In this video we are giving a preview of our new FlexTee stand to suspend acoustic blankets in your home recording studio.

If you have a good set up in the closet, but need to prevent that feedback from the room behind you.

This FlexTee stand is a great way to cover the back and the side from echo and reflections.

But with proper acoustics you might not need all that!  Every room sounds different depending on the shape, size and build, yet they all have similar issues that can be corrected with proper acoustic treatment. 

We now offer products and suggestions designed to help audio engineers to achieve just that – proper acoustics. Using Producer’s choice sound blankets for acoustic room treatment is effective and much less expensive that acoustic foam.  It covers more surface for less money, and with proper installation acoustic blankets tested to be as effective as 3 inch acoustic foam.

The suggestions in Sound Acoustic Room Treatment (Sound ART) are for different room sizes to treat your first reflections, reduce reverb time, and achieve a uniform frequency response throughout the room.

Suggested by VocalBoothToGo.com, Sound ART designs will

• Help to treat your first reflections by introducing sound absorption panels at the first reflection points.
• Reduce reverberation time in your studio by absorbing sound reflected from the walls.
• Help you to achieve uniform frequency response throughout the room by calculated placement of sound absorption blankets in strategic locations.
• NOTE that Sound ART designs are just suggestions that can be further customized to perform best in your environment

One of the unique design features that Sound ART models include is the Corner absorption panels with Ceiling tracks.

We recommend two separate track kits, so you can place the blanket in the corners to work as bass traps.

The tracks are flexible, which means that you can shape the blankets on the track as concave  “ ) “ ,  Convex “ ( “ , or even as a semi column  “ C “  or column “ O “ shape. Each shape has its own advantages.  Even though the Acoustic blanket is absorbent and not reflective, the shape may interact with the sound waves differently, because of the variation in distance from the corner and adjacent walls, ( Concave vs Convex shape) or simply doubling the absorption layer at certain directions as in “C”  or “O” shape

Blankets suspended in “ C “ or “ O “ shape will serve as effective bass traps in your room. 

Another feature is Free standing Sound absorption panels, which are especially effective in larger rooms.  These panels that can be moved around the room to break the sound waves bouncing around. The Unique feature of these panels is that they can be Acoustically advanced by filling the panel with “Safe and Sound” rockwool material for broadband frequency absorption.  You can insert a sheet of mass loaded vinyl or another limp mass barrier to tame the stubborn low frequency waves. Placing such absorption panel in a corner makes it very effective bass trap.

And of course the obvious advantage of acoustic room treatment with sound blankets is not only that you can take them away when your move, and even not that you can take your set up and use it at a different location, but you can change your room acoustics at will by covering more or less of the reflective surfaces in your room to make it more live or dead.

For more information about Acoustic room treatment with sound blankets, check out our acoustic sound blanket products.

Carry on Vocal Booth Prototype testing.
Since then we imporved the design and our portable vocal booth is now can be set up within about 5 seconds!
We also included a lot of additional accessories to make it an ultimate Vocal Booth for the road warrior.
Thisi video was made about a year ago. New video for the Carry-on Vocal Booth pro is coming out soon.
Thank you for your support and warm welcome.
http://www.VocalBoothToGo.com

We hear this statement from more and more people who have  tried foam-based portable vocal booths and then switched over to our portable Carry-on Vocal Booth Pro. The Carry-on utilizes Producer’s Choice Blankets, and because of this, the end product is a much better sound.

According to seasoned voice over actors who have had an opportunity to experience different options, the foam-line portable vocal booths as well as the full-size (walk-in) mobile vocal booths, tend to result in a “boxy’  or “boomy” sound.  After testing the Carry-on Vocal Booth Pro, they realized that sound is “dead-on” resulting in a clearer and better recording quality.

It is easy to see why the Carry-on Vocal Booth beats foam based portable vocal booths in the area of portability, ease of set-up, practicality, longevity and durability. However, the most important part of a vocal booth – the sound quality — needed some investigation.

INVESTIGATING FOAM BASED PORTABLE VOCAL BOOTHS AND the CARRY-ON VOCAL BOOTH PRO

We decided to make a comparative analysis of foam-based portable booths and the Carry-on Vocal Booth Pro, based on Producer’s Choice brand  acoustic absorption material.

• Structu ral design and reverberations

The first thing that comes to mind is that foam needs to be attached to a hard surface.  And all hard surfaces are reflective.

