Keep in mind the feet or wheels of a chair moving around on those carpet tiles will separate the seams VERY quickly. Definitely suggest one of those mats that you put under your chair to keep that from happening, if you hadn't already thought of that of course. Cheers!
@@MichaelAlm we use this type of carpet tile installation in most of my commercial interior design projects, and the seam separation doesn't tend to be a problem we see, FWIW.
He probably didn't need to carpet the entire floor. The reflective behavior is from the single huge expanse of highly noise-reflective concrete, so a few small area rugs could have been placed, along with a low-pile chair mat, and I think it would have gotten at least 90% of the same benefit as a wall-to-wall treatment. Just a quick search turns up 500 Hz (you can search to find a sample tone) has a half-wave size of a little over 1 ft, so removing the larger expanses of flat open concrete narrows down where the waves can reflect from. Before going to an actual installation, why not throw down a few small carpet pieces (or fluffy towels!) and see if you can tell the difference?
@@MichaelAlm Great Video and a beautiful room. Switching out the standard wheels on chairs for the roller blade style also cuts down on carpet wear and makes them roll sooo much smoother and easier.
This is hands down the most beautiful ceiling treatment I've seen. I was worried the foam would ruin the vibe of the room, but the colour of it pairs really well with your wallpaper! Great job!
Thanks!! I've been working hard to keep it from feeling like a padded room. Wasn't sure if the burgundy tiles would match, but I'm really happy with them.
@@philomenahearn1717 Accustic foam does two things it reflects longer audio waves in the angle it is cut. That's why it has this ragged shape. And secondly, shorter waves are damped by the density of the foam alone, as the waves break in the holes in the material and cannot make it vibrate as much. But it cannot reduce bass as much, because that's very long waves. If you put a panel in front of foam you will make the room sound proof for the outside, but not inside the room, since the waves can reflect from the panels. You need a material, that is soft and can vibrate without passing the vibration along. Or differently angled shapes that reflect audio waves. Acoustic test chambers, for example, are suspended from ropes and are lined with several layers of special acoustic foam. Very impressive suff.
That was an OLD work box since you were not building everything from scratch. Great job on everything else. I love watching your projects come to life!
Very nice sir!! Also welcome to the joys (and rabbit hole) of audio treatment!! I think you did a great job and hit most of the high points for what you're wanting to do (which is basically ADR / Voice Over work). A few ideas to keep in mind if you need to do it again: - One thing to note about the batting in those panels you used. Ideally you also would want a cover on the back of the panel to keep the fibers from getting into the air and you breathing them over time. Granted, yours are put flush with the ceiling, so might not be as big a deal in your case? But something to consider - The room is crazy reverberant because of all of the hard, reflective, long and flat parallel surfaces! Hence when you put the carpet down, you noticed it didn't make that much of a difference? It's all of the highly reflective walls that are parallel to each other that's the bulk of your problem. Hence you could most likely remove that carpet and still be fine if you wanted to at this point. The one thing to keep in mind if you do this is when you record, if you sit down and roll around, the wheel noises will get picked up by a quality mic. But just to note that there's plenty of high end music studios that have hardwood / concrete floors, they'll just place a rug down as needed. - Making the panel boxes is a great way to go!! BUT, you also have a lot of flexibility as well. For the batting, there's the stuff you got, there's also Roxul 40/60, and there's an Owen's Corning equivalent as well. You can make them in different thicknesses based on your goal. Since you're not trying to sound proof the room (i.e. stop all internal / external sound bleed) and you're only dealing with voice, you can go with 1" thick panels or less as those will absorb the higher frequencies and tame the echo-ness of the room. The thicker the panel, the lower the frequencies it can absorb. But for voice, anything thicker than 2" is probably overkill. - Another trick you could do is take the middle section of your walls and convert them to foam / fabric covered panels (the green areas with the golden drawings. You could probably get that same pattern printed on some thin fabric panel acoustic boards and that would probably kill most of your reflections due to the bulk of the reflective surface area it would replace. - also how dead are you wanting the room? In ADR / Voice Over there's a desire to make the room as dead as possible so the sound mixers can add the appropriate reverb back onto the voice. But for what you're doing, you still probably want the room to be a little "alive" still (meaning a touch of room echo). In our brains we use the echo to help define spatial awareness, as well as make a place "feel" real to us (it's a reason most people can't tolerate an anechoic chamber for more than about 15 to 30 minutes before getting agitated). So what you have now is probably a really nice blend of reflective surfaces, and taming the reflections just enough for your needs. - another trick for ceiling panels is instead of flush mounting them, you hang them just a little (like several inches). The reason for this is then the back-side of the panels can absorb more reflections. The sound will bounce off the ceiling and into the back of the panel, which will trap even more sound, where as if it's flush with the ceiling the waves will just bounce off the side of the panel and back into the room. A good hanging trick is you use some linked chain, and then screw in hooks on the 4 corners, then just drill holes in the ceiling and use alligator anchors with hooks to suspend the panels. You can even play with the length of chain on each end of the panel to angle them in interesting ways. - back lighting - if you suspend the panels, you can put LED strips on the back of them and create really nice ambient back lighting - parallel walls create reflective build ups (go into recording studios and you'll see that usually the room has some odd walls / ceilings to alter the reflections). So the ceiling panels in your case helped to break up the surface to get the sound to bounce around more and lose energy in the process (as well as some of it being absorbed). This is also why the red foam panels you put up are angled, to help spread the reflections in different directions. So if you find the room still isn't tame enough for what you want, you can add some vertical panels on the long sidewalls using the same batting and technique as the ceiling panels. That will break up the long reflective surface of the wall. Definitely do the 1" off the wall trick in this case as it'll expose the back of the panel like in the above tip - For fabric, you want fabric that still breathes and lets the waves pass through. If you want the safest choice, Guilford of Maine specializes in making acoustic fabric (and I think they also meet various fire code requirements). Else a simple test is to breath through the fabric to make sure that a decent amount of air can get through (meaning if very little air goes through, then the sound will mostly bounce off the fabric rather than go through into the batting). OK I'll stop ;p. Obviously this is a subject I really enjoy as I've made my own recording studio and went through a lot of this research. Great looking office now sir!!!
