Re: Curtains in a home studio

[Ethan Winer]

> I've been thinking about hanging theater curtain in my home studio to take
> the reflections and bass build up problems out of my mixing area.

Curtains absorb only high frequencies, so you end up with a room that's dead
sounding but boomy at the same time. The correct approach is broadband
absorption that works well to as low a frequency as possible. See my
Acoustics FAQ which explains all of this in detail:

http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

--Ethan

[Jim Weld]

I've used heavy velour drape as a 1/4 wave velocity absorber, and
it seems to work very well. Check out Everest's books on
acoustics. It does have the problem of having to be spaced a
great distance from the wall, but if you have the room, it can
work. Does not work on bass if it is next to the wall...must be
the 1/4 wave distance from the target frequency.

jim


"Ethan Winer" <ethanw at ethanwiner dot com> wrote in message
...
> > I've been thinking about hanging theater curtain in my home
studio to take
> > the reflections and bass build up problems out of my mixing
area.
>
> Curtains absorb only high frequencies, so you end up with a
room that's dead
> sounding but boomy at the same time. The correct approach is
broadband
> absorption that works well to as low a frequency as possible.
See my
> Acoustics FAQ which explains all of this in detail:
>
> http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html
>
> --Ethan
>

[Ethan Winer]

Jim,

> I've used heavy velour drape as a 1/4 wave velocity absorber

Yes, if it's VERY heavy it can work to a lower frequency when spaced off the
wall. But if you look at that same graph from Everest's book, you'll see
that the absorption is still highly frequency-selective. The quarter-wave
spacing for maximum absorption at 100 Hz is 30 inches, but 1) most people
can't give up that much space in their room, and 2) there's no absorption at
200 Hz, then it absorbs again at 300 Hz, none at 400 Hz, and so forth. This
is why broadband absorption is a betetr choice.

Anyone interested can see that graph here:

http://www.ethanwiner.com/airgap.gif

--Ethan