Hanging acoustic treatment

[Pat Waara]

I'm hoping to tame some of the reflections in my "studio" space. I see that Auralex is now shipping free through Home Depot, so I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to place some acoustic treatments on the walls and ceiling. Here's the thing--I live in Maui and adhesives will not work. All adhesives will eventually degrade and fail. My walls and ceiling seem to be a little thicker than your standard drywall. I'm not sure why (I'm not the original owner), but even a stud finder has trouble finding the studs. My question is: What can I use to hang treatments on my walls and ceiling that doesn't use adhesives, but won't be too damaging to the walls and ceiling in case I have to remove or move them? I've read suggestions using T-pins, but I don't think I could press them into the wall. I'm hoping some of you may have come up with creative options that have worked. If you have any good ideas, let me know. I'm all ears.

[KuruPrionz]

Can you pull back some molding or baseboard and determine the depth of the walls in a spot that will be covered up again?

 

Auralex acoustic treatment is light weight foam so moly attachments might work.

 

Be aware that foam products like Auralex will absorb some of the high frequencies but they won't do much (if anything) to mitigate the low frequencies.

Subduing low frequencies takes weight/mass in addition to placement.

 

It's not as pretty but I've been using photography backdrop stands to hang multiple layers of heavy quilts. Two advantages - they can be taken down easily and it's easy to move them around, hang more quilts on them etc.

One big disadvantage - pretty much a hillbilly rig. If/when I can afford to buy or build quality sound treatment I'll treat myself (and my room!!!).

You are going to want bass traps and not just the Auralex foam ones like the LENRD system.

 

I'm also using thumbtacks along the top and bottom of the window molding to hold heavy quilts in place. If and when I remove the tacks, they are not in a visible area and the hole they leave is tiny. I can hear a significant difference in terms of the reflections in my room and also external noise leakage.

 

FWIW, I am too close to I-5, a busy freeway. I also had a flutter echo from Hell in on spot in the room. There is still a bit of freeway noise, careful mic placement/selection inside has more or less reduced that to a non-factor and I can no longer hear the flutter echo at all.

 

Don't neglect your ceiling/floor situation. My room has cheap "apartment grade" carpeting, something I am planning to change. Rugs could help, plus some treatment on the ceiling. Introducing some furniture with angles and non-uniform surfaces to the mix can deflect reflections.

 

It's an important step, most mics will pick up the room sound and with a smaller room I think it's better to go for a deader room since reflections will be annoying more often than not. Keep us posted, I'm interested in following this thread to see what comes of it!

[Nathanael_I]

My wall treatment is rigid fiberglass insulation (Owens Corning 703 or something similar) in 1x4 frames with fabric stretched over the top. I bought mine pre-made from GIK Acoustics, but there are lots of tutorials on how to make them. These go up with medium sized picture hanging eyelets and braided wire. They hang invisibly and look great.

 

I'd skip Auralex foam. It doesn't fix what actually needs fixing in small residential rooms. Bass requires attention universally, and can only be addressed with other treatment. Auralex foam also doesn't wear well. It breaks down over time and sheds dust, the colors dull. I was so proud of my blue Auralex foam when I got it. But there are so many better options, including DIY now.

[Pat Waara]

Thanks, guys. Kuru, as you may remember from my DIY vocal booth, I can pretty quickly set up a space for vocal recording. What I'm trying to do here is tame some of the reflections I get during mixing and mastering. It's honestly not that bad right now. If Home Depot had any panels in stock, I would buy a few just to experiment. I don't think they ship their panels for free, which is what I would like to hang from the ceiling. Oh well, one step at a time I suppose.

 

Nathanael, unfortunately Home Depot doesn't carry Corning 703 and shipping is prohibitively expensive. Sometimes studios go under here, so I always keep my eyes open on Craigslist. I may score some panels that way.

[KuruPrionz]

Maybe you can make another PVC pipe stand, one that has 2 "walls" at an angle to each other so it stands up on it's own.

 

Textured yoga mats (heavy closed cell foam) hanging from that stand behind your mixing position should reduce reflections - possibly to a non-issue.

 

Wouldn't hurt to try some diffusion panels, those would be fairly simple to make and could be attractive wall art to boot.

If you have any windows with blinds then heavy drapes could help.

 

Not sure how you are handling Covid in Hawaii, in WA thrift stores are open and masks are required. You can find all sorts of interesting materials for very little money if you keep an eye open. Craigslist might be good too, especially the free section.

[Tom Williams]

Just this past week I bought packing quilts ($8 US each), installed grommets ($6 US for a pack of 40) on the edges, and hung them from the wooden crown molding using large cup hooks (already had those). The quilts (folded to double) seem to have enough mass to both kill the standing waves and absorb some lows, and the cup hooks will only leave tiny unnoticed holes in the molding.

[KuruPrionz]

It's a good strategy!

Not the top notch $$$ way to go but so much better than nothing, practical and affordable.

I hang thrift store quilts on a photo backdrop and use thumbtacks to secure them over one window.

Much quieter and less reflective in here, huge improvement.