Man, where were you when I was getting into acoustic treatment? Seriously though, this is all really great advice for anyone looking to treat their space. Thanks for sharing :)
If you ever want add any additional acoustic treatment in the future, one option to explore would be building some diffusers. While absorbers prevent sound reflections, diffusers scatter reflections, which helps increase acoustic clarity while retaining some pleasing reverberation. Professional studios typically use a mixture of acoustic absorption and diffusion to control echo, flutter, and other acoustic anomalies without completely deadening the room. I could see you building some fir or spruce diffusers that would really blend with and enhance the overall esthetic of your space. Which would certainly be preferable to hanging more fabric boxes on the wall! Great job as always!!
I feel like a mean internet butt pointing it out, but the junction box is an OLD work electrical box, not a new work. New work electrical boxes assume you have access to the studs prior to the drywall going up, so they can be nailed into the studs. Michael, that room is looking crazy awesome. You can really tell your artistic stylings come through. I hope you find yourself being inspired by your own work in the room and keep delivering the amazing content you provide. Thank you for sharing.
I’m sure someone has already said it but it’s an old work junction box. New work would have nails that you attach to the stud before it’s been dry walled.
Good job! It looks so neat. It was very satisfying to watch. I find acoustic treatment fascinating and from what I've seen and heard on other channels, you don't need very much to reap major benefits. Especially if you're working with a bigger space. Covering 5-10% of the surface area will already be enough in most cases. As a comment to the way you test the acoustic performance of the foams: a material that _blocks_ the sound doesn't necessarily _absorb_ it. A thick slab of concrete will block your voice even more, only to reflect a significant part of it. That is the difference between sound proofing and acoustic treatment.
You could always try to find a textile, or have one printed, that matches your wallpaper. You could then make acoustic panels for your walls, as well. May not be needed at this point, since it sounds pretty good, already.
I love this series! This office build is so cool and if I'm being perfectly honest the *only* thing I wasn't super duper keen on in previous episodes was the way the gray wall and green wallpaper kinda clashed a bit (at least on camera) -- but acoustic foam to the rescue! The maroon color works well with the rest of the finishes imo.
Wow, it sounds great. As with woodworking equipment, the sky is the limit on cost for acoustic treatment and there is an endless rabbit hole of science that goes along with it. It looks like you made all the right decisions on balancing cost with the functionality that you needed for your specific scenario. Plus, your building skills added thousands of dollars of polish to the final look.
It is amazing how much difference good acoustic pannels can make in the natural ressonance of a Room. Also furniture, basically mass loading a room and breaking up the flat areas just enough
You're an absolute professional! Love that you included damn near every tool and resource used within the comments, and organized everything in a succinct manner. Have no qualms sponsoring your efforts by using the links! Thank you for a well designed video and explanation... I hope this continues to be a profitable endeavor for you!
Nice build man! Could really hear the difference. Also I appreciate that you are transparent about your relationship with sponsors, some youtubers conveniently leave out that they get paid by companies.
I love that you take the same dedication and quality of your client work to your own space. Not enough makers do that, and it's awesome that your office is a reflection of your personality and a designer. Really love it, what huge improvements you've made!
I appreciate you showing some of your difficulties in the project and how you worked through it. Too many times other creators make it seamless and perfect which is not real world experience. Good job!
love the end result! props to you for that amazing looking acoustically treated office! if you have some material left and some time to spare, you could do 4 more acoustic panels just to test with two behind you, two in front of you and all 4 behind and in front of you. would love to see the effect 👍
There is a difference between trying to sound proof a room and trying to stop a room from echoing. Most rooms in homes do not echo because we put things in them like rugs, carpets, upholstered furniture and drapes or curtains. In short pretty much any normal "soft" material stops echoes. Trying to stop sound from leaving or entering a room is a different thing. In that case the difference in the maroon foam densities probably matters quite a lot.
@@brianreddeman951 Friend of mine runs a music studio out of his home & he literally had an entire inner-home framed inside his house. On top of that, it's a f'n zombie fortress, projectile resistant windows with heavy steel grates and all. A .308 fired like a meter or two inside the front door(s) can't be heard anywhere outside _at all._ This guy owns everything. If he wants something, like an $80k pair of monitors he didn't need, or several giant professional videography multirotors, or a Ferrari that I've never seen move, he buys it. I've known this dude over twenty years and I still _haven't the slightest clue_ where his loot comes from.
Michael, the room turned out great and what a difference in sound quality, simply amazing! You have great taste, the room really came together, nice job!
I just had an excellent idea! For your acoustic ceiling panels, you could put LEDs in the panels and use a thin diffusion panel to help radiate the lights. That way you have a nice “natural” glow in your studio. You could also add some LEDs around the upper trim with some diffusion strips to give it a little extra pop! All in all the studio looks outstanding!
Hey everybody! Plans for the acoustic panels are up on my website now. almfab.com/plans/acousticpanel Flat File plans are live as well (no metric yet, but I should have it up in the next few days.)
