Acoustic panel positioning

Whistler

20% is the textbook figure. The guys at GIK Acoustics know their stuff.

Lestratcaster

How many panels/bass traps do you reckon 20% constitutes of? 4 panels plus 4 bass traps? Its a relatively low number so hopefully the cost won't be too high.

Winny_Pooh

You have plenty of space so I'd get a chunky couch for the back wall and use that to absorb some low end, then a panel above that and panels on the side walls. 
That monitor in the corner isnt helping either, i'd move the desk to be more centred and add a blind if need be.

Lestratcaster

I will be getting a couch at some point, "back wall" as in where the chair is by the window? I'm still figuring out where I want everything and it'll a few weeks to get right.

Winny_Pooh

Back wall being the one opposite the monitors on the left in your photo.

Lestratcaster

Oh, where the guitar rack is, yeah I can put one there, there'll still be half a room to fill up as well as the photos was taken in the near left corner of the room, its 6m long and 4.8m wide.

Rocker

@Lestracaster, the photograph of your music room shows that is it almost an empty box.  Not good for sound.  So fill it up - shelves on one or two walls with books and ornaments.  These break up the parallel walls, fit curtains (not blinds) on the windows.  Coat hangers (with coats hanging on them), an old sofa and/or an armchair will help tame the liveliness of the room.

And something you can try easily enough:  place your combo amp to the left of the RH speaker stand and to the right of the table. Well into the room and facing the diagonally opposite corner, facing slightly left of the spot the photograph was taken from.  In that position the speaker is not firing at a flat wall, you may find your guitar sounds less echoey in that position.  Costs nothing to try and it might work.

Parallel walls and surfaces is the nightmare situation for getting a 'good' sounding room.  Anything you do to eliminate or reduce the area of such surfaces will be a good thing.

Lestratcaster

Yep, will be getting more furniture, I've barely been using it for 1 week!! But yes a sofa and a few shelves are going in there in weeks to come. I think the more stuff I put in there it'll help reduce the echo.

And not sure what you mean by my combo amp positioning (I play through the Marshall DSL). Do you mean it place it between the table and speaker stand?

Lestratcaster

This was the reply from GIK:

That would be the total absorbent surface needed in the room for an optimal result. So basically the total surface covered by panels.

In a 5x6x2.3 meters room that would be 10 square meters. The standard size that offers the best cost to surface ratio that we make our panels in is 1200x600 mm so 0,72 square meters. This means you’d need 13 panels in your room. Panels can be mounted on stands if you prefer that over wall mounting but that will cost you an extra (as the stands come at an extra cost). The panels I recommend using are our GIK 242 Acoustic Panels.

13 Panels cost £695,50 excluding VAT while 13 pairs of stands cost £455 excluding VAT.

If you purchased 13 panels and 13 pairs of stands all together they’d cost £1380,60 including VAT. Shipping to the UK would be free as this order is above £1000 excluding VAT.

I appreciate this is higher than the original budget you stated in the advice form. So I would recommend mounting the panels to the walls if you wanted to save some money or mounting them on spare mic stands (if you have some) using these brackets.

You could also purchase a few less panels, the result would not be as good and you’d have more reverb in the room but you could always add more panels at a later stage. If you wanted to go down this route I would recommend 9 panels to begin with, they’d cost £631,80 including shipping and VAT.

Musicwolf

Going the DIY route you should be able to build 1200mm x 600mm panels using Rockwool RW3 and Cara fabric for around £25 a piece.  You could build 12 panels (4 RW3 slabs per pack) for the order of £300

mrkb

Musicwolf said:

Going the DIY route you should be able to build 1200mm x 600mm panels using Rockwool RW3 and Cara fabric for around £25 a piece.  You could build 12 panels (4 RW3 slabs per pack) for the order of £300

Agree, I built 10 panels for about £300 (2 are freestanding, with wooden feet), used rock wool and 6mm MDF and a pine frame, covered with a coarse cotton dust sheet material from screwfix stapled to the frame. They look superb, and the room now has great sound.

Lestratcaster

Hmm, so something like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6pCl6128zE

Looks easy enough if I can source the materials, would be better to get a frame already pieced together as well.

Lestratcaster

And I'd put something like this inside the frame?

https://www.insulationexpress.co.uk/rockwool-rw3-acoustic-insulation-slabs

Lestratcaster

These are like £30 though only 25mm thick

https://www.studiospares.com/Studio-Gear/Acoustic-Panels/Acoustic-Panel-1200-x-600mm-Black_465240.htm

Musicwolf

That’s the stuff.  Not to be confused with the pink, fluffy, stuff used in lofts.  This is high density (60kg per m3) and semi-rigid.  It can be cut with a saw or a bread knife.

The first panels that I built used cheap cotton fabric (which I tie-dyed) but it didn’t look neat.  For the last lot I bought Cara fabric which was considerably more expensive but gave much better results.

In your room I’d be going for the desk in front of the window (middle of the wall) and I’d be putting panels across the corners, floor to ceiling.

Lestratcaster

Ok, is there any way I can get a ready made frame to the size of the insulation slabs? Those slabs are already 1200 x 600 mm so can drop straight in.

mrkb

I use this stuff to cover them, nice thick cotton twill - quick iron then staple over frame. Worked out at about £12 for enough to do 5 panels. 

https://www.screwfix.com/p/heavy-duty-cotton-twill-dust-sheet-24-x-3/42657?_requestid=557090

Finished result:-

Standup panels - just had wood slats screwed across base

https://i.imgur.com/3tPyHhw.jpg

Lestratcaster

Musicwolf said:

In your room I’d be going for the desk in front of the window (middle of the wall) and I’d be putting panels across the corners, floor to ceiling.

The problem with that is the monitors will face the door of the building which faces my house so the sound will face that way though it might be dampened slightly with these panels.

Musicwolf

I have seen ready made ‘bags’ offered somewhere but I can’t remember which supplier.

Whistler

Lestratcaster said:

These are like £30 though only 25mm thick

https://www.studiospares.com/Studio-Gear/Acoustic-Panels/Acoustic-Panel-1200-x-600mm-Black_465240.htm

I wouldn't because they are only 50mm thick. 100mm is really the minumum to use. Other than that, you are getting great advice and suggestions.

Here are my DIY traps: I built frames, filled then with insulation and then covered them with hessian. They worked out at £15 each to make back in 2011. I would recommend following mrkb's advice and use a better quality fabric than I did.