Garden mix room near Nottingham, UK

#181

Great shout with the flush mounts- they’d be a lot better than nails I’m sure. Will think how to do it with those.

Thanks for the tips about diffusers both. I had been thinking about making a quadratic residue diffuser as they can be tuned to certain frequency bands. I’m not sure I’ve got 3.5m from my chair to where the diffuser would be, though.

I’m not keen on wrapping my walls in plastic either!!
Cheers
Gareth

#182

Here are a couple useful quotes from Stuart on using breathable plastic for your traps:

Plastic is a good way of retaining any loose fibers, yes, and thin plastic on the cloud above your head is a very good idea.
Will it have an effect on acoustics? Absolutely! Yes! And that's a good thing, because it allows you to "tune" the panel, to a certain extent. Plastic is considered to be a "foil", acoustically. It blocks sounds above a certain frequency, based on its thickness (or more correctly, its surface density). The thicker it is, the more of the spectrum it blocks. Very thin plastics, such as the very light weight films that painters use as drop-cloth to cover furniture, only affects the very top end of the scale. Very thick plastic, such as you'd put under the foundations of a building, has a major effect all the way down to the low mids.
So you can use this to decide what type of plastic to use to cover your panels, depending on their function. For example, bass traps are typically very large, very deep, and cover large areas of the room... which means that in addition to treating the low frequencies a bit, they absolutely kill the highs, sucking out all the clarity and detail. So you generally want to cover the face of your bass traps with plastic that is thick enough to reflect back the highs into the room, and only allow the lows through into the trap itself.

https://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20782

Yes, correct, and for bass traps that's a GOOD thing! You WANT to reflect the highs! In small rooms, bass traps take up a large proportion of the total wall area, and therefore over-treat the high end. So in order to keep the acoustics as neutral as possible, some type of selectively reflective surface is needed, that reflects back the highs very well, the mids to a certain extent, but does not touch the lows at all. Plastic is pretty good for that, but you could also use OC-703 with the FRK facing, or the AJS facing. The advantage of using plastic (or other similar foils) is that you can tune the trap to reflect only the frequency range that you want to reflect, as needed.

https://johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20777

#183

Thanks snailboy

I have some of the green vapour barrier stuff from Wickes that was used variously on the build so I might try stapling some of that up at the back to see what the effect on reverb time is. I’d be worried that it might make noise vibrating potentially, so I might not cover the whole back wall... hmmm

Cheers
Gareth

#184

Hi
Sorry for being quiet on the forum - I’ve been getting the room ready to use and actually using it a little too!

Current status is that I’ve put my equipment into my prototype desk, added more varnish to the floor, added some material to the ceiling and made one material panel for the rear wall. I’m yet to try the plastic sheeting on the back but may get chance tomorrow morning.

I have paused at this point as for the next three days, and four days next week, I’m working in the room with a client on mixing his album. This project was what I was getting the room ready for, originally scheduled for March. I don’t think early June is too bad and even though the room is not pretty or finished, it’s certainly usable.

Top tip for this update: I wish I’d bought a new electric staple gun at the start of this project. I thought it was normal for them to not fire half the time, especially when working at funny angles, but it turns out mine was knackered. £20 later I have one that works from screwfix (yet again). How much time I could have saved!!

Room state of play now (complete with all my bits of gear etc that need proper homes):

#185

Greetings Gareth,

Wow, full marks!

All the best,

Paul

#186

It must feel great to be able to try the room out for real. I am impressed.

#187

There's an argument to be made for keeping everything as it is, with all the innards of the room exposed, sort of like one of those home-built PCs with a glass case where you can see all the mechanisms. THAT'S how good it looks!

#188

Hi all
Well it seems the final touches that need to look the best are taking a lot of time and not looking that great. i had made the one rear material panel, held in place with the flush mount metal clips Jennifer shared earlier in this thread. To make this work the cloth covered wooden frame slides up from the bottom and the skirting board is then pushed in place to hold the panel up and the metal clips interlock.

However this is a pain to install, and I’ve only managed to make one more today. My new staple gun was getting jammed (think I had wrong size staples) and then when I cut the material for the mains sockets to come through I managed to cut a bit too low, and also of course the material looses it’s taughtness around the socket hole.

I’m not really happy how these are turning out as I think they look a bit crap.

Does anyone know how these material panels for the walls are made by pro studio builders? I know most studios I’ve been into have material covered walls where the material is usually folded around a series of wooden frames.

If anyone has any clever ideas about this before I make any more please let me know! I’d hate for the final finish to be poor.

Thanks
Gareth

#189

garethmetcalf wrote:Source of the postDoes anyone know how these material panels for the walls are made by pro studio builders? I know most studios I’ve been into have material covered walls where the material is usually folded around a series of wooden frames.

