If you are not thinking about treating your room ...

[smy1]

... think again!

I have treated my new home studio with 10 cheap, selfmade broadband absorbers. Each one was 25 Euros (total cost of everything was 250 Euros) and the difference in sound quality is just immense.

At home I am monitoring through Firepod > Alesis poweramp > Tannoy Reveal Passive, which is probably the lowest end monitoring you can go thru, but the room treatment makes everything sound so much clearer and more distinct, it is unreal.

Before anyone thinks of buying anything else, a mic, speakers, cables, whatever ... do yourself the favor and invest some time and money into broadband absorbers / basstraps.

I guess I never noticed how much of a difference these make because I always thought "oh, it must be the room layout and my shitty speakers" compared to the pro studios I worked in. Nope. It is mostly the room treatment.

I will step off my soapbox now, but trust me, this will be the best money you will ever spend on any audio gear. I just wish someone had forced me to do that in 1996 ...

 

[LSD-Studio]

... think again!

I have treated my new home studio with 10 cheap, selfmade broadband absorbers. Each one was 25 Euros (total cost of everything was 250 Euros) and the difference in sound quality is just immense.

At home I am monitoring through Firepod > Alesis poweramp > Tannoy Reveal Passive, which is probably the lowest end monitoring you can go thru, but the room treatment makes everything sounding so much clearer and more distinct, it is unreal.

Before anyone thinks of buying anything else, a mic, speakers, cables, whatever ... do yourself the favor and invest some time and money into broadband absorbers / basstraps.

I guess I never noticed how much of a difference these make because I always thought "oh, it must be the room layout and my shitty speakers" compared to the pro studios I worked in. Nope. It is mostly the room treatment.

I will step off my soapbox now, but trust me, this will be the best money you will ever spend on any audio gear. I just wish someone had forced me to do that in 1996 ...

well said!

 

[tgs]

Spot on! Btw, could you describe how you made the absorbers? Do you have some pictures as well?

 

[fatalforce]

Got any pictures? I was gonna go the real cheap way and use egg cartons as a rear wall diffuser.

 

[poisoned dreams]

a want to do sumthin like that who would aye go about it?

 

[smy1]

First read everything on this site: http://www.gikacoustics.com/education.html

That will give you the basics on placement etc.

Then read everything on this site: http://www.realtraps.com/info.htm

Just to understand it some more

Then go to this thread. It even has a video on how to make them, but I did it differently.

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/andy-sneap/352943-some-advice-diy-bass-traps.html

You should be set. If you are quick, you can make ten absorbers in about 5-6 hours. We did it in 2 days of 3h each.

I have photos, but not on this computer. I can post them maybe tomorrow.

 

[smy1]

Got any pictures? I was gonna go the real cheap way and use egg cartons as a rear wall diffuser.

That won't help at all. Read the info in the links to find out why ...

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I can't wait till the end of this year when I actually get a room I can treat .

I really do want to do this. I'm just in a situation where I can not do any room mods (both for renting and space reasons) at all.

 

[JonWormwood]

Ordering my OC703 this month.

My only question is, should I be using 2 or 4 inches for the panels?

 

[smy1]

Well, 2 inch is sufficient for the first reflection points left and right of the listening position. I just used 4 inch everywhere.

 

[006]

Lol egg cartons don't help at ALL. I love it when people say they do or when I see them on the walls in other home studios and in movies...gives me a good chuckle.

Acoustic foam/fiberglass/rockwool are tried and true industry standards for a reason. Not layers of cardboard stuck to the wall.

~e.a

 

[JBroll]

I prefer corpses, myself.

Jeff

 

[Djabthrash]

I prefer corpses, myself.

Jeff

 

[recycle]

I prefer corpses, myself.

Jeff

hehehe

 

[tgs]

Lol egg cartons don't help at ALL. I love it when people say they do or when I see them on the walls in other home studios and in movies...gives me a good chuckle.

Acoustic foam/fiberglass/rockwool are tried and true industry standards for a reason. Not layers of cardboard stuck to the wall.

~e.a

He was talking about diffusers and not absorbers. Of course, the egg cartons might LOOK like they could diffuse the sound in a good way, but from tests I've seen they clearly don't.

However, you can probably make some decent DIY diffusers in some way, would be interesting to experiment with. But I guess it could also go horribly wrong, hehe...

 

[JonWormwood]

Do you guys think a 'cloud' is necessary?

 

[TheDude]

Do you guys think a 'cloud' is necessary?

Yes, if your roof is hard. Audio reflects from hard surfaces, and....

 

[fatalforce]

Thanks for shattering my cheap, cheap dreams guys...haha. I'll guess I'll have to wait till this lease is over to create a nice listening environment.

 

[JonWormwood]

Yes, if your roof is hard. Audio reflects from hard surfaces, and....

This might be an issue as there's a fan right in the middle of the room.

 

[smy1]

Thanks for shattering my cheap, cheap dreams guys...haha. I'll guess I'll have to wait till this lease is over to create a nice listening environment.

Why? You can always put the absorbers on stands if you can't hang them up.