Creating a system you love shouldn't be difficult. The Acoustic Frontiers blog is here to help.
Mr. Levandowski is a retired computer executive and an aspiring rock and roll drummer in Napa, California.
The client had recently converted his garage into a music studio for practicing his drumming and accommodating jam sessions with his garage band. The interior walls and a ceiling were constructed using 2-ply Quiet Rock to produce a “room within a room”. The resulting space was a relatively small 12’ x 14’ x 9’. The room included a two tiered ceiling height and a 4’ door cut at 45 degrees across one of the room’s corners. 1/4” thick carpet squares were used to cover the concrete floor. Whereas the room was virtually soundproof, the musical quality could be described as “heavily reverberant” with bass instruments sounding “muddy”. On realizing his band practice space had severe issues, the client approached Acoustic Frontiers to help!
The client's room before we worked our magic!
After conducting room acoustic analysis and discussing the findings and trade-offs with the client, we settled on the following solutions:
1. Replace carpet tiles with 1/2” engineered hardwood flooring nailed to 3/4” T&G OSB. This flooring scheme better balances the mid and high frequency decay time in the room compared to carpet tiles which only absorb the highest frequencies.
2. Add 25 RPG BAD 24” x 24” x 4” panels placed in specific locations on the walls and ceiling to control mid and high frequency decay time, reflections and flutter echo. The panel configuration will result in “full bandwidth” absorption down to around 100Hz and brings the reverberation time to a targeted 0.4s.
3D CAD model showing acoustic panel placement.
3. Add a floor-to-ceiling custom “bass trap” in one corner. The bass trap was designed as a widely tuned Helmoltz resonator with the design goals to provide absorption from 50-300Hz with most absorption in the range of the main axial room mode resonances (45Hz and 85Hz). Absorption tapers off above 300Hz to prevent over absorption of high frequencies.
Predicted absorption of the custom designed, widely tuned Helmholtz resonator. The trap was mounted across a room corner and so has varying depth.
A panoramic view of the remodeled practice studio showing the custom screen printed acoustic panel on the far left.
View towards the drum kit showing the wall / ceiling BAD panels.
Home theater in walk out basement. Scope of work: core home theater design package, sound isolation, HVAC, riser, hush box and baffle wall design.
"The end result is nothing short of spectacular." David W.
Home theater in custom home. Scope: core home theater design package w' sound isolation, equipment & acoustic treatment.
"Our room turned out way better than we ever expected. Everyone is amazed at the sound and picture quality!” Todd B.
Transformation of a builder grade home theater. Scope: core home theater design package, equipment, acoustic treatment and audio calibration.
Nyal Mellor, Founder, Acoustic Frontiers
Nyal Mellor
Author