Loving my new traps!

CurtZHP · Post by **CurtZHP** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:49 am

I just finished the control room for my new studio. The finishing touches were the panels I built. Thought I might share what I did, in case anyone was looking for ideas.

Basically, they are 2' by 4' panels filled with mineral wool.

I bought mineral wool from an insulation supplier in my area, and this stuff is wwwaaaayyyyy cheaper than OC703. A bundle of 6 batts (48" x 16") makes four panels, and it cost me about $13.00 per bundle! Then I went to Home Depot and bought a bunch of 3/4" x 3" x 6' wood planks. Cutting 2' off each plank, I used two planks for each frame; just a simple rectangular frame held together with screws, nails, and/or glue.

For fabric covering, I cheated a bit. My dad is an upholsterer, and his shop uses a thin fabric called cambrick (sp?) to cover the bottoms of furniture pieces. Just flip your easy chair of sofa over and you'll see what I mean. It's thin, but has a tight enough weave to keep the mineral wool fibers in check. He gave me what I needed for free. I stretched some over the frame and stapled it in place, dropped in the mineral wool, and then covered the back with more cambrick.

Then I basically hung them up using hooks and eyebolts, but you can also use any picture hanging hardware.

Cost per panel?

Mineral wool -- $3.25
2 Wood planks -- $5.00
Cambrick -- about $0.60 per yard (according to Dad). I used about 3 yards per trap, so that's $1.80.

That's just over $10.00 per panel! Throw in screws and staples, and you're still under $15.00 each!

Do they work? YES! The difference was night and day. The room sounds great, looks great, and I didn't go broke in the process!

Thought you'd like to know.

nlmd311 · Post by **nlmd311** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 10:25 am

Awesome.
Thanks for posting this. This is pretty much the exact same thing I'm going to be doing sometime in the next few months when I get the money for it.
I've been thinking of doing a "frame" type of build as you described. Glad it is working. I'm thinking of doing this mainly for my "tracking" room to help even some of the mess out, and, as they would be entirely portable, having some mounts in the "control room" ready so that when it comes time to listen or mix, I could just pull them off the walls of the tracking room and pop them in the control room... until I could afford another set.

How far off the wall are they hanging? 1/4", 1/2", flush-mounted?

Did you happen to do any testing of the room before, or after? All that matters to me is that it sounds better to you, but it would be interesting to see or hear the results of any testing you may have done.

Any pictures?

-Darrill

JohnDavisNYC · Post by **JohnDavisNYC** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:12 am

cool... but is that really much cheaper than OC703? I got my 703 from a lumber yard.building supply place here in brooklyn for 45 dollars a case, so that's 7.50 a trap, and since it's rigid, you don't have to make a rigid frame for them, just spray adhesive some nice fabric to them... i lucked out as my wife works in fasion, and one of companies she works for gave me a bunch of leftover fabric, so we both had the free fabric action...

i just keep hearing all these horror stories about OC703 being hard to get and really expensive... besides having to special order it, it doesn't seem like i paid much more than for rockwool, if not actually less, considering not having to build a frame...

i will be building a frame, however, and a ceiling cloud above the mix position, so it would be interesting to see how the final treatment costs compare.

I bring this up because I was led to believe from the board and people's discussions that OC is SUPER way more expensive, but I didn't have the time and patience to find the best deal, but it seems as though there isn't really much of a difference. if somehow I got a rediculous deal, I can let people know the lumberyard.... they are super cool, maybe they just didn't want to rip me off, i dunno.

cheers,
john

nlmd311 · Post by **nlmd311** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:31 am

John,
I'm planning on going with OC 703, but putting a frame around it thinking that would make it easier and more versatile for mounting. As I'm not able to do this as a permanent install I was thinking this would be the best way to hang it, leave a small "foot print" when not up, and be pretty much portable. How do you have yours up? What are some other options for mounting?
Just trying to get as many ideas as possible. I've skimmed over Ethan and John's (Sayer) sites and now, as things are getting closer to actually happening, I'm going back and re-reading everything a bit more thoroughly. Sorry if I'm asking a question that has either been asked a hundred times in the past, or if it is answered on one of the above mentioned sites and I've not seen it yet.