Therefore, the sound that goes into the foam is immediately reflected right back, but at a somewhat reduced energy.

The Carry-on Vocal Booth is designed in a way that it does not need to have solid backing, allowing the sound to go out.  Producer’s Choice sound absorption material reduces the energy of the sound as it comes through it and the ambient room sound that comes back gets absorbed and shield the microphone from surrounding noise.

• Internal volume

The other obvious difference is the internal volume of the booth. Due to the thickness of the foam itself, foam based portable booths tend to have a very small internal volume.  This in combination with the hard reflective surfaces makes the booth sound “boxy” or like you are speaking in a cave. Reflected sound waves come back, although somewhat subdued.

On the other hand, tight foam based vocal booths can only harbor the microphone and the actor himself has to speak from outside the booth.  This allows for the outside noise to leak in.

With the Carry-on Vocal Booth, the actor is surrounded with sound absorption material from all sides except the back. The sound is being projected forward. In fact, the booth canopy  creates a shield from the above and the sides. The body of the actor serves as a shield from the back.  All of this effectively creates a more isolated environment than foam based portable booth structures can provide.

• Physics of sound absorption

Less obvious, but not the least important difference is the difference in sound absorption between  porous materials like acoustic foam and sound absorbing fibers used in Producer’s Choice absorption panel.  In both cases, the sound energy transforms into heat but the mechanism is different

First of all, the way Acoustic foam absorbs the sound energy is by trapping sound waves in a pores and channels of the foam.  Diameter of the channels, its tortuosity and length of the channels are all contributing factors in the sound absorption.  Sound waves get into the open cells of the foam and lose their energy through friction between the air particles and the void walls of the material it is passing through.  Foam attenuates airborne sound waves by increasing air resistance, thus reducing the amplitude of the waves.

Fibrous sound absorption panels reduce sound energy by dissipating its energy.  When the air gets into fibrous thickets – the waves are trying to move and shake each of these fibers and spend its energy on doing so.

To use a visual analogy – think of a patch of seaweed in the ocean waters. As the waves get into that, the energy gets spent trying to move the seaweeds and then it calms down.

Why does it matter?

We compared the noise reduction graphs of acoustic foam and acoustic blankets to see if there is anything in these charts that can explain the “boominess” of the sound.

In the graph below you can see which frequency being attenuated by two different thickness of foam and by acoustic blankets Producer’s Choice with comparable overall NRC rating.

COMMENT TO DRAWINGS:

In the graph below we compiled Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) data done by the same Acoustic testing lab. For Acoustic foam performance are taken from published Auralex Foam acoustic test results for products known as “Aur3in Wedge” ( 3 inch thick Acoustic foam Yellow line) and “Aur 4in wedge”  ( 4 inch Acoustic foam Blue Line). Results for Acoustic blankest are the actual test result for acoustic blanket hang flat (Brown line) and hang in pleated manner (Red line).

–  Fig. 1  –

As you can see in Figure 1, Producer’s Choice acoustic panel’s absorption curve is pretty much linear, meaning that the frequencies from mid range to high range are being absorbed at about the same level of 90% – 100%, where Acoustic foam’s absorption curve is nonlinear. In other words, the mid frequencies are being absorbed at a higher rate than high frequency, which is leaving the bigger gap between low frequency and high frequency.  What this means is that you would hear more of the low frequency, then less of a midrange frequency and then more of a higher frequency again!   We believe that this gap or jump from low frequencies to higher frequencies sound creates the “boominess” of the sound.

To demonstrate this point even more, we show in the Figure 2 how the increase of the foam thickness makes this “midrange frequency gap” even more dramatic:

Now we added the sound absorption curves of 1 inch acoustic foam (Blue line), 2 inch acoustic foam (Green Line) and Producer’s Choice blanket that is tested flat, not pleated. (Brown line) (Figure 2.)

As you can see in the low range all of the tested materials performed poorly, (10-30% absorption). In the mid frequency range acoustic foam absorbs as much as 120% of the sound, more than the acoustic blankets and the thicker the foam the more midrange frequency is getting absorbed.

At the high frequency range all tested materials in all thicknesses absorbed close to 100% of the sound.

We believe that this absorption pattern is especially dramatic in a smaller enclosed space, this is why the foam based acoustic booths sound “boomy”.

