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[Tricklecharge]

Been pondering lining my mixing studio walls with a velvet curtain or drape from cieling to floor like in theaters.  Any opinions on any potential benefits of this?  Material suggestions?

I would imagine it could cancel mid-high freqs?  Also planning on 4" 703 FG panels at reflection points as well.

I got the idea after seeing it in the NIN studio pic attatched.

[Ethan Winer]

Tricklecharge wrote on Sun, 07 June 2009 02:35

Been pondering lining my mixing studio walls with a velvet curtain or drape from cieling to floor like in theaters.

The problem with thin materials is they absorb only high frequencies, when the better goal is to absorb all frequencies more or less equally. Curtains look nice, but they work better with four inches of rigid fiberglass behind them.

Also, what treatment you use depends partly on the size of the room. Is your room the same size as the room in the NIN photo?

--Ethan

[Tricklecharge]

Ethan Winer wrote on Sun, 07 June 2009 14:14

Curtains look nice, but they work better with four inches of rigid fiberglass behind them. Also, what treatment you use depends partly on the size of the room. Is your room the same size as the room in the NIN photo? --Ethan

Precisely my plan.  4" Fiberglass panels hung 4" from walls, and curtains hung 2" in front of the Fiberglass? so the curtains would be 10" from bare wall surface.

The room is 15'x11' 8' ceiling.  Hardly the size of the NIN room.  The reason for the curtains is mostly for aesthetics, but if any acoustic benefits can be yielded thats even better.

[Ethan Winer]

Yes, that's all fine, and I wouldn't expect the curtains to do anything except look better than raw rigid fiberglass.

--Ethan

[jetbase]

Ethan Winer wrote on Tue, 09 June 2009 04:44

Yes, that's all fine, and I wouldn't expect the curtains to do anything except look better than raw rigid fiberglass. --Ethan

I put up curtains in a previous studio I ran (& in every one since) that look very similar to the ones in the NIN studio picture & they certainly did have acoustic benefits, namely improving the stereo imaging. Ok, the improvement was marginal & would probably be redundant in front of fibreglass, but if you were working in a studio with glass in front of the console then it may be something to consider during a mix down.

FWIW, I will always endeavour to put curtains up in front of my console now, not for any acoustic benefit, but for the huge psychological benefit. Maybe it's just me, but I feel so much more creative when I have the visual impression that the music is coming from a theatrical stage.

One question you maybe able to answer Ethan (or anybody else), you specifiy for some of your DIY absorbers to use an acoustically transparent fabric to cover the fibreglass. If you cover fibreglass with thick drapes is there any negative effect?

[Ethan Winer]

jetbase wrote on Wed, 10 June 2009 19:22

you specifiy for some of your DIY absorbers to use an acoustically transparent fabric to cover the fibreglass. If you cover fibreglass with thick drapes is there any negative effect?

It depends on the material. Acoustically "transparent" is never needed in front of absorbers. If the fabric absorbs more on its own that's fine. You would want transparent in front of a diffusor though. So for a broadband absorber it's important only to select a fabric that does not reflect.

--Ethan

[jimmyjazz]

I would argue that being acoustically REFLECTIVE is a bad characteristic for material you are going to hang in front of an absorber.  "Not transparent" is not sufficient to guarantee that performance won't suffer.

[0dbfs]

Generally speaking, The more air you can blow through it, the less acoustic impedance the fabric has.

Cheers,
j