Need help treating this room for acoustics!!

[ElijahC]

Hey

I have just moved into this room and am looking for effective sound absorption. the room is quite big and has a wooden floor. i love the sound of the room as it is and because i much prefer to record my music striped back and "earthy" if you will, i want to keep all the sound absorption very portable. im not keen on spending to much on this.

Absorption
I was looking at building Boards that contain insulation covered over with material that i can put up and pull down. tho i dont have much experience with acoustics and dont know what insulation to get, or to evan use insulation. i was just wondering what materials to buy and where to buy them.

Proofing
I would also like to prevent any sound getting in or out of the room. sound travels loudly through the whole house and the door is right next to a supper creaky stair case. so any thoughts on that would be cool.

Windows
There is a fantastically big window on the back wall that needs to be treated, i thought that putting these absorption boards in front of it would help. anything better?

Dimensions

Boards:
Length 50" 127cm
Width 50" 127cm
(The boards will be 25" off the ground)

Room:
Length 185" 469.9cm
Width 125" 317.5cm
Height 90" 228.6cm

Window: (Back Wall, Its quite big)
Length 100" 254cm
Width 50" 127cm

Any other questions let me know.
Thanks guys any helps appreciated.
cheers
eli

 

[Obitheincredible]

Gikacoustics.com

 

[ToNeZ]

Just a few pointers.

1. Make sure when buying absoption that the materials are 'porous' materials e.g. rockwool. These are the best materials for absorbing and do a great job at treatment.

2. When acoustically treating your room having denser materials wont do anything at all if not make it sound worse so dont get ripped off buying denser materials. However, denser materials are better for sound proofing so its up to you what you want to do.

3. Even a thick curtain across that window would help. I wouldnt spend loads of money covering the whole thing.

Bass traps and acoustic tiling are your first troubles I would say.

And plus to find out what frequencies you need to absorb find out the different room modes of your room, these are what cause "bad" sound in any case. Put your dimensions into here http://www.mcsquared.com/metricmodes.htm

and find absorption that absorbs the resulting frequencies.

P.s. Try not to go over 25% of covering your room. This is an argued rule but is the standard for a new acoustician.

Hope i helped and good luck!

 

[Weasel9992]

I have just moved into this room and am looking for effective sound absorption. the room is quite big and has a wooden floor. i love the sound of the room as it is and because i much prefer to record my music striped back and "earthy" if you will, i want to keep all the sound absorption very portable. im not keen on spending to much on this.

Budget?

Absorption
I was looking at building Boards that contain insulation covered over with material that i can put up and pull down. tho i dont have much experience with acoustics and dont know what insulation to get, or to evan use insulation. i was just wondering what materials to buy and where to buy them.

The best way to build traps is using mineral wool (easier to come by and cheaper in Europe) that's between 48kg/m3-60kg/m3, though it can be as dense as 100kg/m3. Typically the panels are 2'x4', and can be as thick as 6", though broad band panels that are 4" thick are common. You can build them with a frame around them or to the back of the insulation material, then cover them with a variety of fabrics. Look around on the internet...plans for DIY acoustic panels abound.

Proofing
I would also like to prevent any sound getting in or out of the room. sound travels loudly through the whole house and the door is right next to a supper creaky stair case. so any thoughts on that would be cool.

That's going to get expensive. Soundproofing requires mass and construction, neither of which comes cheap.

Windows
There is a fantastically big window on the back wall that needs to be treated, i thought that putting these absorption boards in front of it would help. anything better?

You can just cover it with a heavy curtain if you want. Low end will travel right through glass, so it's good in that respect. The only downside is that high mids and highs reflect like crazy off of glass, hence the heavy curtain.

Dimensions

Boards:
Length 50" 127cm
Width 50" 127cm
(The boards will be 25" off the ground)

Room:
Length 185" 469.9cm
Width 125" 317.5cm
Height 90" 228.6cm

Window: (Back Wall, Its quite big)
Length 100" 254cm
Width 50" 127cm

The dimensions are actually not bad. Take a look here for lots of education and set up information.

Frank