One venture that I’ve been eager to do for some time was so as to add acoustic panels to my dwelling studio and workplace. Acoustic panels take up sound, to allow them to vastly assist to cut back room echo. Some rooms in my home are very echoey, which might be noticeable when doing recordings or reside calls in an untreated room.
Beforehand my studio was ringed with a number of sound blankets (80 inches sq.) hanging on mild stands. That was acoustically efficient however fairly ugly, and I didn’t like that the blankets blocked the home windows too. I used the sound blankets for a couple of years to good impact although.
There are numerous YouTube movies sharing the way to make your personal acoustic panels on a budget. I might need gone that route if I solely wanted a couple of panels, however I needed greater than 20 panels, and I believed I’d discover the DYI strategy actually tedious after some time if I needed to manually make that many panels. I additionally felt that it could add too many further choices to the method and sluggish me down rather a lot. I’d need to determine which wooden to purchase, which material to make use of, which acoustic materials to place inside, and the place to supply this stuff. I additionally don’t personal an electrical noticed or a stapler that may safe material to work, so I’d need to spend money on further instruments as effectively. That every one appeared like I’d be biting off greater than I needed to chew. This was a case the place I’d fairly spend more cash to avoid wasting time.
So I concluded that it could be means simpler and fewer dangerous to purchase professionally made panels. I nonetheless needed somewhat little bit of the DIY expertise although, so I opted to put in them myself, which was nonetheless a substantial quantity of labor.
Good acoustic panels are about 3x as efficient at absorbing sound reflections as sound blankets, so that you don’t must cowl as a lot wall space with the panels. It’s typically undesirable to have an excessive amount of protection. You wish to retain some reflections, so the room doesn’t sound utterly lifeless. A standard suggestion I’ve seen is to cowl not less than 25-30% of wall space with panels.
My rooms even have carpeting too, so I don’t want to fret as a lot about vertical reflections. Therefore I didn’t intend to put in any panels on the ceilings.
The issues for acoustic panels are completely different should you’re recording music or should you’re utilizing them for controlling the reflections of audio system, akin to in a house theater setup. I’m solely involved about vocals for audio/video recordings and for reside video calls, so I prioritized my panel and set up selections primarily based on that.
I additionally needed panels that may look good aesthetically. I needed to understand the look of the panels after I’m within the rooms the place they’re put in. That’s one motive I didn’t go together with the cheaper foam panels. Foam panels are a lot much less efficient acoustically too, particularly should you get the thinner ones (like 1 inch thick).
Sourcing the Panels
After researching varied choices, I made a decision to order all the panels from Acoustimac. (I’m not an affiliate, and I’ve no sponsorship relationship with them.) I went with them after seeing some constructive critiques and suggestions on-line. I really feel that was a good selection, however since that is my first time utilizing acoustic panels of any sort, I don’t actually have something to check them to aside from the sound blankets I used to be beforehand utilizing.
I began by requesting material swatches, which they graciously despatched without spending a dime. Their web site gives an choice to order the swatches for 1 penny plus about $8 delivery, however I didn’t discover that choice until I’d already despatched the request through the contact type. The swatches have been very useful in deciding which materials to go together with. They’ve a whole lot of completely different shade choices, and the colours can look barely completely different than the pics on their web site.
I discovered that a great way to get a greater worth per panel was to benefit from Acoustimac’s multi-panel packs as an alternative of ordering them individually. Additionally they allow you to customise the colours per panel. Even after I ordered an 8-pack the place the order type invited me to specify two colours (4 of 1 shade, 4 of one other), I discovered by contacting their assist that I may stand up to eight completely different colours for a similar worth if I needed. In order that stage of customization was very nice. The truth is, general I discovered their buyer assist to be glorious all through the method. They even held up on delivery the panels after I requested them to (after I’d positioned the order) as a result of I noticed they could arrive whereas I used to be out of city. I actually appreciated that.