Hey Michael - in future for this sort of thing you can look at how artists stretch paintings onto the canvas stretcher! It’s important for them to keep even tension and they probably have lots of tricks on how to do it.
Nice work! Super clean. One note: The junction box you installed is actually “old work” box. New work means wiring a new house and those boxes have built-in nails to be able to attach them to studs before drywall goes up. Old work is for when you already have drywall up and need to add an outlet/junction/etc. Sorry for pedantry, just stuck out on an otherwise perfect video. Now I need to carpet tile my shop too.
Looking good big man! Trick from a contractor for drilling holes into a ceiling, if you gore a basketball with your drill bit and cut it in half, you've got an excellent rubber seal to catch ALL the dust (works great with hole saw attachments as well).
I love this video, so many great ideas. I've been wanting to donate acoustic panels to the local dog pound to cut down on the noise to make it less stressful for the animals, and I think this is the ticket! I love the light bars. Those might be perfect for a project I'm wanting to do in my home.
Looks fantastic! On the wall behind you, you might consider a diffusor, they look cool, and help the room sound a bit less 'boxy'. They don't absorb sound, they diffuse it for a more 'natural' sound that makes the space 'bigger'. There are a few different styles, all made from wood bits, might be an interesting follow up project?
@11:10 Search for Inspire Woodcraft "The RIGHT WAY to Use Double Sided Tape" . It'll change the way you use dbl stick tape. No more annoying waste of time trying to get the backing off. Essentially, you keep the backing w/o cutting it. So stick on the tape, press it down, then keep pulling the backing and cut (the tape, not the backing). It's just easier to watch the video. And @12:53 that sound effect made my chuckle! As always, you do BEAUTIFUL work.
Damn man, the amount of details you show and camera setups in your videos. Extremely satisfying to watch. And your new office turned out amazing! Well done!
Great job! Such an incredible transformation of room! So many details for the trim, walls and ceilings. Those lights are very interesting, something to look into. Again, an awesome project!
Just spend the last couple hours rinsing through these videos man and honestly feeling very inspired. Looking to buy my first home in the next year and get my home studio set up, hugely inspired by the design of your's it's really fresh but also cosy with the slat wood. Thank you!
This is great! Innovative, clean, professional, and it works! You’ve discovered one of my fav theater set hacks in the fabric drop cloths; they’re much cheaper than fabric per yard and extremely versatile. Looking forward to the next installment. Keep up the good work 👍
Whew that flat file is gorgeous. I'd love to get/make one of those. My poster storage is truly dire, just a ton of movie theater two-sheets that have been rolled in tubes for multiple decades.
Love this build. Far nicer with wood and wallpaper than the garfice (garage office) I am in now. I work from home, on video conferences nearly all day and didn't want to share a office with guest room. Building out garage for storage and offices is the best, and this is my second one, did one in FL house for storage and dog room before. This garfice is 4'6" x 6'8" made of 2x4's and roof of room is a 19" space for my storage boxes, works great. The portable AC was too loud in room, so one day I mounted it on the rooms wall outside on a shelf, then boxed in portable AC to get return air from office, and boxed top cold air in through roof side, yes very redneck but has worked great and even use remote from inside using a USB remote extender. Cut a area rug to fit and lightly glued under edge of baseboard and threshold by door. Outside 2 walls (garfice is in back left corner of garage) is covered with french cleats for all my tools, another great idea. I am in the garfice 8 or more hours per day and it's great. For electric, it is all romex with outlets and switches for lights but short wall has a male RV outlet in wall for heavy duty ext cord to my dedicated 20am outlet, so unplug office easily. Used structural screws and tapcons as I wanted to be able to take it all down fairly easily. But now I have good ideas from you to upgrade and make it way nicer.
Very nice! Glad you went with acoustic insulation, that must have done so much! Love to see your take on a large diffusion panel to get the last of that flutter echo from the flat walls behind the mic and behind your seat. Diffusion panels are also just really cool looking, especially a fractal or skyscraper design with scrap wood in the shop! And a fun phonetic version of "The Quick Brown Fox" is "With tenure, Suzie'd have all the more leisure for yachting, but her publications are no good."
I have to admit your videos are very inspiring. I'm building my tools as we have just bought a new home and have a lot of DIY projects that I want to get to.
I used that 3M Extreme double-sided tape to attach knee pads to a motorcycle tank. It's been 7 years of sun, rain, summers over 100 degrees and a few winters where frost was on the bike in the mornings. The knee pads haven't budged. That tape really is something else.
5:22 _"...shield sound from the flooring, above..."._ Surface-mounted acoustical treatment reduces the energy of sound bouncing around _within_ a space but does not prevent sound transmission _between_ spaces. For this you would need structural isolation which is beyond the scope of this project.
Great work on your new office space Michael. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you get up to with that Glow Forge laser. If it is half as novel as the work you have done with patterned plywood, we are all in for a treat!
I built 6 acoustic panels for my studio. I found a compressor driven stapler a must. Did the first couple with a hand driven one like you use and my hand was dead by the end of those.
I've used those auralex panels in the past and instead of sticking them to the wall with adhesive, I just used small nails or even thumbtacks. works great and comes down super easy when its time to move. And even though the celing panels were had their backs up against the ceiling, I'd reccomend next time you put some additional fabric on the backside underneath the french cleat to lessen the possibility of that fiberglass from the insulation getting in the air.
I have the small barrina grow lights, and I really like them. I use them in my bedroom, which doesn’t get much natural light anywhere except right by a window, for houseplants. I saw them recommended on MissOrchidGirl’s channel, so it was cool to see another one of their products on a channel I watch, especially since you did a lot of research to choose them and showed how you customized the install!
