Bad sounding room?

[Ash]

In my efforts to create a modest home studio, I've decided my music room needs a face lift. I need to stop the crazy natural reverb in there, cuz it sounds like sh*t when we practice in there, let alone record. Someone told me i should paste egg cartons to the walls. would that solve my problems? anything else i should do to my moms walls?

Thanks.

[glynn]

Im not a huge fan of the egg crate wall look, soo..I would use moving pads for the walls, and then hang up some bed sheets on top of that. To stop the reverb, you need stuff that will absorb rather than reflect. You can build some 8x4 wood frames, and attach fiberglass insulation to them, and put up sheet rock on the back, and use a low threadcount fabric on the front.

Or you can buy some of the ready made kits that are offered by various music stores.

[Swiss Bob]

Don't go near the egg cartons - they're largely useless (it's almost an urban myth). If you're having major room problems you'll need to get some proper acoustic tiles of the type found here:

http://www.studiospares.com/viewprod...ILES&p=1&gid=6

[30yroldpig]

Swiss Bob is absolutely right. Those egg cartons don't help a bit. You're better off Hanging some drapes around the room.

Cheers
Pat

[bammbamm]

Drapes, rugs, anything made of a fabric, the denser the better.
Bamm

[Swiss Bob]

And put some carpet down! Yeah yeah I know it's all the fashion for varnished hardwood but it screws with your acoustics no end.

(dude I know came around to play me some stuff, wondered why it sounded dull on my system - 'twas 'coz he'd mixed it in an overly bright non-carpeted room).

[Ash]

Thnaks for the replies. I guess we won't be using those egg cartons after all..... Swiss Bob, i checked out that link; this could turn out to be very expensive! i guess we'll just have to find the cash.... thanks again!

[Swiss Bob]

Ash, if you're going down the acoustic tile route you probably won't need to cover all of the wall area in them. Depending on the room, a couple hundred dollars worth may make a world of difference.

[kent]

Tack some cheap carpet to the walls. You can get carpet remnants super cheap at most bargain carpet places. Even bed sheets can work if you tack them up right. You have to put a staple or tack every six inches or so with the sheet draped slightly between each tack. In other words, don't stretch the sheet tight against the wall. This works amazingly well and even looks really cool if you have some attractive sheets and take you time. You can get black (or whatever color you want) king-sized flat sheets at Target for less than $10 a sheet. It won't keep the sound from bleeding through the walls, but it will significantly deaden a bright room.

[Ibateur]

I have played in rooms with carpet, egg cartons, "sonic tiles", and cork. Sonic tiles were the best (that was a real recording studio), and egg the worst (visually uninspiring, and I always felt like I needed to flap my arms)

The cork was also quite good, given they were less than a centimeter thick, you might want to try that.

Otherwise you can go to some surplus store and get "heavy drapes" the type that block out the sun completely. They won't look as nice as cork though. Call it the cathedral look.

Something to keep in mind is what kind of walls you have (wood or concrete). From the nasty reverb you get it sounds like concrete, but if it is wood, and part (the part that doesn't bounce back immediately) of the sound goes through that to a concrete wall further back (and then bounces back), that would be really nasty, and probably only the drapes would make a difference.

My first 2 cents on this forum.

Cheers,

[Ash]

You know what Swissbob? i like kents idea better... can't for the likes of me figure out why.... ok, i have an experimental idea: since i already have a load of egg cartons we've been saving up (1 dozen size), how bout i fill the holes with ______ (i honestly have no idea what would work here... some kind of foam maybe?) and glue 'em to the cieling, and cover that with some bed sheets. give the walls the bedsheet treatmeant (white- most of my band mates like to call themselves 'artists' ) like kent suggested. what say you? could it work to reduce the mish-mash of our practice sessions?