The space I use for mixing is in a loft; the space is small, and I’ve been simply unable to get a good stereo image from my monitors. The entire room is made up of hard surfaces, so I decided to put up some sound absorbing panels in front of the mix position to see if it would improve my imaging problem.
I wasn’t really excited by the look of foam products, so I opted for Primacoustic Broadway panels which are 2 foot by 4 foot fabric covered 2″ thick fiberglass. The panels are sold in sets of six; I needed eight panels, but I decided to start with the six-pack and go from there. I also purchased a pack of their impaler mounts to simplify mounting the panels to the wall.
When the panels arrived, I unpacked them and discovered that they were permeated with the smell of the adhesive used to attach the fabric. I share the loft space with my wife; there was no way these panels were going in smelling like they did, so I took the panels out to garage, where I cut a hole in the shipping box they came in, put spacers between the panels to let air circulate, and aimed a fan into the hole to speed things up. It took a couple of weeks for the smell to subside to the point where the panels could be brought indoors and pass the sniff test.
The loft ceiling follows the roof line, and so I was able to use impalers for both the vertical wall and ceiling installation. I marked out the space and hung two panels on left and right vertical walls forward of the mixing position. I used a mirror to locate the reflection point, and positioned the panels accordingly. I used the same trick to locate the reflection point on the ceiling. A key challenge in hanging the panels on the ceiling was figuring out how to align the panels so they would line up. Simply marking lines on the wall wasnt going to work for a single installer, because when you hold the panel up, you cannot see around the long end of the panel to see the alignment marks. I solved this problem by putting up a strip of wood at the alignment mark; then it was a simple matter to place the end of the panel against the wood strip, and then slide the panel into the impalers. I marked out the ceiling and had the panels up relatively quickly.
You can see in the photo above where the strip of wood has been placed across the ceiling at the point where the panels are to align (you can also see where one panel has been installed, and the impalers have been attached for the next panel). I cut the strip about a quarter-inch short, and cut some spare pipe insulation to make cuffs at each end; this let me slide the strip into place, with the pressure from the foam keeping it in place.
To keep the weight down, I used 1×3 strips, which resulted in the strip bowing in the middle; to prevent this, I installed a temporary L bracket, screwing it into a ceiling joist at the midpoint to keep the strip straight. You can see the strip held in alignment by the L bracket and with a foam cuff at the end the photo above.
In the photo above you can see the final result. The panels are perfectly aligned and deliver a professional visual effect.
In a future blog I’ll let you know what effect this has had on my stereo imaging problem.
Homarne 