Portable Acoustic Treatment Query

[El_Thwatez]

Howdy,

Not quite randall/purely guitar related but:

I have a conundrum, I am obsessed with tone, guitar and recording and I also enjoy mixing, but I have a problem which is that I don't have a dedicated space for recording live instruments and cannot afford to build, buy or own one, but the room or the way a room is set up is part of what creates the best sounds (everyone knows how bad a garage sounds!) - but I can afford the materials for dampening/treating the room

So I was wondering, has anyone had any experience in temporarily treating a room acoustically? I.e. for the duration you use that room, putting up dampening pads and bass traps, fabric hanging in front of the walls etc. Does that have alot of benefit, or do you really need to have a dedicated room? Soundproofing is not an issue, the room I have in mind is isolated from everywhere.

Further to that, has anyone ever tried using office dividers for similar purposes? I had the crazy idea of thinking that since they are padded a little and can be placed in a non parallel layout since they are individual, that they could have a beneficial effect on the sound of a raw room in dampening the reflections from the walls.

The reason this is a conundrum at all is because I want to achieve some very tight sounding drum/guitar recordings and I don't think I can do it in an untreated room!

If anyone has any ideas about any of this let me know!

Cheers,

Dan

 

[TheHunter]

DUDE I CANT ANSWER YOUR QUESTION,BUT I JUST WANTED TO SAY THAT YOU GUYS ARE :twisted: SICK :twisted: MAN.

Im in Flagstaff, AZ and if you guys ever come through ill be at your show.

Peace.

D

 

[axecellent]

If you are trying to save money, call up some local carpet installers and ask if you can have their scraps. Get the padding scraps as well.

I've also used that egg crate foam stuff you can find at hobby shops and sometimes fabric stores.

Then there are always cheap throw rugs and area rugs from Wal-Mart (or similar).

Anyway, collect a bunch of that stuff and go buy some cheap ply-wood, some 2x4's, and a bunch of glue.

Make square shaped frames from the 2x4's and plywood.

Glue the carpet/padding/egg foam/rugs to the ply wood.

Just make sure you have something heavy on the ply-wood since it tends to resonate.

This will probably be cheaper than going out and buying office/cubicle dividers. You can also design them to whatever size is easiest for you move and store when not in use. These will help mostly with mid to upper frequencies, so you'll still need bass traps in the corners.

If you can buy the bass trap foam pieces, then just glue/velcro some on to a piece of rope that's a little longer than the height of your room. Just make sure to leave a foot or so of free rope at one end. The get you a plant hanger ceiling hook doo-dad and mount it in the ceiling close to the corner. Hang your foam on a rope from the hook by the free end of the rope.

Just thought I'd throw a few ideas out there for you. I assumed from your post that you are looking for something that is 'take-downable' for when company arrives.

Thomas

 

[El_Thwatez]

Hey,

Cheers for the feedback guys! Will be a while until we get to the US me thinks, but hopefulyl not too long!

Yeah that sounds like a plan and then purely to stop unnecessary reflections have some large sheets covering any bare walls.

To expand on the portable dampeners, to stop the resonance issue you can get neoprene feet for industrial equipment which stop resonance which could also potentially act as further wall isolation since they would effectively separate the dampeners from the floor...

On a similar note, if you have and tube microphony issues when an amp haed is sitting on a cab, get these neoprene things and put them on the amps feet, they help alot!

 

[axecellent]

I have some of those neoprene pads for my desktop monitors. They help a lot with vibrations.

As for the plywood, the neoprene will help, especially if you have a basement, crawl space or are upstairs. The resonance in the plywood I was talking about will happen soley as a result of air movement. This is why *good* speaker cabinets (stereo, guitar, etc) have cross bracing inside them.

Thomas

 

[El_Thwatez]

I get ya! That makes alot of sense now thinking about it in that way!