Also this uneven distribution of sound absorption tilts the NRC  of the acoustic foam up. When in fact this sound absorption pattern is not natural and results is poorer sound quality, compare to acoustic blankets Producer’s Choice.

“I haven’t been able to get much feedback on this subject but does anyone have tips or tricks for sound blankets?

Indeed, acoustic blankets might seem like a simple product, and yet if used properly, you can get more for your money than with using acoustic foam.  It is also a misconception to think that the blankets are simply a “cheaper” alternative — and if you can afford, you should use acoustic foam instead.

On the contrary, Producer’s Choice Acoustic Blankets have been successfully used by professional film makers with multimillion-dollar budgets such as Century 21 Studios, HBO, and other professional film and music studios worldwide.

So, how do you use acoustic blankets effectively? Here are some tips and tricks to using Producer’s Choice blankets.

USING ACOUSTIC BLANKETS IN A HOME RECORDING STUDIO

This is the first and probably most popular use of the sound blankets.  If you are building a home recording studio, there are two things you need to take care of first:  make it quiet – Soundproof as much as possible, and make it dead – cut down on reflections, reverberations, and standing waves and so on. You want to do this so the sound does not bounce back from the walls and does not interfere with your recording.  This is where the acoustic blankets come in to play.

Tips on Turning an Entire Room into a Studio:

• ORDER MORE ACOUSTIC BLANKETS THAN YOU THINK YOU WILL NEED.

When deciding on the quantity of the blankets – do not try to match blankets to the surface inch by inch.  First of all, blankets are not as square and precise cut to size as the foam.  The size of the blanket quoted in blanket description is a so called “Cut Size”, after the blanket is bound it takes away and inch or two. When the blankets get fluffed, they get thicker and it also takes away from the size a little. Finally, if you decide to dry clean the blankets or wash them, they can shrink a little more. So effectively, the blanket that is described as 72 x 80 can in fact end up being 70 x76 or so.

• KEEP AWAY FROM THE WALLS

When hanging blankets along the walls, make sure there is an air gap between the wall and the blanket — at least 2 -3 inches.  This simple trick increases the sound absorbing efficiency of the blankets by about 40%.  For example NRC (noise reduction coefficient) of Producer’s choice blanket positioned 3 inch of the wall is 0.8 (80 % sound absorption) the exact same blanket if applied directly to the wall (laid flat against a hard reflective surface) has NRC of 0.5

• ROUND THE CORNERS.

When you get to the corners, do not try to follow the straight angle of the room – round it up.  Let the blanket make a natural rounded curve. This will help greatly on cutting down of long waves and also cut down on standing waves by changing the shape of the room.

• KEEP THE BLANKETS PLEATED

If you hang the blankets in a pleated fashion you add the capacity of the blanket to absorb lower frequency.  Allowing for folds in the blanket drastically increases its ability to absorb lower frequencies and adds to the overall NRC values. For example, Producer’s Choice Sound Blankets when tested flat measured at NRC 0.8. If hung in a pleated manner, it measures at NRC 0.95. This increase is contributed mostly by the added lower frequency sound absorption.

• DO NOT FORGET THE CEILING

The ceiling and the floor are two reflective surfaces that often get forgotten when planning for the acoustic room treatment.  If you have a thick carpet on the floor that would usually be enough.  Ceiling can be covered by a blanket simply by nailing it in right through the blanket.  Thin nails with small washer will do just fine.  DO NOT use screws!  Screws will rip out the inside of the blanket and you will be screwed!   Let the blanket sag a little – creating air pockets of a sort.

• COVER THE DOORWAY

You can use wall track mounts to cover the doorway and be able to remove the blankets out of the way.

Turning only a Section of a Room into a Studio

This is something that the acoustic foam cannot do well and the blankets really excel at!

Use a ceiling track kit and hang the blankets from it.   You can draw the blankets to enclose your recording studio when ready to record and pull them away when not in use.

By using ceiling tracks you can convert a corner of the room or split the room in half or add an extra coverage to your closet studio. Lots and lots of options!

CORNER BASS TRAPS

Sound absorption blankets can be very effective as corner bass traps.   But to effectively absorb low frequencies, the thickness of absorbing material has to be considerably larger than for mid or high range frequencies.

