Unlock the Magic in Your Music Studio: Mastering the Art of Porous Absorption 

Glad it was helpful!

Hey hey. Glad you've enjoyed this topic. Area of coverage needed for your room can certainly be calculated. This calculation is used when you're seeking to target certain decay times in your room (which is definitely a good idea). Theoretically, you'd start by finding out what your room's projected decay time is by using MFP (mean free path), room volume, and surface area. Then you can use the Sabine formula, although this is only really useful for rooms of relatively low absorption and not all that accurate for control room sized studios. A better way to do it, is to shoot the room with Room EQ Wizard and actually look at your decay times in each frequency range using the spectrogram and waterfall. Look at the T60, T30, T20. Then from the measured, untreated, decay times, you can speculate what type of treatments are necessary to bring them into your desired range. Rock wool modules, like the ones in my video here, can be very effective broadband absorbers - especially when air gapped: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ECazGzutkV8.html When used strategically, they can get your decay times nice and even at 150-200 ms all the way down to 60 hz or so, depending on the modal distribution of your room. Get a room mode calculator. I like the one that's free on John Brandt's website. It'll calculate mean free path for you, as well as show you your modal distribution and likely areas of ringing where you'll get longer decay times. If you really want to rein in a 30-60 Hz room mode (or stacked room modes) you'll need a different approach. Thicker treatment for sure, using graduated density, perhaps some pressure-based treatments like vibrating panel resonators or hybrid treatments with a higher density rockwool front panel. It really depends on your room and the LF cutoff frequency of your speakers relative to your room.

You're most welcome. That spreadsheet calculator is available in our free acoustics course as a course download. Get it here: ✅ Get the Free Acoustics Course ➤ bit.ly/free-acoustics-course

@@warpacademy thank you so much once again I subscribed and joined to warp academy community. But to be honest I still cannot find it 😅 I’ll check once again thoroughly, anyway I’m really amazed that I can learn all this through the RU-vid and you guys, thanks so much for amazing work, you guys move the community further and help people to progress and be better at what they do. Ten years ago there was hard to find this info even on the web and if you managed to find it, it still so complicated to comprehend and grasp the concepts for starters. Peace from Belarus, currently living in Poland 🇵🇱

Hey hey. Thanks for the kind words. Glad you've been enjoying the videos and content. If you went to Warp Academy and subscribed for the free trial, that's why you may not have access to the Studio Building Course. You must go and opt in for that course specifically. Use the link I posted. Then, after you register, go to My Courses at Warp Academy and on the first lesson in the course you'll see a big "Course Downloads" button. The calculator is in there. All the best! Happy music making and stay tuned on the channel. Cheers!

Glad you've been liking the series. Thanks. The GFR number for that density of rockwool is widely known in acoustics communities and many of us model off that for other densities of rockwool. I'm not sure if it was Rockwool the company that dropped that number or someone had it tested, but it's generally accepted as accurate.

Good eye. Yes, I'm spooling up to do a full review on them soon (March). But for now, briefly, I can say that I love them. For what they are and all the limitations that come with a small ultra-nearfield in a sealed box, with a single driver. They are an incredible speaker and I love working on them for anything non-bass music oriented. I give them my full endorsement.

Amazing! Thanks for your response,@@warpacademy and I canot wait to see the video :) Thanks Again !

My pleasure.

Hey hey. Some good questions in there. I'll answer them one by one. 1) High density material (90-130 kg/m3) is not 100% reflective. It will definitely still absorb, but just not as much as lower density material at mid and high frequencies. Where it WILL absorb more is in the low end. This type of material is typically used in super thin ceiling clouds, or as corner mounted bass traps with the air space backfilled with lower density fiberglass, foam, waveguide assemblies, or limp mass. Prefab Primacoustic Maxxtraps are of this design. They use a 3" front panel that's 6 lb/ft3 (95 kb/m3) density glass wool. 2) I would never recommend anything in my videos that would cause you to spend money on something that doesn't do anything. It's all about using the appropriate type of material for your room, location, and goals. The range of materials I stated (density 20-128 kg/m3) are all useful in different circumstances. 3) 50-60 kg/m3 fibrous material is highly unlikely to have a GFR of 6,000 pa.s/m2. Where did you get that number from? For reference, 55 kb/m3 rock wool will have an estimated GFR of 17,188 pa.s/m2. That density and depth of mineral wool could definitely be useful as either a ceiling cloud or corner trap. I would not use it in primary reflection zones on your side walls. It would be too reflective most likely at the frequencies you use for spacial orientation. I'd use 32 kg/m3 for those points at 10-15 cm thickness with an air gap. 4) Regarding being off center. I would avoid that at all costs. The first golden rule of room orientation is symmetry. Unless you can create a hard wall that's a real boundary, I would not put your mix position off center in a room (laterally). If you can. frame in an internal 2 x 4 stud wall with drywall on both sides to emulate the construction of the opposite wall. 5) Regarding your panel designs, I'm not a fan of smaller, wall-mounted 2' x 4' panels. Watch this video to see the type of DIY panels I recommend for mixing / control rooms: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ECazGzutkV8.html Cheers!

