Cheap, effective sound treatment that looks cool. Ideas?

PorkPieGuy

PorkPieGuy

Platinum Member
I have a downstairs living area that doubles as a rehearsal space. The room looks cool but sounds awful. Sheetrock walls with no insulation behind them, vinyl floors sitting on top of concrete, drop ceiling (probably 7.5 foot ceilings).

If it was just an ugly basement, I'd hang up moving quilts or whatever, but since it's actually a living area, I'd like to do something that looks decent but doesn't cost a ton of money. Any ideas?
 
I'm in a similar situation and have been considering these options (or similar), but haven't pulled the trigger yet, so I can't attest to their effectiveness.

https://www.amazon.com/Olanglab-Acoustic-Soundproof-Panel-Decorative/dp/B09DYBY5Z4/ref=sr_1_29?crid=23KE77XE3J3CY&keywords=printed+acoustic+panel&qid=1673450018&sprefix=printed+acoustic+panel,aps,98&sr=8-29&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/BUBOS-Panels，48-Absorbing-Decoration-Treatment/dp/B08PFK94Y1/ref=sr_1_18_sspa?crid=23KE77XE3J3CY&keywords=printed+acoustic+panel&qid=1673450074&sprefix=printed+acoustic+panel,aps,98&sr=8-18-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFaTzBWOVVOUzZQUUQmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA0MzkyNDAyTVdHUjBOMlNaRUIxJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA5NzkwMTYyM1JXNU9VSjZJRTY3JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfbXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/BUBOS-frequency-absorption（24-Treatment-Recording/dp/B0BMHV9X2J/ref=sr_1_30?crid=CX0C33TJM28C&keywords=bubos+acoustic+panels&qid=1673450155&sprefix=bubos+acoustic+panels,aps,93&sr=8-30
 
WuHan Solo said:
I'm in a similar situation and have been considering these options (or similar), but haven't pulled the trigger yet, so I can't attest to their effectiveness.

https://www.amazon.com/Olanglab-Acoustic-Soundproof-Panel-Decorative/dp/B09DYBY5Z4/ref=sr_1_29?crid=23KE77XE3J3CY&keywords=printed+acoustic+panel&qid=1673450018&sprefix=printed+acoustic+panel,aps,98&sr=8-29&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/BUBOS-Panels，48-Absorbing-Decoration-Treatment/dp/B08PFK94Y1/ref=sr_1_18_sspa?crid=23KE77XE3J3CY&keywords=printed+acoustic+panel&qid=1673450074&sprefix=printed+acoustic+panel,aps,98&sr=8-18-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFaTzBWOVVOUzZQUUQmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA0MzkyNDAyTVdHUjBOMlNaRUIxJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA5NzkwMTYyM1JXNU9VSjZJRTY3JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfbXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/BUBOS-frequency-absorption（24-Treatment-Recording/dp/B0BMHV9X2J/ref=sr_1_30?crid=CX0C33TJM28C&keywords=bubos+acoustic+panels&qid=1673450155&sprefix=bubos+acoustic+panels,aps,93&sr=8-30
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These are cool. Thank you!
 
Can you treat the space with hanging fabric, hung like towels, but longer and thicker fabric? When I hung moving blankets on all the wall of my old basement, the sound improvement was shocking, but even with the white fabric facing into the room it felt a bit claustrophobic. I considered printing images on fabric with my inkjet printer and hanging them in front of the blankets.

And for when you run into some money:

Acoustic Art Panels - GIK Acoustics - Canvas Art that Reduces Noise

Affordable gallery quality soundproofing canvas art that reduces noise, we call our Acoustic Art Panels, come in multiple sizes and orientations available. Give new purpose to hanging wall art, and add style to your space while you reduce noise at the same time with Acoustic Art Panels. Use our...
www.gikacoustics.com www.gikacoustics.com
 
WuHan Solo said:
What I find frustrating (and VERY misleading) about these listings is how they superimpose the product on a photo at the wrong scale.
Click to expand...
Standard ceiling height is 8'. Going by that, these panels are approximately 4'x4', not 2'x2'.

That really bugs me as well. It's a lie. I cant get past that.
PorkPieGuy said:
If it was just an ugly basement, I'd hang up moving quilts or whatever, but since it's actually a living area, I'd like to do something that looks decent but doesn't cost a ton of money. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Furnish it. Find some nice, secondhand furniture and make a lounge area or something. Soft surfaces absorb sound, and big blocky things deflect sounds path.

Throw rugs or carpeting will help.

