Help Me with a Cardboard Studio

[The_Bachelor]

I need some help with this. I've taken 4 pictures of the studio using my mixing desk for a reference.

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With all the cardboard boxes in there now, I don't mind the sound. Right now, the back of the studio is being used for storing my son's house things ( until next month), and my wife's medical supplies (on the shelves). Every month, I get an over abundance of cardboard from her supplies. I'd like to use this cardboard to help the room sound better.

What I'm looking for is just better, not studio quality. I've thought of shredding the cardboard to use as a substitute as roxul for bass traps or lining the walls with it.

I am just looking for some "out of the box" ideas to use this ever replenishing resource.... then I can use real money for satisfying my unending lust for toys

I would appreciate any thoughts and discussion,

Brad

[Tadpui]

I think that cardboard is going to be reflective at mid and high frequencies. And it's not dense enough to absorb lower frequencies. I have a feeling that it would do more harm than good for the room acoustics.

[The_Bachelor]

I think that cardboard is going to be reflective at mid and high frequencies. And it's not dense enough to absorb lower frequencies. I have a feeling that it would do more harm than good for the room acoustics.

Thanks for the reply. I realize this isn't ideal, but the boxes really seem to deaden the room (I think that's what it's called when it's less echoie), which I need to do.
The way it is now, is ok, but more than half of it is going away soon.

[Tadpui]

Yeah, I understand. People get really crazy and snobby about acoustic treatment. I kind of get that (I've been there myself!).

From the looks of it, you're recording some acoustic guitar, some vocals, maybe some electric piano. I don't see drums or electric guitars/amps, so I'm imagining that things aren't super loud and don't have a ton of raging, thumping bass. In that case, you could probably get by with some mover's blankets to kill the higher frequency reflections. You could make a frame or two out of some inexpensive material (trying to think if cardboard would work, but I don't see it ), hang the blankets on them, and move them into place when you're recording. Maybe put them behind you when you're mixing.

Maybe cardboard stacked layer upon layer behind a moving blanket would be more effective, simply because it creates lots of air pockets in the corrugations, but I'm really skeptical that it would do you any favors. I think it would have to be stacked REALLY deep to provide much absorption at lower frequencies. But for vocal and acoustic guitar, a moving blanket will kill most of the important reflections.

[WhiskeyJack]

I am just looking for some "out of the box" ideas to use this ever replenishing resource.... then I can use real money for satisfying my unending lust for toys

Only my two cents here, i am going to agree that if you use the cardboard face out it will likly be more reflective than anything else here but if you were to go about making these things,

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cardboard-Lumber/

you could open up a whole new world of DIY low cost treatment. If it were me i would try and make some sort of diffusor out of the recycled "lumber" parts and try and make items like this

http://arqen.com/wp-content/gallery/diy ... -w1024.jpg

I am not sure cardboard would really absord any kind of low end. But if you made use of it's exposed corrugated insides you could generate some low cost room / point of first reflection diffusion. Worth a shot.

[The_Bachelor]

WJ..... That is just what I am looking for!!!! Heck..... I'm retired and nothing but time and no sense..... This just may work!!!!

......just curious..... should I do something to treat the shelving area, or will that be alright?

[rammer24]

------:)

[JD01]

Couldn't you really improvise if you have loads of cardboard?
Like fold all your cardboard up into irregularly sized and shaped cardboard tubes, each one say about 10cm long.
Then stick all these tubes into another cardboard box.
Then stick the boxes on their sides and stack them up so you have the triangular tubes sticking out horizontally into the room.
This might look a little fugly so you could then cover this arrangement with some sort of fine fabric sheet in a colour or design you like.
Granted, this might take a) shit loads of card, and b) lots of time. But you appear to have both in abundance.

[WhiskeyJack]

......just curious..... should I do something to treat the shelving area, or will that be alright?

Another user RayC recently recommended to me that books or good. (This suggestion comng in AFTER i spent hours cutting trimming sanding and staining 100's of small peices of 2x2 lumber to build a difusor LOL!!) Maybe throw some books up on the shelves of verying sizes? I'd put some on the shelf page side out and a few binding out like normal too even maybe. Just to stagger some stuff.

Also don't kill your room entirely either. You should have some reflection in there if you are going to be doing some tracking. But if a dead space is what you want and are shooting for then giver.

[The_Bachelor]

This is great!!! Some really good ideas. I like the cardboard tube diffuser idea and the cardboard lumber.

I'm going to have to research the bass traps to see how to build em. I figure I'll need some sometime. My understanding is the traps go in the corners right? Is it more important for traps to be installed in rear corners (behind your monitoring position), or the front?

[Tadpui]

Even though they're pimping their own products, GIK Acoustics' website has lots of good videos that cover room acoustics and treatment. It'd be worth watching a few of them to get a good idea about the possibilities, even if you build them yourself. You can learn all about the different common types of treatments: http://www.gikacoustics.com/educational-videos/

I think that Superchunk style corner traps are the easiest to build (comparable to GIK Tri-Traps), and yeah you'd want them in all 4 corners if possible. The more wall-wall, wall-floor and wall-ceiling corners you can treat, the better. But that's not always practical since we generally need that space for foot traffic and gear!

[The_Bachelor]

I just got through going through all the videos on the GIK site. Very informative!!! I don't know about all this calculation stuff.... I retired the sliderule years ago.....

[rammer24]

-----:)