Acoustic Panel Prototype

[Peter Batah]

Hello all.

This week marked my foray into the world of woodworking. My first project appropriately enough is the first of several absorption panels that I will be placing in my small home project studio.

If any of you are interested in how I am progressing I would be glad to post additional pics.

Please pay no mind to all the junk in my makeshift woodworking shed. Which doubles as my garage.

https://imgur.com/rqMUaBv

 

[-mjk-]

Looks good!

 

[skier]

Cool! If this is your first woodworking project, you’re off to an unusually good start. The workmanship appears to be quite decent, and certainly much better than any beginner’s work that I have ever seen.

Something to keep in mind now that you’re treating your recording space is that the hardest thing to control is the low frequencies, and to do so requires “thick” absorbers, as in 12” – 36” thick for the lower frequencies. You haven’t mentioned the size of your recording space, but the smaller it is, the harder it is to control those frequencies, and small spaces are what most of us have for our in-house studios. If that is what you have and the lows are what you’re trying to improve, an alternative you could consider is building a couple of Helmholtz resonators rather than losing so much space due to the need for such thick absorbers — look up Helmholtz resonators on-line if that’s the case — there’s lots of info available.

 

[skier]

Oh! I should also mention: don’t absorb too many of the high frequencies or the room will sound dead. In my studio (12 ft x 18ft [4m x 6m]), it was the high frequencies that were giving me a persistent flutter echo and I fixed that with two 4ft x 4ft panels of 4 inch thick, triangular, commercial foam on the front walls behind the desk and monitors (they’re pulled away from the front wall about 3ft.) I solved a low-freq problem by putting a thick, small couch at the back wall (it also provide comfortable seating for guests or myself to take a break after sitting hours at the console in a desk chair).

I hope the foregoing doesn’t sound like preaching, I only mention all this because of the fact that the lows are usually much more of a problem for our home studios because of their smaller size. The large spaces of most commercial studios don’t generally have such a bad low-freq problem because of their typically much bigger dimensions.

 

[Peter Batah]

Cool! If this is your first woodworking project, you’re off to an unusually good start. The workmanship appears to be quite decent, and certainly much better than any beginner’s work that I have ever seen.

That's quite the compliment. I'm flattered, thank you. Hours spent reading and watching YT tutorials. Not to mention a few woodworking forums.

Something to keep in mind now that you’re treating your recording space is that the hardest thing to control is the low frequencies, and to do so requires “thick” absorbers, as in 12” – 36” thick for the lower frequencies.

I plan on construction triangular chunky corner traps. I don't think that 36" will be possible in my case. 12-18" might be doable though.

You haven’t mentioned the size of your recording space, but the smaller it is, the harder it is to control those frequencies, and small spaces are what most of us have for our in-house studios.

If that is what you have and the lows are what you’re trying to improve, an alternative you could consider is building a couple of Helmholtz resonators rather than losing so much space due to the need for such thick absorbers — look up Helmholtz resonators on-line if that’s the case — there’s lots of info available.

I have done some reading on Helmholtz resonators. Not extensively I must confess

 

[Peter Batah]

@skier Oh! I should also mention: don’t absorb too many of the high frequencies or the room will sound dead. In my studio (12 ft x 18ft [4m x 6m])

You have me beat when it comes to the room size that is for sure. To say that treating my room is going to be quite the challenge would be an understatement. Regardless, this is what I have to work with and will try to do the best with it that I can.

Also plan on placing a couch at the back of the room as well. I understand a bookshelf (preferably floor to ceiling) works well.

I hope the foregoing doesn’t sound like preaching

Thank you so much for chiming in. I appreciate all the help that I can get. Don't mind the Preaching. Bring it on!

I would definitely like to learn more about how to use REW (Room EQ Wizard) and interpret the results before and after treatment. I have included a link to some rough Sketchup images of my room. Nothing permanent. Just some ideas that I have been toying with.

https://mega.nz/#F!195X3JrL!mYBkpre_Bza9fM_CuQPhHA

I enjoy visiting these two forums as well. I am sure that you are familiar with them:

http://the-audio-expert.freeforums.net/
https://www.avnirvana.com/

My apologies for the long-winded response.

 

[Peter Batah]

@skier. Don't think that I mentioned that I would be using 6" thick panels at the back and front wall, and ceiling. As for the first reflection points and any side wall I would settle on a 3" thickness. I have to be careful otherwise before you know it, it will feel like the room is closing in on me. Like a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

 

[skier]

@skier
You have me beat when it comes to the room size that is for sure. To say that treating my room is going to be quite the challenge would be an understatement. Regardless, this is what I have to work with and will try to do the best with it that I can.

Also plan on placing a couch at the back of the room as well. I understand a bookshelf (preferably floor to ceiling) works well.

I hope the foregoing doesn’t sound like preaching

Thank you so much for chiming in. I appreciate all the help that I can get. Don't mind the Preaching. Bring it on!

I would definitely like to learn more about how to use REW (Room EQ Wizard) and interpret the results before and after treatment. I have included a link to some rough Sketchup images of my room. Nothing permanent. Just some ideas that I have been toying with.

https://mega.nz/#F!195X3JrL!mYBkpre_Bza9fM_CuQPhHA

I enjoy visiting these two forums as well. I am sure that you are familiar with them:

http://the-audio-expert.freeforums.net/
https://www.avnirvana.com/

When it comes to room size and shape, we have what we have. In my case, we added an addition many years ago and I took the opportunity to enlarge it so I could have a personnel studio. Once you decide to build a structure or an addition, you're going to already be paying for contractors to bring equipment and materials on site, so increasing the size just affects the direct material cost and labor of the expansion and I took advantage of that. I also did the heating, electrical, and all audio cabling and wiring myself to further defray costs, as you're doing by building your own baffles - that’s always good.

I did look at your Sketchup drawings, and wow, that is an unusually shaped room. Such a shape brings some limitations as to symmetry, but those same limitations might also reduce the chances of some low frequency modes and associated standing wave build-up; so, there are advantages as well as challenges.

Learning anything from newly visited forums also brings challenges because you don't usually know the posters and whether or not they really know what they're talking about - many don't. (Of course, that means me, too -- ENOUGH!!!)

The foregoing notwithstanding, you will find that the more you visit a forum and read the advice given, the better you'll be able to find some of those posters who truly understand the discussed topics and can help you – Arjan, cmaffia, and others come to mind. I’m saying this because acoustics is a complex area of study and you want to make sure you’re getting good counsel before spending time and money on advised treatments. Similarly, learning as much as you can from books, magazine articles, etc., as well as learning tools like REW, will augment forum advice and give you some basic knowledge with which to adjudge any advice you receive.

I have visited and lurked on the forums you mentioned, but not enough to know the players. As I said above, I’m sure there are some competent posters there, it’s just important to spend some time to get to know them. Once you do, they’ll save you lots of time by answering your questions.

@skier
My apologies for the long-winded response.

No problem; I do it all the time

 

[skier]

@skier. Don't think that I mentioned that I would be using 6" thick panels at the back and front wall, and ceiling. As for the first reflection points and any side wall I would settle on a 3" thickness. I have to be careful otherwise before you know it, it will feel like the room is closing in on me. Like a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

That's why I suggested learning about Helmholtz resonators if you find you really do have a low frequency problem as one does in small rooms. They take up much less space than feet of absorbent material. But if you do build them, you need to make sure you've truly identified the right frequency because Helmholtz resonators must be sized to the offending wavelength. They do work very well and it's astounding how a small resonator can get rid of a big problem. HOWEVER, try the couch first. It may solve any low-freq problem you have, if any, and also provide comfortable seating.