Cork for sound absorption

[Rossi~]

I need to fit my room with some sound absorption materials, it's booming in there like a mother flipper. I solved the first part of the problem, speaker isolation, with sand filled spiked speaker stands, and soft rubber feet, all's brilliant there.
So the next step is some sound absorption materials, i can get some foam tiles from a number of places, but they work out damn expensive (over £150), so i was wondering how well cork tiles perform this job? I have used them before to sound proof in certain places, but that's not exactly the same as what i'm trying to do here.
Any body used them before?

 

[SYN ACK]

forgot about everything except:

owens corning 703 or 705 (OC703, OC705) or rockwool (with correct density) equivilant

OC703 is rigid fiberglass, so you can easily wrap it in (breathable) fabric

you'll want 2-4" broadband absorption at early reflection points and heavy (4-6") at rear walls;
http://www.realtraps.com/rfz.htm
http://www.realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm

and then 4-6" traps straddling all corners for bass traps (to help flatten the response and lower decay times)

it'll take a lot of bass trapping to get good effects, especially if your room is small or approaching being a cube.

acoustic treatments HAVE NOTHING to do with sound isolation.
those 2 topics are complete polar opposites in terms of approaches.



please read this twice before wasting your money on anything:
http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

 

[Rossi~]

Thanks for the reply will check it out over lunch.

I know acoustic treatments and sound isolation are separate, didn't mean for it to sound like that. I've just recently in the past couple of living with my girlfriend sorted my setup and stage 1 was isolation (done) and stage 2 is the acoustic treatment.
This is all because this new room is a box..... You've probably seen it in other threads.

Because i am on a tight budget i know i'm not going to be able to come up with a proper solution for some time so i was thinking of placing thick cork tiles (1 - 2 inches thick, will double up if needed) as they are cheap, in positions needed to start with (including corners that are accessible). Over time i was considering applying different material on top of the cork.

I will have a read around, thanks for the reply

 

[SYN ACK]

what is this application for? a live room (what are you recording, drums?) a control room for mastering, etc?

cant do anything until you know what the application is for

post a quick sketchup of your room

dont buy foam, cork, anything like that - if you coat your room with 1-2" cork (who knows what the absorption coefficients are) -- you'll end up sucking all of the highs out and leave yourself with a muddy sounding room.

corners are going to need a hell of a lot thicker (denser) material than 1-2" cork. the cheapest way to treat the corners is to buy big rolls (12"+) of the pink fluffystuff.

most people cant give up 12" that's why we use dense rigid fiberglass (4-6 pcf) like oc703 or oc705. google map closest insulation shops and start looking for it.
or you can use rockwool (mineral wool) - you just haev to make sure you have the right density. rockwool isnt as rigid as oc703, but you can just build a wood frame for it and then wrap fabric around it. rockwool will generally be cheaper too.

 

[Rossi~]

The room is used for Gaming, music listening and also music production and sometime recording.
My main problem with the room is boomy bass and also being such a small room i have pretty much no other way place speakers/desks.

Here's some pics from the picture thread.

Aa you can see, it's box..
Due to purchasing a new car I am on a budget of about £100 tops at the moment, but later in the year i can add another £100.

 

[daglesj]

I remember covering three walls of my bedroom with quarter inch thick cork tiles about 17 years ago.

The idea was to tone down the accoustics and maybe improve the soundproofing.

Well afterwards I didnt notice much difference but it didnt do any harm. Made the room look nicer and made the outside wall warmer to the touch. My hi-fi still sounded great.

On the far wall I simply hung a very large but not too thick patterned floor rug (bought new for the job). Carpet? Carpet underlay on just a couple of connecting walls? Wouldnt be expensive to test.

If you do use cork on one wall say, then for gods sake get them out of the packs and leave them to 'shrink' slightly to your room conditions before you put them up.

About ten days should do. Shuffle them about each day.