Thanks

-Darrill

JohnDavisNYC · Post by **JohnDavisNYC** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:38 am

well, right now mine are just leaning in corners, as we work out the specifics for how we will be mounting them... 'm thinking permenant soffits for the back corners (side/back, side/back, and back/ceiling, and a cloud (wooden frame mounted to the I beam in the ceiling, hanging about 8" from the ceiling.... I think I'm going to be able to get about 14 or 16 traps in my control room... I have a few definate spots, but am going to experiment a bit... I'm not sure exactly how I will hang the ones that will be first reflection points yet... maybe a thin wooden frame, maybe 3/8" ply, glued and nailed, so that picture wire could be strung across the back... tack some brads in on the sides to secure the fabric wrapped 703.

john

nlmd311 · Post by **nlmd311** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:51 am

Cool. Thanks.
Sounds like I am thinking of doing something similar.

-Darrill

CurtZHP · Post by **CurtZHP** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:14 pm

Basically, I've got four of them stradling the corners of the room, two of them stradling the wall to ceiling space above the mix position, and two flush mounted to the middle of the ceiling with a little space between them.

As far as the cost of OC, I couldn't find anyone near me that carried it unless I wanted to pay through the nose.

It seems like different parts of the country have better access to OC, while certain other places have access to mineral wool. Fortunately for all of us, both of them work.

JohnDavisNYC · Post by **JohnDavisNYC** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:43 pm

yeah... must be a location thing. I assumed that I was paying way more, but I guess brooklyn is pretty good for OC rigid fiberglass! yeah... it is a good thing they both work... how much were you quoted per case of OC703? Just curious...

j

CurtZHP · Post by **CurtZHP** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:10 pm

toaster3000 wrote:yeah... must be a location thing. I assumed that I was paying way more, but I guess brooklyn is pretty good for OC rigid fiberglass! yeah... it is a good thing they both work... how much were you quoted per case of OC703? Just curious...

j

To be honest, I don't remember. Once I found a cheap source for MW in my backyard, I pretty much forgot about OC.

JohnDavisNYC · Post by **JohnDavisNYC** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:37 pm

ah... just curious. yay bass traps.]

john

thethingwiththestuff · Post by **thethingwiththestuff** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:23 pm

i ordered from ats acoustics, 1 box of 703 was $75, i think. the mineral wool was only $35 a box, so i got two of those. i started setting those up, and then yesterday i scored 6 8'X4' panels of 1" 705, already covered and framed! my bedroom is getting pretty damn close to dead.... i just have to hit the ceiling with the remaining 703.

i havent framed any of my stuff. i gotta get to work!

Scott R. foster · Post by **Scott R. foster** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:54 pm

Most batt materials are going to have too little gasflow resistance to be very efficient absorbers at low frequencies.. you can offset that fact to some degree with large installations [like laying batts all the way across the top of an acoustic tile drop ceiling], making the batt layer very thick, and choosing batts with higher density [like the cathedral ceiling batts made by Owens Corning].

The trick to locating insulatiion "board" materials like 703 is to shop where commercial contractors buy supplies. Places that sell truck loads of drywall, steel studs, and the like are also apt to carry insualtion boards. Look in your phone book with that in mind.... someone is ellin the stuff locally in vast quantities.. it is a standard building material for commercial construction.

Also, here is a link to a national firm that may have an outlet in your area - these guys usually sell a pretty decent prices.

http://www.spi-co.com/servicecenterdirectory.cfm

Also these guys:

http://www.lwsupply.com/centerloc/4_0_centerloc.asp

Good Luck!

CurtZHP · Post by **CurtZHP** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 6:09 am

Scott R. foster wrote:
The trick to locating insulatiion "board" materials like 703 is to shop where commercial contractors buy supplies. Places that sell truck loads of drywall, steel studs, and the like are also apt to carry insualtion boards. Look in your phone book with that in mind.... someone is ellin the stuff locally in vast quantities.. it is a standard building material for commercial construction.

The problem with some of these places is that they expect you to BUY truckloads of stuff. Fortunately, I found a place that will sell small quantities. But true, you won't find this material in Home Depot or Lowes. You have to find a commercial builder's supplier.

joelkriske · Post by **joelkriske** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:19 am

Congrats! just did something very similar, and i love them too.

To be clear though, these are (depending how they're mounted) broadband absorbers, not bass traps.

If you need a pure bass killer for a room, it would seem that superchunks are the way to go. (or stacks of rolled fiberglass in the corners, or record/book shelves)

check it out

http://forum.studiotips.com/viewtopic.p ... go here http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/ultimate ... /f/26.html

it's ethan winer's spot, and there are many other people there who have been dealing with room acoustics from a diy standpoint.

i've spent too much time on topic research re. room acoustic treatment. Hope i can save y'all some!

joel

joelkriske · Post by **joelkriske** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:20 am

ok, so i guess yr gonna have to cut and paste the links, i screwed up a bit in the last post, sorry. tired, so tired.

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Loving my new traps!

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