Hey dude some people podcast from the closets because they got their clothes hanging so just when you closet push one side to the other set up your podcast and table and s*** and your mixers and you good to go
Thankyou for not being rude and using personal attacks. This video was informative and accurate. I've come across a few videos from people who call themselves knowledgeable about a subject, then just post really cringe takedowns of other bigger RU-vidrs proclaiming that the takedown was made cuz the video didn't have any facts in it, while at the same time not providing any facts and just trying to diss the host of the video. I was afraid this was one of those video, but after a minute or 2 I was glad that this was a good video, made in good faith.
That was smart and comprehensive, thank you! Did you try to contact Matt from the videos you mention, to try to work with him with another video of DIY acoustic panels? :) I would be delighted to see this. Matt seems the kind of guy who would gladly correct a mistake with your help, I hope I'm right about it.
I watched the original DIY video a while ago and recently thought about buying a stack of towels. Thanks for posting this video and providing great info!
On the plus side, you'd only "waste" about $50 in materials. But towels are useful for so many other things. It is, after all, the most important item to hitchhike with.
that technicaly requires soundproofing, not sound treatment with panels hanging on the walls, those wont do anything, you'd need thicker walls or thicken all walls in someways. its not cheap and using flammable materials is not safe. you'd have to construct walls over your walls with appropriate soundproofing materials like rockwool/fiberglass. you will also have to replace your door with a solid wood heavy dense door, then try to make it airtight. yes you will care about high freq's because thats where the human voice is, fortunately they are easier to stop than lower freqs like Bass and the drum Kick.
thats sound proofing. A completely different subject. To do that you need to build a room withing a room with boudle wall, air gap, and double doors, floating floor and sond proofed airvents.
I still don't get why you would want expensive "acoustically transparent" fabric. You just don't want acoustically reflective fabric. We aren't making a speaker here. If the sound gets absorbed or distorted on the way in/out of a panel, thats kinda a good thing when your entire goal is to knock down the sound.
The material that absorbs well is the one we have encased. Leaves materials that either transmit well (acoustically transparent) or reflect well. You don't want acoustically reflective materials, as you rightly pointed out. So we are left with acoustically transparent material. Again, the absorbers are inside the panel and we want the sound to be transmitted there. Unfortunately the "pretty and practical encasing" for those materials tends to be reflective and thus killing the performance of the panel. Phrased a bit bitingly just for illustration purposes: Would you hang naked mineral wool from your walls?
This video is also a bit misleading. Uncompressed towels can be used well for certain frequency ranges...like male vocals...if left loose. But if compressed they become more reflective, which is true of pretty much any insulation. So they are not suitable for a panel.
This video really does cover EVERYTHING the prior 13 videos i've watched on this subject do not. Especially material breakdown and particle inhalation, along with flamability. This was so good and thorough I'm giving you a subscribe :)
I find it amusing that I saw that video you referenced and also immediately thought the test was done incorrectly, thinking that using a smooth polished mirror or slab of concrete would also have given a great (but false) result.
in the vid mentioned he shows sound energy diminished going through the towels. What he doesn't show is, once the framed towels are on the wall and the sound is diminished going through them, the sound then bounces off the wall and is further diminished afterwards. His room also sounded quite a bit better with them than not.
As mentioned, the towels will treat high frequency slap reverb. The density and porosity of the towels does not allow sound to penetrate. The sound is reflected back into the room at the boundary surface not the wall.
@@jandmbooks IIRC, he measured outside right? Measured with mic on back side to determine transmission which he mistook as absorption as noted in this video here correctly. Which means 500Hz+ is reflected (no transmission) and 500Hz and lower passes through. Nothing about absorption at all. Towel fibers do not convert sound into heat. High frequencies are diffused. Diffusion can help with slap echo.
I tried some of this and you can see, or listen as it may be, they do not do to much. Amd from what I seen many sound reducing or proofing places use a variety together to get maximum effects. I think your video is great and I wished more people put stuff to the test as you did.
Using this for my home studio setup has helped me alot - I'm getting in to professional music production and I'm no handyman, but having a reference in your video helped a lot! :)
Thank you for making this video. I was actually looking for the video you were talking about, because I haven't yet done any research on how to create an acoustic panel. Because I have enjoyed his videos in the past and he seemed like he knew what he was doing, I believed him. Looks like I need to shell out a bit more money to get what I actually need. Sigh, live and learn and try again.