 

[SYN ACK]

very little you can do in your room, im afraid.
you're not going to get any help from the bass/low end response unless you have access to all corner boundaries (corners, wall-ceiling corners, floor-wall corners, etc) and do heavy (4-6") bass trapping there...dont waste your time with 1-2" cork it wont do a damn thing for low end. please dont waste your money.

what you could do to help stereo imaging, is clear some of the stuff off your walls and place broadband absorption (to absorp mids+highs) at the early/first reflection points.

click the link i listed above on creating a reflection free zone.
this will help quite a bit regarding stereo imaging and increase clairity (by reducing comb filtering)...it would be best to apply absorption at the reflection points on the ceiling, side walls, and then heavy absorption at the rear wall.

you simply cant expect to have great response in your room...but the things i listed above will help.

 

[Rossi~]

Ah bum. Ok thanks for your professional input SYN ACK. I will have a look at the link some more and will see what i can find in regards to broadband absorption like you said anyways but it's literally just the booming of bass i'm having with.
The joys of moving in with your girlfriend and being shoved in a tiny room My last room at the "lad pad" was very big and nice indeed, had no problems.

Cheers,

Rossi out.

 

[SYN ACK]

you could play with placement of your speakers -especially the larger drivers (try moving them away from the wall/corners a touch) - it really will have to be experimentation with that. nothing else you can do short of covering the whole room with 4-6" thick broadband absorption (oc703/oc705)...just dont waste your money on the cork stuff

 

[SpeedyVV]

Ah bum. Ok thanks for your professional input SYN ACK. I will have a look at the link some more and will see what i can find in regards to broadband absorption like you said anyways but it's literally just the booming of bass i'm having with.
The joys of moving in with your girlfriend and being shoved in a tiny room My last room at the "lad pad" was very big and nice indeed, had no problems.

Cheers,

Rossi out.

Married guy says "I feel your pain".

 

[Sixthsense]

Cheap way to do it is buy an adjustable curtain rod with blackout curtains and place them behind your desk. This will work as well opposed to cork board or expensive acoustic foam

 

[SYN ACK]

Cheap way to do it is buy an adjustable curtain rod with blackout curtains and place them behind your desk. This will work as well opposed to cork board or expensive acoustic foam

a curtain will absorp the highs but not much mids and certainly no lows
so unless you want a muddy room, id still recommend broadband absorption on the rear wall

the reason you do absorption on the rear wall is to combat nulls from sound bouncing off the rear wall and interfering with the sound coming from your speakers, causing comb filtering

 

[Sixthsense]

a curtain will absorp the highs but not much mids and certainly no lows
so unless you want a muddy room, id still recommend broadband absorption on the rear wall

the reason you do absorption on the rear wall is to combat nulls from sound bouncing off the rear wall and interfering with the sound coming from your speakers, causing comb filtering

I think OP is on a budget, unless you can suggest something way below $150.00

 

[SYN ACK]

I think OP is on a budget, unless you can suggest something way below $150.00

i paid $97 locally for a box of OC703 24"x48" batts, 2" thick - 12 pieces

add some $ for wood frame, fabric, and staples, and you can build a total of 6x 4" thick bass traps (broadband absorbers)

most online commercial sites sell a single 4" trap for about 60$ + shipping

it's very cheap if you DIY.

rockwool/mineral wool is even cheaper than OC703 (but oc703 is better to work with)

plenty of videos on youtube (search diy bass trap)

6" of oc703 on the back wall, and 4" on the side and ceiling reflection points would do wonders

you still need huge corner trapping in a small room, but you'd notice quite an improvement with heavy rear wall trapping and early/first reflection point absorption

 

[JohnleMVP]

Before spending money you could try putting up thick blankets on the walls to see if it basic sound absorption will even help your situation. Your room is pretty small so it probably would only take a few blankets to cover the walls.