I love that you made acoustic treatment accessible and approachable for the novice. My husband works in the AVL industry, and those panels would have cost you quite a pretty penny if you'd purchased them. Bravo!
Nice to see! DIY is great-having a workshop makes it even more fun : ) But with acoustics it's a bit trickier. First thing you need to know is how the room actually behaves. When you do that (actually measuring the acoustics) you'll know what more precisely you need to remedy and what sort of acoustic treatment you'll need. Foam e.g. is-no matter if it says ‘pro’-more or less useless. Ask and most acousticians would probably agree. Also audible in your before and after test where some difference is audible but you instead get another unwanted issue with fluttering sound. Measuring is actually not that difficult. You'll need a computer, a precision mic (not the usual mic) and software that's not too expensive. One thing to have in mind: The ceiling acoustic panels prefers to have a decent amount of gap between the ceiling. Yes, air is part of the acousticians toolset. The air, in this case, would make the sound waves bounce between the ceiling and the panel and trap them in a much more efficient way. You should also look into making a couple of diffusers. These should be made bespoke (in regard of the room's acoustics) but generic ones is most likely better than having none.
Absolutely love all the amazing and inspirational things you make and show how to make! Though I have to say the only two things so far that I've disagreed with you is: Use a hammer/mallet instead of hitting things with your hands. A vacuum to instantly suck up the drywall dust instead of a bag.
I really like that interior design with the wood and leave walls very naturalistic and also the colour combinations contain some of my favourite colours. Great job i want
I am a flooring installer and the carpet tiles are a great solution for an office specially if you have a rolling chair and make a good difference to the sound.
Great job, Michael. I like the maroon foam against the green-theme wallpaper. Also, I use up a lot of scrap on building out trim where stuff can't be seen. Maybe the best part was watching you mod out the lights the way you did - creative. Now, I'm waiting for next week's video, where we will hear this: "I was going to fit the drawer fronts and couldn't find my handy shims... and realized they were screwed under my acoustic panels..."
Amazing room, I am honestly in awe and adds massively to the value of your home for a guy like me. Looks like a million bucks and definitely achieved what you were aiming for acoustically. As a listener, I'd consider adding back a liitle bit of background like the sound of rustling leaves / wind otherwise it can sound a bit sterile and 'perfect'. Ideally, some nature sounds would create an open forest impression where the 'disappearing' of the sound is justified and makes sense to our acoustic interpreter.
Keep in mind the feet or wheels of a chair moving around on those carpet tiles will separate the seams VERY quickly. Definitely suggest one of those mats that you put under your chair to keep that from happening, if you hadn't already thought of that of course. Cheers!
That's a good idea. Thanks!
You can also retrofit your chair with rollers that are made for carpet. They look kinda like rollerblade wheels.
@@MichaelAlm we use this type of carpet tile installation in most of my commercial interior design projects, and the seam separation doesn't tend to be a problem we see, FWIW.
He probably didn't need to carpet the entire floor. The reflective behavior is from the single huge expanse of highly noise-reflective concrete, so a few small area rugs could have been placed, along with a low-pile chair mat, and I think it would have gotten at least 90% of the same benefit as a wall-to-wall treatment. Just a quick search turns up 500 Hz (you can search to find a sample tone) has a half-wave size of a little over 1 ft, so removing the larger expanses of flat open concrete narrows down where the waves can reflect from.
Before going to an actual installation, why not throw down a few small carpet pieces (or fluffy towels!) and see if you can tell the difference?
@@MichaelAlm Great Video and a beautiful room. Switching out the standard wheels on chairs for the roller blade style also cuts down on carpet wear and makes them roll sooo much smoother and easier.
The design of the ceiling panels and LED light bars came out very clean / modern. Really sharp looking.
Thank you!!
Yes! Glad you referenced Brad's video. Fix This Build That for those interested.
This is hands down the most beautiful ceiling treatment I've seen. I was worried the foam would ruin the vibe of the room, but the colour of it pairs really well with your wallpaper! Great job!
Thanks!! I've been working hard to keep it from feeling like a padded room. Wasn't sure if the burgundy tiles would match, but I'm really happy with them.
Watch "Making Super Effective Sound Absorbing Panels - DIY Acoustic Panels" by
Alexandre Chappel...
Does the acoustic foam work as well if it’s behind panelling? I’m thinking of dust and cobwebs sitting on the chamfers…..
@@philomenahearn1717 Accustic foam does two things it reflects longer audio waves in the angle it is cut. That's why it has this ragged shape. And secondly, shorter waves are damped by the density of the foam alone, as the waves break in the holes in the material and cannot make it vibrate as much. But it cannot reduce bass as much, because that's very long waves.
If you put a panel in front of foam you will make the room sound proof for the outside, but not inside the room, since the waves can reflect from the panels. You need a material, that is soft and can vibrate without passing the vibration along. Or differently angled shapes that reflect audio waves.
Acoustic test chambers, for example, are suspended from ropes and are lined with several layers of special acoustic foam. Very impressive suff.
That was an OLD work box since you were not building everything from scratch. Great job on everything else. I love watching your projects come to life!
I came here for this. Its the little things for me. Also the reason I can't make friends.