If you’re covering the rock wool with a transparent fabric, won’t some of the fibers begin to break through the fabric and eventually get into your lungs
@@DiskDungeonPodcast depends on what "transparent" means. The fibers won't be able to get through muslin fabric unless you're beating it with a stick. But they will be able to get through loosely stitched burlap if, for example, some AC unit is blowing air at it all day. Depends on the scenario but I think you're pretty safe with muslin.
Is cellulose effective ? I heard denim is better but denim has a lot of borax powder on it , so it’s another issue . I don’t know much about cellulose though
I do Hip Hop vocals so I ended up building a booth. I used PVC and covered it in moving blankets. Just bought some foam for the inside for further absorption. It's not professional by any means. But I did notice a big difference after I built it. It's just for vocals too.
did the same, its great for acoustics but terrible at soundproofing, I'm aiming at upgrading it with thicker walls and ceiling using many matresses. sometimes you need to be louder
How about thinking in layers. From inside to outside. Light foam like from an old mattress. Thick foam, a bit more sturdy. Rubber tiles. Underlayment boards Mdf boards Concrete . This way the sound waves are slowed down/absorbed bit by bit. Somewhere in between a empty space. So a completely separated inner and outer room. A kind of she'll within the room. You could do that diy and I guess it will dampen a lot of sound. I did a little test with a wood router. Makes a hell of a noise. Always need war protection. Rolled it in 5 inch foam and roped it tight. Then it sounded a lot less. I then squeezed that in a thin aluminium case. I could completely close the lid but the sound was to the level of a modern vacuum cleaner.
I have a question for you. I'm currently designing a type of foldable, hybrid soundbooth/ acoustic panel set up. The basic idea is 4 1×1 meter panels attached via hinges to basically make a 2×2 meter panel that can stand freely. There would be a fold in the middle so I can create different angles but generally speaking it's a wall that folds in half. By having 2 of these I can enclose myself in a box. A smaller one will also go on top as a room. That's the not quite air tight sound booth side of it. But I'd also be able to have them out for general acoustic treatment in the room. The design I'm planning will involve 5cm of acoustic foam (sourced locally, the website has test scores on it etc) attached to a wooden back with a frame on it. The frame is too create an air gap between the foam and the back. The back is there for sound proofing. Keeping sounds out of the booth but also not letting too much sound out either. I expect an inch of wood wouldn't do much either way but it'll be better than nothing. My hope that the 2 inches of foam and 1 inch air gap will be enough to remove most of the sound so that when it hits the wood and goes back through those materials it won't be echoing inside the chamber. The key things I wanted from this was to be and to make the booth but have it fold and pack away easily. That's why I'm going for foam over rockwool I can't touch and shouldn't breathe. What do you think about the idea? Is it doomed to fail? I'm going to start the DIY in the new year I think.
What if you cover all of your walls with moving blankets. I was able to purchase nine extremely large moving blankets for under $40 and covered all of my walls in my office. I feel like it made a big difference. But I'm not a professional just a hobbyist
the human voice has a good amount of energy, depending on the person, even below 100Hz. If you're expecting Auralex products to be effective down to that frequency, you're sorely mistaken. I recently built a huge bass trap out of fluffy fiberglass. 20 inches deep, 6 feet wide, and 8 feet tall. After testing properly (actually measuring the frequency response before and after IN THE ROOM), it became clear that even an absorber this thick was only effective down to about 100Hz. Fascinating how many "debunking" videos need to be debunked themselves.
This is so informative. What you say about the ‘other’ vid being out of hand is very fair. I just started to direct people toward matts channel via another music recording channel then I noticed this. 🙏 thank you.
Is ROCKWOOL really safe after wrapping with some cloth ????? If we use a very tightly woven cloth, it reflects high frequency and absorption pannels doesn't work. If we use acoustic transparent cloth, the rockwool fibers can't escape and come out ??? Any scientific studies happened on this ???
Hes not discussing making soundproof rooms, at all. No amount of foam on walls will make the room sound proof, foam is to acoustically treat the interior of the room in which the music is being played. The bass will still resonate outside of the room.
I need sound absorption application outside to muffle/absorb my neighbors pool motor that sits less than 10 feet from my sitting patio area. Graphs look encouraging, but would like your subjective opinion on how it sounded to your ears? Did you notice a substantial reduction in noise on the other side of the materials? Awesome video… by the way.
So just to clarify, are you saying that a Rockwool DIY panel would essentially be affective for aiding in room sound treatments? (It's strictly for RU-vid vocals with a boomed mic, Deity D3-Pro)...my walls are painted wood directly over concrete (basement), 7ft drop ceiling, carpet floors.
