My idea for sound-deadening panels, with a small twist.

[68K]

My brother introduced me to sound-deadening panels a few years ago when he bought some for his basement home theatre to reduce echo. They're a fibreglass-matting-like material inside a cloth cover which then goes into a clamping metal frame allowing it to be hung or fixed on a wall.

They seem to do the job.

Fast forward to today: I now live in quite a large home in Australia. The big TV, speakers, amp, etc are housed in an open-plan 'family room' approx 13ft x 45ft, which itself connects to the kitchen/dining area, similar size. With nothing on the walls yet, and polished wood floors throughout, there's quite a bit of echo. Putting in a large cinema-style sofa helped, and we're due to get a large fluffy rug to go between the sofa and the entertainment unit. That should reduce the echo even more. But unless we start hanging curtains instead of vertical blinds (unlikely) then the room is likely to retain more echo than I'd like. So I thought back to the wall-mountable sound panels my brother has.

I ran this past the wife who was dismissive (she's a music teacher: you think she'd be more open to improving the sound quality in the room).

But then I thought of, instead housing the matting material inside a cloth cover, I could mount it directly inside a wooden surround which I could then wrap with a photo printed onto canvas. She (and I) get pretty pictures to look at, I get my sound deadening. Genius, no?

What do you think? does canvas readily absorb sound, or will it be just as good a reflector as the other hard surfaces in the room?

 

[Versa]

They sell that.
http://www.acoustimac.com/acoustic-pane ... rt-panels/
Making your own might work, but could easily reflect the sound in the upper ranges (1khz+ at a guess), unless you used dye submilation printing and acoustically transparent cloth. Normal cloth and normal inkjet/laser printer ink would both likely reflect a lot of higher frequency sound.

Also, I don't think its typically fibreglass matting in them, its rock wool. Although fibreglass does a good job at higher frequencies, rock wool does a good job at both bass and high frequencies. AFAIK

 

[Deleted member 1]

GIK Acoustics also sells panels with art on them:
http://gikacoustics.com/product/gik-artpanel-acoustic-panels/

 

[AndrewZ]

Some people hang tapestries or rugs and get results.

 

[Kiru]

I've been looking into similar for my office/studio remodel. Since I'll be recording music in it for fun as well as working 8hrs a day during the week, there's the fine line between doing what you can to get by or going completely nuts. It gets expensive.

I found this thread at Gearslutz helpful (one of the contributors makes the GIK panels linked to above):

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/studio-b ... -here.html

PS: hanging curtains or tapestries will only tame high frequencies, and might make your room too "dead". Also, the curtains would need to be theater-grade weight, fire rated, & draped with as many folds as possible.

 

[Andrewcw]

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What do you think? does canvas readily absorb sound, or will it be just as good a reflector as the other hard surfaces in the room?

The canvas should be designed with loose enough fibers so sound passes through. The fiberglass or whatever material it is covering does the sound dissipation.

So you just have to find someone in Aussie land that does this stuff.

Got an idea though. http://www.soundproofcow.com/Perforated-Wood-Panels/ Wood panels. Make it look cheesy

 

[SBD]

I think it would work fine, and I honestly wouldn't worry about the finish of the printed surface - run a test or two for yourself, and I think you'll find that the annoying big-hardwood-floor resonance you get is on the mids and lows more than the higher frequencies that would make you wring your hands about surface finish of your art. Minor detail in the grand scheme of things.

I made 10 panels like this (without the graphics). I ordered a 5-pack of 24"x48" high density fiberglass/rock wool insulation chunks, cut them in half, and then made square panels. The frames were wood, and I stretched some microseude cloth over them to make the pretty side, using a metric crap load of staples to make it tight and wrinkle free. An air nailer to shoot the brads works a lot better than a staple gun. Dropped the insulation into the back with some spray adhesive, then stapled on some cheaper backing cloth and sealed it all up with some fabric tape. Screwed on some hardware and hung them like pictures, using additional screws and felt furniture pads to get them to stand off from the wall properly. If you go that route, I would say do not stretch your prints - it's difficult to get an even stretch over a frame unless you do that sort of thing regularly. Adhere the print or whatever other decoration on the finished panel after it's constructed in some sort of professional looking way. It will save you headache.

I only put one staple through my finger too! The last one, of course...

 

[Anechoic]

If the fabric is acoustically transparent, it should work fine, in fact I recommend this route to clients who want to DIY. The DIY way to check for acoustical transparent is to a) hold up the material to a light, and if you can see through the fabric, you're good to go, or b) blow through the material and if the air flows easily through the cloth you're also good.