Effect of paint is probably minimal.

What is your goal?

Isolation? Deadening of the room? Minimal reflections? Minimal leakage to other rooms? Just make the room sound better?

What are the dimensions and angles of the room?

another acoustic treatment question:

i found a closet at the building i work in full of this stuff



there's not enough to cover a wall of my room (roughly 30 feet by 14). what can i do with it that will actually benefit the acoustics in some way?

shagboy wrote:another acoustic treatment question:

i found a closet at the building i work in full of this stuff

there's not enough to cover a wall of my room (roughly 30 feet by 14). what can i do with it that will actually benefit the acoustics in some way?

Use it in your listening/control room. Put it on the wall behind you (facing the speakers) and maybe on the ceiling above you. It will help absorb reflection so you can have a better chance of hear what is coming out of your speakers.

Mayfair wrote:

shagboy wrote:there's not enough to cover a wall of my room (roughly 30 feet by 14). what can i do with it that will actually benefit the acoustics in some way?

Use it in your listening/control room. Put it on the wall behind you (facing the speakers) and maybe on the ceiling above you. It will help absorb reflection so you can have a better chance of hear what is coming out of your speakers.

I would say that if the rear wall is further from the listening position than the wall behind the monitors, put the foam behind them instead. I did this with Auralex foam in my area and it drastically improved matters.

shagboy wrote:another acoustic treatment question:

i found a closet at the building i work in full of this stuff
..
there's not enough to cover a wall of my room (roughly 30 feet by 14). what can i do with it that will actually benefit the acoustics in some way?

If you don't know what material it is, then it is hard to say.
Acoustic foam is usually open cell polyureathane. Acoustic foam is for absorbing sound - reducing reflections. It converts the 'acoustic energy' to heat. It is not effective for sound proofing. It will just make your room sound more dead.

The more thick and/or dense, the more bass it will absorb.

Generally for a 'live' room you don't want to absorb too much of the higher frequencies or it sounds weird. I think it is a lot more beneficial to try and keep the bass from echoing, because that can make some instruments sound 'muddy'. A lot of people also use diffusors in a live room- this scatters the sound while preserving its energy. ('Blurring' the sonic image without making the room dead)

If you're going to be using the room for mixing, Ethan Winer's FAQ is pretty easy to get into.