cartons as a rear wall diffuser.

[poisoned dreams]

a want to do sumthin like that who would aye go about it?

[smy1]

First read everything on this site: http://www.gikacoustics.com/education.html

That will give you the basics on placement etc.

Then read everything on this site: http://www.realtraps.com/info.htm

Just to understand it some more

Then go to this thread. It even has a video on how to make them, but I did it differently.

Some Advice on DIY Bass Traps

You should be set. If you are quick, you can make ten absorbers in about 5-6 hours. We did it in 2 days of 3h each.

I have photos, but not on this computer. I can post them maybe tomorrow.

[smy1]

Originally Posted by fatalforce

Got any pictures? I was gonna go the real cheap way and use egg cartons as a rear wall diffuser.

That won't help at all. Read the info in the links to find out why ...

[Loren Littlejohn]

I can't wait till the end of this year when I actually get a room I can treat .

I really do want to do this. I'm just in a situation where I can not do any room mods (both for renting and space reasons) at all.

[JonWormwood]

Ordering my OC703 this month.

My only question is, should I be using 2 or 4 inches for the panels?

[smy1]

Well, 2 inch is sufficient for the first reflection points left and right of the listening position. I just used 4 inch everywhere.

[006]

Lol egg cartons don't help at ALL. I love it when people say they do or when I see them on the walls in other home studios and in movies...gives me a good chuckle.

Acoustic foam/fiberglass/rockwool are tried and true industry standards for a reason. Not layers of cardboard stuck to the wall.

~e.a

[JBroll]

I prefer corpses, myself.

Jeff

[Djabthrash]

Originally Posted by JBroll

I prefer corpses, myself.

Jeff

[recycle]

Originally Posted by JBroll

I prefer corpses, myself.

Jeff

hehehe

[tgs]

Originally Posted by elephant-audio

Lol egg cartons don't help at ALL. I love it when people say they do or when I see them on the walls in other home studios and in movies...gives me a good chuckle.

Acoustic foam/fiberglass/rockwool are tried and true industry standards for a reason. Not layers of cardboard stuck to the wall.

~e.a

He was talking about diffusers and not absorbers. Of course, the egg cartons might LOOK like they could diffuse the sound in a good way, but from tests I've seen they clearly don't.

However, you can probably make some decent DIY diffusers in some way, would be interesting to experiment with. But I guess it could also go horribly wrong, hehe...

[JonWormwood]

Do you guys think a 'cloud' is necessary?

[TheDude]

Originally Posted by Necromancer197666

Do you guys think a 'cloud' is necessary?

Yes, if your roof is hard. Audio reflects from hard surfaces, and....

[fatalforce]

Thanks for shattering my cheap, cheap dreams guys...haha. I'll guess I'll have to wait till this lease is over to create a nice listening environment.

[JonWormwood]

Originally Posted by TheDude

Yes, if your roof is hard. Audio reflects from hard surfaces, and....

This might be an issue as there's a fan right in the middle of the room.

[smy1]

Originally Posted by fatalforce

Thanks for shattering my cheap, cheap dreams guys...haha. I'll guess I'll have to wait till this lease is over to create a nice listening environment.

Why? You can always put the absorbers on stands if you can't hang them up.

[smy1]

Originally Posted by Necromancer197666

This might be an issue as there's a fan right in the middle of the room.

Well, I have one absorber planned over the listening position, but I haven't put it up yet (need a second pair of hands for this) - and it still sounds 100000% better even without it.

[JeffTD]

I'm going to do this with left over Xmas money, I just have to after reading all these threads. My room is a fairly small square (10x12ft) space, so I'm thinking one in each corner to break the 90º angle (I've got a window in one corner... shit, might have to leave out one corner), one to the left and one to the right of my listening position, and then some foam on the wall behind my monitors/screen.

Smy, I assume you just went with the wood frame + OC703 type material, covered in breathable fabric?

[smy1]

Originally Posted by DSS3

I'm going to do this with left over Xmas money, I just have to after reading all these threads. My room is a fairly small square (10x12ft) space, so I'm thinking one in each corner to break the 90º angle (I've got a window in one corner... shit, might have to leave out one corner), one to the left and one to the right of my listening position, and then some foam on the wall behind my monitors/screen.

Smy, I assume you just went with the wood frame + OC703 type material, covered in breathable fabric?

Yea, I got Rockwool Mineralwool (the semi-rigid "panel" type). Just went to a local home depot got some light wood, had it cut and then used metal angles to put the wood together. Nothing fancy, really.

My only gripe is that I chose fabric that is TOO thin. I was really concerned with the breathability and I also wanted everything to be red, so I didn't have that much choice. The mineralwool has a tendency to push out a bit and the fabric bulges occasionally, so my absorbers don't look as snazzy as professional ones (which I can live with).

I have a door very close to my right back corner, so I couldn't straddle the corner with an absorber there. Glenn from GIK Acoustics also recommended putting absorbers on the corner where the ceiling meets the wall and I did that in the back over my couch.



That's how my room looks. Corner E is the problematic one. So I just hung an absorber onto the sidewall where it didnt obstruct the door.

There are also absorbers right and left of the listening position and one over it (coming soon). There is one on the wall behind the couch AND one straddling the wall/ceiling-corner over the couch.

It is really interesting to walk thru the room when music is playing because when I walk into corner "E" the bass buildup is immense. It's interesting how much less bass you hear in the listening position, but what you hear is really defined. Even on those poor-ass Tannoys.

I am a happy camper at the moment.

[JeffTD]

Hmm so you've got nothing straddling corners A or B, and it's still been that much of an improvement? I definitely have to do this!

[JonWormwood]

Originally Posted by DSS3

Smy, I assume you just went with the wood frame + OC703 type material, covered in breathable fabric?

If you, your wife, gf etc. is handy at sewing you can create your own Ready Traps type bag. I.e. a stretchable fabric of sorts. Hell, there's way you could even make it easier then that.

OC703 is rigid enough to hold it's own weight without bending and/or sagging over time.