Sound Treatment for New Studio

[Lloyd Ubshura]

I've just completed the studio addition on my house (AKA the "RV garage"). It is 60' x 40' with 20' ceilings. Drywall walls, with concrete floors. Building it out of square was not an option for various complicated reasons.

As you can imagine, this is a giant echo chamber at the moment.

I'm looking for some economic ideas to treat the sound. I've burned through all the money in construction costs, so I'm looking for perhaps a temporary "fix" so as to be able to use the new area for a while (a couple years) until I have money to sound treat it right. They don't necessarily have to be very pretty.

The programing we do is interview-type, so no real loud noises (bands, singing, etc.).

I was thinking about moving blankets on walls, or even fiberglass insulation or acoustic tiles on the ceiling/walls.... Anything cheap.

Any suggestions?

[Paul R Johnson]

If it doesn't have to be pretty and it's mainly voice, then on a budget you can do some pretty effective things.

Duvets off your bed, hung up work wonders for mid to high frequencies. Parallel faces are bad, so doing one of each works well. Heavy drapes - velvet type also control the live-ness quite well. The home recording/music forums give this advice all the time. It looks horrible, but is quite effective. When you have more money, then proper acoustic treatment is fairy easy to get, although it gets a bit expensive at the bass end. For more visually attractive cheap treatment, then knock up some timber frames, about 3ft x 3ft and about 4 inches deep. fill them with fibreglass insulation, cover in fabric and staple the rear. Hang them on the wall - they work quite well and look better.

[Brian Drysdale]

The paper pulp egg crates are surprisingly effective.

[Lloyd Ubshura]

Thanks all.

[Bob Hart]

You might be able to pick up some furniture blankets all used, chafed and grubby from a removalist or find some new ones. They come in at about AU$11. each but could be cheaper at wholesale.

We used some as desperation measures as well as opening doors and windows to break up some angles on a recent symphonic recording session in a hostile recording environment.

You might also try some old vertical blinds with strips of salvaged carpet glued on them for more easily tunable panels. Take care with your choice though as some have plastic fittings gone brittle with UV light and they won't take the extra weight. You might have to use two or three horizontal rows of them with the panels cut shorter to manage the extra weight. Try also the big hotels for when they might be changing their concentina curtains.

The hotel kitchens might also yield the big chook-egg cartons which might still use the large two-dozen or so grey paper-mache tray packs.

In this clip there are a few stills which show the blankets, which are quilt stitched mached cotton waste.

YouTube - FRA DIAVOLO ARRANGEMENTS FOR IBTTS.mp4

Very helpful advice came from here for us so you are in a good place.