Very nice sir!! Also welcome to the joys (and rabbit hole) of audio treatment!! I think you did a great job and hit most of the high points for what you're wanting to do (which is basically ADR / Voice Over work). A few ideas to keep in mind if you need to do it again:
- One thing to note about the batting in those panels you used. Ideally you also would want a cover on the back of the panel to keep the fibers from getting into the air and you breathing them over time. Granted, yours are put flush with the ceiling, so might not be as big a deal in your case? But something to consider
- The room is crazy reverberant because of all of the hard, reflective, long and flat parallel surfaces! Hence when you put the carpet down, you noticed it didn't make that much of a difference? It's all of the highly reflective walls that are parallel to each other that's the bulk of your problem. Hence you could most likely remove that carpet and still be fine if you wanted to at this point. The one thing to keep in mind if you do this is when you record, if you sit down and roll around, the wheel noises will get picked up by a quality mic. But just to note that there's plenty of high end music studios that have hardwood / concrete floors, they'll just place a rug down as needed.
- Making the panel boxes is a great way to go!! BUT, you also have a lot of flexibility as well. For the batting, there's the stuff you got, there's also Roxul 40/60, and there's an Owen's Corning equivalent as well. You can make them in different thicknesses based on your goal. Since you're not trying to sound proof the room (i.e. stop all internal / external sound bleed) and you're only dealing with voice, you can go with 1" thick panels or less as those will absorb the higher frequencies and tame the echo-ness of the room. The thicker the panel, the lower the frequencies it can absorb. But for voice, anything thicker than 2" is probably overkill.
- Another trick you could do is take the middle section of your walls and convert them to foam / fabric covered panels (the green areas with the golden drawings. You could probably get that same pattern printed on some thin fabric panel acoustic boards and that would probably kill most of your reflections due to the bulk of the reflective surface area it would replace.
- also how dead are you wanting the room? In ADR / Voice Over there's a desire to make the room as dead as possible so the sound mixers can add the appropriate reverb back onto the voice. But for what you're doing, you still probably want the room to be a little "alive" still (meaning a touch of room echo). In our brains we use the echo to help define spatial awareness, as well as make a place "feel" real to us (it's a reason most people can't tolerate an anechoic chamber for more than about 15 to 30 minutes before getting agitated). So what you have now is probably a really nice blend of reflective surfaces, and taming the reflections just enough for your needs.
- another trick for ceiling panels is instead of flush mounting them, you hang them just a little (like several inches). The reason for this is then the back-side of the panels can absorb more reflections. The sound will bounce off the ceiling and into the back of the panel, which will trap even more sound, where as if it's flush with the ceiling the waves will just bounce off the side of the panel and back into the room. A good hanging trick is you use some linked chain, and then screw in hooks on the 4 corners, then just drill holes in the ceiling and use alligator anchors with hooks to suspend the panels. You can even play with the length of chain on each end of the panel to angle them in interesting ways.
- back lighting - if you suspend the panels, you can put LED strips on the back of them and create really nice ambient back lighting
- parallel walls create reflective build ups (go into recording studios and you'll see that usually the room has some odd walls / ceilings to alter the reflections). So the ceiling panels in your case helped to break up the surface to get the sound to bounce around more and lose energy in the process (as well as some of it being absorbed). This is also why the red foam panels you put up are angled, to help spread the reflections in different directions. So if you find the room still isn't tame enough for what you want, you can add some vertical panels on the long sidewalls using the same batting and technique as the ceiling panels. That will break up the long reflective surface of the wall. Definitely do the 1" off the wall trick in this case as it'll expose the back of the panel like in the above tip
- For fabric, you want fabric that still breathes and lets the waves pass through. If you want the safest choice, Guilford of Maine specializes in making acoustic fabric (and I think they also meet various fire code requirements). Else a simple test is to breath through the fabric to make sure that a decent amount of air can get through (meaning if very little air goes through, then the sound will mostly bounce off the fabric rather than go through into the batting).
OK I'll stop ;p. Obviously this is a subject I really enjoy as I've made my own recording studio and went through a lot of this research. Great looking office now sir!!!
Came here to make that last "fabric" comment, but learned a lot from the rest! Thanks for the great info!
Thank you for all of the info!
Wow, thank you for that! That's a massive help for me~! Genuinely, thank you for including this!
Man, where were you when I was getting into acoustic treatment? Seriously though, this is all really great advice for anyone looking to treat their space. Thanks for sharing :)
@@PedroKing99 That's like.... level 5 rabbit hole... I didn't want to explode his brain too much ;p
I can't remember which UA-camr recommended your channel, but I'm so glad I'm here. Just finished binging your studio build.
If you ever want add any additional acoustic treatment in the future, one option to explore would be building some diffusers. While absorbers prevent sound reflections, diffusers scatter reflections, which helps increase acoustic clarity while retaining some pleasing reverberation.
Professional studios typically use a mixture of acoustic absorption and diffusion to control echo, flutter, and other acoustic anomalies without completely deadening the room.
I could see you building some fir or spruce diffusers that would really blend with and enhance the overall esthetic of your space. Which would certainly be preferable to hanging more fabric boxes on the wall!
Great job as always!!
Unfortunately that would be impossible to work in such a small room. If you are interested in acoustics, check YT channel Acoustic insider :)
was thinking the same thing, but don't you think he's got a lot of diffusion in that space with all the Millwork, lighting and furniture.
I feel like a mean internet butt pointing it out, but the junction box is an OLD work electrical box, not a new work. New work electrical boxes assume you have access to the studs prior to the drywall going up, so they can be nailed into the studs. Michael, that room is looking crazy awesome. You can really tell your artistic stylings come through. I hope you find yourself being inspired by your own work in the room and keep delivering the amazing content you provide. Thank you for sharing.
It's all good. That was a brain fart, so I appreciate the correction. Thank you!
