Studio Treatment Thread

[TJontheRoad]

Lets talk studio treatments. This project for me is long over due. Just arrived is the last major portion of my studio infrastructure project. Earlier this year, I removed my Yamaha TF5 mixer out of the studio and went to full patchbay setup to route all my gear audio. I clean up the crazy amount spaghetti cabling for audio, USB, MIDI, digital, and power. Everything is much easier to manage and is more flexible. Now, the most important part of studio improvements is room treatments and new monitors.

Here are Acoustimac 3x3 wall/ceiling panel bass traps, Auralex SonoColumns corner bass traps, and Neumann KH150 monitors + MA 1 acoustic alignment microphone. This was a costly investment, but I'm certain it'll be all worth it. Looking forward the install later this week.

 

[TJontheRoad]

No interest here in this topic? Room treatments are essential to get the best recording mixes. And much like the Ik multimedia Arc Studio ARC 4 system, the Neumann MA 1 acoustic alignment microphone with its accompanying MA 1 - Automatic Monitor Alignment software works to make corrections for any remaining problems.

The Acoustimac panels are also available is an inexpensive DIY kit

Do you DIY?

www.acoustimac.com

Auralex has great deals on b-stock

B Stock - Auralex Acoustics

auralex.com

 

[TJontheRoad]

I'm also placing black 1/2 inch acoustic panels in the drop ceiling with the old ones left on top for extra dampening and a better look. Some of the SonoColumns are being installed by hanging them via wire. The Acoustimac panels will also be hung with wire from the ceiling.

Evenrising Acoustic Panels

 

[bikescene]

Great topic. I’ve slowly built some panels over the past 10 years. My basement has short ceilings and odd dimensions to overcome with my panels.

I’ve been trying different methods of building acoustic panels over the years. I’ve used a mix of OC703, Owens Corning fiberglass pipe insulation, Rockwool Safe N Sound, and R-30/R-19 fluffy insulation. I’ve mainly used cheap framing wood from Home Depot with muslin fabric.

The corners of my front listening area have my imitation of GIK soffit traps. I filled frames with 15”x15” squares of R30 fluffy insulation. I was convinced to try thicker traps of R30 vs the typical 4” of OC703 in the corners after using an online porous membrane calculator. Here’s a shot of the frames in the left corner with no insulation.

Here’s a shot of the corner trap and a first reflection panel on my right wall. The first reflection panel is filled with 6” depth of Rockwool Safe N Sound, with approximate dimensions 32”x72”. I’ve been building panels this way lately.

Here’s a 24”x48x4” OC703 panel. The OC703 is a dense fiberglass, so it’s pretty common to see this size used as bass traps. I was painting the outside wood frames, and stopped doing that because it took too long. My journey had started with fitting a box of OC703 in a Honda Civic.

I’ve been starting to buy fiberglass pipe insulation to make tube traps. This is the least labor intensive method, but the insulation is most costly this way. I’ve used these on my front wall so far.

Here’s a shot of the insides of the tube traps. I filled the insides with R30, but may try them hollow the next time.

Here’s a Room EQ Wizard graph. I focused on the sub 300Hz region with no smoothing to really see the low end problems. This was a comparison of putting a tube trap directly on top of the speaker (red) vs only having the tube traps to the sides (teal). I’m using JBL LSR305 monitors for now.

 

[bikescene]

I'm also placing black 1/2 inch acoustic panels in the drop ceiling with the old ones left on top for extra dampening and a better look. Some of the SonoColumns are being installed by hanging them via wire. The Acoustimac panels will also be hung with wire from the ceiling.

Evenrising Acoustic Panels

I’m curious to hear about how the ceiling panels change your listening space. If you could post some pictures of how you’ll hang the panels, that would be a great reference.

 

[TJontheRoad]

Great topic. I’ve slowly built some panels over the past 10 years. My basement has short ceilings and odd dimensions to overcome with my panels.

I’ve been trying different methods of building acoustic panels over the years. I’ve used a mix of OC703, Owens Corning fiberglass pipe insulation, Rockwool Safe N Sound, and R-30/R-19 fluffy insulation. I’ve mainly used cheap framing wood from Home Depot with muslin fabric.

The corners of my front listening area have my imitation of GIK soffit traps. I filled frames with 15”x15” squares of R30 fluffy insulation. I was convinced to try thicker traps of R30 vs the typical 4” of OC703 in the corners after using an online porous membrane calculator. Here’s a shot of the frames in the left corner with no insulation.

