Getting foam acoustic panels to stick to the walls

[jonetsu]

Hello,

Just got 12x12 1" thick foam acoustic panels.

PylePanels

I intially used two-sided tape, which sticks fine to the walls, but not so to the foam. I am now using plain large rolled-up masking tape and will see how it fares.

Is there a better way to make these stick to the walls and ceilings ?

[Boydbob]

Hello,

Just got 12x12 1" thick foam acoustic panels.

PylePanels

I initially used two-sided tape, which sticks fine to the walls, but not so to the foam. I am now using plain large rolled-up masking tape and will see how it fares.

Is there a better way to make these stick to the walls and ceilings ?

I've had 24 of that same size in 3 groups on my wall, for the last 6 months with no problem.
I bought some oversize stick pins (1/2" inch wide heads) and put 2 pins in each piece.
You probably need 1 pin in each corner for the ceiling.
The pins make very small holes, so no damage to walls.

[mortenulysses]

Just as a side note: Those 1" foam panels aren't going to do much if anything for the acoustic problems in your studio because they mainly absorb high frequencies and leave low frequencies alone, resulting in a very uneven frequency response. While they may kill some of the flutter echo, the room will sound dead in the high end and still boomy and loose in the low end. A common recommendation is to go with at least 2 or 4 inches of rigid fiberglass at the first reflection points and preferably thicker material in the corners and on the back wall to work on the low-frequency room modes and SBIR.

[jonetsu]

I used what are called T-pins from an office supply. Works nice.

The idea basically with those is to try to suppress some of the reflection/reverb when recording acoustic guitar. So it's mot so much for playing back audio at the moment.

mortenulysses, do you have a link about a fibreglass setup ? And what is SBIR ?

Thanks.

[DannyB]

I wiped the corners off with a rag and rubbing alcohol. It helps dry the oily residue. Then I placed 3/4 in industrial velcro "buttons." It seems to work better by placing the fuzzy side on the back of the squares. Really smash them onto the foam. On the 2ft x 4ft foam sheets, I cut sections from a 2" roll of industrial Velcro, about 6" long. My walls are 12" wide tongue and groove pine. No nails or spray adhesive allowed!

Velcro purchased from Amazon.

I this gives you ideas!

[Frank]

A good and simple way of treating studio walls is simple and natural : I use shelves of books. The have the mass, the irregular surface area ( Do not use encyclopedia´s )

whenever i enter a library with filled walls my ears confirm


Regards

By the way ebooks do not work, even if you have millions...

[mortenulysses]

mortenulysses, do you have a link about a fibreglass setup ? And what is SBIR ?

This webpage is a good start to learn about room acoustics. Although GIK sell their own treatment products, the same rules apply to any kind of proper commercial or DIY acoustic treatment. Here is another read on fiberglass absorbers. I have found these and other resources in a thread on Gearslutz. There are more knowledgeable people than me hanging around in the room acoustics subforum.

The bottom line is: When you're mixing you pretty much want a reflection-free zone around the mixing position. Recording requires a bit of a different approach and you can get away with a more lively room if you want.

Without getting too much into details, your worst enemies and the weapons against them are:

1. Early reflections from the side walls, the ceiling, the mixing desk …
These come back so quickly, that they cause comb filtering which messes up your frequency response and stereo imaging. Relatively easy to treat with absorption on said walls.

2. Speaker-Boundary Interference Response (SBIR)
Similar thing but mainly working on low frequencies. SBIR causes valleys and peaks in the frequency response depending on the position of the speaker and the listener. Often the back wall behind you is responsible and thicker absorption necessary.

3. Room modes
Depending on the dimensions of the room, it will resonate at different frequencies in the low end and cause interference patterns in the room. In some places, bass will be exagerrated, in others it basically disappears. Can be countered with thick absorption especially in the room corners.

[haraldthi]

Speaking about room treatment:
I was planning on building myself some of those rockwool-based sound absorbers you find on the net.
Basically, you make yourself some wooden frames, wrap rockwool in fleece or another soft but dense material, put these rockwool-filled pillows into the frames and hang it up on the wall with some space behind the rockwool.
Of course they are heavier than fibreglass panels, but do you know how they perform?

So far, I just stick a memory foam mattress in the corner, which is both soft and heavy. I believe it works fine as a limp-mass dampener but what do you think?

[Matt]

I've built absorbers out of Owens Corning 703. They work great. I think rockwool works the same. Another site to check out is John Sayers forums. You can just google his name. Lots and lots of info there. I also have some books by F. Alton Everest. Lots of great info in these books. And totally worth while. I firmly believe a well treated room can make "average" monitors work quite well. But the best monitors in a bad room aren't going to help much at all. So fix your room first. And don't skimp. Seriously. It's IMO the most important part of a monitoring chain. And so often overlooked.

[mortenulysses]

I agree with Matt's view on room treatment. I have some entry-level Yamaha monitors in my room and only after placing some panels at strategic points I realized how the room messed up especially the stereo imaging before.

Of course they are heavier than fibreglass panels, but do you know how they perform?

The efficiency of a porous absorber practically depends on its thickness (plus air gap) and gas flow resistivity, besides that it doesn't really matter what you put on the wall. I's hard to predict exactly without knowing these material parameters but as a rule of thumb, the fluffy stuff is less efficient but cheaper and therefore mainly used for thick bass traps to catch the really low frequencies, while the more rigid and dense stuff is often used to make shallow panels to place at first reflection points for instance. Here is a link to a nice little web application you can use to model the performance of your absorber design. You will have to search for the flow resistance value of your material though.

So far, I just stick a memory foam mattress in the corner, which is both soft and heavy. I believe it works fine as a limp-mass dampener but what do you think?

No experience with limp-mass dampeners. I read a lot about porous absorbers and thought about building my own but in the end just bought some GIK panels. They look nicer than everything I'd be able to come up with. ;-)