Wow this looks like an absolute dream office! Fantasic pairing with dark green wallpaper, burgandy foam, and light wood -- came out looking beautiful.
I’m sure someone has already said it but it’s an old work junction box. New work would have nails that you attach to the stud before it’s been dry walled.
F3 says about a dozen of us have already mentioned that, but at least you're in good company. Thanks for chirping up.
Good job! It looks so neat. It was very satisfying to watch.
I find acoustic treatment fascinating and from what I've seen and heard on other channels, you don't need very much to reap major benefits. Especially if you're working with a bigger space. Covering 5-10% of the surface area will already be enough in most cases.
As a comment to the way you test the acoustic performance of the foams: a material that _blocks_ the sound doesn't necessarily _absorb_ it. A thick slab of concrete will block your voice even more, only to reflect a significant part of it. That is the difference between sound proofing and acoustic treatment.
Bro. Your intro with the probe lens. SOO GOOD. I see you. I see you. Game recognizes game.
Awesome stuff!! Thanks from all of us carpenters here in Australia 🇦🇺 🍺👍
Aesthetically AND accoustically perfect - if the folks can't find you, I know where you'll be!
You could always try to find a textile, or have one printed, that matches your wallpaper. You could then make acoustic panels for your walls, as well. May not be needed at this point, since it sounds pretty good, already.
That's an awesome idea!!
or even a heavy curtain to diffuse the sounds and absorb them
Michael, over the past couple weeks you've become one of my favorite UA-camrs. Really good stuff
I love this series! This office build is so cool and if I'm being perfectly honest the *only* thing I wasn't super duper keen on in previous episodes was the way the gray wall and green wallpaper kinda clashed a bit (at least on camera) -- but acoustic foam to the rescue! The maroon color works well with the rest of the finishes imo.
Wow, it sounds great. As with woodworking equipment, the sky is the limit on cost for acoustic treatment and there is an endless rabbit hole of science that goes along with it. It looks like you made all the right decisions on balancing cost with the functionality that you needed for your specific scenario. Plus, your building skills added thousands of dollars of polish to the final look.
It is amazing how much difference good acoustic pannels can make in the natural ressonance of a Room. Also furniture, basically mass loading a room and breaking up the flat areas just enough
Amazing job. The electrical boxes with the tabs are "old" work boxes. New work boxes have nails for attaching them to studs before dry walling.
You're an absolute professional! Love that you included damn near every tool and resource used within the comments, and organized everything in a succinct manner. Have no qualms sponsoring your efforts by using the links!
Thank you for a well designed video and explanation... I hope this continues to be a profitable endeavor for you!
Nice build man! Could really hear the difference. Also I appreciate that you are transparent about your relationship with sponsors, some youtubers conveniently leave out that they get paid by companies.
Well done. I have no other words to describe how awesome everything is on that office build!
I love that you take the same dedication and quality of your client work to your own space. Not enough makers do that, and it's awesome that your office is a reflection of your personality and a designer. Really love it, what huge improvements you've made!
We use Barria lights in our shop. They're absolutely amazing.
Great job on this project. It came out great.
I appreciate you showing some of your difficulties in the project and how you worked through it. Too many times other creators make it seamless and perfect which is not real world experience. Good job!
Nice work. Sounds so much better - the ceiling panels made a huge difference.
I feel like the red accent foam changes everything about this room. I love it so much
love the end result! props to you for that amazing looking acoustically treated office! if you have some material left and some time to spare, you could do 4 more acoustic panels just to test with two behind you, two in front of you and all 4 behind and in front of you. would love to see the effect 👍
Thanks!! I'm curious about that too. I was thinking about making a couple light weight removable panels I can use just when recording voice overs.
@@MichaelAlm Maybe for behind and in front, you could reuse the wallpaper to help it blend in more? Or paint the canvas
@@MichaelAlm Or a patterned plywood 'Skyline diffuser'??
There is a difference between trying to sound proof a room and trying to stop a room from echoing. Most rooms in homes do not echo because we put things in them like rugs, carpets, upholstered furniture and drapes or curtains. In short pretty much any normal "soft" material stops echoes.
Trying to stop sound from leaving or entering a room is a different thing. In that case the difference in the maroon foam densities probably matters quite a lot.
You can go way off the deep end like building a room inside the room. It is nuts how far you can go to get the perfect acoustics.
@@brianreddeman951 Friend of mine runs a music studio out of his home & he literally had an entire inner-home framed inside his house. On top of that, it's a f'n zombie fortress, projectile resistant windows with heavy steel grates and all. A .308 fired like a meter or two inside the front door(s) can't be heard anywhere outside _at all._
This guy owns everything. If he wants something, like an $80k pair of monitors he didn't need, or several giant professional videography multirotors, or a Ferrari that I've never seen move, he buys it. I've known this dude over twenty years and I still _haven't the slightest clue_ where his loot comes from.
Michael, the room turned out great and what a difference in sound quality, simply amazing! You have great taste, the room really came together, nice job!
I just had an excellent idea! For your acoustic ceiling panels, you could put LEDs in the panels and use a thin diffusion panel to help radiate the lights. That way you have a nice “natural” glow in your studio. You could also add some LEDs around the upper trim with some diffusion strips to give it a little extra pop! All in all the studio looks outstanding!
The fit and finish is on point, looks professional, sounds great.
Hey everybody! Plans for the acoustic panels are up on my website now. almfab.com/plans/acousticpanel Flat File plans are live as well (no metric yet, but I should have it up in the next few days.)
Hey Michael - in future for this sort of thing you can look at how artists stretch paintings onto the canvas stretcher! It’s important for them to keep even tension and they probably have lots of tricks on how to do it.
