# DIY Soundproofing. rockwool vs foam?



## Martis93

Hey guys, so for the longest time I've been postponing this but my room is very naked in terms of soundproofing. I see a lot of people do their own rockwool panels, but I haven't seen anyone use acoustic foam. I've seen it used in small pieces but I want to cover a large area as I am in a relatively big room. Is it worse in some way to use foam?


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## NickLAudio

Rockwool generally absorbs more and can come in thicker pieces than acoustic foam. Acoustic foam is designed to look good as well as function. Here are 2 sites with tech specs, you can compare how they absorb/deflect.

http://www.bobgolds.com/AbsorptionCoefficients.htm

sound proofing deadening, acoustic insulation foams, echo elimination, home studio soundproofing foam,

One or the other isn't better, it's all about what you want out of your room treatment. Keep placement in mind. Thin pieces of foam placed in crucial reflection points would work way better than thick rockwool placed at random.


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## Drew

Martis93 said:


> Hey guys, so for the longest time I've been postponing this but my room is very naked in terms of soundproofing. I see a lot of people do their own rockwool panels, but I haven't seen anyone use acoustic foam. I've seen it used in small pieces but I want to cover a large area as I am in a relatively big room. Is it worse in some way to use foam?



If by "acoustic foam" you mean that Auralex stuff... Then, for broadband trapping, you're going to want rockwool. 

Something like this: 

Auralex 2" Studiofoam Wedgies - 1'x1' 24-pack, Charcoal | Sweetwater.com

...is just too thin and too low density to tame much more than high frequency flutter. Most people building their own bass traps are using 4"+ of rockwool or other high density insulation (in the States, Owens Corning 703 is the go-to) to at least extend down to the lower-mids, and for proper bass control you're probably going to want more like 6-8". 

Rock wool DIY traps have the advantage of being a lot cheaper - you could probably build a couple for the cost of that package, and strategically placed you wouldn't need to cover the entire wall - just your corners and major reflection points coming off the monitors.


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## Martis93

Drew - no I did not mean those, I was thinking about ordering some fat foam from a local factory and using that. Actually, I was chatting with Nick and made some pictures of my room to give a better idea of where I want to put all that DIY stuff, I will post a link, if you have some time - check it out, maybe you will have something specific to say about my room, I need all the help I can get.

Zippyshare.com


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## Drew

What's "fat foam"? 

As far as acoustic treatment goes, I'm really no expert - I understand the basics, but I'll be talking to people better at it than me once I get into acoustic treatment for my studio. In general though you want to bass trap the corners and your first reflection points - the points behind you where the monitors point at the wall, the intersection point where a sound wave bouncing off the wall or ceiling would reflect back and cross through your listening space, and the walls behind the monitors. Thick, dense (and non-flammable!) insulation is preferable.


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## Martis93

Drew - here in Lithuania you can order foam of your specified thickness, so it's basically the same acoustic foam, except I would get it to be way more thick. Oh by the way, there is what I believe is called a standing wave in my room, right behind my monitors. Whenever I play the note A# it resonates like hell and is very boomy, would some thick insulation solve this completely or could there also be something else?


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## vansinn

Do notice that acoustic foams sheets and tiles are sold by several sellers on Ebay, often at quite different prices, and a lot less expensive than Auralex.
These works well when placed behind speakers and monitor; however, they are inefficient at lower frequencies (unless being really sizable).

Hard construction rockwool, roughly an Inch thick, mounted about an inch from the wall, works quite well for taking some the upper-bass room modes.
When covered with a thin sheet of structures foam (like pyramids), and placed at the primary reflection points, they'll will work well also against reflections and for controlling the mid-high range.
Mount one of these as well on the rear wall, against those reflections.

Controlling the low end, i.e. the dreaded room rumble, require dedicated bass trapping, which can be build DIY (lots of articles on the net), or bought (usually fairly expensively).


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## Randy D

I did all of my panels with rockwool and my 4 year old twins rooms are on the other side of my studio and with a few other minor treatments they hear practically nothing. 
I have been extremely satisfied and the cost point is good also. If you care for pics ask and i will post a few.

Cheers

-Randy D


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## Martis93

vansinn - well, I'm sure I'm going the DIY route, thanks for your input.
Randy D - do post the pics! I'd love to see them.


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## Given To Fly

I have to recommend GIK Acoustics for your room treatment needs. 
Acoustic Panels | Bass Traps | Diffusors | GIK Acoustics


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## newamerikangospel

DO NOT just buy foam. For acoustic properties, you want open cell foam, and all open cell foam is not the same. Unrated foam is deadly (google "Great White fire). Rockwool, Owens Corning is great, but any fiber based insulation will work for treating. The main thing about sound absorption with foam and fiber materials is that you are looking for density, not thickness. I made treatment panels out of standard insulation (called R30 in the US, which is a gauge for temperature trapping) and the work sufficiently and all insulation has a fire rating, in the US and I would assume throughout Europe as well.


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## Drew

Randy D said:


> I did all of my panels with rockwool and my 4 year old twins rooms are on the other side of my studio and with a few other minor treatments they hear practically nothing.
> I have been extremely satisfied and the cost point is good also. If you care for pics ask and i will post a few.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> -Randy D



Randy - minor point here, but acoustic treatment like this is effective at reducing reflections within a room, but isn't very effective at reducing bleed from inside the room to outside the room. It may have helped somewhat with bleed, but to really acoustically isolate (not treat) a room, you need to decouple the room from the surrounding infrastructure and add a LOT of mass to the walls, which acoustic panels like these will do very little to help.


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## AxelvonKreon

Martis93 said:


> Oh by the way, there is what I believe is called a standing wave in my room, right behind my monitors. Whenever I play the note A# it resonates like hell and is very boomy, would some thick insulation solve this completely or could there also be something else?



No you can't, not efficient enough anyway. What you've gotta do to kill those bastards is to have a reflector/diffusor in the path of the standing wave. 

I had a standing wave between the roof and the floor. I killed most of it by hanging a plexiboard with an angel towards the back of the room.


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## vansinn

WRT to standing [lower frequency] waves bouncing around in the room, do note that a large heavy curtain at the back of the room can be quite effective at sucking it up, so to speak.

This of course won't help much on the referred wave between speaker  to which I agree on diffusers, as stated in another post.


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