Room Acoustics and improving your sound.

[DTB300]

Equipment is not always the issue with sound in our rooms. Most people seem to be looking for that "upgrade-itch" change to improve their sounds - usually costing significant amounts of cash.

Well, instead of dropping those $K figures, try making some changes to your room. There are many great programs out there to help you in measuring your room and seeing what problems you really have. You can move equipment around the room, and see what changes in makes. Who knows, for just the price of a Rad Shack SPL Analogue meter, and a demo program, you could change your room sound significantly.

Here is a great paper by Ethan Winer on room acoustics and is a great read and points to check in your room. Note that there are other solutions than fiberglass out there. Stuff called Ultratouch and Acoutic Cotton.

Ethan Winer Article...
http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

UltraTouch...
http://www.bondedlogic.com/ultratouch.htm

Acoustic Cotton...
http://www.acousticotton.com/product_info3.htm

And here are a couple of forums to read about acoustic topics and get some advice...

Rives Audio at Audio Asylum
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/rives/bbs.html

Ethan Winer forum at Musicians Help:
http://www.musicplayer.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=26;hardset=0;start_point=0;DaysPrune=0

There are too many great DIY things we can do to our rooms to help out the sound we are getting...

Dan

 

[DTB300]

Followup on Acoustic Cotton

Here are a couple places to buy Acoustic Cotton:
http://www.acousticalsurfaces.com/echo_eliminator/wall_panel.htm?d=0

The Echo Buster has good acoustic absorbtion properties like rigid fiberglass but without the problem or airborne fiberglass particles.

The Bass Buster has even better low end absorbtion.

Just click on the links in the side bar for more info.

And this person appears to get it from the above link:
http://sensiblesoundsolutions.com/index.php?cPath=22&osCsid=93b7e3c2128541c41df0a0c8c2abc330


But remember before you do any treatments, get a Rad Shack SPL Analogue meter, and some test tones (www.realtraps.com offers some) or a program like ETF and test your room first. You can then post info at the forums I listed in the previous message and people are there to help you out. Don't guess, know for sure.

Dan

 

[DTB300]

ETF & Rad Shack SPL - Improved Results!!!

Picked up the ETF program along with a Rad Shack SPL Analogue Meter today and player around with the Sub Settings to improve my playback. I still have some problem, but things are better for now. This is still a work in progress for me to get a better low end response from my room.

Here is an orginal response

Now I have played with the Phase, Crossover Point, and Volume setting for my sub and I now have this setting...

A nice improvement so far....

ETF has a demo version that works great. Limitations: Cannot save a file, and can only do two tests per open version of the program. Just close the program, open it up again, and you get two more.

Dan