If it was my room, I would come up with a theme and go from there.
 
cbphoto said:
Can you treat the space with hanging fabric, hung like towels, but longer and thicker fabric? When I hung moving blankets on all the wall of my old basement, the sound improvement was shocking, but even with the white fabric facing into the room it felt a bit claustrophobic. I considered printing images on fabric with my inkjet printer and hanging them in front of the blankets.

And for when you run into some money:

Acoustic Art Panels - GIK Acoustics - Canvas Art that Reduces Noise

Affordable gallery quality soundproofing canvas art that reduces noise, we call our Acoustic Art Panels, come in multiple sizes and orientations available. Give new purpose to hanging wall art, and add style to your space while you reduce noise at the same time with Acoustic Art Panels. Use our...
www.gikacoustics.com www.gikacoustics.com
Click to expand...

I'd thought about getting some wall mounts and hanging some of our hand-made quilts around. I thought that might look nice and do the job.
 
Hang Oklahoma Sooners blankets on the wall of course.
 

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If you are handy and have a basic set of tools including saw and drill then I suggest making panels. Basically: You cut up some 2x4s and make a basic frame, usually something like 3-4' squared, and use excess wood to make two horizontal 'feet' at the bottom so they can stand on their own. Then cut a piece of 1/4" plywood to the size of the frame and nail/screw it on. At this point it basically looks like a huge wooden picture frame, feel free to paint it any color you want to match the room. Then spray some adhesive on the inside of the ply wood and attach regular acoustic foam or cut up eggcrate mattress foam. These can be moved around, don't take up a lot of space, and when placed directly around your kit are significantly more effective then foam/blankets placed on walls far away from your kit.

Another option is to hang a track on the ceiling, similar to those that go around hospital beds, around your kit and drape a very thick quilt or visually pleasing thick cloth. This is an easy and affordable way to make a pseudo 'booth' around your kit and can easily be pushed to the side against the wall if you have company.
 
This is actually hard for me to suggest, because I don't know what the room looks like, and you want something that looks good.

It also kind of depends what symptoms you're trying to treat. I'd guess that you're just trying for some general deadening, but maybe you have some specific frequencies that are annoying.

And yeah, the perennial question of what do you think cheap or effective means, and how much can you DIY.
 
Liam said:
Small to medium sized animals. Think raccoons and other similarly sized creatures.
All you have to do is catch them.
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Live or dead?
 
There is sound proofing paint and even canvases for paintings that are sound absorbent or deflecting. Get my newest son-in-law to make you a big painting on some of these canvases so you get form and function. Here is a cool one on right of sea he had for sale in a gallery in Atlanta-what a mix of imagery.
 

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Piggybacking on some of the other ideas, especially from cb photo: I used furring strips to hang decorative Mexican blankets on my drum room walls and it helped a lot. Not as much as real acoustic panels, but far cheaper.

I suggest closely reading the negative reviews on the Amazon inexpensive acoustic panels - looks like most of them are not good. Besides commercially made canvas prints with acoustic panels inside them, it would be easy to get your own printed up and just put the panels inside them yourself. And you'd have your own photos.

If you're considering small animals, don't forget the fluffy chinchillas - they're well-tuned to absorb floor tom resonance!

PXL_20221027_003147099-809.jpg
 
Good morning!

I go to estate sales or antique stores and get big empty picture frames. Then I go to a fabric place and look for close-out material i.e.velvet....
Then I make my own hanging wall art that's also a bit of a sound absorbtion. Staple the fabric tight to the back of the frames...the funkier the frames and fabric the better...

cheers and blessings, Trey
 
roncadillac said:
If you are handy and have a basic set of tools including saw and drill then I suggest making panels. Basically: You cut up some 2x4s and make a basic frame, usually something like 3-4' squared, and use excess wood to make two horizontal 'feet' at the bottom so they can stand on their own. Then cut a piece of 1/4" plywood to the size of the frame and nail/screw it on. At this point it basically looks like a huge wooden picture frame, feel free to paint it any color you want to match the room. Then spray some adhesive on the inside of the ply wood and attach regular acoustic foam or cut up eggcrate mattress foam. These can be moved around, don't take up a lot of space, and when placed directly around your kit are significantly more effective then foam/blankets placed on walls far away from your kit.

Another option is to hang a track on the ceiling, similar to those that go around hospital beds, around your kit and drape a very thick quilt or visually pleasing thick cloth. This is an easy and affordable way to make a pseudo 'booth' around your kit and can easily be pushed to the side against the wall if you have company.
Click to expand...
2x4s will be too heavy, try using 1x4s, there are tons of videos on YouTube on super cheap panels that you can make, and then cover those with some cool fabric, maybe even with some nice graphics on it, then you can make them as big or small as you need and they will work with a nice room.
 
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