Gareth, I am no pro but that is how I did my drop ceiling tiles and my cloud, which I finished just yesterday. To save cluttering up your topic with my photos start at post 165 in my topic and work backwards. I hope that helps.

#190

Thanks Starlight. You’ve done such neat work with til your ceiling - I’m very envious. I can’t wait to see your finished room.

My weak area has always been the final finish and getting things neat and tidy, which is why I’m cross that I’ve already made a couple of mistakes with my ceiling material and my wall panels.

I think I’m going to have to add more horizontal wood to them that will then frame around the sockets, so that I can staple the fabric tight around the sockets too. To do this I’ll have to revert to using Velcro to mount these panels to my walls, rather than the clever sliding clip things Jennifer found.

I think adding more wood to these panels is a good thing to give them more strength, so that’ll be an added bonus. Annoyingly wood is crazy expensive now but this needs to be done right.

Cheers
Gareth

#191

garethmetcalf wrote:Source of the postI’m cross that I’ve already made a couple of mistakes with my ceiling material and my wall panels.

I learned early on - in life as well as in my studio build - that I often make mistakes. Perhaps we all do.

As many of the things in my build I am doing for the first time I have sometimes made more pieces that I need which means the mistakes can be either be discarded or used where they will be less visible.

For example, look at my 7 hexagons and you will often see one made of old pallet wood with green fabric alongside the ones I am working on. That was my test piece, my prototype. I still managed to mess up two of the hexagons so cut an 8th hexagon as I had enough plywood. I repaired the two mistakes as best I could, continued to make 8 and chose the best 7 to install.

Maybe treat yourself to the luxury of having some scrap pieces to try out before starting on the real thing, especially if a mistake will be clearly visible to visitors.

#192

Good advice, thanks Starlight.

I did try a slighlty different approach to the material panels I made last week and it went a bit better, using extra wood to frame around the sockets.

Paused again to use the room which has been a delight. Spent a bit more cash on a passive stepped attenuator volume control for my monitors, which will be installed later this week. Got loads of soldering to do as well to get my patchbay connected up. I actually enjoy soldering so that’s good!

Will report back about room performance in more detail soon.

#193

garethmetcalf wrote:Source of the post This project was what I was getting the room ready for, originally scheduled for March. I don’t think early June is too bad and even though the room is not pretty or finished, it’s certainly usable.

So, right on schedule then! That's pretty good going, Gareth. And your place is looking GREAT! It sure has come a long, long way.

Does anyone know how these material panels for the walls are made by pro studio builders? I know most studios I’ve been into have material covered walls where the material is usually folded around a series of wooden frames.

There are some commercial systems for doing that:

Not cheap, but they work well.

If anyone has any clever ideas about this before I make any more please let me know! I’d hate for the final finish to be poor.

Two things I always suggest for fabric panels on frames: 1) Slightly sand or bevel the inner edges of the wood frame, so the lines don't show through where the fabric touches the frame. 2) Put a layer of thin, cheap, black-colored fine-weave fabric behind your final finish fabric. It helps to stop light getting through, and revealing the innards behind it. It can make the finish fabric look a bit darker, though, so test it out. Maybe a dark gray color would be better than black in your case.

To do this I’ll have to revert to using Velcro to mount these panels to my walls,

Another option might be magnetic catches: you can find them in hardware stores. Often used on cupboard doors, to keep them close. Basically, just a simple metal plate and a magnetic "block" thing. They hold surprisingly well, and placing a few of those around the edges should do the job.

- Stuart -

#194

Basically, just a simple metal plate and a magnetic "block" thing.

The "magnetic "block" thing" can be replaced with a small rare earth ("power" as they're sometimes called) magnet (now very widely available for cheap). You'll obviously need some superglue to mount it since there is no way to screw-mount it. As you might guess, the holding power is amazing.

All the best,

Paul

#195

Magnetic catches… Of course! I never even thought about that for the wall panels despite using them for my cupboard doors.

I’m taking a pause on finishing the fabric panels now whilst I use the room, as I expect to need to make some changes and improvements to the treatment of the space.
Once this album project is complete I’ll return to the acoustic and then cosmetic finish.

In other news a 150mm centrifugal external fan arrived today to replace the 100mm one originally fitted. Unfortunately my bad planning meant that the fan currently installed is doing about 2 air changes an hour. With just me in the room it’s keeping the co2 at around 600, which is perfectly healthy, but once there are two people in the room it moves upwards and I don’t want that.

It’ll be a pain to get it installed as the fan is behind the fascia board on the front of the building, but where there’s a will there’s a way. Will report back…

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