Nice work! Super clean. One note: The junction box you installed is actually “old work” box. New work means wiring a new house and those boxes have built-in nails to be able to attach them to studs before drywall goes up. Old work is for when you already have drywall up and need to add an outlet/junction/etc.
Sorry for pedantry, just stuck out on an otherwise perfect video. Now I need to carpet tile my shop too.
Looking good big man! Trick from a contractor for drilling holes into a ceiling, if you gore a basketball with your drill bit and cut it in half, you've got an excellent rubber seal to catch ALL the dust (works great with hole saw attachments as well).
Wow, love the end result. And the sounds...the panel on the ceiling did make a difference.
I love this video, so many great ideas. I've been wanting to donate acoustic panels to the local dog pound to cut down on the noise to make it less stressful for the animals, and I think this is the ticket!
I love the light bars. Those might be perfect for a project I'm wanting to do in my home.
Looks fantastic!
On the wall behind you, you might consider a diffusor, they look cool, and help the room sound a bit less 'boxy'. They don't absorb sound, they diffuse it for a more 'natural' sound that makes the space 'bigger'. There are a few different styles, all made from wood bits, might be an interesting follow up project?
@11:10 Search for Inspire Woodcraft "The RIGHT WAY to Use Double Sided Tape" . It'll change the way you use dbl stick tape. No more annoying waste of time trying to get the backing off. Essentially, you keep the backing w/o cutting it. So stick on the tape, press it down, then keep pulling the backing and cut (the tape, not the backing). It's just easier to watch the video. And @12:53 that sound effect made my chuckle! As always, you do BEAUTIFUL work.
That was spectacularly relaxing to watch, I loved seeing the process of how the room got converted into a comfy, cozy space. Thanks for sharing!
Damn man, the amount of details you show and camera setups in your videos. Extremely satisfying to watch. And your new office turned out amazing! Well done!
For that sized room and apparent intended use, I think your acoustic treatment is fine and it sounds great.
Just like the various touches on the wooden trim, the aspect squeeze @28:16 is *chefs kiss* so nice. Beautiful room, great work, great video!
Brilliant acoustic treatment and super aesthetically pleasing! It's a beautiful room - bravo!
Great job! Such an incredible transformation of room! So many details for the trim, walls and ceilings. Those lights are very interesting, something to look into. Again, an awesome project!
Just spend the last couple hours rinsing through these videos man and honestly feeling very inspired. Looking to buy my first home in the next year and get my home studio set up, hugely inspired by the design of your's it's really fresh but also cosy with the slat wood. Thank you!
Great work, your office turned out really nice! And there's just something about a space that is extra quiet for working / reading - perfect!
That’s a terrific looking studio! Well done.. Rooms looks really nice besides the sound improvement. You are really talented..
This is great! Innovative, clean, professional, and it works! You’ve discovered one of my fav theater set hacks in the fabric drop cloths; they’re much cheaper than fabric per yard and extremely versatile. Looking forward to the next installment. Keep up the good work 👍
Whew that flat file is gorgeous. I'd love to get/make one of those. My poster storage is truly dire, just a ton of movie theater two-sheets that have been rolled in tubes for multiple decades.
Great job, Michael. It sounds like you accomplished your goal.
Bill
Love this build. Far nicer with wood and wallpaper than the garfice (garage office) I am in now. I work from home, on video conferences nearly all day and didn't want to share a office with guest room. Building out garage for storage and offices is the best, and this is my second one, did one in FL house for storage and dog room before. This garfice is 4'6" x 6'8" made of 2x4's and roof of room is a 19" space for my storage boxes, works great. The portable AC was too loud in room, so one day I mounted it on the rooms wall outside on a shelf, then boxed in portable AC to get return air from office, and boxed top cold air in through roof side, yes very redneck but has worked great and even use remote from inside using a USB remote extender. Cut a area rug to fit and lightly glued under edge of baseboard and threshold by door. Outside 2 walls (garfice is in back left corner of garage) is covered with french cleats for all my tools, another great idea. I am in the garfice 8 or more hours per day and it's great. For electric, it is all romex with outlets and switches for lights but short wall has a male RV outlet in wall for heavy duty ext cord to my dedicated 20am outlet, so unplug office easily. Used structural screws and tapcons as I wanted to be able to take it all down fairly easily. But now I have good ideas from you to upgrade and make it way nicer.
Loving the combination of wallpaper and wood paneling. Awesome works~
Turned out gorgeous Michael!
Oh yeah sounds nice. I just finished off a room in my house about the same size and may run some acoustic material at the ceiling as well.
That’s a terrific looking studio! Well done.
That office/studio looks super nice. I love all the trimwork.
Very nice! Glad you went with acoustic insulation, that must have done so much! Love to see your take on a large diffusion panel to get the last of that flutter echo from the flat walls behind the mic and behind your seat. Diffusion panels are also just really cool looking, especially a fractal or skyscraper design with scrap wood in the shop!
And a fun phonetic version of "The Quick Brown Fox" is "With tenure, Suzie'd have all the more leisure for yachting, but her publications are no good."
I have to admit your videos are very inspiring. I'm building my tools as we have just bought a new home and have a lot of DIY projects that I want to get to.
Your office is so nice! It's definitely aesthetically and (phonetically) acoustically pleasing. Well done, Michael
I’m in love with the office design
I used that 3M Extreme double-sided tape to attach knee pads to a motorcycle tank. It's been 7 years of sun, rain, summers over 100 degrees and a few winters where frost was on the bike in the mornings. The knee pads haven't budged. That tape really is something else.
