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How long can this go on?  Hey, this is 3 years of hard-fought history condensed into a few blogs…relax!

In part 2 I had finally come to grips with acoustic treatment.  I was addicted to the improvement quest now that I was into “business” and wanted to both get better and reduce the time I was taking.  When you’re getting paid a flat fee (as I do), running around to cars, other computers, stereos etc. a bunch of times adds tons of hours…big time. 

Again I looked around for ideas on the cheap.  I came across one that seemed to make some sense, acoustic ceiling tile. At Lowes I found 10 - 2′x4′ sheets of sound reducing ceiling tile could be had for $35, and a big roll of duct tape for about $4.  Including tax I escaped for under $40!

Why duct tape you ask? because these things are raw fiberboard on the edges.  In fact, it’s the first thing I’ve ever found that duct tape doesn’t stick to!  I bet the fibers stick to your lungs though.  Death is free too I guess.  So I managed to carefully frame each panel with duct tape (mostly stuck to itself.  I didn’t want to mount it to the walls permanently, so I found strategic spots to  prop them up around the room.  There was a method to my madness however, tackling what are called “early reflection points” around the room.

Way back somewhere around part 2 (I’m too lazy to stop and look) I talked about sound waves bouncing around and wanting to control them.  Sound waves bounce around in straight lines just like a cue ball on a pool table, or like light.  So you first want to tackle every place that sound will bounce off of and back into your ears.  These are on the left and right walls, the front and rear walls, and the ceiling.  How to find the right spots?  Light waves travel in straight lines too, so sit in your mixing spot and have somebody hold a mirror along the side walls.  When you see your monitor in the mirror…bingo!  That marks the spot.  There’s not eyes in the back of my head but the front and rear walls are reasonably obvious.

As for the ceiling, mine is 14 feet high and I’m not putting stuff up there that will fall on my head! ‘nuf said.

With my proud $40 of acoustic treatment, I proceed to prop these puppies up all over the room.  And you know what?  Another big improvement!  I seemed to be doing quite well with mixes, getting even closer though bass was always a tough thing to judge.  I concluded that a subwoofer would fix that problem.  And man was I ever wrong!  First, you have to set the sub appropriately.  But it seemed every time I’d set the level it would get out of whack on the next song.  Over time I noticed weirdness with my bass, the low G note was way way louder and bassier than an F# and F was even quieter.  Just when I thought I had things figured out, they went nuts on me.

It turns out, higher frequencies are much easier to get control of than low frequencies.  I won’t go into the science of it all, just trust me and take it as fact.  The lower in frequency, the thicker “stuff” you need to absorb it.  the 1/2 inch tiles, were just way too thin for the job.  Oh well, at least my bouncing around seemed to primarily focus on bass levels instead of the whole song.  It went quicker and things had come a long way.

(to be continued)

Click here for Part 4

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