Cheap Sound Dampening Curtains - Help

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augustk07

Member
Hey guys,

Hope everyone is enjoying Saturday. I've been messing with my music room lately but have only gotten started. I need to hang some curtains today. I was thinking that before I dive into building panels and stuff I could improve things with some curtains. I will be buying a rug and curtains.

I want to know if there's a CHEAP but effective curtain solution. I was thinking of doubling some cheapo curtains? This room had no furniture in it a week ago so it's just beginning. If you want to see an example of the room see this previous thread. http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=412217&highlight=curtains

I have moved things since the thread (and scored a Thorens TD 125 :music:). I just need something to keep the neighbors at bay and to reduce any echoes in the meantime.

Thanks!
 
thrift stores usually have nice curtains for low prices.

I built some panels to put behind the drummer and used some curtains from the thrift store to hide the 2x4 frames filled with acoustic stuff and Masonite centers.
 
When I realized I needed to treat my room I first asked about curtains. The response was fairly consistent...maybe they'll tame the highs some but will do little to nothing for the most part, especially wrt mid and low frequencies. As far as sound isolation....forget it. Curtains won't to jack. Wanna see for yourself....crank your stero, stand behind some curtains or throw a blanket over your head and you'll hear there is very little reduction in db. You may have to build some (portable) panels to put over your windows if you really need to reduce the amount of volume escaping your house. As far as taming the echos and such in your room you're going to need absorption and effective absorption needs to be thick. Fiberglass batting from Home Depot or Lowes will help some with mids and highs if you get it thick enough, but to get really effective you're going to need compressed rockwool (Roxul) or compressed fiberglass panels. I'm in Arlington, probably twenty or thirty minutes from you, and you're more than welcome to come over and hear the effects of my room treatments. I've done nothing to try and isolate the room, but as a drummer that has practiced with bands in many a garage or backyard shop I've seen the most effective way to isolate is have layers of different solid surfaces with insulation in between. A wall inside a wall is the most effective. Again, I'm in your backyard and would be glad to help you out.
 
Curtains done right CAN in fact help you along the way to a "wall in the wall" type effect. If done right. It's all about adding some absorption and isolation to minimize transmission to the frame of the room. I went with some real heavy insulating type curtains on the back wall. Woven fiberglass, bonded foam on the back, canvas behind that. Very effective ... unfortunately, very expensive.

Plan B ... Get some curtains you can live with. You can get some deals on linen and such - main thing is they be fairly opaque to hide what's behind them. Which in this case, would be some cheepo woven thermal blankets. I used those for a while. They're nice because they're open weave and very flexible. Good texture too - that's also important for breaking up any of the nasties that get thru. You can probably score some at the local big box for maybe $10-15 each.

Heck, if your real blankets are getting a bit long in the tooth, hang those and use the new ones as intended. It's not like anyone is gonna see them.

Idea is to kill one surface in each dimension. Either the front or back wall, along with either the floor or ceiling gives you the best bang ... or in this case ... bang.

PS ... curtains don't work worth a crap on the floor ... I suggest carpet. <G>
 
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I would strongly recommend against getting curtains just for acoustical purposes. You can do so much better with smaller amounts of other materials, like semi-rigid fiberglass. And they will do nothing for transmission loss through your windows unless you have expensive, heavy curtains. That's a much tougher problem to solve.
 
I have thought about this approach myself, i was contemplating using heavy stage curtains i even did a Google search and found several places selling used ones at a reasonable price, some had been used in theaters and some were divider curtains from convention type venues, i wonder if do to their thick design these type of curtains hung pleated style like you see in theaters on the walls would by somewhat better at sound absorbing than just standard curtains and be a viable approach?
 
The reason curtains are not good to be used as absorbers is they're not very thick and aren't able to act on the lower frequency, longer wavelength sounds. There is an advanced curtain in development that is able to use the wall or window behind it as part of its absorption scheme, but those are very thin and would not do anything for reducing sound transmission.
 
Thanks for the responses. I bought one of those 9x12 rugs yesterday at the habitat for humanity store for $80 bucks. I did put up curtains I needed them anyway on a large sliding glass door. I put a $3 pillow and jammed it into my old windows that are across from my system and duct taped them up, right now they are hiding behind some cheapo curtains just to maintain some aesthetics.

I live in an old house that I rent so the windows would rattle and I'm limited on how much I'd invest into anything that I can't take with me.