5:22 _"...shield sound from the flooring, above..."._ Surface-mounted acoustical treatment reduces the energy of sound bouncing around _within_ a space but does not prevent sound transmission _between_ spaces. For this you would need structural isolation which is beyond the scope of this project.
Great work on your new office space Michael. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you get up to with that Glow Forge laser. If it is half as novel as the work you have done with patterned plywood, we are all in for a treat!
You did a beautiful job a beautiful studio. Congratz. Great Job.
I built 6 acoustic panels for my studio. I found a compressor driven stapler a must. Did the first couple with a hand driven one like you use and my hand was dead by the end of those.
I love this series of your room, keep it up!
Thanks! Will do!
I've used those auralex panels in the past and instead of sticking them to the wall with adhesive, I just used small nails or even thumbtacks. works great and comes down super easy when its time to move.
And even though the celing panels were had their backs up against the ceiling, I'd reccomend next time you put some additional fabric on the backside underneath the french cleat to lessen the possibility of that fiberglass from the insulation getting in the air.
Great work Michael. It looks amazing and sounds professional.
Those lights are cool. Good job on the whole project.
Wow I could tell a big difference in the first clip of the brown fox. Amazing how much difference all that made.
I love seeing all the time and energy you put into everything you do. Congrats on another great video!
Amazing build! It's funny how the before and after audio sample can be so subtle and yet so distinctly different. The results are beautiful!
Looks awesome!
and add curtains to block sound reflections from a glass doors
Wow. Have been a little baffled as to what to do with my basement. Now I think I have an inspiration.
All hail the algorithm for recommending this video. Nice work, man!
I have the small barrina grow lights, and I really like them. I use them in my bedroom, which doesn’t get much natural light anywhere except right by a window, for houseplants. I saw them recommended on MissOrchidGirl’s channel, so it was cool to see another one of their products on a channel I watch, especially since you did a lot of research to choose them and showed how you customized the install!
I love that you made acoustic treatment accessible and approachable for the novice. My husband works in the AVL industry, and those panels would have cost you quite a pretty penny if you'd purchased them. Bravo!
Some of the “acoustic clouds” are pretty awesome looking.
Nice studio 👍🏼 🔨
Nice to see!
DIY is great-having a workshop makes it even more fun : )
But with acoustics it's a bit trickier. First thing you need to know is how the room actually behaves. When you do that (actually measuring the acoustics) you'll know what more precisely you need to remedy and what sort of acoustic treatment you'll need.
Foam e.g. is-no matter if it says ‘pro’-more or less useless. Ask and most acousticians would probably agree. Also audible in your before and after test where some difference is audible but you instead get another unwanted issue with fluttering sound.
Measuring is actually not that difficult. You'll need a computer, a precision mic (not the usual mic) and software that's not too expensive.
One thing to have in mind: The ceiling acoustic panels prefers to have a decent amount of gap between the ceiling. Yes, air is part of the acousticians toolset. The air, in this case, would make the sound waves bounce between the ceiling and the panel and trap them in a much more efficient way.
You should also look into making a couple of diffusers. These should be made bespoke (in regard of the room's acoustics) but generic ones is most likely better than having none.
Absolutely love all the amazing and inspirational things you make and show how to make!
Though I have to say the only two things so far that I've disagreed with you is:
Use a hammer/mallet instead of hitting things with your hands.
A vacuum to instantly suck up the drywall dust instead of a bag.
I really like that interior design with the wood and leave walls very naturalistic and also the colour combinations contain some of my favourite colours. Great job i want
This transformation has been awesome, and so many different techniques to learn from. You’re a very talented individual, thanks so much for sharing!
I am a flooring installer and the carpet tiles are a great solution for an office specially if you have a rolling chair and make a good difference to the sound.
Fantastic Michael! Really brilliant work! 😃
The difference is night and day! Really impressive!!!
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
You had one job!!!! And you did it well. Great sound in there now!
The trim under the foam looks beautiful.
I might steal some ideas for my hobby desk! Love the lights
Me encanta como quedó, no podria haber resultado mejor, hermosa oficina. Felicitaciones.
You get specialist canvas stretching pliers for mounting prints- basically a very wide jaw with a ridge on one side to use as a lever
Great job Caleb. That a big table for sure. I enjoyed the video.
So good that you gave credit to other creators where due. Nice one!
Great job, Michael. I like the maroon foam against the green-theme wallpaper. Also, I use up a lot of scrap on building out trim where stuff can't be seen. Maybe the best part was watching you mod out the lights the way you did - creative. Now, I'm waiting for next week's video, where we will hear this: "I was going to fit the drawer fronts and couldn't find my handy shims... and realized they were screwed under my acoustic panels..."
My wife calls this the channel the slow clap channel because after every video I always give a slow clap because I'm in awe of the craftsmanship
Amazing room, I am honestly in awe and adds massively to the value of your home for a guy like me. Looks like a million bucks and definitely achieved what you were aiming for acoustically. As a listener, I'd consider adding back a liitle bit of background like the sound of rustling leaves / wind otherwise it can sound a bit sterile and 'perfect'. Ideally, some nature sounds would create an open forest impression where the 'disappearing' of the sound is justified and makes sense to our acoustic interpreter.
Compliment a very nice room solution because it makes working fun. Maybe a shelf with a small coffee kitchen is just an idea.👍😀
Such an impressive room! Amazing work, Michael!!
the room turned out great! excellent work! i like how you made it warm, but i would definitely put curtains there
Rooms looks really nice besides the sound improvement. You are really talented.