I ended up shopping for 8 of their 412 panels (4′ tall x 1′ extensive x 2″ thick) and 16 of their 422 panels (4′ tall x 2′ extensive x 2″ thick). You may mount the panels vertically or horizontally. I deliberate to mount most of them vertically. If you happen to’re recording music, you would possibly wish to go together with their thicker 4-inch panels, that are more practical at absorbing low bass sounds.
I additionally went with Acoustimac’s “eco” filling for the panels, which prices a bit extra per panel. If you happen to purchase the panels individually, that choice is $10 extra per panel, however it may be as little as $3 per panel while you purchase them in multi-packs.
Recording Studio
Listed here are some pics of the brand new acoustic panels I added to the studio. From left to proper, the colours alongside this wall are rust, tan, spa, charcoal, grey. These are all 422 panels.
I put 3 of the 412 panels between the home windows (charcoal, rust, black), and there’s one other 422 panel (peat) behind the sunshine with the sunshine field on it.
One other modest improve can be so as to add some further storage to the studio. I’ve a small glass bookshelf and somewhat submitting cupboard within the room, however I may use some small cabinets or a cupboard or two for storing varied gear. This room doesn’t have a closet. It’s a comparatively small house for a studio (about 14′ sq.), however it works.
Workplace
Right here’s the house workplace. I put a few 422 panels within the nook (shell, tan). And I add 5 of the 412 panels behind the world the place I do a lot of Zoom calls (navy, spa, apple, tangerine, ruby). There are 5 extra 422 panels on different partitions of the room too, which aren’t proven (spa, shell, khaki, tan, grey).
How the panels look on digital camera is de facto delicate to the lighting. The navy blue panel appears to be like almost black on digital camera if it isn’t getting a lot mild, so I’ll use a 4′ tube mild to splash some further mild on it after I’m reside. The ruby purple panel appears to be like a lot brighter on digital camera. I’m utilizing Amaran 100X’s with Mild Dome Mini II smooth containers for my key and fill lights, which work properly. I usually set the important thing to fifteen% and the fill at 7%, each at 5600K. I beforehand calibrated the lighting for a plain background the place I primarily simply needed to concentrate on the way to mild myself, so I could must re-calibrate the sunshine settings for this completely different look.
I like how this appears to be like on digital camera to date. It provides a little bit of shade, however I don’t suppose it’s overly distracting. We put the darker colours on the skin of the body with the milder colours within the center. With the framing on a Zoom name, you’ll solely see about half of the navy and ruby panels, so the center 3 panels are probably the most prevalent.
I additionally like that we will change the look a bit by splashing some coloured mild on the panels. I in all probability gained’t try this for Zoom calls, however for recorded movies it could possibly create some attention-grabbing appears to be like.
Dwelling Room
We added 3 panels to the lounge too since I do some occasional filming there. Partly this was as a result of we received a superb deal shopping for the panels in 8-packs (24 whole). We used 12 panels for the workplace and 9 for the studio, so we had 3 further 422 panels to make use of for this room (spa, sunshine, apple).
Set up
It took me a number of hours to put in the panels over the course of about 3 days since I fastidiously measured and calculated the precise positions for each, having to steadiness elements like acoustic effectiveness and symmetry.
The 412 panels weigh about 8 lbs every, and the 422 panels are about 15 kilos. The set up package contains screws and steel brackets to hold the panels on the partitions. I puzzled if I’d want to make use of drywall anchors, however that turned out to be pointless. With 4 screws securing the brackets to the partitions for every panel, they appear fairly safe within the drywall. If in case you have very weak or flaky drywall although, I would advocate utilizing anchors, simply to be secure.
One challenge I had was getting the thinner 412 panels to hold straight. When hung vertically, the brackets are fairly shut collectively, so even with cautious measuring, I discovered it fairly tough to put in the brackets exactly sufficient to get the panel to be completely vertical when hanging. It will have been simpler to get them to hold straight with a special mounting system, akin to utilizing image hanging wire. A few of my 412 panels have been a bit crooked when mounted, offset by 0.5″ or extra horizontally from prime to backside. I discovered that if the distinction was lower than 0.25″, the panel will look sufficiently straight, however at 0.5″ or extra, the crookedness turns into very noticeable.