It sounds like I still need to do some "softening" of the back wall that faces the speakers? I think the floor should be much better as the carpet covers almost the whole room. Lots of furniture in there now too.

The first thing I noticed was the highs are much more "contained." I have some very detailed speakers but sometimes the highs would screech, that must have been room accoustics because I don't feel that anymore. Also, I don't feel the need to ride the bass at +1 as I used to, I think I was doing this to even out some of the highs. I think it sounds better and it's definately a little quieter outside of the house when I'm jamming.

I think I'll look into building a rockwool or fiberglass panel to sit on the back wall and hang like a picture. Does that sound like the logical next step? Any other suggestions or comments are appreciated.

Thanks again
 
Hey man, I was in your shoes several months ago.....I'm just passing on the goodwill I got from others here. It's an obligation I willingly accept and it would please me greatly to know I helped someone else out.

I have a quick, easy, and fairly inexpensive recipe for absorption panels (well, it's one I copied) to get up on a few of your walls. The rug was a great (and necessary) move, and some panels will give you even more of that improvement in SQ you've experienced.

Happy to help you out any way I can and I'd love to see/hear your system. :thmbsp:


BTW, I've started a DFW area AKer members list. Mind if I add you to it?
 
augustk07 said:
I live in an old house that I rent so the windows would rattle and I'm limited on how much I'd invest into anything that I can't take with me.
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You can fix a lot of that rattle with a thin strip of removable caulk. You can even put that on the moving surfaces, as it's ... er ... removable. A few strategically placed wedges can stop a lot of rattle too.

It sounds like I still need to do some "softening" of the back wall that faces the speakers?
Click to expand...

Rule of thumb ... either front or rear is good. The objective is to kill any standing waves that would otherwise bounce back and forth.

Whatever you do come up with for padding - curtains, rockwool, etc. - it doesn't have to be continuous, but more in the right places. That you need to experiment with. Curtains tend to be more acceptable to those who may not understand ... and I understand you may have one of those to deal with. <G>

Oh. Something else that can help a lot is some sort of absorbing surface on the side walls if they're within a foot or two of the speaker boxes. Those can be small(ish) - maybe a foot more than the side dimension of the box, both height and depth. 2x4 acoustical ceiling panels are your friend here. Those are also an option for padding a large wall - you can make several, and just hang them like pictures. Trick there is to stand them off from the wall a bit to reduce coupling - easy enough to do, just adding some deck screws to the corners on the back and padding the heads so they don't scratch the wall surface.

Lots of options. Does sound like your making progress though!
 
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sKiZo said:
Trick there is to stand them off from the wall a bit to reduce coupling - easy enough to do, just adding some deck screws to the corners on the back and padding the heads so they don't scratch the wall surface.
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Interesting...I didn't do it to reduce coupling, but for my DIY OC703 panels, I covered them in fabric and then nailed carpet tack strips (the wood kind) to the wall and hung the panels on the carpet tacks. It provides a small standoff (basically the thickness of the carpet tack strip) behind the panels. This was how I was taught to hang decorative oriental rugs on the wall, so I used it for the panels. Now that I know that a standoff has sonic benefits, I'm glad it did it. :)
 
OC703 or the like will perform much, much better than ceiling tiles hung on a wall. You can stretch pretty fabric over it if you're worried about appearance. You can even get acoustical cloth printed with any picture you like.
 
Well, ya ... at about $20 a pop, not including S&H ...

It's not like you're gonna find the stuff locally.

I've got a couple drapery panels left from when I did the back wall of my room. Thinking about having a local sew shop cut them down for strategic placement. They can do the darts at the top like original, then just hang them on some cafe rods where needed. A couple short panels mounted low at the sides of the speakers, and a couple long narrow ones hanging across the back corners to soften those up a bit. Maybe even stack a few lengths of PVC behind the panels to MDK anything that still gets thru.
 
augustk07....you can get a 2x4 panel of 703 for $8 in Haltom City right off 121 just before you get to 820...so right here in town. I can't remember the name of the place but I have a receipt so I can look it up if you want. For the money it's going to be the most effective at absorption. I think I figured another $3-4/panel for the materials to build the frame and get the fabric to cover. Takes about thirty minutes to build a panel once you get it down. Once finished you'll have a professional caliber acoustic absorption panel for less than half what you'd spend on a new one.
 
Just the big box lumber supplies ... we're mostly an audiophile wasteland here.

I see a post quoting $8 ... maybe have to do some more digging.
 
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