Sound treatment... Apartment style!

Kerouac · February 17, 2008

Hey folks...

I've read a lot of different articles and threads around the web about treating your room, but I can't recall reading any that deal with treatment in an apartment or other domicile where you can't permanently affix treatment to walls, can't make new walls, etc.

I was hoping that you might have some tips or personal experience with this. I think I've made a lot of pretty decent recordings on the budget gear that I had and I'm now in a position that I can purchase better monitors, pres, compressors, converters, etc. but that won't count for much if I can't make my listening environment become more accurate.

I'll take some pictures this evening and some better measurements for you, but the room is barely rectangular and the left hand wall has two rather large windows, both older and crappy. Landlord is a Nazi and I'd have to cover it carefully.

Thanks for the help. I'll be back with those pics as soon as I get the chance.

UstadKhanAli · February 17, 2008

For treatment, RealTraps (realtraps.com) is a great way to go. You can hang these on the walls just like very large picture frames or mount them on mic stands or order them with stands. I like them, and own six RealTraps Mini-Traps.

Some people use Owen Corning 703, which is supposed to be quite useful and cheaper.

Dean Roddey · February 17, 2008

Here is my little apartment studio. It's most of the apartment actually. As you can see, leaving aside the foam, all you need are some hooks in the wall, which is no more than would be the case if hanging some pictures. It's 703 in ReadyTraps DIY bags. So it comes out to a bit over $200 for each three (or two for the 6" thick ones.)

With careful positioning of the listening position and enough traps, even in this fairly small space I get pretty darned good base response. It's not a closed room, just a divided section of the apartment that's open on either side in the back, so it helps with the base response compared to a strictly rectilinear room of this size.

MrKnobs · February 17, 2008

Hey folks...

I've read a lot of different articles and threads around the web about treating your room, but I can't recall reading any that deal with treatment in an apartment or other domicile where you can't permanently affix treatment to walls, can't make new walls, etc.

I was hoping that you might have some tips or personal experience with this. I think I've made a lot of pretty decent recordings on the budget gear that I had and I'm now in a position that I can purchase better monitors, pres, compressors, converters, etc. but that won't count for much if I can't make my listening environment become more accurate.

I'll take some pictures this evening and some better measurements for you, but the room is barely rectangular and the left hand wall has two rather large windows, both older and crappy. Landlord is a Nazi and I'd have to cover it carefully.

Thanks for the help. I'll be back with those pics as soon as I get the chance.

You're talking about sound treatment as opposed to soundproofing, right? As in making your mix environment acoustics more accurate?

If so, it's very possible to improve even a small apartment room considerably without having to do any permanent damage.

First off, though I do understand and appreciate what panel absorbers do, I recommend foam in your case - because it requires little or no attachment to the walls to get the job done.

Don't waste time with thin foam or cheap closed cell foam. It's expensive, but after much trial, error, and measurement I've personally concluded that the most effective, non-damaging treatment for bass modes in a small room is Auralex Mega-LENRDs. Don't waste money on their regular LENRDs, they simply don't absorb low enough to solve the bass mode problems you'll encounter in a small room. I know, I've thoroughly tried and measured both products.

Installation of Mega-LENRDs couldn't be more simple and harmless. Just stack them in the corners of your room. They're so large and heavy they can be free standing in the corners without any need for additional hardware. If you want to make them completely stable add a few long thumbtacks like upholstery tacks on the edges just to hold them solidly against the wall. You'd only need 3-4 per stack at most (you really can get by with none), and the small holes can be easily filled with toothpaste when you vacate the apartment.

They simply work great, better than anything else I've tried. They're soft so they can't hurt anyone or scratch a guitar, they're very fire resistant. They take up very little of the precious room space in a small apartment, since they fit snugly in the corners where the space was going unused anyway - unlike panels which need to be mounted out from the walls to work well.

You can, of course, use panels or membrane absorbers with free standing mounts. I think Ethan makes some panels that mount to a mike stand, if I recall correctly. But with panels you're going to be hard pressed to get the sheer amount of broadband absorption that you do with MegaLenrds, and it's going to cost you more too unless you make them yourself.

Your windows may seem a curse, but they are in fact a blessing. Fill them completely with very thick acoustic foam, like Auralex Venus Fly Trap. Put some heavy drapes in front of the foam filled window cavity and you've got some serious broadband absorption - no permanent mounting required (you can either use the thumbtack through the edges trick or glue the foam to very thin plywood which can then be set in the window cavity, the whole assembly being held in place by the thick curtains).

Now, you don't want to make your room entirely dead, just reduce the bass modes significantly. So don't put thick foam everywhere, but do use a lot of it at the rear of the room.

And don't use thin foam at all. I do acoustics research for a living, and for the life of me I've never found a use for thin foam, unless it's for making a small area sound dead and increasing speech intelligibility. The misunderstanding of what thin foam can do isn't limited to amateur recordists, someone in my field designed a noise trailer and lined the measurement cavity with 1" Sonex. Too bad he was trying to measure 500Hz instead of 5kHz.

It was really kind of a mercy when the foam got so waterlogged and rotten that it fell out on the highway.

Terry D.

P.S. I'm in no way affiliated with Auralex, Inc. I use some of their products and some of Ethan's product, I know how to measure room acoustics, and I know from hands on experience what each of these products does best.

Kerouac · February 17, 2008