Here’s a shot of the corner trap and a first reflection panel on my right wall. The first reflection panel is filled with 6” depth of Rockwool Safe N Sound, with approximate dimensions 32”x72”. I’ve been building panels this way lately.

Here’s a 24”x48x4” OC703 panel. The OC703 is a dense fiberglass, so it’s pretty common to see this size used these as bass traps. I was painting the outside frames, and stopped doing that because it took too long. My journey had started with fitting a box of OC703 in a Honda Civic.

I’ve been starting to buy fiberglass pipe insulation to make tube traps. This is the least labor intensive method, but the insulation is most costly this way. I’ve used these on my front wall so far.

Here’s a shot of the insides of the tube traps. I filled the insides with R30, but may try them hollow the next time.

Here’s a Room EQ Wizard graph. I focused on the sub 300Hz region with no smoothing to really see the low end problems. This was a comparison of putting a tube trap directly on top of the speaker (red) vs only having the tube traps to the sides (teal). I’m using JBL LSR305 monitors for now.

Impressive

Those corner cubes are huge. Do you have panels behind your monitors to reduce reflections?

 

[bikescene]

Impressive

Those corner cubes are huge. Do you have panels behind your monitors to reduce reflections?

I dont’t have any treatment behind at the moment. I used to have the monitors about 8” off the wall with the intention of adding panels behind them. I think I might’ve tried to put a 4” OC703 panel behind, but didn’t get the low end improvement I wanted in the 100Hz area.

I moved the monitors close to the wall, despite my initial bias to have them far off the wall. There’s a cinder block wall about 6” behind the wall, and my guess is the bulk of the low end reflections are going through the sheet rock and coming back via that cinder block wall. I did a bunch of measurements in Room EQ Wizard one day, and the current config is the one that’s the flattest so far.

At one point, I did the calculations and the 130Hz null is most likely reflections from the ceiling. I take passive mental notes whenever I see people treat their ceilings to one day mount something on my ceiling.

The tube trap idea came from the Eric Valentine YouTube videos and also the ASC AttackWall product line. Eric has demonstrated a lot of measurements with them over the years.

 

[TJontheRoad]

I’m curious to hear about how the ceiling panels change your listening space. If you could post some pictures of how you’ll hang the panels, that would be a great reference.

Ceiling panels (black) are being hung within the drop ceiling frame as in the 1st pic of post #3. Two bass trap blue panels will be hung with steel wire from the upper floor to just below the drop ceiling. 2 other bass trap blue panels will be hung from the upper floor just behind the monitors with some air gap between the panels and the wall (this to have the most prevention of rear wall reflections from the monitors). The last bass trap blue panel will be hung from the upper floor on the opposite side of the room / monitors. Holes will made through the black ceiling panels for the wire. The blue panels will be made level using turnbuckles connected to one end of the wire.

I have a friend coming over this Friday to help me install the blue panels. Will take pics then. Afterwards, I'll be installing the Neumann monitors and running some sound tests with MA 1 software.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I got mildly obsessed with this stuff in 2017-2018 when I took some classes under an engineer who knew a lot about the subject. At the time I was the guy with egg cartons and carpets on his walls.

As soon as I knew better I ripped that stuff off the wall like I had egg on my face and sourced some OC Safe and Sound and the right materials and came out with 12 or so panels for my studio room.

No proper bass traps or anything, just these panels stuck in spots and it really helped.

There are a few more on the ceiling but I can't find those pictures. My son has moved into that room so the panels are in storage as I continue to hone my craft as a Master Bedroom Guitarist™

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Its a topic I like to "research" and "think" about more than actually "learn" about, if I'm being perfectly honest, which is a kind of dangerous place to live on something like this. I think a lot of us are in that position, and explains why Jay hates all of us and many of us hate him I kid, I kid. With a grain of truth.

Given that stuff gets moved around a decent bit in my room, that it is pretty darn close to a square, with a ceiling height that is pretty close to an even multiple of the wall lengths, and my general recognition that taking lots of measurements and making small adjustments based on those measurements is...not a great match with my skillset; I settled on the general "load up the corners and first reflection points; load up the ceiling because I need a hard floor surface I can roll a chair across easily; try this One Neat Trick because its easy to do in my setup".