Thank you for taking time and replying my question in such a detailed way. I really appreciate that. To be more precise about point 3), it's called "STEICO flex 036" and in the product details it's declared as "Airflow Resistance" (personally, I related it to "Gas Flow Resistance", pls correct me if I'm wrong) and it is ≥5 (kPa*s)/m² for this product. The density is also declared as "Approx. 60" (kg/m³). I don't wanna leave a product link under your video ,) You can easily find it on the web I guess. To the point 4), I totally agree that it would be far from the ideal placement of the setup according to the view of most of the acousticians. But, as far as the room is rental and also serves for private purposes like living in there etc. xD, I can't really do much about the room's layout that I have, except trying to optimize it so, that I can at least judge my mixes at some degree and keep producing something until I'm able to have a dedicated engineering room. :D Nothing offensive, but it's the reality for most beginners using a part of their bedrooms as a recording as well as mixing room. :) However, I may consider your combo panel design, so I have huge bare walls to cover anyways. Btw, I came across your new video series about acoustics just a day ago, and watched several of them in a row. Tbh, I appreciate the quality of the videos. I hope to see more about the topic in the near future. Have a great day!!

Hey hey. In terms of GFR, if they've lab tested their numbers then I would use them. Their spec sheet isn't in English so I can't read it. Seeing as this is wood fiber, the fiber type and GFR numbers will be different from mineral wool for sure. Fiber type matters. I hear you regarding the room layout. You have to work with best optimizing the room you have. Note that there will not be any bass buildup at a "false wall' made of curtains or drapes. Bass will just pass through that like a hot knife through butter. Put your bass trapping in the hard boundary corners. The other thing you can consider are floor to ceiling modules like the ones I show in my acoustics course and videos in this series. Those could form your false wall. Note that I would use material with a GFR or 10,000 pa.s/m2 for things up to 30 cm thick. 5,000 is way to low and only suitable for much deeper trapping of perhaps 1 meter or as a back layer using graduated density. Use headphones to check your bass. That is a good way to making up for potential bass-related room anomalies. I'm glad you've found the acoustics videos helpful. There will be more. Cheers!

Ah yes, the availability and cost of materials in your local area matters. Each type of material has different gas flow resistivity for each density. I don't know if knauff has a different fiber / strand structure to rockwool, so I have no idea if the GFR is what you want. Maybe they publish that? But GFR is usually hard to get. You want 10,000 Rayls. Maybe a bit higher if you're going with thin panels. What thickness of panels are you thinking? Also feel free to link me directly to the product you're thinking of using.

@@warpacademy thanks for the reply mate! The plan was just to get some bookshelves from IKEA and stuff them with rockwool. I feel like this would make my setup more modular and I just wanted to make this as easy as possible for myself. I was thinking around 6 inches.

You're welcome. Man, I saw on RU-vid some guy talking about how you can use IKEA bookshelves like that. Please DO NOT follow that horrible advice. Build proper frames and make super modular panels easily like this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ECazGzutkV8.html. Those IKEA bookshelves are not tall enough. You usually have to cut insulation batts to fit in them. Most importantly, if you turn them sideways, they will reflect sound back to your mix position. Not a fan of that type of hack job just because it's easy. The frames in my video can be made super quickly, simply, and inexpensively. And you can vent the sides of them easily by using a hole saw or spade bit and jigsaw. LMK if you need any tips on that.

Hey hey. Well your biggest problem in that room is going to be the dimensions and the low end modes. You'll have 2 first order axial modes stacking at 70-73 Hz. Then second order ones at double that etc. So you'll need extensive low end control if you want to make a real attempt at flattening the frequency response. The treatment you have planned is inadequate for that. You need lower density, thicker absorption. But of course the issue with small rooms like yours is that you don't have much room volume to work with. I would go with floor to ceiling 2' x 2' broadband absorbers in each of your 4 corners using Rockwool AFB, Safe N'Sound or Comfortbatt. They'll all perform quite similarly to each other although they are different densities (not that much different). The Comfortboard 80 would only be useful for a ceiling cloud IMO. Angle the ceiling cloud towards your back wall, as you will definitely get a reflection off it due to your choice of high density material. It can act as a bit of a waveguide that way. And you can put lower density material behind it. For your back wall, I would go floor to ceiling, wall to wall, using the absorbers I show in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ECazGzutkV8.html. These are only 5.5" thick, so double them up and do at least 2 layers of them. Better if you can get 4 layers on the back wall so you'd be 22" deep and use pink fluffy for 1-2 of the layers instead of Rockwool. Air gap them from the wall or fill the cavity behind them with pink fluffy.

@@warpacademy Thanks for the quick and detailed reply. 22'' Deep panels are way thicker for my room, I know my room is not ideal for Studio but I don't have any options right now. Can you guide me ideal acoustic treatment for my situation? I know I will not get the best sound, moreover its a room in the Basement I will get noise from above the floor. I just want to control reflections as much as possible with 4 inches of panel. Thanks.

Sure. You can contact and hire me for those types of acoustical consulting services through my site vespers.ca.