![]() ![]() Unless you’re trying to block out loud noise outside the room, ignore STC measurements, and ignore STC products such as Mass Loaded Vinyl and other materials that promote their STC measurements. Measuring how much quieter it is outside the room is usually done in STC-simply put, it measures how much sound a wall, for instance, will block from getting through the other side. Measuring how much quieter it is inside the room is usually done in NRC. The goal is to quiet sound inside the room, not outside the room. (Bass dampening strategies are covered later in this article.) These are the materials that will create the “maze” you need to trap and quiet (dampen the acoustic energy of) sound waves. Most articles on studio acoustics are about dampening non-bass sound frequency and energies, and the common material choices are batts, panels, blankets, or fibers. Besides the maze inside the foam that helps trap the acoustic wave, it forces it to bounce around as it enters the maze as well. This is why foam for acoustic dampening has a zig-zag or “egg crate” pattern in it. Aiming sound into a “V” shape is the most basic acoustic “trap”. You get an immediate improvement from acoustic dampening materials if you place them at right angles to each other, since the sound will bounce from one to the other. You don’t want material that just ripples like ribbons in the wind! The internal cell walls of cheap foam vibrate with the sound too much instead of resisting it sufficiently. Sound is a wave that moves through that gas, similar to wind, only sound is more like the water wave. ![]() This is why cheap foam not made for soundproofing (such as that used in egg crates) doesn’t dampen sound well: it’s not firm enough. For water waves, piles of shredded plastic would just flow with the waves! Rocks resist the waves. You don’t want the sound bouncing back, you want to trap it inside the material and reduce it.īut you do need something solid enough to resist the waves. It mostly blocks and reflects sound instead of trapping it. The rocks “break up” the wave to reduce its force. Acoustic foam is porous inside (like Swiss cheese)-kind of like a giant box of sharp rocks! The sound bounces through all the air “tunnels” between the sharp rocks, reducing its energy.Īnd more is better! You needs a long maze of air spaces inside the foam for the sound to bounce around in and lose energy.īut a wave will just flow over a pile of smooth stones, so the rocks need to be sharp, and in acoustic foam that means lots and lots of tiny, sharp-edged airspaces. Just want to do it yourself? Check out the instructions!Įver watch piles of large, sharp rocks on a shoreline break up the waves coming in? Acoustic baffles (foam panels, wool or fiberglass batts or panels) dampen sound in a similar way. ![]()
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