live music venue out of warehouse - need input

[carne_de_res]

hello,
i have been looking around a few empty warehouses with the intent of creating a live music venue.
unsurprisingly, most of the buildings i have found are quite big in size with live cement walls and high ceilings (6-7 metres) and are, of course, highly reverberant.
i'm looking for a single open space that will hold about 500 people.
the main goal is to reduce reverb time, by lowering the ceiling and covering part of the walls with sound-absorbing material.

1)
now, I've had an idea for the ceiling:
buying quite a few square metres of very heavy curtains and have them dangle down from the ceiling at regular intervals, as if they were teeth of a comb a bit like this (sorry for the crude sketch):
_______________
I I I I I I I I I I

where the horizontal line is the ceiling and the "I"'s are the curtains coming down, as seen from the side.
that would "break" the low end waves quite a bit, i think.
what do YOU think?

2) is there anything like a sound-absorbing varnish that i could use on side walls?

thanks in advance for your help and suggestions.

[Kelp88]

Spaces with high ceilings generally sound better, in my experience, 15 to 20 feet for instance.

Heavy curtains can work for sound absorption (24 oz velour, say), but "a few square meters" ain't gonna be enough. You should think about covering most of the ceiling area with vertical sound absorbers. Forget about the walls, put in tons of absorption on the ceiling. If there's a specific reflection problem from a wall surface you could add a panel later.

Unless you have a cheap source for curtains, they're probably more expensive than cheap hanging "acoustic baffles" hanging down 2 feet, with 2 feet between rows. Even cheaper if you make them yourself.

Don't forget to use fire rated materials for a live music venue.

[carne_de_res]

Spaces with high ceilings generally sound better, in my experience, 15 to 20 feet for instance.

Heavy curtains can work for sound absorption (24 oz velour, say), but "a few square meters" ain't gonna be enough. You should think about covering most of the ceiling area with vertical sound absorbers. Forget about the walls, put in tons of absorption on the ceiling. If there's a specific reflection problem from a wall surface you could add a panel later.

Unless you have a cheap source for curtains, they're probably more expensive than cheap hanging "acoustic baffles" hanging down 2 feet, with 2 feet between rows. Even cheaper if you make them yourself.

Don't forget to use fire rated materials for a live music venue.

Thanks so much for the input, Kelp.
Now, are there any internet resources about building your own vert sound absorbers?
Out of sheer ignorance I add: if the walls are "classic" untreated cement walls, is there going to be a reflection problem anyway due to cement's high sound reflexion? Basically: are the cement walls bringing the most reverb?

[stuntbutt]

Take your favorite CD. Patch it through a reverb. 60ms predelay, 3 seconds decay, 60% wet.

I don't think pieces of cloth hanging from the ceiling are even going to make a dent in stopping your room from sounding like the example above.

[nordberg]

i think those 500 people will be the best absorption you can get. re: ceiling curtains, i think i've seen stuff like that in big auditoriums or basketball courts... don't know how much it does.


-mike

[darjama]

Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but make sure you take flammability / fire retardant properties into account.