The ceiling of my room was just exposed joists with subfloor above, so was pretty easy to just fill rockwool between the joists and then go back and cover with canvas afterwards; giving the added benefit of improving the thermal insulation of my carved-out-of-my-garage music/office space. The corners and first reflection points were simple home brew frames made from cheap-ass plywood connected with one another often just using little metal corner brackets from hardware store, stuffed with rockwool, and wrapped with canvas drop cloths from the paint section of hardware store.

The One Neat Trick was to remove the subfloor along the two side walls so that those corners are now kind of "fake" corners, with the walls actually extending up into the attic space above the music room.

Listening to music in the room, whether its mine or someone else's, sounds sufficiently decent to put a smile on my face. Maybe I'll come back and do some measurements and tweak some stuff later, but currently, it meets the demanding standards I have for the "work" that happens here.

 

[TJontheRoad]

I got mildly obsessed with this stuff in 2017-2018 when I took some classes under an engineer who knew a lot about the subject. At the time I was the guy with egg cartons and carpets on his walls.

As soon as I knew better I ripped that stuff off the wall like I had egg on my face and sourced some OC Safe and Sound and the right materials and came out with 12 or so panels for my studio room.

No proper bass traps or anything, just these panels stuck in spots and it really helped.
View attachment 21089
View attachment 21090
There are a few more on the ceiling but I can't find those pictures. My son has moved into that room so the panels are in storage as I continue to hone my craft as a Master Bedroom Guitarist™

While I never did the egg carton thing, I do have acoustic blankets that cover over half the walls and ceilings. Those are staying as they are away from the listening position and don't really hurt anything as they are.

 

[TJontheRoad]

Its a topic I like to "research" and "think" about more than actually "learn" about, if I'm being perfectly honest, which is a kind of dangerous place to live on something like this. I think a lot of us are in that position, and explains why Jay hates all of us and many of us hate him I kid, I kid. With a grain of truth.

Given that stuff gets moved around a decent bit in my room, that it is pretty darn close to a square, with a ceiling height that is pretty close to an even multiple of the wall lengths, and my general recognition that taking lots of measurements and making small adjustments based on those measurements is...not a great match with my skillset; I settled on the general "load up the corners and first reflection points; load up the ceiling because I need a hard floor surface I can roll a chair across easily; try this One Neat Trick because its easy to do in my setup".

The ceiling of my room was just exposed joists with subfloor above, so was pretty easy to just fill rockwool between the joists and then go back and cover with canvas afterwards; giving the added benefit of improving the thermal insulation of my carved-out-of-my-garage music/office space. The corners and first reflection points were simple home brew frames made from cheap-ass plywood connected with one another often just using little metal corner brackets from hardware store, stuffed with rockwool, and wrapped with canvas drop cloths from the paint section of hardware store.

The One Neat Trick was to remove the subfloor along the two side walls so that those corners are now kind of "fake" corners, with the walls actually extending up into the attic space above the music room.

Listening to music in the room, whether its mine or someone else's, sounds sufficiently decent to put a smile on my face. Maybe I'll come back and do some measurements and tweak some stuff later, but currently, it meets the demanding standards I have for the "work" that happens here.

Key is, I think, don't expect or worry over perfection. The goal is make a large enough improvements as to make it worth while. This especially true in an imperfect space to begin with (like mine).

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Key is, I think, don't expect or worry over perfection. The goal is make a large enough improvements as to make it worth while.

I agree with the first sentence here 100%. The latter part is where -- I feel like spending money on the Neumann system or even just adding a sub or two, without committing to learning how to take measurements and do it right, are either not going to be worthwhile levels of improvement, or worse, might actually kinda take things backwards.

 

[Sleezy E]

Incoming pic bomb.

I did the foam eggshell thing at my first house and decided to go the 703 route when I moved.

The room is roughly 12.5'x14' with a weird angle at the entry side.

I wanted to get a couple corner traps in and wanted it aesthetically pleasing as well so I didn't bother with any room calculations.

First I suspended the 703 from the corners on opposing sides of the room with wood straps bridging the walls. The thought being to uncouple the 703 from the wall as much as possible. Then a fabric cover was mounted to the wall over the 703 (not touching it)

I threw all the extra and off cuts of 703 behind the panels just for the hell of it. Mo dense Mo better I suppose.

opposing wall behind desk with wood frame for fabric

Photo from a couple weeks ago

I built 6 2" 703 panels.

