DIY Low Budget Sonar Forum Home Studio Project-Acoustical Panels

Great Ideas in Forum for Acoustical Panels with just getting back into music myself. I have a room Im converting that is 16'x20' (320 sq ft). Here is a site I found that can generate good ideas if you are handy and it also has an outstanding calculator for deciding what you should use and sizes. I also did a report for my room to get started.   The Table/Chart did not display so its hard to figure that part out on this posting but does come out nice on site.
 
As for what the measurements on the table they indicate-I will need 40-42 panels depending on the response times Im wanting.
 
All the info on the Bass traps posted does spark a question for me though. If all recommended panels are placed and I dont actually use a drum kit in this room, should I still add those as well? I record all guitars and basses directly without mic'd cabinets.
 
As for budget and prices-They also sell everythging from DIY to custome work. The prices appear to be good when comparing online to everyone else and are fairly inexpensive for good quality non see through Burlap.

The Site ([link=http://www.atsacoustics.com/%3C/a%3E%3C/font%3E%3C/a%3E]http://www.atsacoustics.c...%3E%3C/font%3E%3C/a%3E[/link])
 
Room Based on DRYWALL Walls and Ceiling and Floor with Plush Carpet.

Room Reverb Report

Summary
Report ID: 48938
Customer: Mike, digi2ns@yahoo.com
Room: Studio , 20.00 L x 16.00 W x 10.00 feet H 
Acoustical Purpose: Pop/Rock Recording Studio
Target reverb time: 0.20 to 0.40 seconds at 1000Hz.

Blue shaded rows indicate reverb times within a range that is considered acceptable for your room's purpose. The second column in each row indicates how many ATS Acoustic panels must be added to your room to achieve the reverb times shown in that row.
For more information on products and solutions for your room, choose one of the menu links to the left. To talk to us, click to chat, or call us toll-free at 1-866-787-7881.
Showing results based on 2 inch acoustic panels. Click to show 4 inch.
Panels Added Resulting Reverb Time - RT60
                                                                                                Sq Ft     Count           125Hz 250Hz 500Hz 1000Hz 2000Hz 4000Hz
                                                                                              0 sq.ft.     0 panels      0.44      1.22     1.51     0.87        0.54     0.48
                                                                                            72 sq.ft.     9 panels      0.44      0.95     0.85     0.58        0.41     0.38
                                                                                          144 sq.ft.     18 panels    0.45      0.78     0.58     0.44        0.33     0.31
                                                                                          216 sq.ft.     27 panels    0.45      0.66     0.44     0.34        0.27     0.26
                                                                                          288 sq.ft.     36 panels  0.45      0.57     0.35     0.28        0.23     0.22
                                                                                          360 sq.ft.     45 panels  0.46      0.50     0.29     0.24        0.20     0.19
                                                                                          432 sq.ft.     54 panels    0.46      0.44     0.24     0.20        0.18     0.17
                                                                                          504 sq.ft.     63 panels    0.47      0.40     0.21     0.18        0.16     0.15
                                                                                          576 sq.ft.     72 panels    0.47      0.36     0.18     0.16        0.14     0.14
                                                                                          648 sq.ft.     81 panels    0.47      0.33     0.16     0.14        0.13     0.12
                                                                                          720 sq.ft.     90 panels    0.48      0.30     0.14     0.13        0.11     0.11

Notes:

1. Reverb time or RT60 is a measure of how long it takes for echoes and reverb from a sound in the room to die away until it is 60 decibels quieter than the original sound. This is similar to the time it takes for a very loud sound to die away in the room until is barely loud enough to hear at all.
2. The target reverb time is based on the room's purpose you selected in Step 1. For example, a recording studio has a lower target reverb time (0.20 to 0.40 seconds) than a home gym (0.50 to 1.00 seconds), because it's ok to have more reverb in a home gym than in a recording studio.
3. The reverb times shown in the table above were calculated using mathematical equations that model the behavior of sound in rooms. The dimensions of the room, and the area and acoustical properties of each surface material in the room are taken into account.
4. Reverb time is different for each sound frequency (hertz, or Hz), because surface materials absorb more of some frequencies than others. Whatever sound is not absorbed (or transmitted) by a surface, is reflected back into the room. Six representative frequencies are shown above.
5. The primary purpose of most acoustic treatment is to bring the room's reverb time to an acceptable level. This is especially true in medium to large rooms. In smaller rooms controlling reverb time is a lesser consideration, and acoustic panels are used more for reducing out-of-phase reflections and flattening frequency response. So in smaller rooms (for example the size of a typical bedroom) more panels may be needed than indicated by this reverb time report.

 
I moved this info from another posting for those interested in the same room set-up as me. I will continue to add costs, pictures and any other helpful info for those interested.
 
Thanks again for the info from other posts and hope this helps anyone looking for good ideas on what to do also. If you have any info to help-I appreciate any ideas/info as well.  
I call it my FORUM Studio due to assembly of research info by the fine people in here.  :)
 

It will be dual purpose. I record bands at locations outside of my area and use this space for my personal recording use also. If I decide to add a drum kit-or mic amps for recording,  I will have a seperate sound room for that space as well. I tend to agree with adding reverb later, you can always add what you want from a clean recording but harder if you didnt want it to get it to come out to fit your taste later.

In a space that small, it's going to take a lot of traps to get a reasonably flat base response for sure. And, if 16' is one of your dimensions, you may be in even more trouble if you have the standard 8' ceilings since then you have two measures that are multiple related, which means you'll potentially have even more issues.

Before you put in any traps, find the optimum listening position. This can be painful since you have to move your mixing desk around so that the speakers are where they would be if you were sitting at a paritcular position. Start off about 38% back from the wall (your listening position) and just slightly off center left to right. This will typically get you into the least worst position. Then play around to see what's the best compromise from there.

Then you know you are at the best possible starting point and you can start adding traps. Move them around in various combinations and see what helps the most. Definitely this requires room measurement software to really do right.

I have a boatload of traps in my small space. Yeh, it is very dry because of that, but you can always use a bathroom or nearby other room as an ambience area if possible. In my case I'm a little better off since the room opens in both directions at the back, allowing bass pressure to leak off into kind of 'side pods' at the back and bounce around without getting back to me quite as much.

I do leave the back of the room mostly untreated for practical purposes, but that means that it's a little more live than the mixing area. This is often called 'dead end/live end' design. But I did it just because it wasn't practical to do otherwise even if I wanted to.

In a room that size, you'll still have issues and you'll just have to learn to compensate for them ultimately. But, with a lot of experiment you can hopefully get the few issues you do have so that they are in the least worst frequency areas. I have a fairly narrow but significant dip at around 65Hz. This of course is right in the thump of the kick drum.  And it's within a wider but shallower dip in the 50 to 70Hz range.

So I have to be very careful about that. But it's the only one I have, and in a room this size, that's not bad. I just have to be careful about how my low end. If it sounds like it has a really full bottom octave to me, then it probalby has too much of a bottom octave. You learn to adjust by listening to the results on various other systems. Some good phones to use as a sanity check helps.  They are also very useful to check use of reverb, since you'll tend to use a little too much in a really dry room.