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[$a1Ty]

Hey all thought i would start a thread for discussion on cheap DIY treatment, as i am looking to treat my bedroom and i have little money to do this with.

So any tricks and ideas you guys have used, lets make a thread about it.


For now my idea is to get some bradford soundscreen insulation from bunnings. This i believe is made of rockwool, not sure though. For about $60 Australian i can get a packet of 6 sheets of 1350x580x75mm.

I was thinking of using this method http://www.radford.edu/~shelm/acoustics/bass-traps.html#Bass Traps for filling in the corners and using the leftovers to make other panels to attach to my walls for first reflection points.

What do you all think

Cheers

[jetbase]

Hi Nathan,

I believe that the type insulation used in those "superchunk" traps is rigid fibreglass, which is substantially more expensive (last year I bought a packet of 8x25mm thick sheets for around AUD300). Bradford Soundscreen is not rigid & wouldn't stack up like that.

Here is someone's bass trap project using what looks like non-rigid fibreglass:

http://www.cloneensemble.com/basstraps.htm

He states the cost for 4 traps was AUD1300.

I built 6 traps to Ethan's design here:

http://www.ethanwiner.com/basstrap.html

Altogether they cost me around AUD700, including the packet of rigid fibre glass of which I think I used about half, so I had plenty left to treat first reflection points.

I wonder if it would be effective at all (if at all) to buy some bags of the Bradford bats from Bunnings (or Hardware & General, which may be cheaper) & leave them in the bags & simply shove them in the corners? Does anyone know?

EDIT: I should mention that building my bass traps (by myself) took a fair amount of time & elbow grease.

[$a1Ty]

Would the non rigid stuff be effective at all?

Also where do you get the rigid fibreglass from in aus?

[jetbase]

Materials in Oz:

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/t/13307/6028/

What I meant was that if you tried to stack up non-rigid fibreglass for a superchunk trap it would probably fall over.

[$a1Ty]

thanks for the link..... feel stupid for not seeing that thread anyways

about the non rigid stuff being effective i meant acoustically. I could make it stand up by supporting it with a frame and fabric, but would it actually absorb much or is it not dense enough.

[brett]

$a1Ty wrote on Tue, 07 August 2007 07:50

thanks for the link..... feel stupid for not seeing that thread anyways about the non rigid stuff being effective i meant acoustically. I could make it stand up by supporting it with a frame and fabric, but would it actually absorb much or is it not dense enough.

yes it will absorb sound waves, but it will need to be thicker. 12" of batt might actually out perform 4" of rigid. Rigid is used to save space and time and it is easily shapped into panels that fit on the walls. If you made some frames and packed them tightly with batt or even blown insularion they will still have a broadband effect in sound absorbtion. They are just harder to work with. But thickness yeailds better results than density.

[$a1Ty]

well the dimensions of the "triangles" in the corners would be roughly 410mm at the deepest part, so 16 inches

[brett]

I realize in that design yes, they would be stacked instead of spread across. Semi rigid might outperform the batts, but at 16 inches thick, I think batts will still provide a good broadband effect to the corner modes. You will still bneed to do the other corners, and the rest of the front wall to have it help. Accoustic treatment is best when it is done evenly arround a symetrical room. This creats the balance and reduces the ringing. If you jsut treat the front corners you just hcange the modes in the area and it does strange things to the rest of the room. I doubt if you jsut do those front corners you will get better mixes.

You should also make a panel for the center of the front wall and try and treat the corners of the floor and ceiling at the center , sides, of the mix position. Also treat the rear corners. If the depth is shallow on the room 10-13ft you will need even thicker rear absorbers. There really are no bandaids here. you have to do the entire space or it will just drive you nuts trying to translate.  don't forget to make a panel for the ceiling above you or you will be losing your high and high mids due to comb filtering. and 8ft ceiling is a killer without a decent 4"-6" panel above you.    

[jetbase]

Nathan, you should read this thread relating to the topic as well:

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/t/15786/6028/

[$a1Ty]

ah thats the perfect thread lol, cheers

i was planning on doing this to all 4 corners in the room, and making some other panels for the rear wall and sides

[brett]

cool, don't forget the ceiling too. Will make a huge diference.  Best of luck, hope everything goes smoothly-B

[franman]

You've been directed very nicely to all the references relating to your situation... let us know how it goes!!

[$a1Ty]

thanks everyone for your input, i wont be doing this for at least another few weeks, just planning at this stage, will post pics and results once i get round to doing it