Soundtreating with scrap material...

So in my garage I have about 20-30 square feet of Roxall Sound insulation, two old doors (hollow), a bunch of old solid wood kitchen cabinet doors (varying sizes), a stack of 8 foot 1x4" lengths of lumber, a half roll of rubber under padding for laminate flooring, a half roll of construction grade vapor barrier and 5 2x4' panels of thick acoustic ceiling tiles (the kind you'd use in a suspended ceiling in an office or something). Eventually I'll likely have another dozen of the ceiling tiles (pulling out a ceiling). All this stuff is new but it's not going to get used if I don't figure out what to do with it. I was wondering if I could use this stuff for baffling and sound treatment in my new place. Got any ideas? Happy Sunday, all.

You know it. :-D

Beepster


Actually I'm curious about these so called "bass traps" you guys talk about frequently. Any good references as to how I'd build me some of those and how they are implemented properly? 

I've found that putting a cheap bottle of beer in the middle of a large bear trap works well.
 
Oh, sorry.  I thought you said bass player traps.  My bad.

Don't know if that could be squeezed in your budget, but you can grab ARC for $179 at Audio Deluxe. 

Simple things like bookshelves (w/ books in it obviously) can help. Me, I've learned to use and recycle any and everything to at least help improve the acoustics of the rooms I have to work in. My next challenge is to improvise a "vocal booth" w/ what we have here, to record some vocals for a project my wife is working on.

Ultimately, what you can or should do for treatment depends on the room you're working in. Shape, ceiling height, etc... There isn't really a formula.

You may want to grab a copy of Mike Senior's "Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio" - available on kindle reader for pocket change. It may give you a hint on finding what you should focus on - and therefore, how you could use what you have at your disposal.

Thanks, rain. I'll check it out. I actually thought ARC was around $500. At $179 it's still out of my price range for the moment but it's definitely something I'd like in my arsenal. BTW old doors are pretty easy to come by. Like I said I intend on using some for my booth. Just gonna hinge three of them together and maybe put a sound blanket over top and on the "entrance" to the booth. I figure that should do the trick. Cheers.

Moving blankets over a portable laundry rack and/or an oriental room divider were my gobos.  It adds that classy "under construction" look to your work too... 

Get yersef a big 'ol bapu and put him in the room.

He absorbs all unwanted sounds freds.

He could be my bass slave. I don't have to diaper him do I?

Yeah man. I'm all over that action. hmm... I should really start looking into where to acquire old moving blankets. That "film black" material they use on film stages is awesome too. Wonder if I could find some of that.

Thanks for that link, Bit.

Beepster


So in my garage I have about 20-30 square feet of Roxall Sound insulation, two old doors (hollow), a bunch of old solid wood kitchen cabinet doors (varying sizes), a stack of 8 foot 1x4" lengths of lumber, a half roll of rubber under padding for laminate flooring, a half roll of construction grade vapor barrier and 5 2x4' panels of thick acoustic ceiling tiles

This sounds like a job for the A-Team...

Man, I don't know what to say. lol. Do you beleive form follows function? The science of room correction and creating an environment condusive to recording a clean project is enough to make you take a nap. There's no way to know what the results will be with varied materials. You almost have to play Marco-Polo in the room where you want to record and work on it from there. You have outside noise, inside reflection, unknown equipment, ( no don't list it), and the player variable. If you're using a DAW such as Sonar, I'm an advocate of a totally dead room. Unless you've got booku bucks to spend on rooms and treatments. Any thing less than a dead room will show up on a recording. 

Beepster


@Crg... Well this is actually more for listening/mixing purposes (aside from vocal stuff and some acoustic guitar work) and sadly a completely dead room is impossible. Just thought I could use some of this extra crap I have to help deaden things a little. Unless you MEANT for listening/mixing. In which case I'm stuck with what I can jury rig into whatever space I end up with and my own ears. If someone really wants to buy a piece of my work for commercial purposes then I'd make sure it went somewhere pro for the final mix/master and either eat the cost or put it into the final price. Not anywhere near that point yet though. lol... Cheers.

I'm sorry to have to tell you, you can't hide room noise. Or machine noise. We tune so much noise out in our day to day existance that we don't even realize it. The microphone doesn't.

craigb


Bapu can be tuned out in the mix of course - if you can get a recording just of Bapu that is.  Then you just flip its phase and it should cancel out the bapu.  That's how those headphones work.

HTH

YMMV

It's been tried. Dinnit work. I just shifted frequencies.

Funny.

When I read the title I read it as:

Soundtreating with scrap metal...

That's what The CHB does.