Freesound Forums

Hello,

Going to move into a new room with a huge balcony door and one more door into the apartment. want to treat the space for fairly good mastering (electronic music). but the main use would be composing with 8" monitors. and enjoying some time mixing and partying.

i'm thinking curtains for the balcony and foaming up rest of the space.
is it best to treat the whole room with a foam layer and then add more items like diffusers or vice-versa? or start with acoustic treatment ?

thanks
FW

Hi
Not an expert here.
The little I know is to take care to get thick acoustic panels where the speakers point at and bass traps.
The cheap foam youtuber stuff, isn't very effective at lower frequencies (can't absorb a 2m wavelength in 2cm of material really) and bass may be muddy.
Best get something 10-12cm thick before diffusion.

There's also absorption and isolation, one being treating the reverb, the other one avoiding spill from the outside world and annoying neighbours.

Acoustics are a pain and expensive endeavour. Good luck x')

look this video to start

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHMtSTzEp_E

Re-using this thread.

A few bedrooms I have been at, I didn't have the best acoustics to record, noticeable reverb.

It's cheesy but I have found that making "blanket castles" to be an effective way to clean-up voice acting, or small folly sounds.
I have managed to do them with a standing up configuration.

Once by using a tall clothes drying rack, they (seem somewhat common) and standing inside it with a few panels folded, blankets ontop.
Test here : https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/791147/

The other time next to a dresser. Speaking in it trying to absorb reverb via the clothes in it. Blankets clamped on the doors and tripod behind me. Trying to do an isolation booth.
You can hear treatment here.
Without blankets https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/819396/
With blankets https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/817801/

I found it effective to reduce reverb and give my recordings a little higher quality.

An accessory I encourage everyone to own, is a "magic arm" (I like the "small-rig" ones). The magic arm aspect is useful in so many applications (such as holding a mic inside a clothes dryer rack, or recorder on the side of a monopod). But they come with a screw on clamp, and here it was awesome to hold blankets on the dresser doors and tripod.
There's also "locking pliars" which come in handy but is more susceptible to damage things they clamp on, and are more bulky.
Having a set of 2-3 clamps is something id recommend!

TLDNR :
Blanket castles help audio quality.
Own >2 clamps. They'll help you make blanket castles and in general.