Excellent video. Question: just bought an upright piano and I didn’t realized how freaking loud that string to coffin is! How would you quiet down the sound coming out of the back, a few inches from a shared wall with a neighbor? Goal being to prevent sound transmission to the neighbor and also deaden the loudness and reverb inside the room with piano. (Piano in a living room, nowhere else to put it). Piano store suggests stuffing holes in the backside with 3”furniture foam. Low cost please. Thanks to anyone responding.
So far on my "professional" treatment panels from GIK Acoustics, I've spent $2,413.80 and I still have to treat the back wall. By the time I'm finished with my room, I'll have spent $3,500. I can't image how it would be possible to "professionally" treatment an average sized room for only $200 dollars?
2x packages of 3" thick safe n sound, which is better than any of the 1-2" material these "pre-made" companies use, costs about $110. That will give you 24x bats of material. Another 200-300 in framing materials, for properly placed panels & bass traps & you'll have the same, if not better, absorption than any pro studio. In an average sized room, it's actually easy to go overboard with too much absorption, by killing any of the natural reverb that is often kept in order for the room to not sound "dead". Diffusion can be simple, like a bookshelf with all types of stuff in the shelves, which deflects & absorbs the backwall reflections. Much less than $500 & knowledge of WHERE to place the panels & a person can definitely have a pro studio. The big name companies selling these panels are ripoffs when it comes to price & what you actually get. It should absolutely not cost somebody thousands of dollars.
@@LohPro I couldn't agree with you more!! This is a great way to cheaply address absorption. I just finished treating another room for around $500. Nine 6" thick panels with 2" air gap. Prime Acoustics sells $1,200 sets of panels which are literally a $70 box of 703 and fabric. However, I wouldn't ever compare this to the design of a Pro Studio. The floors and ceiling are equally as important as the walls. And then there's diffusion and placement 😫
Good Stuff... Would've been nice to spend a lil more time on the graphs and highlight the areas you were addressing, more time was on the Tone Burst set up and quickly moved thru the results. Rest of Vid was good too... Keep Rockin...👍
"With the upholstery foam, you can see that basically no sound was blocked at 4khz" .. Isn't it the opposite? Doesn't being lower on the graph equate to less sound making it into the microphone? In the first chart 4" foam charted lower than 2" foam. I would have guessed the vertical axis is something like dB.
I don't understand the graphs. Some materials had -1 (no units) and some had +1 at 500Hz. Does it mean that with some materials the sound was quieter by 1 and with others the sound was louder by +1(which is impossible)?
The +1 and -1 are reference to the energy (sound) REFLECTED from the material at a certain frequency. It’s a ratio of “reflectiveness” if you will. Positive means the sound waves are being reflected (more precisely there are more sound waves being reflected than absorbed), negative means the contrary (it absorbs more than what is reflects). It’s not a decibel meter which in that case would be about loudness and yes, it would be very improbable that a blanket would make a sound even louder. That’s what is called an amplifier.
I have polyurethane foam laying around...its the material that old couches or caravan beds and couches use....its is 11cm in thickness...do you think it will make a good acoustic panel for my caravan studio?? I cant find info about this in the internet sadly!
A quick test I found to check the acoustic properties of a material or surface is to take a phone and install a tone generator. Then aim the speaker at the surface 1' away. Play the frequencies and compare to aiming the speaker the same distance away from a regular wall. It's not a perfect test, but it is a basic version of the test he showed here. It certainly won't help you decide on the best sounding material, but should at least aid in determining if it might be worth using or if it'll just make it worse.
I'm trying to reduce noise pollution from outside. From cars driving nearby, and from the footsteps of upstairs neighbors. Will the solutions you talk about in the video address those problems at all?
This video is more for dealing with acoustics within a room. To deal with external sound you need to add more physical mass to your walls to block sound; these types of panels don't have much mass. You also need to completely cover the wall or sound will just go around whatever material you put up. Footsteps are incredibly hard to deal with because the noise is transferred directly into the building's frame, so you have to make major structural changes to the building to make even small improvements in that regard.
An NRC of 0.95 is really good, but it's a general number that doesn't give you much detail. The panels could absorb almost exclusively at high frequencies, and nothing in the middle or lower frequencies, which could leave your room sounding boxy. Personally I'd try to find something that publishes the absorption coefficient at multiple different frequencies so you can see how the performance drops off in the lower range. Keep in mind the human speaking voice can go as low as 100Hz.
