cheap acoustical treatment tip

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Press

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I have an apartment with my music gear in a very small room. The sound is pretty bad but I've hesitated to spend a lot on treatment in an apt. etc. etc.

A tip:

I hung a line near the ceiling about a foot from the wall at the the back of my monitoring position. (uh, the wall behind me that is) From this line I draped a heavy blanket which runs the width of the room and hangs about a foot down.

I thought at best it would make a subtle difference, but it's huge. This has drastically improved the sound of my room.

If you're in a tight space with bouncing sound and you have a tight budget I highly recommend this less than stylish, highly effective method.

Strange as it may sound I'm also considering a treatment of rolls of paper towels on the front corners of the room: one in the corner, one on each side, stacked three high. This simulates some expensive treatments.

Save money on many things to spend it on gear.
 
Yeah thats probably killing a lot of those early reflections that aren't too good in a small room. Great job!!

One quick down and dirty method to see if you have an early reflection problem is sit in your monitoring position and while listening to some music cup your hands behind you ears. If you hear a drastic change and tightening of the stereo field then you have bad acoustics behind you.

Oh put those hands up like barn doors not like cups facing forward. You are attempting to block the sound your ears catch from behind you.

It will be interesting to see how your paper towel method works. I am assuming you are going for bass traps? The paper material might absorb the energy.

I will tell you another little trick, go to wall mart and get foam bed rolls (mattress pads). They are ugly, but dirt cheap and help to kill a lot of highs. This works well in mic'ing situations.
 
Yeah, I thought about getting foam. the blanket thing was just a spur of the moment idea that worked out real well so I'm hoping the paper towels work too. I just feel ridiculous saying I'm going to stick rolls of paper toweling in my corners, but I think it's going to work.

I'll try your listenting technique. It's pretty cool when I put head in the space between my blanket and the wall there is a real strange low warbling. It's like physically entering another dimension of sound. trippy.
 
Great tips! I'm moving to a new house soon, so I'll be able to try some of this out. At the moment, my music room is being redecorated for the sale of the house and it resembles Afghanistan. Or if you're reading this in a couple of weeks, Iraq. God bless the redneck, death-penalty-advocating, war-mongering President-by-default that is George Bush! :rolleyes:
 
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