 

[SYN ACK]

did you read the thread? how many times do we have to go over this
blankets, carpets, rugs, etc dont do anything but absorb highs and do nothing for the mids and lows

especially rugs - where you have an incident angle that probably boosts the high freq cutoff to over 10khz

why on earth people think it's acceptable to absorb the highs and leave the mids and lows to make the room sound muddy/boomy is beyond me.

next you're going to start telling me egg carton shells on the wall function as diffusers

 

[yomike007]

There is no way you can effectively sound dampen that room. Plus cork sucks. I believe it dampens out high frequencies while allows the lows to still echo. Good sound dampening is expensive man. Dont settle for any less. Plus with a room of that size, any frequencies below about 10MHz will get some serious reverberation. You can always move your equipment outside on a nice day to record (bad joke).

 

[SYN ACK]

Good sound dampening is expensive man. .

no it's not ... if you have time and ability to DIY --- bass traps and acoustic panels of velocity based porous material (rigid fiberglass) are relatively easy to make.

tons of videos on youtube to show just how easy it is

make wood frame
staple fabric to frame (backside - to keep insulation particles contained)
wrap fabric around insulation
place wood frame on top
wrap insulation in fabric and staple to wood frame

here's mine:
a box of 12 batts of oc703 2" thick was $95
wood was probably $20
fabric was $50 (depends how many you're making and how nice of fabric you want - any breathable fabric from JoAnns will do)

oc703 (4" total) with wood frame on top (test fitting)

crappy fabric stapled to frame (this is for the back of the panel, so you can use crappy fabric as it wont be see) - the frame also provides an air gap (important for velocity based porous absorption)

place frame on top of insulation batts

nice fabric below, wrap around the insulation and staple to the frame

done -

 

[SYN ACK]

Rossi - might i suggest moving the bulk of the stuff in your room out of there (e.g. whatever isnt used often, into storage - if possible?

then, put your computer up against the wall with the window on it (so you are facing the wall with the window when you are sitting at your computer)
then, the left and right walls should be free and clear so you can put absorption there
im not sure where or how you would put your gear...but if you could put broadband absorption at the left/right reflection points, on the ceiling, and heavy on the back wall (wall with the door) --- you would notice huge improvements. not ideal, but there would be very noticeable improvements.

youll want to put absorption at the reflection points - like this

 

[Rossi~]

Rossi - might i suggest moving the bulk of the stuff in your room out of there (e.g. whatever isnt used often, into storage - if possible?

then, put your computer up against the wall with the window on it (so you are facing the wall with the window when you are sitting at your computer)
then, the left and right walls should be free and clear so you can put absorption there
im not sure where or how you would put your gear...but if you could put broadband absorption at the left/right reflection points, on the ceiling, and heavy on the back wall (wall with the door) --- you would notice huge improvements. not ideal, but there would be very noticeable improvements.

youll want to put absorption at the reflection points - like this

I would love to do that, in fact that's pretty much how my last room was before i moved in here. Unfortunately i can't move much out of the room at all, all over the equipment on the other desk i use, so thats got to stay and as for the bookcase, i need space for my CD collection and the flat is so small i haven't space anywhere else. It's a real pain.

I actually sat down yesterday in the room and tried to figure out what i can do, what space i can create for a DIY sound absorption boxes and came to the conclusion that i'm screwed with this room, its just far to small and the picture doesn't show really how small. Which sucks and so i consumed a few whiskeys and looked at a fews pairs of headphones and ended up looking at houses...

What i have decided to do is have another play around with speaker positioning over the weekend, see what i can get out of it, but as for DIY broadband absorption boxes, i can use the ceiling and about 3 inches out from the wall behind the main desk & speakers, and some corner blocks on the right hand side, but only about a few inches though.

 

[spaceman]

What SYN says is the only affordable way to TRULY fix the issues. There are no other remedies which will do anything more than just change the sound. If you want to get it "right", do what he says.

Audio is not a game of half measures when it comes to room treatment. You can make an inexpensive stereo sound much better with these tweaks. If it is too much for you to get today, fine. Put the money aside until you have it. Even if it is $5 at a time, you will have it sooner than you think.

Remember, spaceman loves you.