You gotta love the Internet, People are quick to correct others and with this gentleman he does it respectively and what seems like thoroughly and to the point I suppose the other way the guy was doing it work for someone who is looking for that specific type of sound absorption minus the fire hazards but I don't think many people care about that until they are in a burning house which I suppose would be The worst time to think about it but meh im gunnq go hang up some cotton towels and light candles 🕯
Glass wool should work fine. Most manufacturers sell versions that are specifically designed for acoustic use, so you can look at the data sheet and find the acoustic performance numbers. Even if you don't fully understand the numbers, the fact that they're included is a good sign.
So wouldn’t curtains be reflective of the sound? This sounds like a really good way to surround my amp to record but I’m assuming it’s not porous and would reflect sound, no?
But what if you simply need echo reduction for audio mixing? My room has hardwood flooring and the echo is unbearable. I don’t see how some simple insulating factors wouldn’t help?
I was finding it hard finding this information. Thanks for making the video. Do you have any advice on what to use to block loud alert barking from a big dog in another room say for a bedroom or separate room to relax. Ive got issues with sudden loud noises and my other halves dog is randomly loud. Its a rented flat though. So, would need to be removable
Unfortunately blocking sound through walls can be quite difficult. I'd start by blocking any air gaps that sound can pass through like gaps beneath a door. Beyond that, you have to start adding physical mass to walls, which can include things like mass loaded vinyl and heavy drapes. The downside is that you need to cover the whole wall, and even then it's not guaranteed to work.
Hey great video brosef! I have a couple of questions (could be considered Alms for the poor at this point lol) . You mentioned mineral particles can be unsafe as well as the fact that the cloth should pass the blow test. If I decided to go with mineral wool, and do everything safely outside (i.e. with gloves, mask, glasses, etc.), could the cloth material potentially be too transparent and allow particles to be released through the cloth and in the air? Or, does the "blow" test also ensure it is dense enough that the particles won't be released? Also, first time I heard the term "blow" test I wondered if this could also be a term used in the pre-production phase of an adult film but I digress... Lastly, you mentioned another type of alternative insulation that is more safe called Wool Batt. Can you provide a link to a place that sells this just as a reference? Thanks in advance.
Mineral wool shouldn't be an issue as long as it's not disturbed (ie moved around or used near a fan/vent). I don't think the fibers are small enough to get through cloth, but I don't know that for sure. Wool batting is pretty easy to find in any fabric or quilting store. It's basically just sheep wool combined with polyester.
Thank you for great and informative video👍, but rockwool cutting your hands, maybe if their coming at you at mach 2, or hands not used to touching things😛
I'm thinking of making some panels with amp grill cloth as the fabric. admittedly just for the aesthetics. My thinking is they're abviously designed to let sound pass through. Can you think of any reason why this might be a bad idea as I've never seen it done. Thanks
Thanks for the video, I still have a question: If I want to reduce the sound heard by my neighbours, is the towel method effective because it reflects sound pretty good ? Also, I'm not done with the video so you might explain it later but is my room going to be worse in terms of accoustic because of that ? Thanks in advance.
To reduce sound between rooms, you need physical mass. Towels aren't very heavy, so they don't do a very good job. You also need to cover an entire wall or most of the sound will just go around your barrier.
Thanks for the video and showing your results. I live in an old Victorian house in London with a huge window (which is not double glazed), I'm also next to a main road so get the traffic a bit. Would placing the professional sound absorbing blanket over the window's curtain reduce the noise effectively? The room does contain carpet for absorption too. I'm wanting to do asmr videos so good sound is crucial. Thanks!
If traffic noise through the window is an issue, I'd look at sealing the edges of the window first. You can also try acoustic window inserts, but they may not work with your style of window. A sound absorbing blanket is a good option too, but it will mainly block high frequencies unless you seal the edges.
@@AlteraSound thanks for the great advice. I’ll try the blanket too, thinking of applying magnetic strips around so it can cause a tighter seal to the frame
Not bad, but unless you are using testing equipment that mostly is beyond human hearing, quite a few home made methods are fine for youtube and voice over. If you are a music pro and have the money he has some good links. It will cost you many times what a diy solution would be. I have space with no ambient sound, and just old blankets hanging on every wall works amazing. I have to do little post processing. Don't over think ... there's too much info out there, and too many sound mavens.
Would the porous material which give transparency to the sound allow to pass the rockwool dangerous particles as well? That is my big question. It is scary to have a room plenty of this particles you will be breathing…. I will be so happy to get your opinion. From all the videos I have seen, u are the one that seems to really know what you are saying. :)
As long as the panels aren't disturbed, they shouldn't release any particles. That can happen when you move them or if there's air blowing on them. Otherwise they're totally harmless, especially with fabric covering.
