KVR Audio

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 12:49 am

I'm in desperate need of some help in this section. Since my room is fairly treated, but not overall well, I finally want to fix that. I also want to buy an halfopen Vocal/Recording booth, but I need one important thing for that: absorbers.

The thing is... no matter where I looked, I'd have to shell out like 50-70bucks per square meter?! The hell? I mean, is that thing all golden or what?

People told me over and over "you can get awesome stuff for dirt cheap" or "a squaremeter of convoluted foam absorbers is only like 5-10bucks". For that vocal booth alone I need several square meter material, but shelling out 200bucks for just like 3x1 square meter is just too expensive IMO.

So my question out to my fellow German musician's and engineers, can you maybe direct me to some dead cheap sources (other than Thomann.de, which is way too expensive) where I can get material to treat my room and build some stuff for experiments?

Thanks in advance.

koolkeys · Post by **koolkeys** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 1:22 am

Try buying some bed foam. It's not the same stuff, but it's VERY cheap and if it does good enough, it will save you money. I know several people who have used it with great results, and I'm building a unit myself with it.

Brent

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 1:27 am

Bed Foam? That dark-yellowish/white one? Where to get that one? Got any sources?

koolkeys · Post by **koolkeys** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 1:35 am

Any major department store should have it. Wal-Mart here in the States has it for like ten bucks for a twin or queen size bed.

But most department stores should have it. It's worth trying and you're not out much money.

It's the curved/spikey stuff that goes underneath your sheets or whatever, but on top of the mattress. I can find a picture if you need.

Keep in mind that it depends on your room and exactly what needs you have. But it can work very well in many situations. The times I've seen it is for isolation panels to keep room noise out and more.

Brent

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:06 am

koolkeys wrote:It's the curved/spikey stuff that goes underneath your sheets or whatever, but on top of the mattress. I can find a picture if you need.

Keep in mind that it depends on your room and exactly what needs you have. But it can work very well in many situations. The times I've seen it is for isolation panels to keep room noise out and more.

Brent

Would love to see some pictures from that. Meaning both the pics how it looks in stores, and how it looks in action.

Prefered would be in either white or black as convoluted foam, but you can't be picky if it has to be balanced out in terms of price/effor/usability.

Of course I'm all ears for other recommendations, too.

Cordelia · Post by **Cordelia** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:17 am

Compyfox,
Can you get Auralex in Germany? $99 (US) for 32 1'x 1'x 2" squares. Works well on flutter echoes and such. Not soundproofing material, obviously, but neither is mattress foam.

koolkeys · Post by **koolkeys** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:21 am

The bedfoam will come in a bag and will be in with the pillows. It's in a roll kinda. You can get various sizes. I'll take pictures later tonight. My wife and I are watching a movie right now. So I'll check back later and try to help more.

Brent

rockstar_not · Post by **rockstar_not** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:37 am

Here is a company that sells a competitive product to Auralex, but at a cheaper price. I don't know whether they ship to Germany or not.

http://www.foambymail.com/soundproofing.html

Here is an example of the kind of bed mattress cover that Brent (koolkeys) is referring to:

http://cgi.ebay.com/QUEEN-EGGCRATE-CONV ... dZViewItem

The problem with this stuff is that the wedges aren't deep enough, nor is the density of the foam very heavy.

You already probably have something there in your home that will work nearly as well as this type of mattress cover.

In the couple months that I've spent in Germany, every bed that I slept on had a very nice feather/down bed cover (bettdeck?). You can make a makeshift vocal booth out of 2 or 3 of these supported over a frame of some kind, that will work as well or better than foam - because the density is quite a bit higher with the bettdeck, while still offering significant absorption.

-Scott

Actually, another well-used and effective home-based vocal booth is to place your mic in front of an open clothing closet that's loaded up with clothes. Works very well.

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:47 am

If we're talking about feather beds (blankets and pillows), such stuff works for selfmde bass traps indeed. But I kinda need something that's glued to the wall, etc. (it has to look at least a bit professional, even if it isn't, heh).

Unless you mean thick cotton blankets or something like that, but then again, I'd need a clothes rack or something like that to arrange them, but this again doesn't look like a box, but a "short term solution".

All that cheapness aside, I'll look into that kind of stuff (the bedthing I mean - no other fellow German in here to help out maybe?). But I really want to go away from "blanket solutions" but build something actually decent. And by that I mean... cheap, nice looking, but no patchwork blankets.

Thanks so far, folks.

C00kie · Post by **C00kie** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 10:49 am

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb06/a ... diosos.htm
Read the section "Effective & Ineffective Absorbers"

I think bed foam is called "Molton" in Dutch. Maybe the German word is simular...

(yep, it's the same stuff: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molton )

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 6:44 pm

Hm... Molton... maybe I have some of that stuff still lying around. It's good for layering indeed, or the spaces inbetween the setup I want to build.

Just to pimp this again, really no German in here who can help out?
(ich meine, hey! Kann doch nicht sein das ihr auch nur alles Importiert.

)

loopdon · Post by **loopdon** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 7:21 pm

Weiss nicht, ob's hilft.

Ein Thread zum Thema und ein Video daraus...

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 8:52 pm

Hm... nette Info, Danke Loopdon. Für "generelles Raumisolieren", könnte das eine Lösung sein. Aber was ist mit Shipping und Zoll Preisen?

Und... kennt keiner eine Page in Sachen "günstiger Noppen/Pyramidenschaum"?

EDIT:
Looks like there is one page for cheap foam after all, and it has the richest assortment I've seen so far. Because if I look at what Loopdon offered me with his posted tutorial video from readyacoustics.com ... even though I "buy" everything seperately, it's still expensive.

This however, is a fair priced solution for everybody I guess. At least for those living in Germany - even PayPal is possible, very convenient:

http://www.schaumstofflager.de/index.php

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 5:20 am

Okay let's bring this one into a different direction, too. I got the stuff I need (even found some other pages, but the foam there was still too darn expensive), now I only need some help in terms of:

- How big shall my foam be to eat certain frequencies?
- How to get out at what frequencies in my room need to be treated?

I read a bit through this board here, but didn't find anything useful so far. Or I'm just lost at what I'm doing, or trying to do:
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

Foam Absorbers - Where to get decent priced ones in Germany