My answer was so as to add a Command Strip to the underside of every panel, so I may principally swing the underside into good alignment after which “Velcro” it to the wall in the appropriate place. Command Strips are fairly robust, and technically I might need been in a position to make use of them to safe the panels to the partitions utterly with no different mounting {hardware}. However these panels are proper across the weight limits for Command Strips, and I’ve by no means used Command Strips earlier than. I wasn’t certain how a lot I may belief them to carry the complete weight of the panels, particularly since my partitions are textured (not utterly flat), and the backs of the panels are wooden (additionally having some texture and never 100% flat). I actually didn’t wish to threat panels probably falling off the partitions if the adhesive doesn’t maintain.
The Command Strip answer labored completely for straightening out the crooked panels, so I’m pleased with that repair. With a couple of 412 panels, I received fortunate in that the panels have been very straight with the default mounting, so I solely used the Command Strips to straighten out 5 of the 8 panels of that sort.
With the bigger 422 panels, the brackets are far sufficient offset from one another (16″ aside as I put in them), in order that made it a lot simpler to get these hanging straight (with 0.25″ or much less horizontal distinction from prime to backside). I didn’t want to make use of any Command Strips to straighten these panels.
Teamwork
This was an excellent venture to do with Rachelle as a result of our strengths complemented one another properly. I’m good at driving initiatives ahead with motion and decisiveness, however typically to maintain advancing, I’ll gloss over aesthetic issues and favor practical options. Rachelle is far more detail-oriented, and he or she has correct shade imaginative and prescient whereas I’m shade blind. She’s significantly better at choosing shade schemes and contemplating aesthetics. She largely picked the colours and materials whereas I targeted on the acoustical issues.
We spent hours going over the colour and material choices for the panels earlier than we ordered them, taping material swatches to the partitions to attempt to visualize what the outcomes would appear to be. The panels are made to order, and it prices rather a lot to ship them, so we needed to do our greatest to get the alternatives proper the primary time. Earlier than we positioned the order, we mapped out the place we’d positioned each single panel in every room.
I did reject some shade choices that didn’t look good to me. As an example, the spa and grey colours look equivalent to me. These are the third and fifth panels within the first pic above, respectively. I didn’t need these colours subsequent to one another as a result of it appeared like two of the identical in a row. It was a bit tough to establish choices that appeared good to each of us color-wise, however we managed.
I additionally needed to get quite a lot of colours, so we may probably change them up by swapping panels from completely different areas. That additionally offers us extra flexibility in case one shade doesn’t look so good on digital camera. So we now have some backup prospects, simply in case we want them.
Luckily I believe we succeeded. I don’t have any regrets concerning the panel selections to date. It’ll take time to offer them a radical take a look at, however to date they do appear to work effectively acoustically.
That is my first expertise with acoustic panels. As with many upgrades of this nature, you shortly study that you can have gone additional than you probably did as a result of extra is at all times doable.
For this venture I needed to go far sufficient to create a pleasant enchancment that I’ll respect, however not as far as to really feel like I’m over-reaching, over-spending, taking too lengthy, or getting slowed down in micro-decisions. I made a decision going into this venture that I must also persist with the fundamentals, not less than till I’ve a greater grasp of how these panels work acoustically. I made a decision to keep away from the actually inventive design prospects for now, regardless that I’m conscious that far more is feasible in that path. Likewise I felt it was a sensible determination to start with easy sound blankets till I felt the timing was proper to improve to acoustic panels.
I like that this venture felt edgy and took me a bit out of my consolation zone, particularly by way of coping with colours. I additionally like the way it blended audio and visible choices with hand-ons working with instruments. It took some endurance to drive it to completion, so it was a superb venture to strategy with a really methodical angle. I discovered it useful to acknowledge and rejoice every little act of progress alongside the way in which, together with choosing the colours, inserting the order, unboxing the whole lot, and putting in every particular person panel in its correct place. It feels good to have all of it performed. 😁