If you can get your hands on the Elgato Wave panels could you do a second video? I want to know if I should shell out $100 for six panels or $200 for twelve.
LinusTechTips actually made a solid video on the Elgato panels. I'm working on a followup video to that one with more detail, but they seem to be a decent product, although as far as I can tell Elgato hasn't published any acoustic data on the panels, which is a bit concerning.
If the sound doesn’t pass thru, then what happens to it? It gets absorbed. Bro this is a desperate plea to get ppl to waste money on expensive acoustic panels.
If it doesn't go through the material, it either gets absorbed... or it gets reflected back into the room. If it gets reflected, the panel isn't doing anything your wall isn't doing already.
@@AlteraSound so, the upholstery foam is the best option for sound absortion in diy panels, based on your experiments? btw I'm asking this cuz I'm just want to get rid (or minimize) echo in a room, not soundproofing neither sound treatment for better acoustic (frequencies) performance, cuz the room is just for meetings, so chatting is the main purpose of the room, so music or recording is not my concern. Awesome video, my man!
To stop sound travelling through a wall (sound transmission) you need to add mass. In that regard, towels would be more effective than insulation panels given the same thickness; however, there are plenty of other materials like drywall and brick that have even more mass and would be more effective. The main concern is that sound is great at finding gaps, so any sound blocking must cover all surfaces, and you may still run into things like ventilation ducts carrying sound around your sound treatment.
Sponge is shit towels are way better in the sound absorption case . I am a music producer and I am using that towel diy acoustic panels are working just way fine .
If the purpose is to insulate the sound coming in and out from a small room (the interior echo doesn't matter much), what material would you advise to put in the drywall? I have about 2.2 inch of space in the floor to ceiling wall. Should it be rock-wool then?
Insulating between the wall will probably make a decent difference. The problem is that things like a door with a gap underneath, or even having a floor or ceiling that isn't insulated, can let the sound pass by regardless of what you do with the wall. Soundproofing is only as good as the weakest link, and finding that weak link can be hard.
My towels abosrb sound waves, sound waves and water waves are equal, only problem is not matter how wet I make the sound it keeps coming back dry. like my humor.
Appreciate this video, a bit longer than it needed to be, but I understand you're trying to be as through as possible since this is an explanation type video. Love DIY Perks and I set out to build a version of his acoustic panels a month after his video came out but stopped short of the outrageous cost I hadn't expected from just the towel material alone, both in bulk, and in sheets from fabric stores. Suffice to say my frames still remain unassembled, however, that's not to say I have given up, or don't have alternatives. I've been able to professionally voice act for about 5 years now starting with just some towels and moving up to a well insulated room and typical 2" think acoustic foam, but now that I've moved, I'm starting from scratch in a room with a lot of exterior noise so now I'm fscotring that aspect into what I do. Since I'm trying to document as much of my sound-treating process as possible, I may actually include a bit of my original approach to treating a room and how I'm going about it now. Your video will likely be brought up since it has a lot of helpful information, and valid criticism towards the popular approach. I'm going to be honest and admit I'm no expert at this, but believe I know a bit more than I did before about how I'm going about this. I'm fairly confident hindsight will be abundant no matter how much I try to get ahead of oversights by the time I'm done working on my room and video, but hopefully it's a learning experience. I'm taking the guerilla DIY filmmaker's approach to making a studio since film is my main line of work rather than vocal, so some 4x8' sheets of foam insulation 1" from the drywall basically sums up my solution to keeping noise transmission low, while using 2" acoustic foam on top to reduce reflection. Maybe I'll get around to putting some material in those frames some day if I can justify the cost, but unless it's rock wool, I'm not too sure what's cheap enough since a lot of us are doing this on ambition before income and we'll always put *cost* & *aesthetic* over quality. (Wool fibers are a lot more scary than foam particulates to most laymen) If you made it this far, I'd say that's a fair trade of time for the both of us, but I'll probably adapt my approach more as time goes on. My lease is only a year and I think sticking my foam to some foam board will save me a lot of command strips this time around! Thanks again for taking the time to make this video! I only watched it because the thumbnail looked vaguely familiar, so perhaps just go full nuts to butts since is a direct correction to the popular approach of sound treating from an expert and say "The Flaws of DIY Perks sound panels tutorial". It's a direct correction, people should be directly contested if they're searching for the popular way, rather than the *right* way. Cheers!
it was just a diy video , the people who are watching the video are looking for something to make sure it does help them out with the situation they are currently in and not able to pay much for it . You are correct in everyway tho but he wasn't wrong too
