Homemade soundproofing question

...and how to do so...
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Couldn't find any suitable topic, hopefully this works..

So I'm about to move to a new place in about a month (I hate it but I have no choice :/), and I'm also an apprentice and hopefully might get a job soon = earn cash again, so I'm having some thoughts about getting a more decent homestudio.
Now I have the most wild thoughts on how to fix the studio, so I felt I better check with you immediately before getting too much fantasies about my future homestudio.

Now, I have 0 experience on soundproofing, so expect me to sound r*tarded. :)

I'm planning to get a couple of 8" Krk Rokits, and an interface with MIDI-in/out, tele-in/out and mic-in/out (can't remember what it's called, whatever).

But the big deal is the room.
We're moving to a very, very old house, and I'll live on the second floor where I pretty much have no walls, just a roof.
Everything is just wooden planks except 2 very small walls on the short sides.
So my whole room has this triangular shape.
First I checked out some classic soundproofing, but then I got the wildest idea: why don't I just put thick quilts (correct word?) along the "walls", carpets on the floor, and some homemade basstraps where necessary.
Would this work well in theory?
I'm producing electro/house so I need to deal a lot with the lowend.

Thanks.

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In theory?
No.
In practice?
No.

You need to do a bunch of reading, and here is not the place to do it.
A triangular wooden room is actually a godsend in my experience, but you still have to treat it.
The basstraps are fine, as long as you make them properly:
http://ethanwiner.com/basstrap.html
Quilts will only kill the high end, and not evenly.

Here's a better place on the net where you should start asking questions and/or learning.
www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

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+1 on the john sayers forum. read the stickies there and use the search function to find specific things.

also, are you looking for sound proofing.. or are you looking for acoustic treatment?

are you trying to make the room sound good for listening or are you trying to make it so the rest of the house can't hear you working on music?

acoustic treatment is usually a much easier and less expensive thing to confront. to make something "sound proof" in your situation is basically impossible w/o major construction and a serious layout of cash.

my advice is to set up your speakers up there and your desk etc.. listen to lot's of music that you know well.. see how it sounds in the room. walk around the room. listen from different places. maybe the acoustics as they are will be something you can learn and get used to and you can save your money and just deal w/it.

if there are major acoustic issues that you can't get passed then contact gik acoustics. they sell panels and bass traps.. you can also DIY your own. it's not hard. you just have to source the materials and spend a weekend doing it.

if it's a typical A Frame attic space w/bare would panels and beams you can probably just roll the insulation/batting right into the spaces between the beams and cover the entire ceiling on both sides of the 'A' w/some fabric.

but as i said.. have some listening sessions in there and see how it goes before you invest time and money to solve a problem that may not be there

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Sorry, meant acoustic treatment!
But shouldn't the quilts pretty much kill the reflections in the upper part of the spectrum in the room?
Thanks for the link, will check it out!

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steffeeH wrote:Sorry, meant acoustic treatment!
But shouldn't the quilts pretty much kill the reflections in the upper part of the spectrum in the room?
Thanks for the link, will check it out!
that's total guess. hard to say at what frequencies your quilts will be effective. i'm not aware of the acoustic properties of your quilts ;)

srsly though.. they'll do something to deaden some part of the freq spectrum but it's anyone's guess really. an acoustic panel, either DIY, or purchased from someone who does that for a living, will have more predictable results.. that's what you want when you're trying to solve a specific problem.

but if you have quilts and some time to experiment then go for it. maybe you'll figure it out or figure out more or less what you need to do if the quilts aren't effective.

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The idea behind acoustic treatment is to acheive an even frequency response in the listening position. Hanging quilts might work in the very high frequencies which will only serve to make the room sound muddy without proper bass trapping. Gik acoustics do make everything you need at a decent price, but you can make your own treatment for much less.

Things to keep in mind are:
- treatment at first reflection points must be effective at mid/high frequencies for better stereo imaging
- bass trapping is most effective in corners (more so in tri or double corners such as wall/ceiling)
- you cannot have too much bass trapping, you can have too much high frequency treatment

Given the above, the most effective treatment at first reflection points are broad band absorbers which can be easily made out of dense rock wool inside a wooden frame, covered with an acoustically transparent material such as muslin. These will absorb high frequencies effectively but will also be effective at lower frequencies (even more so if you can afford a 1/2 inch gap between the panel and the wall). To give you an idea of cost, I was able to build 10 panels for roughly £100 with the help of a friend who had a table saw & some carpentary skills.

For bass trapping, if it is a permenant solution, look into 'super chunk' bass traps which are essentially a few rockwool panels cut into triangles and stacked into the corners of the room. They are even easier to build and very effective. Alternatively a temporary solution is to brace some acoustic panels across the corners of the room.

A good idea is to stick some bass trapping in the room and treat the first reflection points, then see what else you need. Also do what others have said and read up on the subject (alot of good information from people who build the panels professionally over at Gearslutz) as it is a science!

Good luck.
Andy

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this is good advice. well stated. :tu:
Lojik wrote:The idea behind acoustic treatment is to acheive an even frequency response in the listening position. Hanging quilts might work in the very high frequencies which will only serve to make the room sound muddy without proper bass trapping. Gik acoustics do make everything you need at a decent price, but you can make your own treatment for much less.

Things to keep in mind are:
- treatment at first reflection points must be effective at mid/high frequencies for better stereo imaging
- bass trapping is most effective in corners (more so in tri or double corners such as wall/ceiling)
- you cannot have too much bass trapping, you can have too much high frequency treatment

Given the above, the most effective treatment at first reflection points are broad band absorbers which can be easily made out of dense rock wool inside a wooden frame, covered with an acoustically transparent material such as muslin. These will absorb high frequencies effectively but will also be effective at lower frequencies (even more so if you can afford a 1/2 inch gap between the panel and the wall). To give you an idea of cost, I was able to build 10 panels for roughly £100 with the help of a friend who had a table saw & some carpentary skills.

For bass trapping, if it is a permenant solution, look into 'super chunk' bass traps which are essentially a few rockwool panels cut into triangles and stacked into the corners of the room. They are even easier to build and very effective. Alternatively a temporary solution is to brace some acoustic panels across the corners of the room.

A good idea is to stick some bass trapping in the room and treat the first reflection points, then see what else you need. Also do what others have said and read up on the subject (alot of good information from people who build the panels professionally over at Gearslutz) as it is a science!

Good luck.
Andy

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my suggestion is to buy some hd25 and cheap pc speaker. If your mixes sound good on both system your job is done.

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I have an attic studio which is pretty triangular and it ended up being quite a reasonable space once I got it sorted out. It also may have something to do with the fact that it's a loft conversion, so was basically a lot of fairly thin drywall over wood frames, which is known for letting a fair portion of the low end (always the hardest to deal with) straight through and out of harms way. Sucks for soundproofing the outside world out, but the response isn't bad at all for monitoring. I did add a bit more trapping by building some floppy drywall membrane caps where there were proper brick walls which helped some more and the rest was dealing with high end reflections, which are much less work to cope with, mostly it was furniture and soft carpets, a bit of acoustic foam either side of the listening position.

I wouldn't even start thinking about sticking stuff around until you know what you have to deal with first though, you really need something like Room EQ Wizard (any other suggestions for something easy to use?) to see how your room is responding. I spent a long time just moving my monitors around for the very best position, and it wasn't where I expected it to be!

bx
http://www.cheaponlinemixingmastering.co.uk/
Rik: What's that alcohol smell then?
Sir Larry: Embalming fluid.
Ade: Barmy fluid? Right! I'll have some of that then.

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