First of all I would like to say hello and introduce myself. I'm quite a young and budding audiophile (17 years old) and have just started in the hobby. My room (12x14x7) has quite poor acoustics, living in the basement with concrete floor and thin walls doesnt help. I have read over the acoustics article and browsed this forum a bit, and I have a question regarding panel traps and fiberglass traps. Since I am still living with my parents I am not allowed to mount anything permantly to the walls, this includes drilling to the studs, etc. The panel trap design calls for an airtight seal to the wall.

my questions are

1. can I build a freestanding panel to be pushed up against the wall and supported by pedistals, provided it is entirely seperate and airtight from the wall?

2. Can the material be different from wood? ex- corragulated cardboard, provided it is the same thickness and dimensions?

3.Since I cannot mount fiberglass traps on the wall, will they work if suspended using wire from the ceiling a few inches away from the walls? (would sway if pushed)?

4. I am quite curious to what effects overdampening would have on a room? Does music really sound weird or 'dead' in an anechoic environment? Since I am also using the room for playing electric guitar, and jamming, I assume the more dampening the better. Am I correct?

Thanks for helping!

I'm not sure about the panel traps questions, I'd better leave that to Ethan.

>3.Since I cannot mount fiberglass traps on the wall, will they work if suspended using wire from the ceiling a few inches away from the walls? (would sway if pushed)?<

Actually, they would work better, if you can spare the room. The added air space behind the fiberglass will make them absorb to lower frequencies as well as higher. But for actual rigid fiberglass bass traps, those would be best placed straddling the corners of the room, from floor to ceiling if possible.

>4. I am quite curious to what effects overdampening would have on a room? Does music really sound weird or 'dead' in an anechoic environment? Since I am also using the room for playing electric guitar, and jamming, I assume the more dampening the better. Am I correct?<

Yes, music sounds dead in an anechoic environment. If you have a walk in closet filled with blankets and other such soft materials, play guitar in it for a minute and it may give you some idea. It basically sounds like playing in a vacuum, if you can wrap your mind around that.

As far as whether or not it would be good as a recording environment, that's more a matter of taste. A well treated live room can sound really amazing. But if you're using this one room for recording AND mixing, I'd probably advise making it more dead than live.

The reason for this is that while a 'live' sound can work great for recording, you want a more dead room for mixing. If you mix in a live sounding room it can give you wrong impressions of how much room there actually is on the recording because you may have trouble telling what's the recording and what's the listening room.

If you make your room more dead, you can always add reverb later (I know, it's not the same, but we who are on a budget gotta do what we gotta do).

JG,

Tom already gave you plenty of good advice, and I'll just address these questions:

> can I build a freestanding panel <

Yes, but in a room that small you're better off just using rigid fiberglass as outlined in my Acoustics FAQ.

> Can the material be different from wood? e<

Yes, though I've never tried that. Some people have used Masonite with good results, but I'm sure cardboard is not suitable because it's way too light weight. And I doubt you could seal it air tight anyway.

--Ethan

thanks a bunch. As for the room being too dead, The floor is an unfinished concrete, so i think I may try alternating between a rug and the bare floor when listening/ playing. For starters I will build bass traps for all 4 corners, and rigid fiberglass panels on the left/right walls, and will experiment from there. Thanks again guys. Kudos on the excellent forum you have here.