Corners are somewhat of a “hot spot” for lower frequencies, especially in rectangular rooms.  The reason is that the sound waves bounce from one corner to the other and at the right wave length they create standing waves on that corner.  Place a blanket in that corner with deep pleats.  It will change the room geometry from rectangular to odd shaped and will serve as diffuser and absorber at the same time.  We did not do any special tests for sound blankets used as a Bass Traps, but from what we have seen so far, Producer’s Choice Sound Blankets can be very effective bass traps when used in the corners folded.

In this graph below we compared low frequency sound absorption of Mega Bass traps from Real Traps.com   (http://www.realtraps.com/p_megatraps.htm) with Producers Choice blankets used Pleated.  To be fair, due to the nature of the product, the acoustical test method for the Bass Trap is different from acoustical test for sound curtains (G-75 mount), also the depth of absorption material in Mega traps is deeper than in the Producer’s Choice blankets, but as it was shown in previous tests folding acoustic blankets in larger folds dramatically increases the absorption at low frequencies.  Therefore if not apple to apples this comparison is an indication of possibility to effectively use Producer’s Choice blankets as corner Bass Traps.

We believe that if the blankets can be folded with at least 12 inch deep pleats they will outperform the Mega bass traps.  Further testing is required to have the actual proof.

STAGE SOUND ABSORPTION BLANKETS FOR LIVE BANDS AND “BAR-ROOM MUSICIANS”

Acoustic blankets proved to be very efficient for live bands and performances in a small venue. The blankets are just the right type of gear for musicians that play in different locations every weekend.  Some rooms can have extremely back acoustic, yet some venues may not have the room on stage to put tripod stands with premade sound absorbers and Bass Traps.

The tripod stands legs uses a good bit of space.  Sound blankets can be suspended in a way without creating a foot print on stage when space is limited.

Musicians told us that when they hung the blankets on the back wall of the stage in a poorly acoustically designed bar room, one that they’ve played multiple times in, it made a major difference in the overall sound quality.  In fact, most of the previous issues with “slap back” coming from the back wall were eliminated.

But is it really so?

We all want to have the best equipment, the best recording studios and the best vocal booths. Sometimes, the only way to do this is to go through the process of trial and error of finding the best product. But by doing this, a lot of time and money get wasted in the process.

We, at VocalBoothToGo.com, hear this frustration from our customers, and this is why we conducted a side-by-side study of sound absorbing efficiency and price/value comparison between acoustic foam and acoustic sound blankets.

(DISCLOSURE: For the purpose of full disclosure, VocalBoothToGo.com sells acoustic blankets.  We design them. We test them. We sell them. We eat and breathe this stuff.  Our customers love our products, and we love our customers. To be accurate and honest, we test our products in accredited acoustic labs.)

ACOUSTIC PRODUCTS COMPARED:

Auralex Studiofoam Wedges (acoustic foam) and Producer’s Choice Sound Blankets.

* Acoustic foam comes in different shapes and thicknesses. For the purpose of this study, we used products from the same, most popular manufacturer, and one type of product that is marketed as most popular product.  We compared the entire range of available thickness for this particular product.

** To be fair in our comparison of acoustic foam prices, we used the sale price (not MSRP price) from the same major online retailer selling the foam by kit. (Foam sold by individual 12 x 12 pieces is usually 20% more expensive.)  The price was for one kit of the same color foam.  Then we calculated the price per square foot.

*** This price is calculated from 6-pack bundle price. Individual price per blanket – $24.75 ea. (Standard size 72 x 80” , 39 s.f. no grommets).

Sound Absorbing Efficiency

Sound absorbing efficiency of acoustic blankets fits right in the middle of the acoustic foam comparison samples, between 2 “wedges and 3” wedges foam.

Sound absorbing efficiency of Producer’s Choice Acoustic Blankets exceed sound absorbing capacity of acoustic foam in thickness of 1” and 2 “and it is close to 3” thick acoustic foam. Actually, if sound blankets are hung in pleats, its sound absorption capacity even exceeds the 3” acoustic foam performance, achieving 95% of sound absorption (NRC 0.95).)   If you look at the absorption curve, you can easily figure out that adding just a few extra folds will give performance exceeding the prized 4” thick acoustic foam.

It is evident that acoustic blankets are an effective sound absorber.

Price vs. Value

In terms of price, acoustic blankets beat acoustic foam hands down.

