Hi,

I have made a mistake. I bought material which is probably useless:
material

I need advice: Hopefully you guys can help.
Tomorrow I am returning ALL material and starting again. 2 things that I did that are probably good:
1. Hung up curtains behind monitors

Built my own custom speaker stands (MDF filled with sand)

Pic 1: Table, mixer and monitors. Symetrical in front of curtains.
Pic 2: Left wall (notice door!)
Pic 3: Right wall

As you see on pic 3: there's a couch in the middle of the back wall.

I obviously need advice. Today is the day that I have to get advice, I have one day off per week and want to use tomorrow to return wrong material, buy new material and build.

The walls are covered with paper wallpaper.

I want to do this right - one thing: I live in Europe. Things are named differently.. so please add a pic or good description.

My main questions:

1) The construction for bass traps, is that the construction to use for sidewalls?

2) Is the acoustic foam really useless?

3) I have a DOOR directly to the right of one of the corners (meaning I can't place corner traps except above the door...) How do I solve this?

Thanx guys!

Most of the foam is basically useles. Auralex is about as good as you'll get for foam. IMO, you'll get better performance for less money with DIY projects using rigid fiberglass and/or mineral wool

You should be able to get mineral wool relatively easily in Europe. Look for approx 80 and 120 kg/cu m denstity. Check ROXUL. Their web site has contacts and distributors listed.

If you're only going to buy one product, get some 80 kg 2" (5cm) material that you can double or triple up to 10cm - 15cm for bass control and use it in 1 layer thick configuration for reflection control.

Biggest advice - don't even remotely think that you're going to get the design down, figure out all the issues and build the room in a day. take your time and do it right.

> The construction for bass traps, is that the construction to use for sidewalls? <

Which bass traps?

> Is the acoustic foam really useless? <

No.

> I have a DOOR directly to the right of one of the corners (meaning I can't place corner traps except above the door...) How do I solve this? <

All you can do is put a trap on a stand, or don't treat that corner.

--Ethan

Ethan!

Are you becoming a foam convert?

Bryan,

> Are you becoming a foam convert? <

Heck no. But the question was if it's useless, and it's not useless. I was too lazy to write a 10 paragraph explanation, and that's all in my FAQ anyway.

--Ethan

Just kidding. You're right - it's not totally useless for mids and highs. I should have qualified it better.