DIY Acoustic Treatment: Introduction March 15, 2009
Posted by ConnorSmith in : Acoustics, Project Studio, Studio Setup , trackbackArguably the most important element of making awesome recordings has nothing to do with tubes, transistors, or electrons moving through copper.
Your room’s acoustics are extremely important! Even the most expensive signal chain in the world can be greatly hampered if not used in a great sounding room. Project and home studios can benefit greatly from even a small investment in treatment (such as absorption for first reflections and parallel surfaces plus bass trapping)
To make your acoustic dollars stretch even further (and to have a bunch of fun!), you can build the treatments yourself.
So what tools do you need to make your own treatments?
A lot of the treatments are fairly similar in construction. You can make absorptive panels, clouds, and bass traps out of basically the same materials: wooden frame, filled with Owens Corning 703, wrapped in fabric. Therefore, the most important tools will be those used to construct the wooden frame. I actually built some today; here are the tools I needed:
- Saw – A circular saw is a great start (especially if you are experienced), but also having a miter saw around is really my preference. For quick cuts (and, of course, miters) a miter saw is really convenient.
- Drill – Any solidly built, cordless drill will do just fine (not pictured, sorry)
- Clamps – I like to have a few small 90 degree clamps, a few medium alligator clamps, and some larger clamps available just in case
- Ruler, T, and level
- Wood glue (I like Liquid Nails for wood)
- Sandpaper, utility knife, pencils
- Hearing protection! (especially for cutting wood, its loud!)
Obviously, you’ll also need wood and insulation, but I’ll get into those specifics for each project.
In an upcoming article, I will show you how to build is an absorptive panel (which I am going to wrap in fabric and hang for absorption above my mix position). Alternatively, you could mount this on a side wall to tame reflections. Later on, I’ll show adaptation for corner bass traps, and then I’ll give a step-by-step of my current gobo building project. EDIT: I’m actually going to start with the gobo due to a delay in getting some materials. As a quick teaser – the wood for the small cloud (2′x4′) cost around 8$.
Any questions on tools or techniques? Ask them in the comments here -
C
The Studio Files
Comments»
hello, i’m very interested in this project! are there further links to see the process develop?
thank you!
k
Hi Kelly,
Connor posted a bunch more about this on Gearslutz:
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/bass-traps-acoustic-panels-foam-etc/375094-my-diy-gobo.html
He also helped me make panels for my Dayton studio.
Cheers.
Damon