Two 2x4 clouds above the desk and one 4x4 over my head in the picture above.
Two 2x4 wall panels you can see in the pic as well as a 4x4 wall panel behind me in the pic

I stole the thin frame idea from some youtube vid. The 703 is exposed on every side, you can see where I marked and notched it.

The one in the back with the extra bracing is one of the clouds, it was for mounting points

The room is probably too dead I'd assume, but I love it.
Everyone that walks in always does the, "Whoa" cause your ears instantly notice

 

[TJontheRoad]

I agree with the first sentence here 100%. The latter part is where -- I feel like spending money on the Neumann system or even just adding a sub or two, without committing to learning how to take measurements and do it right, are either not going to be worthwhile levels of improvement, or worse, might actually kinda take things backwards.

It's a bit of a roll of the dice, but installing the Neumann monitors first and then taking measurements isn't really a viable option for me. I can't see how it could get worse. I already notice an improvement with just the corner SonoColumns now installed. The 4 inch 3x3 wall and ceiling Acoustimac panels can only make things better. Plus, there will still be ability to fine tune after the install.

 

[TJontheRoad]

Incoming pic bomb.

I did the foam eggshell thing at my first house and decided to go the 703 route when I moved.

The room is roughly 12.5'x14' with a weird angle at the entry side.

I wanted to get a couple corner traps in and wanted it aesthetically pleasing as well so I didn't bother with any room calculations.

First I suspended the 703 from the corners on opposing sides of the room with wood straps bridging the walls. The thought being to uncouple the 703 from the wall as much as possible. Then a fabric cover was mounted to the wall over the 703 (not touching it)

View attachment 21097
I threw all the extra and off cuts of 703 behind the panels just for the hell of it. Mo dense Mo better I suppose.
View attachment 21098
opposing wall behind desk with wood frame for fabric
View attachment 21099

Photo from a couple weeks ago

I built 6 2" 703 panels.

Two 2x4 clouds above the desk and one 4x4 over my head in the picture above.
Two 2x4 wall panels you can see in the pic as well as a 4x4 wall panel behind me in the pic

I stole the thin frame idea from some youtube vid. The 703 is exposed on every side, you can see where I marked and notched it.
View attachment 21101
The one in the back with the extra bracing is one of the clouds, it was for mounting points
View attachment 21102

The room is probably too dead I'd assume, but I love it.
Everyone that walks in always does the, "Whoa" cause your ears instantly notice

Those corner soffit like traps are nice.

 

[TJontheRoad]

1st ceiling panel is now hung from the upper sub floor to just below the drop ceiling. I was able to get this one up myself, but the rest will need to wait until my buddy comes over to help.

 

[la szum]

Totally stealing your methodology here @Sleezy E .

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Incoming pic bomb.

I did the foam eggshell thing at my first house and decided to go the 703 route when I moved.

The room is roughly 12.5'x14' with a weird angle at the entry side.

I wanted to get a couple corner traps in and wanted it aesthetically pleasing as well so I didn't bother with any room calculations.

First I suspended the 703 from the corners on opposing sides of the room with wood straps bridging the walls. The thought being to uncouple the 703 from the wall as much as possible. Then a fabric cover was mounted to the wall over the 703 (not touching it)

View attachment 21097
I threw all the extra and off cuts of 703 behind the panels just for the hell of it. Mo dense Mo better I suppose.
View attachment 21098
opposing wall behind desk with wood frame for fabric
View attachment 21099

Photo from a couple weeks ago

I built 6 2" 703 panels.

Two 2x4 clouds above the desk and one 4x4 over my head in the picture above.
Two 2x4 wall panels you can see in the pic as well as a 4x4 wall panel behind me in the pic

I stole the thin frame idea from some youtube vid. The 703 is exposed on every side, you can see where I marked and notched it.
View attachment 21101
The one in the back with the extra bracing is one of the clouds, it was for mounting points
View attachment 21102

The room is probably too dead I'd assume, but I love it.
Everyone that walks in always does the, "Whoa" cause your ears instantly notice

Sooo clean!

 

[TJontheRoad]

My buddy came by today. We installed / hung the 3x3 Acoustimac panels and the Neumann monitors. Placed my old Event PS6 monitors on top. Now, I need to run the Neumann MA 1 control software and do some other small things like install the new ceiling tiles. The room and monitors sound great so far. Big clear improvement.