Even at the first glance, one can see a huge difference in price versus efficiency:

(NOTE: For ease of comparison, we compare all products to NRC 1.0 as a 100%, not absorption of blankets (NRC 0.8).  For example absorption of 1” foam is 50% (NRC 0.5) and absorption of blankets 80% (NRC 0.8). Therefore, 1 inch acoustic foam is 30% less absorptive and less efficient than acoustic blankets.)

• 1” acoustic foam is 30% less efficient than sound blankets but it is 5 times more expensive.
• 2” acoustic foam is  5% less efficient than sound blankets but it is more than 8 times more expensive.
• 3” acoustic foam is only 10% more absorbent than sound blankets but it is 12 times more expensive.
• 4” acoustic foam is 30% more absorbent than sound blankets and is 16.3 times more expensive. (Just imagine how many blankets you can get for that money!)

(We will show how to hang acoustic blankets to outperform the 3” and even 4 “foam in a separate article.)

Practical Use

Ease of use is important, but it is difficult to quantify.

Acoustic foam comes in different colors and is trendy – looks cool.  It is light and easy to stick to a wall or a ceiling.  Unfortunately, once it is glued to a wall, it is not movable.  It is too fragile and easy to tear to be able to peel off the wall to reuse elsewhere.  Over time, the foam accumulates dust and disintegrates.  We did not find any specific research to quote, but logically, acoustic foam performance has to deteriorate overtime as well.

Acoustic foam is an open-cell porous material.  The open cells are the opening of long twisted tunnels.

To get absorbed, the sound has to get into the openings and flow through the tunnels, losing energy through friction.  This is one of the reasons that sound foam has wedges – to increase the overall absorbing surface of the foam.  But, this serrated edge, at the same time, makes acoustic foam a great dust collector!

Porosity and the flow resistivity are the most important parameters in determining the sound absorption. Imagine if the pores, or the openings of those tunnels, get clogged by dust — sound cannot get in, and therefore, sound absorption efficiency is reduced.  Regardless of how thick the foam is or how well the tunnels are twisted, if the opening of those tunnels get blocked – the sound can not get it and, and therefore, sound absorption will be reduced.

Sound absorption mechanism of acoustic blankets is different. It is based on the sound waves spending their energy on vibrating the fibers of the inside filler. The sound gets in and goes through the blanket. As each fiber vibrates, sound energy gets lost by converting into heat.

Blankets do not need to be glued to the wall. In fact they are more effective when there is an air gap between the wall and the blanket.  Acoustic blankets make it very easy to create a vocal booth or dedicated recording space simply by hanging the blankets off the ceiling.  This makes acoustic blankets an irreplaceable sound absorption choice when there is lack of space, living arrangement in a rental property or anticipation of frequent moving from one location to the other.  If the blankets get dusty or dirty, they can be easily be taken off – shaken up and/or washed.

Any way you look at it, acoustic blankets are more efficient, less costly and a healthier product than acoustic foam.

He was very happy with his results and shared his tip with us. Read more to find out just how he was able to do this!

“I saw some discussion about how to suspend your soundproofing blankets and thought I’d add my experience. I use three large blankets over windows to reduce exterior noise in a remote location.  As I’m not allowed to leave marks on the walls or woodwork, I came up with a temporary, non-invasive way to suspend the blankets.  I bent 4-inch nails into hooks resembling the shape of the letter “C,” with the pointed end of the nail pointing downward.

“I knew that the room I’d be using had woodwork at the top of the windows, so I hooked the pointed side of the nail on top of the woodwork and hooked the head of the nail through the grommet in the blanket.  This does create a dimple in the top of the woodwork, but it’s completely out of sight.  Even though the large blankets weigh ~11 pounds, the woodwork easily holds one blanket.  If you look closely at the photo below, you’ll see that I was able to double up the width of the blanket on the left side to match the width of this window.

“To keep the blankets tight to the woodwork on the sides, I used masking tape.”

We encourage our customers to send us tips, like this one, so we can share it with others in the industry. We also provide different ways to hang the Producer’s Choice Sound Blankets — including a tracking system. Take a look under the Accessories Section.

I suggest you to take the blankets to a Laundromat and wash in a commercial washer with regular amount of detergent. Do not put too much detergent, because your blankets will start smelling like Laundromat!
Then dry them in a tumble dry at high heat.I suggest to go through several 12 minutes cycles, so you can straighten up the blanket in between the drying cycles.